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!

Tea leaves and spices and everything nices....

If I have developed a habit of buying anything while living here it has been teas and bags of different leaves and spices.  Some things I've never seen before, and it's reasonably priced.  Cinnamon sticks are downright cheap compared to what you would pay in The States or Canada.

Boldo do Chile is a leaf native to Chile, as you may have guessed, and supposedly good for hangovers or stomach aches. It was discovered when sheepherders realized that the sheep that grazed in a certain area where the boldo do Chile was growing didn't have the intestinal problems that the other sheep developed.  And it has a somewhat unappetizing taste and smell. 

There are also olives leaves from which you can make tea, with a fairly mild, palatable flavor.  Supposedly there are many health benefits from consuming olive-leaf tea, so I may try to drink it more regularly.  There is maté, of course; the toasted maté tea pictured here (with orange peel) is very tasty.  There is something called cavalinha in the back, which translates to horsetail in English.  There was quite a bit on the internet about it, but I'd never heard of horsetail before.  Not sure how it tastes yet.  

There's a bag of chamomile from the feira (open-air market) and a bag of green tea (chá verde). The large bag of bay leaves (folha de louro) that I need for my Louisiana and Cuban (and now Brasilian) cooking didn't make it into the picture.

And whole anise (anis estrelado) - smells sooooooo good.  It reminds me of the pizzelles (Italian waffle cookie) that some good friends of mine make during the holidays.  I LOVE those cookies, and I can't wait to try some tea.

I don't think I've gone overboard, yet.

Frango assado

Here, chicken is frango.  And roasted chicken is frango assado, one of my favorite (and easiest!) things to make when the weather turns cooler.  This is the first time I've made a roasted chicken since we've been here.  The temperature was cool for a few months when we arrived, but the rental cookware didn't include anything for roasting.

So today marked the first purchase of a whole chicken, and I knew it would be a little different when I saw Contém: pés on the package: Contains feet.

Here's what I pulled out. The neck is included as well (attached, no less), the heart (propping the feet up in the photo below), and I think its head is what laying on the right.  I believe what looks like a beak is its tongue?  (Do chickens have tongues?)

I WISH I had nails like these. Really!  I mean, I'd probably wear them shorter, but compared to my paper-thin, short...  Okay, I'm thankful I'm NOT a chicken butchered on the cutting board, but the nails are lovely.

And where am I supposed to put them, exactly?

I didn't leave them sticking up; I tucked them along the bottom. I can hear it sizzling now and it smells maravilhoso!!!!  We'll see if anyone tries the feet.