Tick Tock

Well, the clock is ticking. Only one month left here and it is already feeling very bittersweet.  I am SOOOO ready to see my friends and family and be back in the loop with what is going on in everyone's lives.  I miss everyone so much and I am ready to get back to work!  Something to occupy my time!  I love to read, but I have been pretty much reading non stop since I got here. In fact, here is a list of books I have read. This may be boring but what else are you doing? Working? Ya right! And you never know, you may want to read some of these sometime.  I'll even give you a 1-5 star system on how good they were in my professional opinion! I will not however give a description as to why they have the amount of stars given. I'm too lazy and you could probably care less.  Enjoy!!  (Can you tell it is a fairly uneventful day??) 

New Reads:
The Red Tent-Anita Diamant    ***
Cold Mountain-Charles Frazier  ***
The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo-Stieg Larsson   *****
The Girl Who Played With Fire-Stieg Larsson   *****
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet Nest-Stieg Larsson *****
A Visit from the Goon Squad-Jennifer Egan   **
Heaven is for Real-Todd Burpo   *
Lovehampton-Sherri Rifkin   ***
History Lesson for Girls-Aurelie Sheehan   ****
The Hunger Games-Suzanne Collins  *****
Catching Fire-Suzanne Collins   *****
Mockingjay-Suzanne Collins   ***

Second Time Reads (so you know they are good)
Three Cups of Tea-Greg Mortenson   ****
Life of Pi-Yann Martel   *****
Watership Down-Richard Adams  *****
A Million Little Pieces-James Frey   ***
The Time Traveler's Wife-Audrey Niffenegger    *****
Water for Elephants-Sara Gruen   *****
Lost & Found-Jacqueline Sheehan   ***

Currently Reading: The Abbey-Chris Culver
Next Up: Born Standing Up-Steve Martin

So obviously I have been a reading fiend!

Anyways, as I mentioned, I have a month left. I will happy to see my friends/family but I am getting so sick of goodbyes. Especially to Edi.  BUT this is the way things have to be for now. Hopefully down the road we will be traveling together!  But not only Edi, his family will be hard to ay goodbye to as well.  I have become very fond of quite of few of his family members. Ok lets not think about it now. I'll push the saddness to the back of my mind and focus on having fun while I'm still here.

We did go play painball the other night. It was  a little cold but we had a good time. I definitely did not play but I hung out with the girls and ate some BBQ and was the fascinating American girl for all of the people I had not met before. (I'm finally getting used to that) People would come over and say whatever English phrase they know which is usually Thank you very much(muito obrigado) or sausage, oddly enough (linguisa), which is funny in any language. Once everyone realized that I know the word for sausage in Portuguese, it became a big joke. Someone would hold up a sausage that was cooking on the grill and call my name and I would say "linguisa" in my most provocative voice and everyone got a kick out of that. Nice to finally be able to at least joke around a little bit with everyone.  The paintball "arena" was pretty cool. Nothing too fancy but it was pretty big with a lot of good hiding places. I don't really know anything about paintball but it looked like fun. Edi got a nice big welt on his leg but other than that he was pretty much unscathed.

Last night Edi and I went out to a very cool restaurant for a late dinner/drinks.  We had not been there before. Everything on the menu is served on a skewer. Interesting right? I thought so.  The atmosphere was very cool. Bricks, exposed beams, very high ceilings, my fav!  It was very open and the tables and chairs were a dark wood which was beautiful!  I told Edi that if  ever owned a restaurant this is what I would want it to look like.  The only thing that is strange that I have noticed in the few restaurants that have a bar also (most places don't even have a bar top area) is that there is a bar but no chairs.  I don't understand because the bar at this restaurant was beautifully done. It was a long L shape and beind the bar was a very tall shelving unit with all sorts of liquor bottles with beautiful backlighting.  But nobody can actually sit at this bar because there are no chairs.......I asked Edi if people just usually stand around the bar and he said no, they just don't really use it. Why go through all the trouble of making this large, beautiful bar and only use it for service drinks? Edi said that if HE ever owned a restaurant he would definitely have a bar like that, but there would be stools. He's not really sure why restaurants don't take advantage of that idea.  It would really add to the atmosphere and draw people in I think. Anyways, enough about me and my brilliant restaurant design knowledge.

Sunday we went to Edi's Aunt/Uncles house. The guys were playing some kind of poker-like card game outside and the ladies were inside checking out some sweet shoes!  Fernanda, Edi's cousins girlfriend is opening a shoe store next month and she brought some of the newest shipment over to the house for the ladies to have first pick!  Sadly, she did not know that I have monstrous feet (9!) so she did not bring godzilla sized shoes.  Apparently all Brazilian women have small, dainty, perfectly sized feet. I'm not kidding, they were all either a 5, 6, or 7.  So I just looked and told Fernanda I would have Edi take me to her store when it opens the first week of Nov. and get some shoes for myself!  (Also, I will let her know that if she needs help when I come back here, I would be HAPPY to work in her shop! Job in Brazil, here I come!!!)
We stayed there most of the day and eventually it was only myself, Fernanda and Adriana(who knows a little bit of English) inside and I had my ipod with me which has a sweet translator on it.  We went back and forth talking about my family, when I was leaving, when I hoped to come back, etc, etc... and I only had to use the translator a couple of times. It was mostly when I was trying to respond to their questions because I am getting pretty good at understanding what people are saying.
 I realized something when I was responding to them.  With the amount of Portuguese that  know, I can respond accordingly to quite a few questions, but my responses are obviously very broken. When they ask me "When are you going back to the United States?" My response is "I go back November 20."  When they ask "Do you like Brazil? My response is " Yes, I like. Very nice. Beautiful."  Now, I am not the smartest person you've ever met, but I like to consider myself fairly intelligent and well spoken.  But, obviously in another language that I am JUST learning, I don't sound too bright.  I think that in America, we hear people that are not native to our language and we are sometimes quick to judge. People think they must not be smart, etc,etc... while that could be the opposite of the truth.  Just because someone isn't fluent in your language or know your traditions, doesn't mean they are stupid.  For example, Edi's English isn't perfect but he is a VERY smart guy. I've seen this in him for a long time, but seeing how much he has made for himself here and seeing what a great businessman he is first hand is just proof of that.   Now that I am living this first hand I have nothing but respect for people coming to the US knowing so little about the language or culture and making a life for themselves. I have it easy. I live with Edi's family, I don't have a job, I don't really go out anywhere without someone that knows English. It couldn't get much easier for me and a lot of people that travel to another country to live don't have it this easy.   Think about that they next time you meet someone from another country. That's all I'm sayin'!

Well those are my words of wisdom for now. I miss you all! Have a wonderful rest of the week!! Tchau!!