Monday, May 18, 2009

2 Massages in Less than 24 hours and Margarita Heads to Knoxville

Our little getaway was great. I won't make you jealous with all of the relaxing details, I'll just give you the basic outline of our trip:

1. Drive there-take a nap in the car
2. Get a massage upon arrival
3. Go out to dinner
4. Come back and relax before bed-read my book
5. Sleep without interruption until 9:00 am
6. Eat breakfast
7. Get another massage (hot stone-ahhhhhh)
8. Drive home-take a nap in the car

Sounds nice, huh? It was fun. The place was beautiful. Here was the view from our deck:




Flowers in our room:



When we came back after dinner our bed looked like this:



One awesome plant/tree:



One very mean tree:


And now it's back to reality.

Margarita left yesterday for the Destination Imagination Finals in Knoxville, TN where she will represent Brazil. It was weird seeing her off at the airport-sending her to a different continent in a different hemisphere. She seemed fine with it all though and there were a lot of responsible adults going along, so I'm sure she'll be ok.



Poor Juan Carlos (6 yrs old) cried all the way home from the airport missing her. We finally got him calmed down and in bed when he discovered a note she had left him under his pillow and the tears began again. She left us all hidden notes telling us that she loves us and will miss us. How sweet is that?

My parents are going to be able to go to TN this weekend to see her. I'm pretty sure they deserve some kind of grandparent award. They are always telling me how they wish we lived closer so they could be apart of the kids' activities. I think being willing to fly to Atlanta, rent a car, and drive on to Knoxville to see their granddaughter for 2 1/2 days pretty much proves they are serious about that. Thanks mom and dad!

The wealth at our kids' school never ceases to amaze me. In all the other places we've lived, expats normally far out number local students within an international school and are considered kind of a rich, elite bunch. (Which isn't really true at all since most expats' perceived wealth comes from their company's money anyway, but whatever, that's how it is.) Here in Brazil there are many more Brazilians at the school than foreigners and we expats are kind of like low class hillbillies. They all know that we don't pay for our cars, drivers, apartments or the $25,000 tuition like they do.

Most of the local students are load-ed. Julio had a girl with an elephant in his class last year. All sorts of people have Gucci accessories, armoured cars, helicopters, farms in the country, beach houses, and a privileged few even have an island or two (yes, islands). Margarita is one of only three 5th graders that don't have a cell phone-and most all of the kids have an iPhone (or two). One of the kindergartners that came to Juan Carlos's birthday party was even toting a cell phone. (What in the world?)

Anyway, Margarita wanted to know how much spending money we were going to send with her. She informed me that one of her friends was taking $2,000.00 but that another one was only taking $500.00. I asked her how much she had accumulated from her $5.00 weekly allowance. And then I was generous and told her we would match whatever she took out.

So our "poor" daughter is travelling with $120.00 spending money. Which I think is a lot for an 11 year old!

And can I just say I am dreading tomorrow and my little 100 minute run? Uggggh.

(Update: I'm done with the run! Yay! And it wasn't nearly as painful as last week. I can still walk fairly normally.)

9 comments:

Stephanie said...

Though you tried NOT to make us jealous (and I am not sure you were trying all that hard! ;p ) I am still VERY jealous! That sounds wonderful and I am glad you all had a good time!!

I hope Margarita has a great time in TN! And that was SO sweet to leave notes :) Too cute! I see parents in Brazil are in habit of giving their children in excess as well! $2000?? What the heck??

Oh and now we are down to ONE WEEK exactly!!!

Janice said...

Great post. I don't think I ever had $120 in spending money until after high school.

k-squared's mom said...

Welcome back! Despite your efforts, sad to say, I was envious!

Margarita was true to form. I am not surprised by her notes. She is definitely an amazing girl. What fun stories she'll have when she gets back!

Head Nurse or Patient- you be the judge said...

I don't know how you can stand letting her go like that. I had a really hard time letting my 19 year old get on a plane to fly to Brazil even though I knew he was in the VERY best company. Of course the fact that he wouldn't be coming back for two years might have something to do with it- but I don't think I could let my 12 year old do that. Bravo! and too sweet about the notes! She is a thoughtful daughter and sister.

Code Yellow Mom said...

Love the netted bed...aaaaaahhhh. Sounds so fabulous.

So sweet to leave notes for the family - and to miss a sister like that. Tender, tender, tender.

Our international school has the crazy money, too. Well, maybe they don't own islands, but they are crazy rich, and it's a relatively new thing to them, so it's very flashy. The really bad thing is that they are able to buy anything - LITERALLY get away with murder - in this country because of it. It's an ugly thing to see kids raised with that mentality because they are really searching for some boundaries and there are none. Scarey. Makes me appreciate my poor hillbilly-ness. :)

Hope M enjoys Nashville and does well!

Kari said...

Hi,Gabriela!

Still SUCH a crack-up: your daughter going to Tennessee to represent Brazil-- :)

Money is such a strange subject! Here's a funny from David(8th grade) 's return from D.C.: they gave each student $10 in envelopes, at the food court, for each breakfast each morning. I gave David $40 spending money. he comes back, shows me some books he bought, then gives me BACK my $40. "What's this?" I ask. "Well there was nothing good for breakfast but muffins, so I had money leftover every day, plus one time someone left their envelope with their $10 on a chair and there were no NAMES on the envelopes. Everybody had gone on to the next thing already, so I just kept it."

My son MADE money on his trip, by a) not eating, and b) hanging back to look for extra...sigh...

nikko said...

I don't know that I would have been able to put a 5th grader on an airplane! Wow!

Your weekend sounded wonderful!

Super Happy Girl said...

I am so jealous of your parents :) They are such awesome grand-parents.

Your little vacation: AWESOME. You totally deserved that.

I'm with Nikko, I don't know that I could have put my 5th grader in a plane. Who's the hillbilly now?
Anyway, I bet she'll have a great time.

Tomorro when I am runnin my measly 50 minutes I'll be thinking about what a super woman you are.

Fabiola said...

The getaway was grate... I love the pictures.

Margarita is so grown up... and the money issue down here is just insane. I won´t eve start to write what I think ; )

I just said to BG, I won´t be going to RJ before August, due to the trip to Paris. But I hope we can get together when we all come back to Brazil.

Fabiola