A spook-tacular weekend!

Happy Halloween y'all, well, almost Halloween if your going to be picky about it. This weekend, we celebrated halloween down here in good ole Brasilia. Brazilian's don't celebrate Halloween the way that Americans do. But, since I work at an American school, I didn't have to miss out on one of my favorite holidays! It was almost an all weekend affair, and I loved every minute of it!

We started the weekend with the Collins annual Halloween party. Since, I didn't bring a costume with me, I had to throw it together improvise a costume. On my lunch break, I ran up to the commercial and grabbed some white fabric, gold Christmas ribbon (because the stores are already set up for Christmas) and a couple of other odds and ends so I could go as a greek goddess. The party was AWESOME! We all had such a great time and seeing everyone in their costumes was hilarious! I love to see what interesting ideas that people come up with.

As a 1950's housewife, Andrea couldn't believe how well stocked Libby's spice rack was!

We had hippie's, Kathy Meranda, and Geisha's!

Mike Schmooker, the author of our professional development book study, showed up to remind us to use common assessments and remove the buffers. He is obviously very impressed with himself, I mean who goes to a party and reads their own book?

Little Red Riding Hood and the BIG BAD Wolf aka our host and hostess for the night!

With his nightie on, we couldn't decide if Kevin was the host or hostess with the mostest!

On Saturday, I headed to school for the annual Halloween party Sebado Legal. One thing I have learned after working at EAB for 11 weeks is that they don't do events half-way. So, of course why would Halloween be any different? The kids and parents were decked out in their finest costumes and of course there were events to participate in: Educational spooky games, story telling, cake walk, and of course, the high schoolers created a haunted house. Then to top it off a local restaurant came in to make pizzas and pastels you could buy as well as drinks and other goolish foods for your eating pleasure. Sorry about the pics from Saturday. It's hard was hard to get good pictures.

Obviously it was a popular event!

All in all, it was a spook-tacular halloween and I can't wait to celebrate it again next year!

My name is Katie, and I am addicted to technology.

I remember distinctly when my Dad first asked me about getting an e-mail account in 1997. We were at the kitchen table, that my sister now has at her house, talking about AOL. "Katie, why don't you set up an e-mail account like I have." he said. "Why would I want to do that?" I asked. He then proceeded to tell me all of the reasons why I should have e-mail ending with "and people can contact you anytime of day." The 16 year old in me, did my sassy thing, and said, "Contact me, really? I mean if someone is that desperate to get in touch with me, they can pick up the phone and call me." Fast forward to 2011, and I find myself living in a foreign country addicted to technology. Now, if we are being honest here, and we needed to rank my addiction from 1-10 (1 being little need to 10 being full-fledged junkie) I would say that I'm probably at about a 6.5. But for me, a person who really only checked facebook and my email prior to moving to Brazil, there are some nights where I feel like I need to be checked into Betty Ford.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't carry my cell phone everywhere and check my email on vacation like some people do. But, man when I am home from work. I feel like I am attached to my computer. My computer has quickly become the most important thing I own. Not because I love to spend hours on it, but more for the connection it provides me with home. It is how I keep up with people, talk with my parents, and entertain myself. I constantly worry that something will happen to my computer and I will be cut off from the world that I once knew. So, much so, that I've already decided at Christmas I'm going to pick up an IPad, just in case.

Please don't misunderstand me. I do go out, and actually I would say that the quality of my life is better here than it was back home. I am never concerned about money, have more to do on the weekends, and get to travel to awesome places! It's actually a nice change.

However, on weekdays after work and on Sunday, I have more time to kill. And, I end up doing everything on the computer:

Talk to friends and family = skype/vonage
Watch movies/television = Use the VPN to watch American TV or use netflix. I don't have cable here in Brazil.
Listen to music = Itunes
See what people are doing= facebook
School work = e-mail
Let you know what I am doing = blog
Keep up with the news here and abroad = CNN.com
And let's not forget that I check google.com probably more than any normal human should.

By the end of the day, it's more than I like but it, like all things here, is what it is. If I don't use my computer, Ill stare at the walls. So, what's a girl to do? I'm not real sure, soooo I guess I'll go check facebook. :)

The Great Amazonian Adventure!

I'm back from the Amazon and survived! In retrospect, the most vicious animals we encountered were a well known species known as Homo-Teenage-Sapiens. :) All kidding aside, the trip was really awesome and I feel very fortunate that I was able to see such an amazing part of the world. Instead of just saying how great the trip was, and how I learned cool things, I thought I would break it down by the day and let you see pics.

Day 1: We all met at the airport at 7am and checked in with the airline, Gol. The

kids said good-bye to the parents, while the parents cried and couldn't believe they were letting their babies go to a 5 star resort the jungle. This was my first time traveling through Brazilian security. Let's just say this, this was not like the TSA. Basically, I threw my bag on the x-ray machine and moved on through. It was like a time machine was there and I was flying in the USA, in 1999. I will say that undoubtedly, Gol, has some tiny seats, there is not a lot of leg room on those bad boys!

