Work, coming home, and macadamia madness

29 August 2012

I'll be starting a new job tomorrow, thanks to AppleOne employment agency. It's a long term temporary position with a large international company that manufactures specialized medical equipment. The project is expected to last until around December. My lunch is already packed for tomorrow!

Starting work feels really good. Coming back from another country, there is an initial period of downtime in which I don't have a useful purpose or role, which prolongs the culture shock feeling of "not belonging". Now I can settle down and have a routine - not to mention paychecks!

Tonight for dinner I made a pork roast crusted with macadamia nuts. It turned out very well, although it took a LOT longer to cook than the recipe indicated. My own fault, as I used a different cut of pork than the recipe called for.

The macadamia nuts are from our tree in the backyard, and I can tell you from experience that they are not expensive because they are hard to grow; they are expensive because they are hard to open! The shell is extremely hard, almost perfectly round, and so waxy that if you hit it wrong it shoots away like a bullet across the room.

I recently bought this heavy duty nut cracker that works like a charm, and now rather than sitting uncracked in buckets in the garage, we can EAT the macadamia nuts!

http://www.masternutcracker.com

Last week I made White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies, they were perfect, just the way I remember them from the Mrs. Fields cookie shop in the mall. Yummmmmmmmm!

Carreteiro Americana

23 August 2012

Yesterday the song playing in the supermarket while I was shopping was "Fireflies" by Owl City. This is a song I used in many of my classes in Brazil, and my eyes filled with tears as a sudden wave of emotion rolled over me. Whoosh.

I miss Brazil, and particularly my friends there, so much it hurts, so I push the feeling away. This is the part of reverse culture shock that I haven't learned how to handle, after several countries. I'm still working on it...

Anyway, this evening I made some Brazilian comfort food, Arroz de Carreteiro (Wagon Driver's Rice). Basically it's the Brazilian version of shepherd's pie - whatever you have lying around, cooked with rice.

Now if only I could be eating it in Brazil...

Going Home

20 July 2012

Another chapter in my life has come to an end. Time to return to my own country - for now.

If home is where my heart is, then my heart must be growing because there are pieces of my heart all over the world.

This is quite possibly my favorite photo of the entire year. My very last view of Santa Cruz do Sul was of my best friends, who came to the bus station to say goodbye. This made me feel so loved. What a precious gift. I am so lucky to know them. We were all crying at the end - see the red noses?

I was glad the bus was dark inside because I think I cried most of the way to Porto Alegre.

I cried some more when the plane took off from Porto Alegre, and after that I had to accept the inevitable. The TV in the seat helped to distract me from feeling sorry for myself, and I watched a couple of excellent movies. My favorite of these was "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel".

The Panama airport has the fewest toilet facilities of any international airport I have visited. Each restroom had only two or three stalls, and twenty women waiting in line to use them. Tip - go upstairs to the food court, the restroom there was the only one without a line.

The trip from Panama to LA was pretty routine. Here I am waiting for the shuttle bus to go from LA to Santa Barbara. I was surprised how cool the weather was when I arrived, must have been around 75 F / 27 C.

 The LA airport's famous architectural landmark thingy. I think there may be a restaurant inside it.

 My first view of the beach in Santa Barbara, from the bus. Almost home!

 My baybeeeeeeee!!!!!

Leaving on a jet plane

Saying goodbye to Brazil. My heart is breaking.

"Leaving On A Jet Plane"

John Denver

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go, 

I'm standing here outside your door,
I hate to wake you up to say good-bye.
But the dawn is breaking, it's early morn, 

the taxi's waiting He's blowing his horn.
Already I'm so lonesome I could die.
So kiss me and smile for me, 

tell me that you'll wait for me, 

hold me like you'll never let me go.
'Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane, 

don't know when I'll be back again. 

Oh, babe, I hate to go.

