Going in with grace...

I have never been one to enjoy my birthday. I am not sure why. I like to think it is the attention, but truth be told, I think it is the fact that I haven't achieved what I would have hoped by now. I am not married, no kids, etc. Yes, I live abroad, yes, I have people who love me but it is me comparing myself to what society says I should do, and it makes me feel like a failure. So, for the past few years, I have just not celebrated, and to be honest, instead I've had a pity party.

Obviously, these strategies haven't been working. They just make me miserable and start the year off on a bad note. So, this year I decided to embrace my birthday and year 34. I decided that I would enter the next year of my life with grace, instead of loathing and avoiding. It seems to fall under the "if ain't broke, don't fix it," mantra. Except, what I was doing was broke, so I needed to fix it.

So, as my birthday approached, Sue started to ask, "Are we going to celebrate this year?" When I said, "yes," I think she was a little surprised and in disbelief. I've decided to enter year 34 with grace and rather than avoid the inevitable, I'm going to embrace it. I'm not sure why. But, I think it has to do with the fact that this year will be one in which I will have a lot of changes(more on that later). I think the fact that this year holds a lot of promise, makes me want to start it off right.

So, this morning I got out of bed and embraced the big day. I got dressed and was greeted at school by friends and students who gave me hugs(and a carrot cake muffin with cream cheese icing :) ). Throughout the day, I was shown how much I am loved and appreciated. It made me feel good.

People left notes on my board throughout the day.

My last class had a little 5 minute birthday celebration for me. It was so sweet. They all signed a card and brought me Brazilian and Polish chocolates. Sue brought me these beautiful flowers.

Even Google realized it was my birthday and changed my google screen.

That evening, Sue arranged a dinner party at a great little Italian place, Cantina da Massa, and invited my nearest and dearest. Sue, Barry, Kevin, Heather, Amanda, Jackie, and Rodrigo all came out to celebrate my birthday. It was actually nice. It was even cold today and I got to wear boots, jeans, and a sweater...it was like I was home. I loved spending my day with people who mean a lot to me. My family is not here, so the next best thing would be my Brazilian family.

The whole gang.

Me and Rodrigo.

Me and Sue...what would I do with out her. :)

As for my birthday gift, this year I bought my own gift and I know it will be something I remember forever. I am taking a trip to this place...

Machu Picchu!!!

Here is to 34, hopefully the best year yet!

Photobomb...

I get it. People are either PC people or Apple people. And, I am most certainly the latter. I got an Iphone last winter and as person who likes to take a lot of pictures, it has kind of rocked my world. I don't have to carry my DSLR or point & shoot everywhere, I just have to take my phone. It's been awesome. The only catch is sometimes I take pictures and never put them on the blog. So, here are some of my random pictures from the last few months.

Orientation - Isabel and I were the teacher leaders of Orientation this year. We loved helping out. Here is our whole group(Newbies, Admin, HR, and us).

Pantanal: Rodrigo, Valmir, and I took the kids on the classroom without walls trip. One week, 3 teachers, and I was the only girl. :) It was great. We had so much fun and so did the kids.

The best moment of the trip...35 sleeping teenagers.

Valmir and I by the pool. This picture looks completely photoshopped.

5:30 am milking Buffalo. I know I am from Tennessee and all but they were pretty impressed by "buffalo-milking skills."

Piranha fishing. At this point we did lose one Iphone5 into the river...

After we fished for piranha's, we disected them. This is me holding the piranhas heart. We then had piranha soup for dinner.

Some of the beautiful birds in the Pantanal.

The Asian Food Festival:
Brasilia has a lot of food options...except when it comes to Asian cuisine. No Thai, Indian is twice a year, "China in Box"(there is no 'a'), just doesn't cut it. The Asian food festival is one time of the year where you can get your asian cuisine fix...

There were tons of people. You had to wait in line for 30 minutes.

2 words...ICED COFFEE!!!

Yummy chicken!

Dumplins with a sweet chili sauce. :)

Random photos with friends!

Catalina, Jackie, Amanda, and me at the Buddhist temple here in Brasilia.

Me and Heather!

Sophie and her good pal, Sol. He is gonna stay with us when Sue goes to AASSA at the end of the month!

