Beautiful few days for a bike ride....

Sunday afternoon Otto and Andy went out for their first official bike ride since we've been here. Yesterday the weather was even nicer so Sam, Andy, and I went for our first bike ride together. There is a very nice bicycle path that runs the length of the beach in Santos, and several that are popping up in other areas of the city.  (Av. Ana Costa has one for anyone familiar with Santos.)

Sam had all-day school today, so Andy and I went for a ride just by ourselves this morning. I didn't take the camera along, as one of the things we learned yesterday is that the official bike path is not necessarily for lollygaggers. People are using it as a serious means of transportation, so get on, get to it, and stop looking around!!  At times this was difficult with the 7-year-old. We decided after yesterday that getting  on the surrounding concreted areas may be better, then at times hop onto the bike path only when we couldn't continue on any other way. This morning Andy and I were on the path quite a bit, but it was easier with just me and the older kid, and it wasn't as busy today. 

We live about in the center of the beach (a few blocks away), near Canal 3, so yesterday the three of us rode west to the Emissario (near Canal 1), and today Andy and I traveled east towards the aquarium and Ponte da Praia (near Canal 6).  Neither day did I take my camera because I wanted to ride, not stop and take pictures.  But I got to personally see a couple of statues that I had seen on the internet, but didn't quite know where they were.  Here are two, both images are from this webpage.

I really like this statue of a surfer with the water spraying on him like he's really surfing!

 

 

I also like this one very much, which is near the one above, of Osmar Gonçalves who was apparently a pioneer of surfing here in Brazil. Imagine, if you will, me riding around and around and around and around this statue. After a while the boys got tired of going around, but I continued a bit longer, mainly because I didn't have to worry about hitting anyone (there were lots of people out, as is the norm on a pretty afternoon) and the view was nice. :o)

And please visit the link above to see lots of other neat statues along the beach and around town. The credits below each of the photos seem to be different, so thanks to all the people that took the images, whoever they are!

Saco cheio

I've been meaning to write a post about this for almost a year! I'm such a procrastinator sometimes.

When we first moved here, Otto was smitten with expressions he was hearing at work involving the scrotum. You know, the male ball sack, or is it a ball sac?  In either case, in Brazil it is a saco (probably partly slang; I'm sure there is a more scientific name).  And both men and women alike use these expressions, sometimes with hand motions.  I've yet to use it myself, but I think I'm on the verge. Here are a few examples:

saco cheio = literally, full sack.  It means to be fed up with something. Sometimes this is emphasized with the hands cupping around the scrotum area indicating a very full sack.

puxar saco =  literally to pull sack.  This means someone is being a kiss-ass, yes-man, suck-up, or as my European and Russian History teacher used to say, a sycophant.

inxar saco = literally an inflamed or swollen sack, but is used to indicate that someone is being a pain in the ass or is bothersome.


Brasilian readers, are there other saco expressions that I could add to our repertoire? 

Pardon me while I go practice in the mirror.  :o)

Delícia! And my inspiration for the day...

Delícia is one of my favorite words here. Most commonly it describes a beautiful day. According to the dictionary delightful would be the literal translation, but I think I like it so much because it sounds a lot like delicious. You could describe a day as delightful in English, but if you described it as delicious, how great a day would THAT be?!

And I'm finally getting used to the word shopping as a noun. The word shopping has been adopted into the Brazilian lexicon to mean mall. 

Let's go shopping at the mall. = Vamos fazer compras no shopping.  Where no does not mean no, but is a contraction of em + o (in+the or at+the).  Also tricky!

In an unrelated story, I was sitting in a waiting room this afternoon when out of the doctor's office came an elderly woman accompanied by another lady, presumably her daughter. Her back was so bent over as she walked that the top half of her body was nearly at a 90° angle with the lower half of her body. After a few moments of waiting to speak to the receptionist, she started chatting it up with another lady that she recognized in the room. And I mean CHATTING it up, with such a jolly, clear, opposite-of-frail voice! Their conversation was peppered with laughter. I was looking at my book, but read nothing as I focused on her words and tried to figure out what she was saying. (I didn't have much luck there, but she did sound like she may have been from Rio once upon a time based on her accent.) And I couldn't help but smile; in fact I was a little sad when she walked out the door. After she left, the woman she was talking to told me the woman was 86 years old and still did almost everything for herself (at least that's what I think she said). With her back bent the way it was, I imagine it must be pretty difficult to do things herself. But you wouldn't know it by the tone of her voice. The way she was carrying on she made ME feel old - I'm 38!

