My cousins, Craig and Dave, who live in Germany sent me this link to a BBC article yesterday and it's been inspiring me ever since!  The article describes writer Ann Morgan's challenge to herself to read one book from every country in a year.  She keeps a blog and writes about the experience and what she learned (the list of books she actually read are posted on there as well if you are interested).  Her initial idea came to her because of the lack of diversity in her bookshelves even though she thought of herself as a cosmopolitan citizen and writer.  How true that is!  When I look at my bookshelves and on the electronic reading list of my Nook, I'm struck by the same feeling and it makes me try and remember some of my favorite books that aren't from the States.  It's also an alternative way to travel the world and one that doesn't create a big carbon footprint either. What about you, blog reader? Any recommendations?

Fallen mango during an afternoon rain (Photo credit Leiliane Barro)

This weekend has been both relaxing and productive.  It's rained heavily in the afternoons and Sean and I spent time in a coffee shop working on our "50 Pre-Course Tasks" that we need to complete before our CELTA (Certified English Language Teacher of Adults) course in November.  This is one of my favorite parts of the week because it involves grammar, good coffee and dessert, air conditioning, no mosquitoes and hanging out with Sean.  Both of us have also been working on a lot of job applications as well as we try and figure out what is next for us after Brazil.  Consuming large amounts of homemade iced coffee has helped a lot in this process.  If you need help with a resume or cover letter just ask us  - we're getting pretty good at them.

An afternoon torrential downpour in Belém (Photo credit: Joana Flexa)

Recently, a student and friend, Jean Santos, snapped some beautiful pictures of the campus of UFPA and I wanted to share them with you.  It's an odd feeling to walk around campus in the "fall" but not notice the changing colors of the trees, the swishing of dried leaves under your feet or the coolness in the air.  Instead, we are slowly transferring back to the "rainy" season and the weather is as hot and humid as ever.  I spend a good part of each day walking (and sweating) back and forth between the Language Arts buildings and the science buildings where most of the English Without Borders classes are.  Seeing Jean's pictures the other day reminded me of how beautiful the campus is and that it's worth slowing down and enjoying the scenery instead of always rushing around.  Thanks Jean!

Campus graffiti: Tell me what you watch and I'll tell you who you are

Block H - where most of my classes are

Last year while working at UESC in Bahia, I became very good friends with one of the students there named Shalon.  Shalon was the unofficial and then the official helper for the Fulbright ETAs and helped us do everything from find housing to get registered at the police.  From the first day I met him, his dream was to study abroad in the U.S. and he worked harder than a lot of people ever do to get there.  He received a scholarship to study at Saint Ambrose College in Iowa for one semester and has now been there for a couple of weeks.  One of the requirements of his scholarship program is that he keeps a blog of his experiences and all that he is learning.  I found his most recent blog post fascinating because he gave some honest and real opinions about some of the negative stuff that goes on during our undergraduate years.  Reading his blog also made me learn a lot more about Brazil because in seeing what a Brazilian notices about the U.S. it's easy to see why this is important or different from his home country.  See for yourself:

"I thought everything would be perfect! And I truly have had amazing moments that have made my trip incredibly great... But you know what? Some cultural shocks were unavoidable... I never thought I'd experience so much in a short period of time. Every single day is a challenge for me when I am able to understand and get to know more about this new world and specially about myself. I look at myself today and I can see the difference... I grow day by day... I have learned so many things... I have seen so many things...

Shalon armed with two portable projectors ready to prepare presentations for Language Week

One of my side projects this year is working with the Language Advising program at the university.  Language Advising is a pilot project that was started last year to help with the high attrition rate of university students studying English.  The idea is that more advanced students of English meet with those who are struggling with the language to help them devise a personalized plan with strategies in mind for their particular learning style.  The theories, learning styles and strategies definitely have merit, but I think the one-on-one weekly meetings, accountability, support and personal relationship have a large chunk to do with the success of the program as well.

I've enjoyed the project not only because I've learned about different and more creative ways to teach and learn language but also because I've gotten to know a few students really well instead of just getting to know large classes full of them vaguely well.  I've been amazed at how my few students seem to thrive with extra, individual attention.  They send me emails, texts and pictures about completed goals or with updates on some of the things we have been working on.  I have my own mentor, a French linguistics professor who meets with me once a week to help me with my Portuguese (she's been here for over 20 years and has mastered the art of learning Portuguese as a second language).  I adore her and our time together is my favorite part of the week and I find myself emailing her updates about how I am doing, just like how my students do with me.

Last week, while I was helping one of my advisees revise an essay in preparation for the TOEFL we made a lot of tiny corrections that really improved the impact and meaning of the whole piece.  He told me at the end of our session, "As pequenas coisas mudam tudo." It's the small things that change everything.  I couldn't agree more and I'm not just talking about the revision stage of an essay.  When a student takes the time to write to me it means everything whether it's just a weekly hello from an advisee (along with an attached picture of her first pancake attempt) . . .

