Ranchin'

Ah, sweatpants-Thurday.  I have been looking forward to you.  Yes, that means I am staying in my house ALL day, and reading and writing and cleaning my tiny bedroom, which currently resembles the homeless man's camp in the lot next door.  Yesterday, I was feeling ambitious, and made a list!  Today, I have marked only five things off, two of which were 'soak beans' and 'check Ravelry account'.  Soon, I will scratch off 'blog'.  Anything that may involve 'enrollment' 'exercise' or 'graduation' will clearly be pushed onto tomorrow's list. 


Last weekend, my good friend, Gabi, invited Liz and I out to her family's 200 year old cattle ranch.  A group of vet students were all going out to help vaccinate, tag, and preg check, so we decided to join in.  Her grandmother made huge, very Italian meals everynight, with handmade pastas and slow cooked meats.  I was miserably fat for the entire extended weekend.  Behind the house, there was a beautiful orchard with oranges, lemons, limes, bergamots, figs, apples, peaches, avocados, carambolas!, kiwis!, pecans, pears, mangos, grapes, and others that I couldn't identify.  I came home with a feedsack full of bergamots and a mouth full of those tiny ulcers that only excessive amounts of citric acid are capable of causing. 

Francisco.

Squeeze chute. Made of wood. And really fancy.

Money shot.

Gremio and Inter played each other on Saturday.  They are the two futbol teams in my state and form the fifth most aggresive rivalry in the world.  I live with Leonardo, who is a purebred, steadfast Gremista, and because I value my hot showers, I also cheer flambouantly for blue.  Unless, I am staying with a red Inter family.  Shhhhhhh.......
Gabi's family is totally red and I witnessed her 74 year old Catholic, grieving widowed grandmother morph into a jumping, shreiking, horn-blowing dancer when International beat Gremio in Gremio's stadium on Saturday.  She blew off fireworks and got out her old CD player to blast Inter's victory anthem and made the only Gremista in the house dance with her while she sang all of the words.  Somebody has a picture of the woman wrapping me in a headlock.
I know what's up.  I cheered red, too. 

 

Vovo gave me a lot of warm handknitted things to wear. I'm going to replicate this one, I wore it all weekend.



Lemon Drops.

Homegrown kiwis!

View from my room.

Commencement of the churrasca saga.

Orchids everywhere.

Horseback exploration.

Oh, Aaaaaaaand...     While working cattle the last day, I got bit by a fly on the hand.  Leonardo told me last night he thinks I might have "a little worm" under my skin.   But no big deal, he says, when it is big enough, we will put sugar all over it and lure it to crawl out.  He tried to be reassuring, but I saw the single-second flash of hibby-jibbies betrayed in his face. Ha!

Roadtrips

I'm putting up pictures from a trip I just went on.  Down to Uruguay, over to the ocean, then up to wine country.  Cities, beaches, national forests, vineyards, and beautiful high plains.  I love this state.  Arguably, the second best state in the world. At least in my opinion.

First up, Rivera.  Ah, border towns: delightfully overwhelming Americans, the world over.  I got some cheap boots.  And met a yarn lady.  Score.

We stayed in a hotel, ran by Jorginho, and shared a bathroom with construction workers.

Next up, Pelotas.  Incredible architecture, gross city.  We went to a circus in the middle of town that featured a dance chorus full of leathery grandmas and a motorcycle in a tracked cage. And the knife thrower... oooo, don't get me started.  The poor grandma/showgirl that had to be subjected to that act was soooo not into it.  I got the impression he'd jacked up before...The bigtop had the seating capacity for about two hundred, but only brought in about twenty-five. 

oo.  heeby jeebies.
In an amusing kind of way, of course.

The beach at Pelotas was equally dirty, but there were many nice beaches to come, and I took that time to practice driving the rental car on sand.

This is a capybara, the largest roaming rodent on present-day earth.  He made noises like a guinea pig and let me pet him.  Fun fact: they eat their own feces to get maximum absorption of nutrients.

Hey... What the.....

-Canela, RS

And last but not least-

I couldn't forget May Day!

I'm a jerk.

Next time, I will remember the note for Dad, too.

Oops.

Easter, and then some.

Two birthday parties, one baby shower, two mass services, one cow milked, an epic flood, and one narrowly-averted arranged marriage later...  I have finally returned from Easter break. 

