Saudades

There's a word in Brazilian Portuguese that doesn't have a direct translation to English.  If you look it up, it means "miss".  But that doesn't even begin to cover it.  It's the feeling you have when a place gets under your skin and becomes a part of you.  It's the myriad of feelings you have all at once when you think of it - joy, sadness, happiness, melancholy, longing.

It's the feeling I have as we leave Recife.

It's been a great two years.  We've made some great friends, we've had some wonderful experiences, we've been to some amazing places, and we've grown tremendously.

Temos saudades para Recife!

 

~ Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne

Things I'll miss about Recife

A while back there was a blog theme rolling around about the things that make you happy about your post.  I never got it together to post it during that time, but I thought about it a lot and figure now is a good time to post as we're about ready to leave Recife.

The Beach.  Our apartment sits on the beach and we hear the waves crashing all night.  We don't need to use our air conditioning because of the wonderful ocean breeze.  We have two hammocks on our balcony and there is nothing like reading away an afternoon swinging in the breeze.
















We just have to cross the street to be on the beach where Luzia, our umbrella lady, brings us agua de coco and anything else we want.

Graviola

The Fruit.  The fruit here is amazing.  The fruits I already knew about - pineapples, mangos, papayas, passionfruit are better than any I've had anywhere else.

Caju

And the fruits I didn't know about - caju,
cupuaco, acerola, pitango are pretty amazing as well.  I love it that the pineapple man is on the beach every day and I can get fresh super sweet pineapple.  And there's a fruit lady near work - the best cut to order fruit salad anywhere!

Acerola

The Food.  There's a cut of beef here that doesn't exist in the US called picanha.  It's from the same part of the cow as a tri-tip, but it's cut differently and is just amazing.  All the churrascaria's have picanha - the guys come around with the cuts on their espitinhos (swords) and slice the meat on to your plate.  It is just wonderful and I love it with farofa (toasted manioc - looks like sawdust) and vinaigrette (like a pico de gallo).  There's also macaxeira frita - like french fries - but macaxeira (yuca) - I just love it!  And coxinhas - little pear shaped fried treats that are usually stuffed with chicken or cheese, then covered in pureed manioc and fried.  Love them!



The Brazilians.  The people in Brazil are the nicest I've ever seen.  So warm and generous.  True story - at the hair salon I had forgotten to bring enough cash for a tip and was trying to figure out where the nearest ATM was (not close).  A complete stranger overheard my conversation and offered to give me cash saying that he'd give me his bank account number and I could deposit the money to pay him back the next day.  A complete stranger!!!











My Friends.  In just two short years we've made some great
friends.  Some I'll see again as we crisscross the globe.  But many, many more I may not see again. And that's really hard.

P A C K O U T ! ! !

There's an event in the Foreign Service that happens every one to three years more or less - the Packout.  It's when a crew of movers descend upon your living space and pack everything you own in a fairly short time period.  It's incredibly odd and a little stressful.  We just completed our first overseas packout (previously we have packed out of our home in Berkeley and our temporary apartment in Virginia).






Being the J that I am, I of course had lists upon lists and my controlling nature made my family's life a tad difficult these last few days (weeks!).  I had the stuff for storage in one area of O.'s room. And the stuff to come the slow way to Manila in another room.  The day before we packed all of our suitcases (eight!) with items that will take us through the last few days in Brazil, to Washington, D.C., to California (all over), and then to Manila for a few weeks until a small part of our things arrive.  Difficult to pare down, and to also organize!

Then the movers arrived.  WOW!!!  These guys are amazing.

They are efficient, incredibly detailed, and very (more than I am) careful with my belongings.

In just two and a half long days, they packed all that we owned and crated it for shipping.

We ended up with 200 boxes heading to Manila, and 26 heading to storage in Maryland.  Yikes!

My morning run

I didn't play sports growing up and certainly never embraced the whole "running" thing.  But I knew that without my beloved Berkeley Y I needed to find a new way to get in my exercise wherever I am.



The head of the department I worked in while I was in DC last year is a remarkable woman. MBT is the best supervisor I've seen in the State Department - likable, down to earth, supportive, efficient, and effective.  She's also a runner and despite being incredibly busy and high powered manages to find time to squeeze in her run most days.  She inspired me to try to incorporate running into my schedule.









That - and the fact that I really wanted to get a pair of Vibram shoes and couldn't justify spending the money unless I actually used them.

So - I got the shoes and started running in Brazil.  I got one of those Couch to 5K apps and started.





It's been pretty cool.  Of course in the almost two years I've been doing this, I haven't done a 5K.  But I've come close.  And more importantly, I've discovered a love of running.  Especially in the early morning.  It's a great start to my day.

It doesn't hurt that starting this in Recife I get to run along the Boa Viagem each morning and watch the sun come up. It's gorgeous running along the ocean with the waves crashing and watching the sun rise along the horizon.  And when it rains, it's glorious - the warm rain on my body as I run along is fantastic!














And then there are the regulars - various Brazilians that have a similar morning routine.


Some of them are just finishing their nights.

Others I see every morning and create names in my head for them.

Still others have such great outfits - only in Brazil!

Visit to Brasilia

I had the opportunity to visit Brasilia last year for a conference. Very interesting city.

I saw the beautiful bridge across the lake.

And I did one of my favorite things in a new city - I explored the big markets.  There were food stalls with lots of regional food.


And clothing stalls.

Dried nuts and fruits.

Beautiful produce.

An interesting bra store.

A food stand that makes pastels - sheets of dough filled with things and then fried. You can pick your filling - sweet and savory.

I like seeing the markets because they're very real - real people doing real shopping.

The rest of Brasilia is so planned it has a very different feel.  Since it was planned and created all at once the look is very consistent - not what I'm used to in other cities that grow over time and are a jumble of styles and periods.







I love the way the government bureaucratic buildings all look exactly alike and line up like dominoes - the perfect thing for bureaucrats.











And I like the way the church resembles Space Mountain.









It's a city built for cars, not for walking. And it gets deserted on weekends.  I think it would be a great place to film a zombie apocalypse movie!

Holiday in Rio Part 2

I'm finally (!) finishing up our trip to Rio.

Rio e uma cidade maravilhosa!  Rio is a marvelous city! Not only does it have all the wonderful things you've heard of, but there are so many small things that make it marvelous as well.  For example - the trees along the streets in Ipanema have orchids tied to them.  What we try to recreate with putting orchids in bark and drenching once a week, Cariocas (people who live in Rio) have occurring naturally.  The orchids are in the bark of living trees and the warm rains that periodically drench the city water the plants.

We of course visited Christ the Redeemer (otherwise known as "the guy").

The views from the Christo are amazing!
















Pao de Acucar as seen from the Christo

And you get to ride a cool train up the mountain!

We also visited the Steps of Selaron.  Beautifully tiled steps created over a lifetime.

We had ice cream sodas at one of the old-school Rio restaurants in the older part of town. Beautiful glass ceilings!

And then we took the tram to Pao de Acucar!

The views are amazing and the whole place is super peaceful - a contract to the crowds at the Christo.

There are lots of trails at the top that you can hike on with many peaceful viewing spots.

Of course we visited Ipanema and Copacobana beaches!

The water is much colder than what we're used to in Recife!


And they do their queijo na brasa differently here - there are portable hibachis.

And a fascinating sunga (men's bathing suit).  I hadn't see one thong style for men.

And I love it that the money taker on the bus was able to doze as the bus went along.

Great times!