Dear Sarah,
How was your presentation? Was great?
I hope it was. My presentation about Traditional Approaches to Classifying Words was great. I feel nervous but I did. LOL.
Oh, I though that would be interesting you see my pancake, so I send to you (oh Gosh, why? Kkk*)
Have a great weekend!


. . . or a note that I received this week from a student I had eight years ago at The Ohio State University.

Sarah! I wanted to check in with you because I just met another Buckeye here in Madrid and she asked me if I had you for Spanish at OSU. We both agree that you were the one that got us excited about Spanish! Learning Spanish really changed our lives. I love that even eight years later your name comes up in conversation as an amazing teacher. So thank you so much and I hope you're still loving Brazil!

It may have just taken a minute or two for each of those students to shoot off a small message on Facebook, but for me, it changes everything.

*kkk is how you laugh in Portuguese while typing as in "hahahaha"

Last week was exceptionally busy at UFPA because we held our first event of the semester - an "American Pancake Breakfast" which was a lot of fun and a big success.  To prepare for the event, Sean and I spent about four hours the Sunday before making about 120 pancakes.  There's nothing that makes you want to spend a significant amount of time leaning over bubbling flapjacks and hissing gas burners like 95 degree heat and humidity and no air conditioning.  There was lots of chilled wine, music and podcasts to keep our sanity at an acceptable level.  Needless to say, I've made my last pancake for a good long while.





Anna, Stevie and I worked together to put the event together.  Since we didn't know how many people would come and our event was more like an open house, we set it up as a series of stations.  Students had to pick up their "Pancake Passport" at the door and visit all of the stations before they could turn in their passport as the ticket to get their pancake.  It worked really well especially since the stations didn't have to be followed in any particular order.

 
Stations:
#1 How to make pancakes - Students received the recipe and watched a demo using actual ingredients and cooking utensils.  To pass the station they had to be able to name all of the things required to make pancakes. (This was my station)

#2 Maple syrup - Anna created various activities that helped students learn a little more about what Maple syrup is and how it's made (syrup is a pretty foreign concept here).  Fortunately, for us, Sean brought over two liters of the stuff with him when he arrived in March (thank you, Big Lots).

#3 American breakfasts - At Stevie's station she wanted to emphasize that pancakes are not the only thing that Americans eat for breakfast.  Students learned the vocabulary and traditions of other common morning foods and then compared them with Brazilian breakfasts.

#4 Pancakes - Monty, Stevie's boyfriend, served up pancakes with butter and syrup while taking students' pancake passports.  Station #4 was the obvious favorite not only because Monty is super adorable but also because students got to try the real deal - American pancakes with Maple syrup.



We had a great time and I'm looking forward to the last couple of events that we'll put together at UFPA in the next two months.  Try making some on your own from scratch! (recipe below)

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"This is a No Grump Zone," Sean says as he zips closed the mosquito net that covers our bed.  It's a nice way to remind me to quit whining in the small time and space that we have together during the day.  In this case, I was trying to take a nap in preparation to go to a birthday party that started at about 11:00 in the evening.  One of Sean's students, Antonio, had invited him to his birthday party and really wanted us to go so we were going even though it started quite late at night and was really far away.  This was only fair as the night before Sean helped me with a favor and gave a last-minute presentation with me about university life in the U.S. from 7-9pm at a local college after a full day's work and on a Friday night no less.  Their keynote speaker had called in sick and the event organizer was desperate so we did it even though Sean didn't really want to.  This whole business of compromises and the required give and take in marriage seemed a whole lot more manageable on paper than it actually is in practice.  I would highly advise constructing various No Grump Zones around your house.  It helps a little.

Antonio and Sean (notice all the sweat - it's hot dancing samba outside in this weather, even at 3am!)

The birthday party invitation said that the party started at 9:45pm but Antonio, the birthday boy and of 46 years, admitted that most people wouldn't start showing up until around 10:30 or 11:00.  I should pause here to remind you that Sean works at the classiest and most exclusive English teaching school in the city (the main requirement being that you must be a native speaker - a rarity here in Belém) which attracts a certain elite and wealthy clientele.  A birthday party in the upper echelon of Belém society is essentially like going to a wedding; there was going to be a live band, an open bar, dinner and plenty of partying until the wee hours.

 
I enjoy living in Brazil but one of the hardest parts of the culture to get used to and understand is the need to stay out so late.  It's common for Brazilian parties to start after midnight and go until 5 or 6 in the morning.  I don't know how they are able to do it as I start fading at around 10pm.  I love and cherish a good night's sleep and it doesn't even bother me if that statement makes me seem old.

We dutifully arrived at the party at 11:30pm just in time for canapes and finger foods and the live samba band.  The party had just gotten started and Antonio greeted us with hugs saying, "I was worried you weren't coming because I thought all Americans were early and when you didn't get here at 9:30 I thought you weren't coming."  Antonio has done plenty of his homework on cultural differences.  He's a very successful lawyer who has lived for a little while in the U.S.  Later on in the evening, as he saw me yawn he would say, "I think it's so great that in the U.S. people usually go home from a party before midnight so everyone has time to sleep.  But right now we are in Brazil so we have to stay up very late."  I told myself we were in for a long night and tried to stay positive.