While in Campina, I met so many nice, nice people, who overwhelmed me with churassca and bolachas and cerveja and beijoes. The Easter bunny visits here, too, and I came home with about a half-kilo of chocolate and four jars of homemade pickles.  'Totally overwhelming' seemed to be the theme for the entire weekend. We went for a walk and I asked Carla what type of tree was growing along the streets.
"Canela," she says, distractedly.
........

"Canela?"
"Sim, canela."
..........

"Para sobremesas?"
"Sim."

Click, click, click go the gears up top.  After some time, something decides that this is, in fact, real life and not a dream.
"WHAT? Where am I?!"


I am in Rio Grande do Sul.  And these very common trees- the ones that I walk by everyday and pay nearly no attention to-are cinnamon trees. Cinn-a-mon.  I broke out in Double Rainbow fashion. 

Everyday. Something new, and usually quite unexpected.





I had my first prova on Monday for Agricultura Especial, which went okay, I think.  I had another today in my wine appreciation class. Next week- wine tasting!  For now, it fun to have to have a good excuse to try new wines at our apartment.

  "It's homework.  Duh."

Quicky

So, so much going on.

Here is a sampling:


 Went for a beautiful hike with the trekking club.

This is the view we had of my city (through binoculars). 

The organizer gave me some native seeds to plant on the hike back down.  I immediately like him.

Bought a kilo of sausages from the old guy down in the park.  What will I do with a full kilo of sausage?  Oh, you know, gain 12 pounds.

Pictures are really slow to load today for some reason.  Will need to continue some other time.

 Spending the holiday with friends in cute little German town of Campinha.  Most of the people speak German here.

Will catch you up later.

Love you all!  Have a happy Easter!

Delivery

I got mail!!  Aww, mail is one of life's greatest underappreciated joys, in my opinion.

We don't have individual mailboxes here at my apartment building. The maintenance man, Sou Milton, acts as mail courier, delivering mail to our apartments and sliding it under the door.  If you receive a box, he waits until he sees you and then brings it up.  Apparently, he was so excited to get it to me, that he stalked Leonardo's parking space in the garage, to know when we were home.  He likes having Americans in his place.  He thinks we are fun.

Anyway, my box was packed full with great things like pictures, notes, a camera, delicious new shampoo.   And knitting needles!!!  And new glasses!  Oh, I was absolutely squealing.
Thanks, DAD!

And the rest of you fine folk, feel free to send me something.  I'll  make you a mixtape.




Yesterday, I was riding the ônibus home from school and an old lady sat down next to me. 
Now, old ladies are the worst. They never know how to slow down their sentences, and have total disregard for your ineptitude.  You can't play the 'não entendo' card with them.  They just continue to abrade you with more involved, faster versions of the same question.

She was old. She was lost. She needed help and she wouldn't be quiet.
I tried to pawn her off on the girls next to me, but she was persistent.
Long story short, I saved the day... in Portuguese!  She made it to her destination. 

Because I gave her directions. 

Because I knew my way around downtown. 

And because I speak Portuguese.

Kindof.

"...the flooded rice fields lay shining in the sunlight like a broken mirror."

I am enrolled in Agricultura Especial II this semester, in which we study management practices and physiological development of important crops.  Since we are in the fall semester here in Brazil and approaching the winter growing season, crops of focus include potatoes, oats, ryegrass,.... and RICE!!  Three cheers for rice, which helps to sustain nearly four billion people, and to which we are virtually strangers in the state of Kansas. Never having seen rice in production, and understanding the weight of this plant's importance on food security, I've been completely stoked to get started. 

Last week for the practical, we loaded up in a school bus and took a field trip to the nearby processing facility.  We saw the storage units, the scales, and the dessicator (powered by a large wood burning oven).

This facility sells rice as a food product to distributors, but also sells seed for farmers.  Lots of seed.....  like enough to climb up.

 Later in the week, Leonardo offered to show us his research plots.  Rice production is responsible for relatively high emission rates of methane, and his team is studying how various production practices can influence gas production.   That's me- Sample Girl.

*Sidenote:  I love the science.  But I also just appreciate the chance to dig my fingers into some soil and walk around with no shoes on.

And it dawns on me, I'm working in a rice paddy. 

            God is good to me.