Stranger Than Usual

Lots of time since my last post, and, of course, lots of happenings. A few highlights in writing, then I'll add another post with pics. First, we have moved living quarters! We are now located in Asa Norte in Brasilia, which is part of the city center. I can walk to school, and it is easy for Marshall to grab a bus to his school. And we have access to bakeries, grocery stores, restaurants, shops, etc etc. It is really great. And no crazy dogs, airplanes, or Brazilian ladies that attempt murder either. I will take pics as soon as I return from our reptile class' field trip. Much smaller quarters than before, but much friendlier and cozier (and great food!!!). Oh, and it is R$500 instead of R$1200 for our room, along with being able to use a washing machine, thank goodness.

However, Marshall has had some health issues over the past week as well, which contributed to the rather crazy/strange week. We're still thinking he has shingles, though the doctor yesterday didn't seem to think so. Not sure how much I trust her considering her diagnosis was 'heat rash.' Right. After two months of living here Marshall just now developed heat rash, and it blisters and spreads in a strange way. Sure thing. But he seems to be on the upswing at least with all the drugs (16 pills a day!), and went back to school today. He still is working on the big project of the semester, his Teacher Work Sample, and isn't so cheery about my being gone right before it is due. . . But at least I won't distract him! I leave tomorrow night for an ecological reserve 60km north of Joao Pessoa for 10 days (it is 84hr round trip by bus, fun). Still need to pack, but considering we moved yesterday, I just unpacked, too! Ugh. . .

Before Marshall got sick we also had a weekend camping trip in the neighboring state of Goias, in the city of Cavalcante. I have lots of pictures to go through, though it was cloudy a lot of the time so they didn't turn out the greatest. And we were also the only ones camping. . . Can't say we enjoyed getting dropped off at midnight in the middle of an empty field, completely alone to set up the tent and sleep. But we did see blue macaws, a toucan, great landscape, and many waterfalls, though Santa Barbara was the best. And after the trip I was able to go shopping for some of the things that were missing for trekking/camping. Tina and I had a good time heading to the imports fair, Walmart, and Extra (basically the Walmart equivalent here). Didn't buy much at Walmart because prices were quite steep. But we now have a nice and cheap air mattress for our one bed room from Extra. I think it is more comfortable than the beds at Dulce's!

Speaking of her. . . there was an interesting occurrence before we left. The maid apparently washed pans with oven cleaner (I'm sure under Dulce's orders), and when I went inside to get a pan NOT covered in poison, Dulce yanked them out of my hands and said we had to use the ones outside. That's when I had her come out and see (because we were thinking it was paint remover, because the pans also had paint spots from the kitchen being painted that same day), and she showed us the jar of oven cleaner with the skull on the outside of it. . . Stupid. Needless to say, we did not use those pans for the last week of our stay. Oh, and she was apparently upset when Marshall and I didn't give her a nice goodbye when we left. As if I had any desire to speak to that crazy old hag. . . Good riddance is all that would've come out of my mouth at that point!

Moving was only a problem in that we have seemed to acquired a lot of stuff over two months. . . But we got it all to fit nicely in our new room, so no problems now. Getting it all back to the U.S. will be a different story entirely. We still haven't arranged all our trips yet. Just is so hard to plan here. Brazilians don't seem interested in knowing what's going on until after it happens, I guess.