Carnaval, Floods and Poop - OH MY!

So I have been here 2 months so far and it's amazing to see how much I have changed.  I no longer have dollars in my wallet (only reais), I am driving by myself in Sao Paulo (manual car!) and I am learning new words in Portuguese everyday.   I am also learning new traditions, holidays, etc.  This past week was CARNAVAL!! Everywhere in Brazil was festive and colorful with masks and different costumes - It's unbelievable because people prepare an entire year for this holiday that lasts only 5 days. Its much different from any holiday in the States because the festivals go on until 8 in the morning and every state has a different theme for Carnaval.  Rio and Sao Paulo is escola do samba.... So there is a lot of dancing and good music.

Leo had a party at his school where he made masks and went to school in a costume (too bad he didn't have his buzz lightyear costume that my mom bought for him for xmas... I didn't bring it bc I didn't think he would use it, but I was definitely mistaken). Sorry mom! But he loved his mask that he made at school and played with it the entire way to Boituva.

My family - Sheila (mother-in-law), Ziggy (father-in-law), Claudio (husband), Leo (son), Golda (dog) and I went to the country in Boituva and had a nice relaxing week, but it rained pretty much the entire time.

We returned back to Sao Paulo on Tuesday because Claudio had to work on Wednesday. 

Wednesday was an interesting day to say the least.  I woke up and walked around 7:30 for about 45 minutes and then bought bread for breakfast at the bakery up the street. Claudio and Zig went to work after breakfast and it was just me, Leo and Sheila for the day.  I was feeling pretty good and wanted to be productive during the day so I put some dirty laundry in the washing machine. I always see the cleaning lady put this little hose of water from the sink in the machine to give some extra water so I wanted to try it.  Well, I put in the hose of water in the washing machine and went downstairs to check my email.  I then got on facebook and was totally tuned out until Moris (Claudio's brother) yelled "MANNNNNDDDIIII"... I responded "Yes, Moris?" - Thinking nothing of it, of course. He then said calmly "Come here..." I went upstairs and instantly remembered that I forgot to take out the hose and had flooded the entire 3rd floor!!! I couldn't even believe it... Water was EVERYWHERE!!! It was in the laundry room, my room, Leo's room and was falling all the way to the first floor.  It took me about 2 hours to clean for something that I forgot for 20 minutes... GEESH! Well as least I got an extra workout for my arms because I was cleaning it with this broomstick with a long rubber blade attached to it to trap the water.

After I had finished cleaning the never-ending trail of water, I went outside to go get Leo's bike to bring to the park and was pooped on by a bird!  It was just one of those days!

Teachers I Salute You!

Ok so I have been teaching English for Centro Britanico at a little school called "Casa do Mickey" and I have two classes on Monday and Fridays.  My first class is at 10:30 in the morning and I have 9 kids between the ages of 3 and 5... WOW!! It is wayyy more difficult than I ever imagined.  I mean I have kids running around all over the place and Im trying to keep control of them with my broken Portuguese and speaking about 5 words every class in English - I think they helped me with my Portuguese more than I helped them with their English, but anyway my first class was CRAZY to say the least.  One of the kids had to go poop so I had to leave the class for a minute to take the kid to the bathroom... when I came back, all the kids were running around with scissors in their hands and had emptied out all of the containers with crayons in them.  It was like Arnold Swartzeneggar in Kindergarden Cop HAHA!!! It was crazy... My second class at 2 pm luckily only has 4 kids and is much much more calm, but still takes a lot of energy out of me.  So after having taught these kids for 3 weeks now... I can tell you that teaching takes a lot of skill and talent and Leo is fortunate enough to have had great teachers in the past and has great teachers now... Teachers I salute you!!