Sue's birthday was this week so a couple of us took her to dinner. We went to an Argentinian steakhouse, it's the perfect choice for a vegetarian...right?

Sue, her cake, and um...Matt. Sorry I couldn't cut you out buddy.

All Hallows Eve...

Just like I love fall, I love Halloween. I love the crisp fall air, the sometimes dropping temperatures, football on the weekends, and big ole bowls of warm soups and Chili. It is one of those holidays where you forget who you are and enjoy being someone else. Which if we are being honest, is just nice sometimes.

Brazilians don't really celebrate Halloween. And, it is a shame. They love parties and get togethers and costumes. It is the perfect holiday for them. The Embassies and the American School celebrate it but that is about it. However, every year the Collins' host a shindig on "All Hallows Eve," this year we decided to go to make it a double whammy and go to the Marine Corp house afterwards to check out their Halloween party as well.

Since I refuse to wear a rented costumes(yuck) and buying a costume here might break my bank, I always go for the "make your own" costume route. Last year I went as Minnie Mouse, the year before that, a Greek Goddess. This year, I was kind of stumped. After I watched the Avengers, I had an epiphany...WONDER WOMAN! I know, I know, she is not an Avenger. It was more the superhero idea that inspired me.

So, I gathered all my supplies: blue fabric, paper stars, red t-shirt, Christmas ribbon, TNT, and boots. Put it all together and this is what you get. :)

I used Christmas ribbon to make a belt, bracelet, and crown. I didn't have enough for a lasso. :(

The Collins'party was so much fun. We have snacks, chit chat, and marvel at each others costumes. It is always great to see what people show up as. This year we had Mr. T, Jack Sparrow, a chef, Greek Goddesses, doctors, jack-o-lanterns, sloppy Joe, pirates, cross-dressers, and a nudist on strike.

The Marine House party was um...different. I noticed that there was something "interesting" about this party when I saw that all the music was coming from 2 Jettas, yes...as in the car. I kind of felt like I was back in college. I take that back, I definitely felt like I was in college. There was a definite "frat house" vibe. There were some great costumes there as well. But, I called it an early night and headed home about 12:30.

It was nice to pretend I was someone else for the evening and had "super" powers. Taking time out of your weekend to spend with friends and family really is what it's all about. Who knows what Halloween 2014, will hold. I just hope it is spooktacular!!!!

Is this Beyonce or Niagara Falls?

Rock in Rio brings some big name celebrities to Brazil. And, occasionally those big name celebrities decide to make pit stops in other cities. My first year in Brazil it was Rihanna, this year, Beyonce! As soon as word got out that Beyonce would be stopping in Brasilia, word got out that some people wanted to go.

We bought our tickets online and after a lot of confusion on how to pick them up, they were finally in our hands. I was pretty excited that the concert would take place at the highly controversial new stadium. I was even more excited that it would take place before the rainy season, so there was no need to worry about the rain putting a damper on the evening.

The new Stadium.

On the night of the concert we were pretty stoked. We left early to avoid traffic and hung out till the show began which was supposed to start at 8:30. By 9pm, there was still no Beyonce. By 9:30...yep you guessed it...still no Beyonce. By 9:45, were just getting annoyed. Mrs. Carter obviously didn't realize there were teachers in the audience. And, that is when I heard Amanda say, "Did anybody else feel that?" As soon as she said it, I felt it, rain.

Jackie, Amanda, Suzanne, Me, and Jonathan. Pre-rain picture.

Rain drops kept falling.

When this guys started climbing the tower we knew the show was gonna start!!!!

At first we thought that it would be a quick little rain and it would move on. It is the dry season after all. Before we knew it though, that little trickle turned into a full fledged storm. We saw that some people were opening ponchos. The lady next to us said, she got one for R$10. So, off Amanda went to save us from the torrential downpour and retrieve us each a poncho. Best $R10 I've ever spent.

The Show.

The concert was great and Mrs. Carter put on quite a show. She is an amazing performer. At several points she was out in the downpour with us, leading her to say, "If you're in the rain, I'm in the rain." Got to love that!

I love these sorts of experiences that I get to experience while I am abroad. It is a little like being at home for the evening!

Road Trip!

