Here we are!

Day 4 in Sao Paulo, and the first time I've had a chance to write a bit about what's going on here... on a hijacked wireless network in the apartment building, no less. The basic outline of our time here so far goes a bit like this:



Wednesday night - flight left Dulles, DC about 1 hour late. Not too bad.

Thursday morning - arrived at Sao Paulo Guaralhos Airport with pretty much no sleep.

Thursday - off to work! Not too much, but plenty on an empty tank. Noah and Sophie had to tag along, which was pretty rough.

Thursday night - Dinner party at Superintendent's house. Beautiful apartment, but Abby stayed home with sleeping kids.

Friday - work all day while kids got their first taste of their life with their baba, Catiuscia. She speaks no English, so communcation is a bit rough. The kids LOVE her already though.

Saturday - tour of downtown Sao Paulo. WAY too much to see in this gigantic city, so we settled for a tour of..... the Immigration Museum. Bummer.

Saturday night - close your eyes, my vegetarian friends. We ate meat, meat, and more meat at a local churrascaria. Crazy atmosphere, but tons of fun and good food.

Today - Finally a day to recoup a bit. Learned more about our surroundings and neighbors. And all I can say is that we're hooked UP! More on that to follow.



Cool things so far:



-Good class of new teachers joining us. Cool people that are easy to get along with. Fun people who are generally unassuming and genuine. Abby and I are the only couple, and Noah and Sophie are the only kids among the 15 or so new hires this year. So that sets us apart a bit, but neither in a good nor bad way. It means that none of the other new hires live in our apartment complex. It also means that we have less free time to hang out, since our free time is obviously spent with the family. It's all good.

-I blew up the stovetop this morning. Literally. I'll explain later when I have less on my mind.

-The other teacher-families here in our apartment complex, Portal do Morumbi (hereforto referred to as "the Portal") are kind and gracious people who are willing to do anything to help. This includes my new principal, several colleagues and their children who have become fast-friends with Noah and Sophie.



It's hard to ever say that things are perfect. Of course we miss our friends and most of all family. But thre really isn't very much else to complain about yet.