Hmmm...
The picture isn't lying, friends. This is a picture of a cow on the loose relaxing in front of the gas station just down the street from our house. We see horses and cows on the loose all the time here. I've asked if the cows ever get taken and butchered, but I'm told that even though you might not recognize who the owner of the cow(s) is, should you lay a hand on it you would find out very quickly. It completely baffles me that in this sprawling metropolis that people cling to their old ways of life regardless if the city has changed around them. Of course, the only place for these cows to eat is typically in the medians between the main roads. So it's not uncommon at all to see dozens of cars and trucks backed up because a cow strayed into the highway. By the way, the gas prices you see there are per litre, but are in Reais (One Real is worth about 50 cents). So our gas prices here are still higher than Canadian gas prices (about $1.25 per litre) but not by too much.
Cold at 20 degrees celcius
A phenomenon has been taking place recently here in Brazil--it's getting cold! No, we're not scraping frost off the windshield or watching for snowflakes. We're starting to feel cold at 20 degrees celius (70 F). It's very strange. The problem is that there is no heating inside any of the buildings and most of them are nowhere near air-tight. So when it's 15 degrees in the morning, the buildings cool down to below 20. And since most homes have trees for shade around them, it takes a long time for the rooms to warm up. We see lots of people wearing winter jackets when it's 17 or 18 degrees outside. Most people wear sweaters to school now, even though the daytime high is usually 22 or 23. With the extreme humidity here it always feels hotter or colder than it really is (like the wind-chill effect) so even us warm-blooded Canadians are feeling pretty cold at times. We bought thick comforters for our beds and we haven't regretted buying them at all.World Cup preparations
Every fourth year, the residents of our street get together to prepare for the World Cup tournament by painting flags (in many cases re-painting) on the asphalt. One of the people who has lived on our street the longest said that we had the best turnout for the event he can remember. In addition to repainting the Italian, German, English (not British!), Portuguese, American, and of course, Brazilian flags, three new flags were added: Dominican Republic, Japan and Canada! Now all of the residents of our street are represented. The Brazilian Football Association logo was also repainted -- and it's huge!! The World Cup is bigger here than the Stanley Cup playoffs and both Olympic Games combined! We've been told to brace ourselves for any Brazilian victories (and there should be many.) We had fun getting to know our neighbors better and practicing our limited Portuguese with them.
A "Snow" Day
Today there was no school. Schools were cancelled due to the unrest in the city. Over 80 people have been killed in the last few days, over 1/3 of them are police officers. Our local police station is being protected around the clock by men with shotguns, and the road is blocked approaching the building.Fortunately, last night was much calmer than the previous two, however, the organized crime groups responsible for this carnage may just be re-grouping. We expect to have school tomorrow unless new activity begins. We continue to be safe, and we don't feel threatened at all where we live. However, we are not going shopping today or driving anywhere, as you have no idea where fresh violence will erupt.
Violence in the streets
Surely many of you have heard about the attacks against the police here in Sao Paulo over the weekend. It has many here concerned, although most feel that the police are in control of the situation overall. School was disrupted this morning by the fact that many buses were not running (as buses seem to have been a target) but other than that we haven't been affected by it all.We are all safe and doing well. We thought we heard gun shots on Sunday, but they sound so much like the fireworks that we hear all the time that it's really hard to tell.
(Pictures are courtesy of Reuters News Service)
English
English is everywhere in Brazil. It's as common here as French is in English Canada. In fact, Brazilians treat English the same way that North Americans treat French. They use it when they want to make something sound fancy or expensive. However, depending on the translation, you find some pretty interesting (and funny) brand and store names. Take this bottle of dog shampoo for example. Would you be tempted to pay $10 for a bottle of "Smelly Dog" shampoo? The store clerk told us that it's the best dog shampoo on the market for getting rid of fleas. We couldn't stop laughing...
I bet THESE aren't bigger in Texas!
This is an ordinary snail, which has grown to extraordinary proportions. Many things grow large here. Funny, an hour after we took this picture the snail was still within two feet of where we left him. I guess size doesn't necessarily determine a snail's speed.
Barbecue, Brazilian style
Our family really enjoys barbecuing. We had a very nice barbecue in PEI that we used a lot, and we figured a barbecue would be high on the priority list in Brazil. But like a lot of other things here, they don't do it like they do in North America. You simply CANNOT find a gas grill here - even though everyone uses the same gas containers for their stoves as we use for barbecuing (I suppose a person could barbecue on the stove...nah, Shannon would kill me!) However, our house has a barbecue built-in. We were pretty excited about using it, so we invited some friends over, bought some charcoal and looked forward to a good ol' feed of meat! Three hours later we brought the blackened, less-than-ideal burgers and franks in to eat. It took almost two hours for us to get the thing started (no such thing as Match Light briquettes here either) and another hour for it to be suitable for cooking. Let's just say we went 0 for 1. Since then we've been slightly more successful. We bought some "incendadores" which are charcoal lighters. It takes FOREVER to get the charcoal here going, but with the right tools, even a gringo like me can do it.
Remember our cute little puppy?
Fortunately, Maple doesn't usually look this bad, but it's such a horrible picture that I couldn't resist putting it on the blog. We've had to keep Maple penned up since she was beginning to dig up the yard. However, apart from the occasional escape, she has settled down quite a bit. (Which is like saying she's gone from being a level 4 hurricane to a level 2 hurricane.) She continues to learn new tricks, but can't seem to master the one called "stay down!!" I'm hoping that either age or neutering will calm her down. She certainly loves to play, and the rougher the better.
Iguape
We took advantage of our Easter break to escape to the coast. We ended up arriving earlier than we needed to so we took some time exploring the town of Iguape (pronounced ee-GWAP-ee). One of the most interesting things there is a miniature version of the statue of Christ seen overlooking Rio de Janeiro. Although the statue is smaller, the city is smaller, and the climb to the statue is smaller, we were pretty tired when we reached the statue. Another one of the pleasant surprises we are finding exist all over Brazil.