San Martin de los Andes

Our first stop in Argentina was San Martin de los Andes.  Otto has really been missing the skiing since moving from Canada, so we had to find a ski hill ASAP!!  :o)  The resort closest to us was Chapelco. The view was beautiful, but unfortunately the snow wasn't very good.  So we only got a wee taste of skiing/snowboarding; not what we were hoping for. Oh well, sometimes you get a lot of powder, and sometimes you don't. :/

Still, the town itself was very nice!  Many delicious restaurants to try and tea/coffee/chocolate shops in which to indulge in something sweet. On this evening we went to a fondue restaurant. The boys really liked it. Otto's eyes are closed in this shot, but it was the only one I had with Andy.

You can see the owners in the background reading the paper, waiting for more patrons to arrive. We ate on the early side each night, arriving at restaurants around 7:30pm, but generally people ate around 8:30 or 9pm.

This morning was took a stroll by Lago Lacar. 

Walking around town, we saw this unusual tree several times. 

One day we took a boat ride to Quila Quina.

Nice countryside to hike around, complete with seemingly wild horses roaming about.

We found a very pretty waterfall.

Mist rising up from the falls.

Another spot for another nice photo.

The walk back.

One day we checked out the playground in the town center.

They LOVED this wheel-chair accessible swing!

I took this photo shortly after take-off from San Martin on the way to Buenos Aires.  I was sitting on the other side of the plane, but the people across the row had their window open and the zoom lens on my little pocket camera is powerful! I'm not sure about the name of this peak.

More to come....

Sam's Signage

Andy was bathing in our bathroom this evening before dinner when he started receiving signs from Sam slipped under the door.  

Here was the first.

 This one showed up a few minutes later.

A third then slipped under the door.

I can't believe it. We're having pork roast and carrots and potatoes.

 

Then, per all accounts, Andy yelled to Sam that he was wasting paper.(!)

Alas, the forth and final note arrived in similar form. 

I am not wasting paper.  In fact I will draw a picture on every piece of paper.  

Sam further explained to me that he plans to draw a picture on the back of ALL these pieces of paper.  :o)

Festa Junina

Before we leave the month of June, I'd better get a post up about Festa Junina!  This is a festival celebrated throughout the month of June celebrating St. John the Baptist, St. Peter, and St. Anthony.  But more predominately it celebrates the food and culture of the people that live in the interior of Brazil on farms and ranches. 

Here we were on our way to the Festa Junina at school.

Sam danced with his classmates - you can see him in the back. They did a great job.  And I may be bias, but I think Sam had the most spunk of all the Grade 2 boys!

Mom, Bill, and Otto waiting between dances. 

Andy and the Grade 5 classes did more typical square dancing, called quadrilha here.

There were many game to play and prizes to be won.  Andy was checking out one of his toys while Nana displayed another.

Sam waiting for a turn to play.

There was even a trampoline!

A couple of Sam's friends. Pretty girls! I love the dresses that the girls wear for this festival.  So colorful!

There was lots of yummy food to try!  Here was a table of sweets for sale.  

Sam and a couple buddies.

Andy and a friend.

A last shot before leaving - the boys with Andy's quadrilha partner.

Fun times.  And very full of people!

First Family Visit

A quick note to anyone that may be connected with Blogger that might possibly be reading - I'm not a fan of the new blog editor!!  And now on to more important things....

Mom and Bill were here for a couple weeks!  Luckily we had lovely, sunny, warm weather while they were here. We've had many chilly, rainy days since their departure.

We took them to my favorite place to eat feijoada, the traditional Saturday meal, at Hotel Parque Balneário.  I love the two gentlemen that perform bossa nova music while you eat - should have taken a picture of them!

Here was the view through the window.  Such a pretty day.

A picture of the dessert table that Mom took.  She took the picture, not the dessert table.  But she might have been tempted.  I know I was.

                           

Andy and Sam wore their new Santos jerseys.

Here were Mom and Bill at Praça Independencia on another beautiful day.

We relaxed a bit at Praia de Pernambuco on their last Sunday here.  (Mom and Bill took these shots.)

We had a great visit, but still have lots to do that we didn't get around to, so come back soon!