After arriving safely in Manaus, we headed to lunch, and then to an Indian museum. We also got to ride on a killer bus, I mean the colors were out of this world!! Eventually, we made it to the hotel. Being the gringa that I am, I just assumed that we would pull up to the hotel hop off and get to our rooms. But, I am a gringa and I was traveling to the Amazon. So instead, we arrived at a small pier and boarded several canoes which took us to hotel. It was pretty fun, in fact, the kid in me looked forward to every trip on the canoes. :) After a short hike, we made it to the hotel and pretty much called it a day.

Day 2: On Tuesday, we ventured out for a course on jungle resources. It was quite interesting. We saw all of the plants that we use in our American products. Our guide showed us how the natives would use the plants and insects for survival. He showed us how you would bleed a tree, how they would get ants to come to the surface, where companies such as Chanel get ingredients for their products, as well as how they used plants to make ropes, bracelets, and necklaces. He even told us about a poisonous frog, and as we were returning from our hike he found it.

Milk of Magnesia right out of the tree!

What happens when you let nice kids see your camera.


We then journeyed to a monkey reserve where we were able to see several types of monkeys and learn how they lived with one another.

By the end of the morning I was sweaty and hot and sweaty(no, this is not a typo) as you can see in my picture. We then had small nap before we headed out to the jungle for the rest of the night. I'll blog about that on another day.

Day 3 involved some rest in relaxation, however, I was traveling with the homo-teenage-sapiens which meant there was no "real" downtime at all. We hiked back from our night in the jungle where we ate breakfast and the kids immediately asked if they could go to the natural springs pool. In the afternoon, we met with a small tribe who showed the students traditional dances, songs, and taught the boys how to make blow guns(cause that is what all teenage boys need) while the girls learned how to make jewelry. After a short lesson from one of our tour guides, we called it an early day and headed to bed early. I mean if you call 10 pm early, which they seem to here.

Practicing my blow dart skills on my co-worker Kristopher.

Day 4 was probably my favorite day of the trip.

We got up and after a quick breakfast headed to the canoe boats again. After a short ride, we boarded a larger boat that took us on a longer trip down the Rio Negro. We saw different sides of Manaus and eventually we reached the point where the Rio Negro and the Rio Solimões touch. Even though they touch, the waters never mix. It kind of reminded me of when you poor cream in your coffee. It was really cool! It also allowed us to see the city of Manaus from different angles. We saw factories, fishermen, water taxis, and water gas stations.

We also saw Dolphins and had lunch at a families restaurant. While we were there we met a young girl and her pet sloth. I mean cause you meet that everyday, right? The sloth clung to her so tightly yet sweetly. The families home was out behind the restaurant, and it was sad to see how they lived. The water they used in their home was pumped via a hose straight from the river, they didn't have doors or even windows, the home looked like they could fall apart at any second, but they looked happier than most wealthy people ever will be.

On the final day, we packed up all of our things and headed to the city of Manaus for a tour. Once a thriving town due to the latex industry, Manaus now appears to be a ghost of what it once was. Things are run down, buses are over populated, and jobs seem to be more scarce. However, there is one area of town where they work very hard to preserve its colonial charm. We visited the Amazon theatre which was absolutely beautiful. They told us about past performances and the history of the building. I didn't hear much seeing as the presentation was in Portuguese and all. We then walked around the courtyard where we saw well preserved charming buildings and a beautiful statue that shows the seven continents. Soon after we had lunch and hopped back on the plane to Brasilia. I never thought I would be so happy to come back here but really I was. It had been a long but wonderful trip however, I was ready to get back to my "temporary home."

Mikhail Baryshnikov's shoes from one of his performances at the Amazon theatre.

Oh where, oh where, has Katie gone? Oh where, oh where, could she be?

Hello blogging world, fear not I am still here. I know it has been a while since I last blogged, but Im back. As the Brazilians say, I've been traveling. Over half of October has come and gone and for most of that time, I have been out of Brasilia. I journeyed to the Amazon with my students and lived to tell the tell and soon after that, my friends and I used our fall break to vacay on the beaches!
But, now I'm back in good ole Brasilia and enjoying the rainy season. That is right, Brasilia FINALLY got some precipitation! It all happened rather suddenly too. One night as I was closing down the house before I went to bed, I noticed a drop in the temperature. Hmm, that's weird I thought. A few minutes later I smelled a familiar smell...rain. I was so excited I could hardly believe it! People outside were cheering and it was evidently the top news story the next day. For the first few months, Brazil was a true desert, nothing grew, the grass was dead and there were fires that would pop up. Within days of getting rain you could see the change, the grass was green and trees began to grow leaves. See for yourself:
Before:

After:

Amazing, huh? Although rainy days might bring some people down, they haven't gotten to me yet! The air is cool and crisp which is such a lovely change! It makes me feel closer to home and since it only rains in the afternoon, I still get a little bit of Vitamin D, to keep me going!