There's so many times I've let you down, 

so many times I've played around,
I tell you now they don't mean a thing.
Every place I go I'll think of you, 

every song I sing I'll sing for you,
when I come back, I'll bring your wedding ring.
So kiss me and smile for me, 

tell me that you'll wait for me, h

old me like you'll never let me go.
'Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane, 

don't know when I'll be back again. 

Oh, babe, I hate to go.

Now the time has come to leave you, 

one more time let me kiss you,
then close your eyes, I'll be on my way.
Dream about the days to come when I won't have to leave alone,
about the times I won't have to say:
kiss me and smile for me, 

tell me that you'll wait for me, 

hold me like you'll never let me go.
'Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane, 

don't know when I'll be back again. 

Oh, babe, I hate to go.

Final night in Brazil

18 July 2012

Spent the day sorting through papers, books, clothes and a year's worth of my life. I can't believe it's already over; in some ways I'm finally getting acculturized here. (Yes, I made up that word, so there.) Just when you get over culture shock, reverse culture shock is waiting!

One last churrasco at the restaurant Centenario with my friends. More were there than this, but the Obligatory Brazilian Group Photowas taken with someone else's camera.

And it's never too late to make new friends! These wonderful gentlemen are expats from Peru. Maybe I should go to Peru, if all the people are so nice. (Not to mention that Peru has some of the most amazing archaeological sites in the world...)

Arrived back at my house feeling very tearful, but then I got a look at my bed and was shocked out of it. Where am I sleeping tonight?

I have been on the verge of tears so often in the last few weeks, sometimes even broken down crying. Leaving Brazil is so hard. I will write a suitably weepy and emotional post when I get back to California; now there is simply too much to do!

A departure

11 December 2011


NOTE:  
I didn't make this entry at the time it happened because I was too emotional to write it (or think about it).  So now it's April, I have to finalize my own departure details, and I have to face the facts.  We all have to go home sometime.  
~ Mary, 07 April 2012

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Yesterday one of our teachers went back to her home country.  Some Brazilian friends organized a creative send-off, waiting in front of the school until she came out the door.  It was awesome.

Photo: A. Heming

Photo: A. Heming

And she steps out the door...

Photo: A. Heming

And sees us...

Photo: A. Heming

Waiting a long time for her ride we had time for one last chimarrão together.

Photo: A. Heming

I was not so emotional at the actual time of her departure, it seemed more like a farewell than a goodbye.

However, the next day when I went to work and her schedule clipboard was empty... that was when the shock hit, she was really gone, our little team changed permanently. I got so emotional that I had to leave the office.  The lunch table the following day was also really painful.  Our one saving grace that day was that we had a guest sitting in her place, so although awkward, at least we didn't have an empty chair there.  Still, swallowing was difficult despite the best efforts of the cook and I found myself blinking an awful lot.

These five months knowing her were a blessing, and I wish her blessings, safe travels, and many happy endings wherever she goes, as she has a grand spirit of adventure.  I hope we will meet again, another continent, another time.

This coming and going is a part of living abroad that on the one hand brings me into contact with so many new and wonderful people, and on the other hand also means saying goodbye to them eventually.

Even many years later it is sometimes hard to face the fact that I'll never see some of my former colleagues and friends again. I cannot believe I haven't been back to Japan yet - a sort of reverse culture shock that has never really left me.

Thanksgiving

24 November 2011

On this Thanksgiving so far from home, I'm thankful that I have a family to miss...

Love you all.
Mary

Still sick...

Due to illness, I had to skip the school outing today to the cachaçaria (cane liquor distillery), which I was really looking forward to.

This cold virus seems to be, if anything, getting worse rather than better, despite my resting as much as possible and drinking tea like it is going out of style. Seems to me that most cold viruses are better treated by sleeping at home than going to a germy, cold hospital (in any country), but if it doesn't start to improve I'll have to do it.  I'm not keen on going to a hospital without being able to communicate well, but I've been told that after I apply for a card, the public health insurance will cover a doctor visit.  I guess that's something, although it doesn't mitigate the fear I feel at the thought of being helpless and clad in a paper gown with a doctor and unable to communicate.