Sue and Heather have been 2 of the people in Brasilia I always know I can count on. They are like my Brazilian sisters, they aren't just friends. As soon as we got back from our summer vacation we decided we needed to start planning our Independence day holiday! So, we asked Kev-O, Heather's hubby, if we could steal her away for a girls get-a-way, and when we got the go ahead, we got to planning. With only three days we knew we needed to go somewhere close, so we decided on Pirenopolis, a city about 2.5 hours away from Brasilia. We didn't care what we did, we just knew what we wanted...a pool.

Saturday morning, we loaded up Sue's car and hit the road. Although we had a hard time escaping Brasilia, we finally got out. The ride was smooth(except for the 500 speed bumps along the way) and then we saw it, a girls vacation dream...the new outlet mall. You read that correctly people; Brasilia has an outlet mall, and yes it has designers from north of the border. We instantly stopped to check it out and get a McDonald's ice cream cone!

Brasilia's outlet mall, only 45 minutes away from Brasilia.

Once we arrived in Pirenopolis we headed to our pousada! We had scoped out Pousada's on tripadvisor, in order to find a nice one and man did we luck out. When we arrived we settled into our rooms and then settled next to the pool. :) Not only was the pousada really pretty, it had a great restaurant. In fact, we ate every meal there but one! After a little resting by the pool we decided to venture out and see what was going on. Very quickly we ran into many of our EAB pals who had also decided to get out of Dodge Brasilia too. We shopped and shopped and shopped a little more. I found a beautiful wire basket but when I saw the price I knew I needed to wait it out and make sure I didn't want anything else more

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The next day I woke up with a Migraine headache and decided to skip out on the waterfalls. After some high doses of Tylenol, Sudafed, and a nap, I woke up like a new woman. So, I parked myself by the pool for the day till Sue and Heather got home. We were going to meet up with some of our EAB folks later but first we needed to go shopping to get all the things we decided to buy. One problem, almost everything was closed, including our stores! But, we were able to have a great dinner with our friends!

Almost the whole gang!

The next day we got up to head home but first we thought we should give the stores one more try. And surprisingly the two stores we needed were open! I knew it was meant to be so I ran in and bought it!

The basket was my big purchase but I couldn't resist these porcelin balls too.

A close up. They are tiny clovers all hooked together and some are gold leafed. I love it and know I will have it forever!

I try to count my blessings often while I live abroad. Yes, there are things that I miss. Yes, there are people I wish I saw more. But, all in all the people here are in my life for a reason and this weekend was a reminder of that. They love me unconditionally and care about me for who I am. Thank you Sue and Heather for being such wonderful friends! You mean the world to me.

It's football time in...BSB?!

I see your Facebook status updates. You know the ones I am talking about, the ones with your pumpkin spice lattes, your pictures from Neyland stadium, everyone in Orange, basically all the ones that remind me that you all are entering fall. And, I hate you for it! Okay, I don't really hate you...I hate that I am not with you. Because I am missing the fall something awful this year and it's just not fair! :(

Just so I am not outdone by all my "friends" I am here to let you know that not only is it "football time in Tennessee"...It's also football time in BSB! That's right people, there is a football team here in Brasilia and I am not talking about soccer. Pure, American football (that is played by Brazilians)!

It all started when a 40 foot tall yellow goal, "popped up" in the soccer field by my place. Then we noticed that on every Saturday and Sunday at 4pm, they would appear. Pads, helmets, footballs, the whole shebang! It was so interesting...and then they started playing. That is where it all went a little downhill.

Bless their hearts, if football was based on spirit, these guys would be SEC champs. You can litterally hear them scream their team name from inside the apartment.

AL-E-GAY-TOHRS!!
AL-E-GAY-TOHRS!!
(yes, it is supposed to be Alligators but that is how they pronounce it.)

And, when someone CATCHES the ball, they go freakin' nuts! However, I don't think that the Brazilians really know what to think about all this "American Football". When I was taking these pictures, some guy walked by me and in Portuguese said, "This s#@* is crazy, huh?" I almost died.

A close up of fall in BSB.

So, there you go. You folks ain't nothin' special. So keep enjoying your lattes and start wearing your scarves. But, if you wanted to bring me one of those lattes, I would happily drink it for ya! Happy fall from the 205, y'all!