Friday, March 29, 2013

Brazilian State Flags: Rio de Janeiro


A little backstory on these posts. We've lived in Brazil for about a year now. I can hardly name 5 of the 26 states (and 1 Federal District), much less pick out which flag goes with which. But as a designer, I love flag design and was interested. And I would also love to learn the names and locations of all the Brazilian states. Flags and information found here on Wikipedia. 

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Rainy Days and Sailboats in Recife

It hasn't been too rainy yet, people have told us the rainy season is starting though. I thought it was a bit later. We'll see. But when it does rain, our street floods like crazy. The dog uses the bathroom in front of the house, but if there is a flash storm, the drains clog up and make our front sidewalk an island. Buses go by and it's tough to take her out to walk without getting a splash of drainage water. 

But the rainy days to make for some beautiful views. Sometimes I still can't get over the view. I'm constantly taking pictures of it. Just waiting for that professional photographer to come live with me so that they can be captured a bit more accurately.

Also there have been quite a few sailboats lately. I think it's something like weekend regattas. Last weekend there was a large group (like 7 maybe) catamarans followed by a much larger (like 20) group of single hulled sailboats. For two weekends there have been large groups like that. And of course plenty of little single sailboats scooting around during the week.



Friday, March 22, 2013

Brazilian State Flags: Piaui


A little backstory on these posts. We've lived in Brazil for about a year now. I can hardly name 5 of the 26 states (and 1 Federal District), much less pick out which flag goes with which. But as a designer, I love flag design and was interested. And I would also love to learn the names and locations of all the Brazilian states. Flags and information found here on Wikipedia. 

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Bem te vi

That's the name of this bird. So bright and yellow, right? How come I can't find these yellow feathers on the ground? Ever!

Friday, March 15, 2013

Brazilian State Flags: Pernambuco


A little backstory on these posts. We've lived in Brazil for about a year now. I can hardly name 5 of the 26 states (and 1 Federal District), much less pick out which flag goes with which. But as a designer, I love flag design and was interested. And I would also love to learn the names and locations of all the Brazilian states. Flags and information found here on Wikipedia. 

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

We got a puppy

We got ourselves a little Brazilian puppy. She's a lab, so really she's not Brazilian, because I've rarely had a conversation about her that doesn't go like this:

Person: What breed?
Me: Labrador
Person: They're HUUUUUGE
Me: well....
Person: She's going to be GIIIIGAAAANTIC

People are amazed at how big the think she'll be. She won't be small, but for a lab, we think she'll be relatively small. We actually started out with two puppies, but one is living elsewhere now. At the time they were 8 weeks and one was a full kilo more. So the one we have, her name is Sophia, was tiiiny. Someone asked me if her paws were big. They're not.  She's now 14 weeks old and a guy in the building asked me if she was ever going to grow. Haha, it'd be great if she didn't, because she's amazingly cute, but I'm excited to have a real sized dog. (oh, note, I'm writing this draft in January, she'll be older by the time this publishes!)

Now, for the realsies about this. We live in an apartment. Because of puppy parvo virus, we can't take her outdoors until she's fully vaccinated. We're really excited for that day, but for now, we've been doing a pretty good job of keeping her well exercised in the apartment. We go up and down the stairs (we're on the 13th floor, but we go to the 2nd basement, so 15 floors) every day, and she goes to Toby's gym every day. That really wears her out. I really hope we'll be good doggie parents, which right now, to me, equates to getting her enough exercise. I work from home, so hopefully I am smart enough to take the time out of my day to take her on walks.

Friday, March 8, 2013

Brazilian State Flags: Parana


A little backstory on these posts. We've lived in Brazil for about a year now. I can hardly name 5 of the 26 states (and 1 Federal District), much less pick out which flag goes with which. But as a designer, I love flag design and was interested. And I would also love to learn the names and locations of all the Brazilian states. Flags and information found here on Wikipedia. 

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Local

Our food is so local, it isn't even funny. Coming from the US where local is such a big trend right now, this makes me laugh. Half of the fruit we get is picked from the trees that line our streets. I just looked out the back window of our house and noticed that the factory that makes our bread/crackers/pasta is literally in our back yard. Veggies and other fruits are local. Meat is local. I've rarely picked up a packaged item at the store and not seen our state listed as the origin. And we live in a small state. It is amazing, and I think we are much healthier because of this. Brazil is so funny. There are so many things wrong, but this is something that is so so right!

Friday, March 1, 2013

Brazilian State Flags: Paraiba

Okay, this one, I'm honestly still trying to figure out. Google translate is giving me a pretty odd translation for NEGO. Anyone know more about this flag?

A little backstory on these posts. We've lived in Brazil for about a year now. I can hardly name 5 of the 26 states (and 1 Federal District), much less pick out which flag goes with which. But as a designer, I love flag design and was interested. And I would also love to learn the names and locations of all the Brazilian states. Flags and information found here on Wikipedia. 

A great walk in Candeias

I don't normally describe any of the neighborhoods around us as 'cute'. We live in an area full of high rise condos, so that pretty much settles it right there. They're not cute. But if you wander enough you can find houses, most of which are usually pretty old, holdouts that haven't sold their land to be developed. So they still have big trees, and don't have the 8 foot cement walls that nearly all the new houses have for protection. Yesterday I went to pay bills (here comes a big parentheses topic: paying bills  is so different here than in the US, yowza, but I usually leave feeling like I've conquered the world, so maybe it's a good thing, but, a different post for a different time) and decided to keep walking in the direction I was going, because I knew a grocery store that I wanted to go to was relatively close. I was wrong on that, it was like 2.5 miles away, but it wasn't the destination, it was the journey, right?

I ended up walking through a little old neighborhood in Candeias, which is the neighborhood just south of us. I put up a little google map for you to see. Those are just average distances...The walk must have been at least ten times longer...or maybe it was just a warm day. So anyway, I'm walking through Candeias, and wouldn't you know, it's just the cutest little neighborhood I ever did see. First I walked by this little house that had kittens. There were two old hound dogs guarding the kittens too, which was adorable. But little kittens. I was petting one that was sitting on a pillar, until a dog started barking at me, so I left. I walked by a guy sitting on the corner, and he says 'that's a lot of kittens, right?'. Right! How great.

Then, a little further down, I found a breadfruit! What's the best kind of grocery shopping? The kind where you just find food at your feet as you walk. Wonderful! Then I passed a great adorable little house that was all shaded and hidden by all their trees, and it was for sale. All of the tiles were Brennand tiles (said so in the ad), which I'm just realizing I haven't posted about. Anyway, it was cute. I almost wrote down the number. I told Toby about it last night and he asked if it was on the water. No, but it was close? Does that count?

I ended up waiting in line for 30 or so minutes, to find out the credit card reader was down, so I didn't get what I was wanting (it was flax and cashew flour, incase you're wondering. I can only find it in one grocery store). But on the way back I passed by the kitten house again and saw even smaller kittens. Honestly the smallest kitten I've ever seen. Probably no heavier than a small orange. Tiny!

So it was a good walk. Go find a cute neighborhood for yourself, go for a walk!


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