Yesterday was a wild mix of walking aimlessly around Brazilia killing time before the flight and then intensive moment once we got on the plane to Poҫos de Caldas. It went from a full stop to full-on go.
When the four of us who traveled together on the plane to Campinas arrived, we met our respective ILEP alumni teachers at the gate. Rita, ours, is fantastic. She had a cab waiting courtesy of one of her school principals, and in we hopped for the three hour trip to Poҫos. Ali, the other teacher here with me, and I were definitely weary, but we talked on the way to our new home for the week, asking questions and answering them companionably.
When we got to Poҫos, Rita took us to her house to show us around briefly and to collect her son and husband so we could go eat. She has a beautiful house and family. We all went out for pizza in a restaurant where our waiter turned out to have aspirations toward stand-up comedy. He told a joke about “wanting sausage” in English that showed he might have promise, and certainly that he had better command of the subtleties of English than he thought.
Exhausted, as soon as I got checked in to the hotel, I unpacked and fell down. Early this morning, we left for Rita’s school. We talked and presented to four of her classes today. They also had prepared presentations for us, dance numbers based on American pop videos, musical performances with guitar and saxophone, a presentation about what to do here in town, and even a new chocolate desert to discover. The students were universally wonderful.
During the last portion of the last class, I had a serious problem I had to try to resolve back home. When I checked my email courtesy of the friendly free wi-fi, one of those emails you never want to see but most especially when you are a million miles away popped up like some kind of virulent mushroom in my inbox. Somebody back in the States swiped/cloned my debit card number and my bank froze my account to stop the (you pick a word YOU like...all mine are profane) from cleaning me out completely. I did what I could with it, ran up an international phone bill that could sink the economy of a small nation, and we headed out to see some of the sights. The city is lovely and old. Many of the buildings are wonderfully worthy of being photographed. I did some of that as we walked, but I want to go out again on another day when I don’t feel so horrid from dealing with bad things.
Late today, we went to each tilapia and provolone. It was wonderful food. I took pictures that you see here because the smiling fish outside the restaurant and the great food just made me happy. I needed that badly after the day I had. Just now, I am about to close this post and get ready for bed. Tomorrow, we’re going to Sao Paulo, and it will be a long, long day with a very early start.
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