A Few More Firsts

This week a friend showed me how to take the bus to the grocery store (where to get off etc.).  I made a few 1st time purchases.  A few people asked me about cheese per an earlier post.  Well, here they have a cheese called Prato.  Its about the closest thing to cheddar.  I saw some at the store and decided to try it.  Its blander than cheddar, but not bad.

I saw these and thought...oh wow!!!  Blueberries!!!  When I opened up the container to eat them I thought, hmm these smell like grape juice.  Well come to find out, they are grape juice grapes!  They are really sweet and delicious, but they have a really hard seed in the middle...don't break a tooth!  The taste definitely makes up for the hard seed though...mmm!!

While at the store a guy came up to me and asked me something.  There was no way I could pretend I didn't hear him since I was the only person around and he was right next to me so I finally said, "No fala Portuguese."  (I don't speak Portuguese.)  He said, "Oh, do you speak English?"  Yes!!!!  I replied.  We got to talking and he has lived in Chicago and actually attended PACA!  I asked if it was obvious I was American.  He smiled and said yes (I think it was kind of like YES...YOU SCREAM AMERICAN!!!).  He added, "But I thought you knew Portuguese."  Then I said, were you trying to ask me something earlier?  He said "Yes, where are the peaches in this store?"  I said, "Hey, I think that is the first question I can actually ANSWER in about 2 months!"

This week I went running at a nearby park.  They have these pieces of equipment that I thought were for kids, but evidently are for exercising.  I was trying one out and there are two stations facing each other.  As I was using it another lady came up and used the other side....no concept of personal space here. :)  So our faces were about 6-8 inches apart and she starts talking to me.  Well, I pretty much try not to talk at all because I don't want people to know I don't know Portuguese, so I just smiled.  I figured, well I guess its still pretty obvious I have no idea what she is saying so I told her I don't speak Portuguese.  Anyway, we tried to talk some.  I thought it was interesting she thought if she said a word over and over ...slower and slower ...that I would get it.  I thought, lady you could say that word 100 times and I would still have no clue what it was.  Anyway, I think we became friends? :)  A couple days later I went running there again and saw her and I think we exchanged a friendly greeting. :)

Speaking of running, today the mom of one of my students took me to a club nearby where we could go running.  It was sooo beautiful and the air seemed so clean!  My favorite part was the Bamboo Trail.  There were stalks of bamboo on either side anywhere from 10-40 feet making a canopy overhead.  It was sooo beautiful!!  We also saw these cool animals by the water called capivara.  They look like giant beavers.  In addition there were many beautiful birds.  It was really refreshing!

Today I had my first pigeon experience.  I was sitting at my computer working, and another worker was leaving my room.  He said something, and I turned around to see/hear a pigeon flapping its wings right toward my face!  There is a chance I may have let out a scream, and the pigeon flew out the classroom door. I had been warned of this, but I must say it caught me off guard!  Those birds are bigger than you would think...at least when their noisy wings are flapping toward your face!

Tonight I went to my first basketball game.  It was against our rivals and was really close.  The boys won by two points at the end!  The seniors had a taco dinner beforehand to raise money for their class which was fun as well.  

This week we got our first electric bill.  I thought, wow this is cheap!  Then I realized, oh ya, we don't have heat! ;)