The Best of Brazil- Fresh Squeezed Tangerine Juice

Mmmmmmmmmmmm.

Fresh tangerine juice. For about 6 months of the year here in Big City, the grocery store that I shop at, Hortifruti (pronounced "oat-chi-fruit-chi", kind of fun to say) has fresh squeezed tangerine juice. Year round they have a lovely selection of fresh juices like, orange, pineapple, pineapple with mint (sounds kind of gross, but it's really good), watermelon, papaya (ewwww), papaya and orange, orange and carrot, kiwi, etc. etc. But the tangerine juice is my favorite. Of course, it's the most expensive, but I really don't care. You can't get it the States so I have to take advantage of it while I live here.

Sadly, we are back to nasty long-life boxed milk here after enjoying fresh in Mexico City, but at least I have my juice!

Why October Was Such a Great Month

The stuff you already know:

1. Instead of planning and executing a difficult birthday party, I got to go to Argentina.

2. Alfajores.

3. My little sister announced that she's expecting.

4. We got to go to a soccer game.

5. Pam and Jim kissed!

6. Julio got baptized.

And now for the new good news:

7. We bought tickets to go home for the holidays! I can't tell you what this does for me. Holidays overseas are not easy, especially Christmas. It was ok last year, if you like sweating A LOT while you open your presents. I cried yesterday because it's Halloween today and we are not there to trick-or-treat. So, to know that we will be at home for Christmas and New Year's will keep me in a good mood until December!

8. My very cute and talented sister-in-law announced that along with my sister, she too is expecting! They are due 6 weeks apart. Yeah! What's better than TWO new babies in the family? Here she is with one of my aunts:



And here's her goofy husband (my brother, whom the kids lovingly refer to as "Uncle Monkey",. I can't imagine why.):

No, that's not his real hair. Now that I think about it, he probably won't like that I am posting this picture because he really is a good looking fellow. hmmmmm, oh well. He never reads my blog anyway!

So, as you can see, it's been one of the better months. :)

Happy Halloween (speaking of the which, the kids went to school dressed up today. Not for Halloween, but for a "Spirit Day". If you remember correctly, we already "went" to Halloween, last Saturday.)!

Margarita's Beef with Brazilian Halloween

Here's Margarita dressed up for her school's Halloween party last Saturday (the 25th):

She doesn't look happy does she? I mean, I know she's a female vampire and all, but Bella was happy for the most part, right?

It's because she's been annoyed for much of the Halloween season this year because the students of her American international school (who are 90% Brazilian) don't know how to talk about Halloween correctly.

If I am understanding her right, they use the word "Halloween" much as we Americans would use the word "Prom".

Here are a few examples she gave me (when they say "Halloween", they are referring to the school's Halloween party),

"Are you going to Halloween this year?"

"Did you have fun at Halloween last year?"

"Halloween's on Saturday" (the 25th, not the 31st)

"See you at Halloween!"

Apparently they don't care that Halloween for us is a day, and that day is always October 31st. Halloween for them is whenever the school Halloween party is, and lasts just several hours.

She even made me go and see the signs that have been taunting her:

So, she's tried to explain to her friends the difference between "Halloween" and "Halloween Party" and they give her the ol' "that's what I said" or "what's the dif?"

(I have no gripe with how Brazilians celebrate Halloween-I don't know how to talk about their holidays, so why would they understand something so very American? And the party? It was one of the best family Halloween parties we've ever been to! I've just been amused watching Margarita getting so worked up defending Halloween)

Happy Halloween! (except that I'm afraid that you all missed it. Maybe next year!)

Parenting Highlights...

Yesterday Julio got baptized. It was a great experience watching him prepare for it the last few weeks. He was very aware of what he was doing and took it very seriously. The first thing he said to me yesterday morning was, "Today's my baptism day!!!"

We chose the wrong day to do it. Yesterday was the election for the mayor of Big City. Brazilians are required by law to vote; if they don't vote they are fined, they can't receive a passport and they can use any government provided services. Interesting, huh? Understandably so, almost everyone participates which means A LOT of traffic.

So not many came, but those who did made a lot of effort to get there and we appreciated it. The water was very cold (and slightly brown, eww), but Julio didn't complain a bit. Juan Carlos said a sweet prayer, Margarita sang "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus" very well, I gave a talk, and Guapo preformed the baptism.

In the end I was glad it was as small as it was. It seemed really special and very much a family affair.

(see post below)

...And Lowlights

(I couldn't talk about Julio's baptism and poop in the same post, it just didn't seem right)

...and then this morning the kid woke up with the dreaded stomach virus that Pedro and I had last week. Even before I had eaten breakfast, he went into the bathroom to throw up, and as he did, he suffered from the other common symptom of this particular stomach virus. On the floor. Poor kid. He apologized and explained he couldn't sit down and throw up at the same time. I told him that in the future, if it were at all possible, I would much prefer to clean up vomit off the floor.

On the bright side, I got a ton done putting off cleaning the bathroom including:

• two loads of laundry


• cleaning out the kitchen trashcans
• disinfecting the kitchen trashcans


• unloading the dishwasher


• loading the dishwasher


• cleaning out the fridge


• sweeping the kitchen floor


• organizing the DVDs

Finally, after about 2 hours, I got up the nerve to enter the bathroom and got the job done.

I guess you've got to enjoy the good moments, and laugh at the bad ones, eh?

I've Been Such a Good Girl. This Week.

Guapo's been traveling all week and I somehow accomplished the great feat of not watching any of The Office while he was gone (we normally watch an episode together each night, sometimes two if I'm feeling particularly weak). Even today as I lay in bed with Pedro's stomach virus, I resisted!

Last week, on the other hand, he was gone for just one night and I couldn't help myself, I just had to watch the last two episodes of season 2. I was kind of glad though, he's not into the cute Jim and Pam thing like I am, so I got to enjoy the chick-flickishness of the final episode in peace.

Awwwwwwwwwwwww.

And now he's back and I must go watch whilst eating an alfajor (I'm telling ya Ballerina Girl, we'd better do the hand off soon, your box is looking pretty tempting!).

Clubbing

October was turn to host my bookclub. That entails keeping the books safe for the month (which is the sole reason I volunteer to host):

...and hosting two meetings. My first meeting a couple of weeks ago was kind of a bust. My cinnamon rolls didn't rise and I had to serve them anyway because everyone knew I was making them, and one of the new women has celiac disease and of all the food I made she could only eat some fruit salad. I felt bad.

So, today I planned for some gluten free items (black bean dip, an Asian salad with the ramen noodles on the side, and a colorful veggie tray). She didn't come. Only 4 women (out of about 15)actually showed up today and look at all of this food.

Oh well, I rather host a small group, and my kids had tons of snacks after school.

Having the books gives me the opportunity to sample lots of books. I start a lot, but I don't know if you've noticed or not, but there's a lot of crap out there, so I don't actually finish a lot of books. But, I've gotten lucky lately with a few books that I have really enjoyed. So, if you are looking for something to read here are a few ideas:

The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World. By Eric Weiner.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie. By Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows




Unaccustomed Earth. Jhumpa Lahiri.

Infidel. By Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Once the 4 bookclub women left, I headed off to quilt group (the life of an expat women is very demanding) Remember my square that I made? Ten other women have finished and I got to bring home the new squares today (you can click on it to see it larger):

Cute stuff, don't you think?