An Embarrassing Feat...

So, I have something that is embarrassing to admit, but at the same time I am proud of myself...Makes sense, right?  This week, I drove our car for the first time by myself! Let me explain...pretty much all the cars down here are manual and all I've ever driven is an automatic.  One time in high school, Nick tried to teach me how to drive his prized '86 manual Ranger but after 10 minutes of catastrophic gear shifting, we decided to give it a rest...Fast forward 9 years and right before we left to move to Brazil, my dad tried to teach me how to drive a stick with his Samurai.  For some reason, it just freaks me out to have to think about so many things while I'm driving!  I definitely didn't perfect the craft, but was somewhat confident I could get us somewhere if an emergency struck when we first moved here.  Fast forward a month and a half and we've lived here for 6 weeks and I haven't driven...a single time! So we went out for 2 'driving lessons' and I decided this week I would drive myself to and from volleyball.  I did so successfully three times this week, and feel like I'm getting the hang of it :) So embarrassing to be 26 and be nervous to drive...but now I can do it and am getting more and more confident each time!

We're definitely settling into our routine more and more and are starting to make some friends in the community.  I've been playing volleyball at the local gym 3 times a week (with two different groups) and Nick's been playing once a week with a group of guys.  It's good volleyball too - woop woop - so my shoulder's definitely feeling it as I'm getting back into the 'swing' of things (haha, terrible, I know).  We've been making some friendships at the gym and getting to know some of the workers in local shops better as well :)  Nick's been traveling to a nearby town to help with a bible study on Sunday afternoons and I've been going to a ladies' prayer meeting on Friday nights (we meet in different women's homes from the church).  Carter seems to be doing really well at his new school! He still cries when we drop him off in the morning, but just about calms down by the time he rounds the corner and can no longer see us. His teachers say he is doing great and is having fun playing in the classroom.  He definitely gets a lot of attention being the youngest student at the school (they usually only accept 2 years and up, but made an exception for him) and being the only blonde headed, English-speaker.  It's probably a little scary for him, as he is starting to understand a lot of English (although he still doesn't speak much) and was then thrown into a Portuguese-speaking environment.  We really think it will be great for his language learning though!

Can't believe Friday marked 2 months of us being here! Time is flying...