Rio, Rio, Rio

It was with some trepidation that we left the easy life in Campinas and headed to Rio. I realized that this is the first time I have traveled somewhere that I am not at least familiar with the language and the idea was somewhat daunting. We flew on a made-in- Brazil airplane - Embraer - and it was the nicest plane I have ever been on - brand new - with leather seats for everyone!
We landed at Dumont airport which is right in the middle of Rio and quickly found our way to the hotel. We are on the eleventh floor and have a balcony with a view of Copacaban Beach.
Yesterday, we walked and walked and walked from one end of the beach to the other - David was looking for those dental floss bikinis - but had no luck. We waded and the water was not too cold for us - or for a few hardy souls. The waves were quite rough and we saw some surfers. The scenery was beautiful and the light in Rio is different from anywhere I have been.
Tried caipirhina and it burned going down. Cachaca is definitely fire water.
This morning we started early and actually took a tour. We headed up to Corcovado - the Christ Statue - amazing. Saw the Sambadrome where Carnival is held - and the Marcarena stadium - the home of futbol.
After lunch - Sugar Loaf - two trams which dragged us up to the top. The views were wonderful
There was a group of teenagers from Columbia with us and we enjoyed them. They reminded me of my friend at work, Ariana - and I will have the pictures to prove that.
Tomorrow we will explore more - Ipanema - David looking for that girl from there - and me taking a million pictures to bore you all when I return. I am going to bed with the french doors open to the balcony and the sound of the surf. I sleep well here. Tchau!

Sunday in Campinas

After a breakfast of papaya, today we walked through the neighbored to a street fair that is held every weekend in Campinas. There were lots of booths with handicrafts, artists, food and music. I did some good shopping and bought some typical Brazilian flip flops for myself - unaccountably called ´Hawaiians´. The straps are very decorated with beads and sparkly things. Lindemberg says they make me look like a native. Picked up some presents for some of you and enjoyed the mood and the weather. The weather here is very much like winter in Phoenix, with less pollution. The skies are bright blue and there are few clouds. Since the apartment is on the tenth floor, we have a good view. It is a lovely home with four en-suite bedrooms and many balconies.
We also visited a typical grocery store Paõ de Azucar, which means sugar bread. The grocery store was very similar to stores in the states, but the packaging were much smaller. Beer and coke are purchased by the can or the bottle - which is a nice sign of moderation after our meat binge yesterday.
Nanda is napping, Thiago is playing his hand held Pokeman video , Monica and Lindemberg are making salmon for lunch. Lunch is the main meal of the day. This afternoon, USA (the underdog, of course) is playing Brazil for the World Cup in soccer and we must watch. We are having a very relaxing time and enjoying the pace of life here. Tomorrow we fly to Rio (pronounced Hio). My Spanish is hopelessly scrambled with Portuguese and it should be an adventure.
Tchau.

Anthropological Lunch

Today, Lindemberg and Monica took us for a tour of Campinas, the University and his hospital. We walked in a city park - 1600 meters for those of you who have been coached in math, and for a trolley ride in Parque Portugal. The highlight of the day was lunch - an anthropological gastronomic event that puts American all you can eat buffets to shame. The surroundings were more elegant and the food was indescribable and in some cases, just plain unknown. We went to a churrascaria - a traditional type of lunch. First, vegetables, cheese, salad, fruit, seafood - help yourself. David made the mistake of filling his plate here - not knowing that this was the appetizer. After we sat down at a round table with a white linen tablecloth, Lindemberg pointed out a small card at each place with a red side and a green side. When your card was turned to the green side - hordes of waiters approached with meat on two enormous skewers and a long, large knife. I had tongs to remove the slices of meat as it was carved fron the slab. The choices included my favorite picanha - from a cow, my least favorite - chicken heart, buffalo, salmon, chicken, ham, lamb, fish called pintado - more picanha - ribs, sausages - both chicken and pork, turkey, pineapples cooked in cinnamon - another favorite, cabybara -the same ones they have at the Phoenix zoo - I passed on this one - and more picanha. Did I mention that picanha was my favorite? I have never tasted meat so good. When you wanted to take a breather, you flipped your card to the red side and the waiters circled at a distance - watching carefully for the flip back to green. I ate more meat today than in the past three months. And then we had dessert. David will have to roll me to Rio in a wheelbarrow.
I slept eleven hours last night so I am no longer tired, but I am really full and we ate five hours ago. Tchau.

