Where We Are

We are a little over six weeks into life here in Brasil. Most of our energy during the first 6 weeks has been used on transitioning and studying Portuguese. The biggest news we have to give right now is that there is now furniture in every room.  Thats right, furniture in every room.  Over the past week and a half our apartment has transformed from what looked like a college dorm to what is now a respectable apartment.  I know I should post pictures so everybody can see but I haven't done that yet but I will.  What I will do is leave you with a 13 minute video about Brasil.  Brasil was featured in a 60 Minutes piece last December.  It talks about the wealth of natural resources and the challenges facing Brasil.  It also give a pretty accurate view of the culture.

Click on the link below to watch the clip.

Brazil's Rising Star-60 Minutes



Thanks for reading.

BH

Passado Semana/Last Week

On Monday and Tuesday of last week everything around us was closed. I mean everything.  It was Carnaval here and its a lot bigger than Mardi Gras in the US.  Most of the people that could travel, did just that.  The city was very quiet.  While the rest of Brasil was dancing the Samba and enjoying friends and family during the holiday, we decided to paint our apartment.  We will show some before and after pics later.  We also had Portuguese class on Tuesday and Thursday and bought mattresses Friday.  The company we used was Mil Colchões. Which translates to 1000 Mattresses.  Its a great company and they delivered and set up the mattresses the next day.

Oh I almost forgot to mention. Last Saturday was my birthday. 28 years young or old depending on how you look at it.  The picture below is from the restaurant Abbey and I went to along with two other staff couples for the big celebration.  Donna Margherita, its a pizza buffet unlike any other. This is no Cici's Pizza!. The place was packed, I think everyone was there for my birthday.

Thanks for Reading!

Happy Birthday!

101 Rua Artur Joviano Apto. 302

Earlier this week we acquired our apartment and then spent the week getting it set up.  Yesterday we ordered appliances and earlier today to our surprise the stove and washer were delivered. With the help of our síndica, Fernanda, she helped us hook up the washer and stove.  What's a síndica?  From my understanding the síndica is kinda like the manager of the building you live in. Fernanda is our síndica and so far she has been a huge help.

Here are a few pics of the apartment:

Sala de Estar/Living Room

Sala de Jantar/Dining Room

Cozinha/Kitchen

Quarto/Bedroom

So You Wanna Be A Missionary Part 1:

The Metric System
While you don't need to know how to convert inches to centimeters in order to share the Gospel, its definitely nice to know how to convert inches to centimeters when looking for housewares to put in your apartment. Or to know how many liters of gas your car takes.  Or to know how much food weighs on your plate when ordering by kilograms. 
When shopping for furniture this week, Abbey and I were constantly looking at each other and trying to figure out just exactly how long things were when we were told the measurements in centimeters. If you want to be a missionary, learn the metric system.

Thanks for reading!

BH

The Apartment Search is Over

Most people will tell you to not get the first apartment or house you look at when looking for a place.  Well...that is exactly what we did.  We looked at an apartment about a week and a half ago and liked it but decided to do the rational thing and look at four more.  We like the first one so much we put an offer on it and it was accepted.  We signed the contract late last night and today we had to authenticate the signatures on the contract and then pick up the keys.  Pictures of the apartment will come soon.  For now enjoy some pictures of a storm we had here yesterday. 

All of the pics were taken by Abbey.  We had a lot of lighting here yesterday and she picked up her camera and started clicking. I think they are pretty cool and I am not just saying that because my wife took them.