No matter how old I get, at times like this I just want my mom.  Sigh.

The outside

Once again I'm tempted to just go to bed, but they say it takes 21 days to form a habit and I'm not yet in the habit of uploading all my photos the day I take them, so here I am.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed by homesickness and culture shock this evening.  I haven't met many people here so far and it's a holiday weekend so they are all off doing their own thing.  Walking around I found myself reluctant to try to even buy an ice cream due to my lack of Portuguese.  Missing my family and my friends and my cat.  I know that this will pass - I will learn Portuguese, I will make new friends, and there is even a cat here that seems to think the cottage belongs to her.  But just now, nothing here is "mine" yet and I'm feeling lonesome.  

I will be teaching every day from tomorrow (Tuesday) through Saturday, with a total of 11 hours this week, so there will no time to feel sorry for myself after tonight.  That will also help, as part of my blues is due to the "newbie jitters".  Once I've had my first few lessons that feeling should ease off. 

Today was warmer, the temperature got up to 27 C / 80 F and it was a little breezy, so I did laundry.  The "normal" setting took over an hour, my poor clothes!  Next time I must use the "rapido 30 minutos" setting.  There is no dryer, so I hung all the clothing out to dry around 12:30 and it was just enough time to barely get dried by dusk. 

While waiting for the laundry, I took some pictures of the outside of the cottage and the grounds. 

This is the shutter holder I described in yesterday's post.  You flip up the little man's head to hold the shutters in place.  Kind of cool and yet slightly creepy at the same time.  I crush your head in my fingers, I crush it!

 The side patio view of my little cottage, with the freestanding classroom visible in the background.

 Now the other side - the classroom is in the foreground and my cottage in the background.

Turning right from that point to look at the main house.

Standing in the middle of the open area, I took a 360 degree video starting and ending with my cottage.

This was taken from the front driveway of the school.  No, the buildings are not tilted; I had to put several photos together into a panorama in order to have a wide enough image to show it all. The end result is slightly distorted, but you can get the general idea.

This gate is on the lower corner of the property, which sits on the corner of the block.  In the above panorama view it would be off the left side of the picture and slightly downhill.  The turret can be seen in the below pics.

 Views of the street taken from the driveway where I took the panorama shots.  The corner gate is down the block to the right in the below photo.

 Looking left.  I haven't explored in this direction yet.

Walking around town a little.  Many of the streets are cobblestone but some are asphalt.

"Pizza you"!  I'm not sure whether this is an insult or a compliment - I guess it depends on whether the pizza is good or not. 

 The bus system is called "Stadtbus" - clearly, the German-Brazilians were instrumental in setting up this town's public transportation. 

 This was in the late afternoon on a day that was 27 C / 80 F, sunny and breezy.  The moisture on the ground from the rain the night before last did not evaporate in the areas that were in deep shade, despite two warm sunny days.

Saving the best for last: the food pictures y'all keep asking for.  

Bacon pate!  How could I possibly not buy this?  NOM!!!! 

Jelly and jam as we know it in the USA is horribly expensive here, as is peanut butter, so I decided to try the Brazilian style jam instead, which has a consistency more like a sticky paste.  It comes in all kinds of interesting flavors.  Shown below are banana and pumpkin-coconut.  I also saw doce de leite (caramel), sugarcane, fig, guava, strawberry, blueberry, and peach, to name a few.

My work here is done.  Boa noite!

Putting things back together

Future plans? There are a lot of things to do at the moment and following that, some big decisions to make.

One day at a time - at the moment I'm just absorbing the fact that I'm not in China anymore, and trying to find where I packed/stashed all my things. My suitcases got rained on at the airport, so I had to unpack them immediately when I got home as they are soft sided, allowing water to soak through. My stuff is in chaotic piles and stacks all over the room, ugh. At least knocking it all over gives the cat something exciting to do.