Whew! I am tired.

We are in Campinas after two long and painful plane rides. Both flights were packed to the gills with screaming children and parents who could not cope. The seats are definitely getting smaller and sleeping is fairly impossible for people of a certain age. I wonder how I took a two year old and a three year old to Europe. Just demented, I guess.Lindemberg met us at the airport in São Paulo. He looks much the same as he did twenty years ago - which is not something you can say for us. We drove through the outskirts of São Paulo - mostly in the industrial area under a very cloudy sky. As we got closer to Campinas, it became very sunny and we saw lots of bucolic scenery on the drive which lasted about an hour.
When we arrived Thiago had not left for school. He leaves at noon and comes home about seven. Schools do two shifts - but kids and teachers do one shift. He liked his AZ gifts. Monica came home for lunch and we struggled to communicate in some mish mash of Spanish, Portuguese, English, French and sign language. She is very beautiful and young looking and does not look at all like a mother of two. She comes home for lunch every day as her office is quite near. It was much easier to talk to Fernanda who is one year and does not care what language you speak.
We had a walk around the neighborhood in the afternoon - very pretty with lots of trees in bloom that have these big purple-y flowers that stretch into a canopy - called ipê. The apartment is very elegant and the neighborhood is lovely with cobbled streets and sidewalks designed like those in Copacabana Beach. I had caipirinha ice cream which was very good but will soon switch to the alcoholic variety.
Almost time for dinner. Lindemberg is cooking pasta. Then to bed. Lindemberg and Monica have given us their room and moved into the pull out sofa in the den. Tomorrow we will go to a street fair in the neighborhood. Tchau.

Getting Ready to Go

About ten years ago, we had planned a trip to Brazil which was  cancelled at the last minute because I needed emergency surgery. However, we had already purchased our tickets and our visas. At that time, the visas cost us about $60 apiece. We sent our money and our passports to the consulate in Los Angeles and received the visas back by regular mail. We just included an envelope with pre-paid postage. 

This time, the procedure was quite a bit more complex, and much more expensive.  The consulate in Los Angeles no longer accepts mail in requests. We had to hire someone to 'walk' our paperwork in. The cost of the visas is now $130 compared to $30 if you are from Mexico, $35 from Australia, and $50 from Russia or Japan. Why is this? Because we did it first.

Although there were no Brazilian terrorists, after 9/11, the US government increased the cost of visas for Brazilians and, in reciprocity, they did the same. This time, we paid more than three times as much for our Brazilian visas. Thanks, George.

   U.S. citizens traveling to Brazil are required to obtain a visa prior to entering Brazil.   This requirement is in reciprocity to the U.S. government demand that all Brazilian citizens hold a visa in order to enter the United States.

    Citizens of countries that do not demand visas from Brazilian nationals usually do not need visas to enter Brazil (most European and South American countries fall in this category). 

Teach for America

While many of my blogs will be about places I like to visit, my first will be about my other favorite topic - teaching. 

I was recently asked by a very political friend what I though about Teach for America. I said to her, "Imagine that you are having major surgery and are admitted to the hospital and introduced to Emily,your nurse by her supervisor. The supervisor tells you that Emily is a Nurse for America. She has only had six weeks of training, and will only be a nurse for two years because she wants to improve her law school application, but she is very enthusiastic." Are you appalled?

As a teacher of thirty-six years, I am appalled by Teach for America. It rests on two very faulty suppositions. The first is that teachers do not need any special training or any particular skills to teach. After all, we all went to school. In fact, there is now a great accumulation of research that delineates effective teaching practices and it takes years to reach true effectiveness. 

The second supposition is more insidious. In the past, schools kept the same teachers for years. The school was an integral part of the community where teachers had brothers and sisters, cousins and neighbors and sometimes even parents and children. Students came back with invitations to high school graduations, college graduations, weddings, quincinearas and birthday parties. To lose this sense of community is to divorce the school from families. Teaching for two years and then disappearing dies not make you a model, a friend and a mentor for students and families. 

If you want to change the world, be a real teacher. Stick around for thirty years or so.