A Lot Of Goings On...

The last two weeks have been packed - leaving us with new friendships, new information, and new feelings of tiredness, haha. Two weeks ago, we traveled to Brasilia for a week-long meeting with other M's in Brazil who are all working toward the same goals.  It was a time to speak in English (woop woop!), worship together, and learn strategy.  We were able to meet so many neat families and learn from their time and experiences on the field :) The meetings started at 8:30am and lasted until after 9:00pm, and although we had some breaks, talk about a long day! Especially for Carter...but it really was a special time and one we'll look back on with fond memories.

Last week our language coach came to town for three days of language training.  Although we've been taking classes for a month now, she gave us tools and lessons on how to be a language learner outside of our tutoring sessions.  We learned about the language requirements we have for this first year as well as exercises and examples of how to use everyday occurrences to help better our Portuguese. (I'll take whatever I can get!)

Also last week, we tested out a school for Carter! School here is either in the morning or afternoon and his class met in the morning from 8-11:30.  He went all three days that we had language training, for both him and the school to try it out and make a decision about whether we would permanently enroll him.  They only had a 2 year and older class but I think he seemed to do well in it :) There were definitely tears at drop off (break my heart) but his teachers said he was fine once we left and would play well all morning! It is an all Portuguese speaking school so hopefully this will aid in his language learning and I'm excited for him to finally have some little friends to play with :)

Friday, we went to a stand in a little town just outside of our city and found some fun treasures: a new floor mat, a green pot, 2 carved wooden trivets, 2 magnets, and a Corinthians (a Brazilian futebol team) pendant.  We also had some more car troubles, but after a day in the shop, we're hopeful Brutus is going to be back to running well :) 

Saturday we went to the local swimming pool/park called the Clube (prounounced clOOb-EE) with the other family here.  It was amazing! And definitely not what you would expect for our small town!! It had: a lap pool, a 'grown up' pool, and 2 levels of huge kiddie pools complete with animal slides and raining mushrooms and pipes.  Carter particularly loved the HUGE dinosaur slide. I think he just stood, pointed, and yelped our first 10 minutes there.  There are also tennis courts, sand volleyball courts, barbeque, and a little stand that sells food.  We had such a great time!

That night we went to a churrasco at a girl from our church's house.  It was a time to fellowship and grill meat!  We're definitely still adjusting to Brazilian culture though...it didn't start until 8pm (right at Carter's bedtime...) He lasted until 9:30, at which we had to leave early.  I think it kept going till past midnight though!   Just another example of this: when we arrived back to our apartment, there was a children's birthday party still going on on the terrace at that hour!

We've found a local gym to play volleyball at and are having a great time! I play with the women on Tuesdays/Thursdays and Nick plays with the guys on Saturdays.  It is very good competition and I come home pretty sweaty and wiped out...I love it! Nick also played with some kids from our church and the community on Saturday afternoon at the park.

Friday was international Women's Day...who knew?! The chocolate shop was filled with men picking up gifts on their way home from work, haha.  I had a beautiful rose delivered from my tutor and we had a special cake made for the ladies at church last night.  I can get on board with this holiday :)

We're still loving it here and know the prayers and support of faithful family and friends are truly a big part of that.  Oh, and one last thing, after the time change in the U.S. yesterday, we're only 1 hour ahead of EST! It went from 3 hours when we first arrived, to 2 hours after our time change, to now 1 hour. Crazy...