I'm happy that I could get my PC put back together and it works. It will probably take the rest of the evening to update all my software, and once that is done, I will want to transfer my "new" data over from my laptop.

Last night I went to bed around 8:30PM and woke up around 1:30AM. Those five hours I slept really well, and I felt fine today, if a little sleepier than usual. It seems that jet lag usually affects me more when flying westward than eastward.

Blog blahs

Despite the lack of blog entries lately, I'm still alive and more or less healthy. As usual, I'm behind on my uploading of photos and descriptions; sometimes I think about going back to a paper-and-ink journal, but then I'd NEVER get it uploaded!

Christmas is coming up - it seems totally unreal from here where Christmas is not celebrated at all, save for a few decorations on shop windows. The school will hold Christmas parties the next two weeks (four parties in all, to accommodate all the students), at which the other foreign teacher and I are expected to dress up as Santa and be pummeled by the kids... er, I mean, spread Christmas cheer.

We foreign teachers will have our own private party next Monday evening, which I'm looking forward to.

Ironically, I'm finally starting to get the hang of living and teaching here, as my contract nears its end. However, the language barrier has been extremely difficult for me; I've only managed to learn the most rudimentary Mandarin on my own. For my next assignment abroad, I'd like to choose a country where I have already studied the language or a related language.

Teaching Update

As far as teaching goes, this past week was an eventful one.

I was aware that I had two new classes and one VIP class that would be added this past weekend, or so I thought until Friday, when we had a teachers' meeting at my school. At the meeting, I was surprised to be informed that I had four classes and the VIP class beginning. Ooooops, we forgot to tell you, we've been so busy...

It's a good thing we had the meeting, or I would have found out minutes after the bell rang when someone would have come to ask me why Ím not in class... There are many wonderful things about my school, but I'm afraid "timely, clear communication" still needs some work.

The school is growing extremely fast, adding new branches each year, and they have brought in a consultant to help them get things like this sorted out; already some very positive changes are coming out of this.

Thankfully, all of the new classes will use material I've already taught at least once, so there won't be much additional lesson preparation, just a little extra for the VIP student. (She is ten years old and impressively smart; I'll need to prepare some extra speaking activities for her since the group work won't apply.) The new classes all went off smoothly and I had a good weekend's classes, despite yet another cold/sore throat coming on.

One thing I have learned about myself here is the kind of schedule I prefer. After years of working in the 8-to-5 corporate world, I find that I prefer to have a nice, steady, regular work schedule. The constant and often last minute schedule changes stress me out, and the handful of classes on weeknights (2 hours per night), followed by an intense 18 hours on Saturday and Sunday really exhausts me and compromises my immune system. My two days off I spend resting, cleaning the apartment and so on, usually trying to nurse a cold back to health.

I do hope that I'm becoming a better teacher through all of this. Working with children is not really something I had imagined myself doing. I love them, they are really fun, but I wish I had taken some child development courses, or classroom management for teaching young children, or something. I'm learning to manage the children via the "sink or swim" method... some of my Chinese co-teachers have taught me a lot of tips and tricks, for which I'm very grateful.

As for the Interactive White Board (SmartBoard), my opinion is that it is a great tool for upper level students, but for children, it's like putting a big TV in the room and then asking them to listen to me. In addition, at least the way this school uses it, there is a huge amount of work in preparing lesson files to be used with the SmartBoard. I miss my classes from last spring where we had old fashioned chalkboards... less work and more fun for me, and the kids liked the chalkboard just as much.

Exhausted

Too exhausted to post the last couple of days.  Having a hard time adjusting to China and feeling down.  Will try to catch up later.

Pickpocket

This morning I took the bus to school, and just as I was standing on the bus congratulating myself on my achievement, I looked down to find the compartments of my purse all unzipped and my wallet missing.  Thankfully there was not a lot of money in the wallet, or in any case not a lot of money in US terms, and my driver's license won't be too useful.  Called the credit card company and had the card cancelled immediately, even though I thought that I had taken it out of my wallet (turns out I had, it's here in the apartment).  Great start to my day.

Then we were off to another school for more training and observing classes.  I had prepared my demo lesson plan for tomorrow, but when I got the SmartBoard program for my chapter there was very little there to work with, so I'm back to square one.  Using the SmartBoard with an actual lesson is much harder than just playing around with the features like we did yesterday, so I am wishing that I had at least a day just to mess around with it before doing a demo lesson with it.

Training went until 8pm, then everyone wanted to go for dinner, and since I don't yet know my way home, I had to go too, even though I was exhausted to the point of nausea.  We ate in a Pakistani restaurant which was fabulous.  I've enjoyed all the food here so far.  Some things resemble "American Chinese food" and some are totally new.

Then the hour long bus/cab ride home, and then our foreign director came by to install the SmartBoard program on my computer so I could practice with it (in my copious spare time between now, 11:20pm, and 8:30am tomorrow).  The programs look like they will take a couple of hours to download, so at least I'll have something to do when I wake up at 4:30am as I've been.

Needless to say, I'm feeling rather downhearted tonight.

Adjusting

Today was the second day of training.  I was quite excited that I was able to walk to school without getting lost.  It's about a 30-40 minute walk for me.  The weather has turned cool again, for which I'm exceedingly grateful.  Apparently I'm much more warm blooded than the Chinese; I was wearing just a short sleeve turtleneck shirt and a fleece sport jacket, and was quite hot while walking.  By contrast, they were wearing heavy winter coats, hats, and mufflers.

In training we went over the curriculum most of the day, and at the end of the day we finally got to play with the SmartBoard (Interactive White Board).  It is a fantastic tool, and quite fun.  It will definitely have a bit of a learning curve to get accustomed to it.  The program includes the materials for the textbooks.  The one thing I don't like about it is that if something should go wrong with it, the teacher has to get really creative because there is no other board to write or draw on in the classrooms.  Apparently the SmartBoard in every classroom is one of the school's marketing points.

Tomorrow we will go to one of the branch schools for training from 1:30-8:30pm and will also have the chance to observe some more lessons. On Saturday we are expected to give demo lessons for the head of the school, so we need to prepare lesson plan drafts before we go to training tomorrow. 

I wish I had had some time to rest before this training started!  Still getting about 4 hours of sleep a night, which is half what I'm accustomed to.  Mentally I'm adjusting to life here, but physically I really don't feel good.  Lesson learned: when starting a new teaching assignment, try to arrive several days before work begins so there is time to adjust to jet lag.

Our foreign director took us to a nearby restaurant for lunch.  The food there was similar to Chinese food in the US, only better.  There was one dish of some kind of mushrooms that resembled seaweed in texture, a sweet and sour pork that was not as greasy as that in the US, something with broccoli, spicy eggplant which was somehow crispy rather than mushy and had garlic and peppers in it, and still more steamed buns.  The steamed buns are everywhere and could easily become an addiction; I'll have to resist that, or I'll end up gaining weight here rather than losing it.

Went to the supermarket and got some more things to fix up the apartment, spent some more time cleaning the bathroom.  Little by little it's improving, I'll be able to do more when I have a day off.  

The Travails

What a day.  Today was exhausting but am feeling much more positive. Five of us went with our admin to some kind of government health clinic for a physical exam required for the Foreign Expert Work residency permit. We got:

• Blood pressure 
• Height/weight 
• EKG 
• Ultrasound 
• Vision test 
• X-ray 
• Urine test 
• Blood test 

I am so glad we all went together because it was really a bizarre and daunting experience, but we joked a lot to get through it  They processed us as a group and we were laughing and goofing around.  The locals must have thought we were totally nuts.

Our admin took us all to McDonalds afterward, which I thought was kind of funny, but having not eaten since yesterday because of the blood test, I was so hungry that it tasted wonderful. 

Got to ride the bus at least four times today, at least that is pretty much like any big city.  Traffic is nuts here, it follows the rules very loosely, but there must be some implicit rules because despite the fact that everyone is doing as they please and navigating by use of the horn, I didn't see anyone actually crash. Crossing the street is a lot like the old arcade game "Frogger".

Didn't have time to go back to the apartment after that so I just took a nap in the teacher lounge at the school and then it was time for our training with our foreign director.  We got introduced to the curriculum and watched a model class, the tiny kids were so cute.

Walked back to the apartment with the foreign director, so hopefully I will be able to find my way to school in the morning.  I will try to get around on foot at least until the weather gets too hot for me. I need the exercise and there are a ton of interesting little shops and food joints on the side streets. We got some steamed buns at a place near the school, my first real Chinese food and it was really tasty.

 I'm glad our admin took me for a sample shopping trip in the supermarket after I arrived here, because some of the procedures I wouldn't have known, such as having the employee weigh up the produce. Braved the supermarket on my own this evening to buy new pillows, go me! 

After watching our admin shepherd all of us through the exams today and listening to the very vocal complaints of one teacher couple who hate their apartment, I think he should be nominated for sainthood.

The Third World

It's 4am here and can't sleep. The smell of raw sewage from the shower drain combines nicely with the odor of Stinky Guy (whoever had this apartment before me).  

The neighborhood is not pretty.  Very dirty and lots of buildings torn down in the area, including right across the street. The complex is a U shape so my view is of other apartments.  The omnipresent dirt/dust seems to come from both pollution and this construction/demolition that is going on everywhere.  Even boiled, the water from the tap tastes too horrid to drink, I hope my bottled water service gets going soon. The apartment and everything in it is filthy by US standards.  Good thing it's warm because the bedding was foul.  I was so glad I brought some sheets and had to borrow a pillow from my colleagues who live next door and have been here for 6 months. The air smells like smoke and is making me cough.  Spring came early so instead of the 40 degree weather I brought clothing for, it was 70 degrees, and my cooler clothing will take 6 weeks to get here.  Woke up wondering how I'm going to survive 11 months of this.

I will have to work on some serious gratitude about how good of a life I have had... Millions of people all over the world live like this their whole lives, but one day here reduced me to tears.  OK, so the jet lag and culture shock may have contributed to it, but still...

First Impressions

Made it to Jinan. At first glance, Jinan is more like Taipei or Tijuana than like Tokyo, very industrial, smoggy, there is a layer of dirt that is on EVERYTHING. The person who previously occupied this apartment apparently had an aversion to cleaning (and possibly bathing). I'll be cleaning for days. Managed to figure out the washing machine, yay!

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In this pic you can see my bed, on which is a blanket that smells of prior occupants but not as badly as the comforter, which I stuffed into a closet.  Also my desk with my laptop, and the porch-like room that holds the washer and a weird little thing that looks like a miniature urinal but I guess is a mop sink.  The clothing drying poles are suspended on pulleys that can be cranked to move them up and down for use or to get them out of the way.  The left end of the curtain rod fell apart totally when the curtain was moved, so I hooked the curtain hooks onto the remaining hardware and tied the curtains together for the time being.

The Travels, Continued

My flight from Seoul to Jinan was cancelled due to fog. After being dragged around the airport for an hour and a half like a sad puppy, I was sent to a hotel. I got a few hours' sleep and will leave for the airport in a few minutes for round two. Hopefully the weather will cooperate today and I'll make it to Jinan.

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Had to wait in line for an hour and a half to check in.  The line goes in front of me, turns the corner and then winds back and forth.

When I got to the gate, the first thing I did was look to be sure there was actually a plane there waiting this time!

The Travels Begin

Exhausted greetings from Seoul, Korea. Highly recommend Singapore Airlines for international flights, the entertainment center is top rate, service was good and my knees were not touching the seat in front of me. Now for a nap while I wait for the next flight.

Here is some funny English from the washroom.  FYI, this was over the sink, not the toilet...