The party, naturally, was fantastic.  There were all-you-could-consume fancy tropical drinks, a fully catered array of snacks and desserts, and waiters who walked around with bottles of whiskey and ice.

11:30 - We arrive
12:00 - Canapes
12:30 - First course (salad)
12:45- - Second course (potatoes and cod in cream sauce)
1:00 - Third course (seafood medley)
1:15 - Fourth course (grilled beef cuts)
1:30 - Speeches and Happy Birthday song
1:45 - Desserts (strawberry tarts and chocolate mousse)
2:15 - I call for taxi
3:00 - Taxi arrives
3:30 - Arrive at home
? : ? - Party ends

The party was tasty, interesting and beautiful but through all of it I was pretty tired.   I'm tired and a little grumpy now while I write this on Sunday afternoon, the day after the festivities as I cringe at how a long nap is going to eat into all the things I wanted to do today.  But like Antonio reminded me last night, I'm currently living in Brazil- a country that values the moment, seeks constant social interaction and above all loves a good time.  It's like I'm living in one giant No Grump Zone and I hope it rubs off on me a little more the last two months I'm here.

Getting ready to get on the catararan

Enjoying the breeze on the way to Alcântara

One last place we visited in the neighboring state of Maranhão was the colonial town of Alcântara.  This little city is across the bay from the capital São Luis and is known for having some of the most well-preserved architecture from the 17th and 18th centuries.  Alcântara was the preferred residence of Maranhão's rich plantation owners.  Although it was in decline since the second half of the 19th century, now it is a nostalgic mix of ruined, maintained and restored mansions, houses and churches on picturesque cobblestone streets.  It was really relaxing and scenic to walk around Alcântara because it was so quiet, safe and beautiful.  Lonely Planet calls it both "authentic" and "seductive" and adds that it is "one of the most stunning examples of historical beauty in all of Brazil."

Touring one of the original slave churches

Maranhão is really famous for its beautiful, old tiles

Though taking a tour around the city was cool, we had more fun actually getting across the bay on a fun catamaran.  The splashes from the waves felt great on such a hot day and we even saw a few Red Ibises flying by.  Alcântara makes a great day trip from the capital; we left at around eight in the morning and returned at five in the afternoon.  The crew members on the boat were especially efficient because nobody wanted to miss one of the final World Cup games that started soon after we got back.  Priorities.

 
The highlight of our vacation was visiting Lençois Maranhenses National Park in the neighboring state of Maranhão.  The name of the park refers to its immense expanses of dunes which look kind of  like bedsheets (the word lençois in Portuguese means "sheets").  The park is huge (580 sq miles) and is known for being particularly spectacular between the months of March and September when rain that has filtered through the sand forms crystal-clear pools and lakes between the dunes.  The landscape is surreal because it appears to be a vast dessert spotted with occasional paradises of oasis and lagoons.  I've never seen anything like it and couldn't stop staring and taking pictures.

Sean and I did two different tours in the dunes: one during the day to hike and go swimming and another in the evening to watch the sunset.  Both tours visited different places in the park and involved long bone-jarring jeep/dune buggy rides to the trail heads.  While we were in the park we met people from all over the world and all of us couldn't believe that we hadn't heard much of this incredible destination before.  One tourist remarked that he thinks Brazil is trying to keep it hush hush so it isn't overrun with herds of foreigners.  For me, up until now, Lençois Maranhenses was definitely Brazil's best kept secret.

Belém is called the city of mangoes because the main streets are lined with huge mango trees.  The mangoes here are cheap, delicious, and plentiful in local supermarkets.  I love all the mangoes, except when they fall on sidewalks and have the potential to do some serious injury to unsuspecting pedestrians.



I would say that these mangoes are a metaphor for my current relationship with Belém; I em enjoying my experience here except when the city gives me a good crack on the head every now and again. 

Some recent examples:

-Last weekend during one of the serious afternoon rains, the wind picked up, blew off some roof tiles and soaked our room and mattress.  It was a huge and soggy cleanup job.

-A week ago I was walking home loaded down with groceries when I happened to step on a huge street rat at the exact instant that it was running across the sidewalk in front of me.  The thing was like the size of a cat so I didn't kill it when I stepped on it but it gave a nasty shriek (not as big as mine though) and skittered off with a trace of a limp.  Fortunately, I wasn't wearing flip flops at the time.

-When I first went to the emergency room to get my crazy bug bite looked at, they wouldn't give me a receipt for the cash that I paid.  They told me that they had to talk to their administration during business hours since I don't have a Brazilian ID number.  I need this receipt to get reimbursed from my insurance company and have spent quite a bit of time emailing and calling the hospital to get that receipt.  Last week I went back in person to try again and was told that only the original doctor can write me a receipt and she is on vacation.  They are not sure when she is coming back.

-On the first day of classes I had lots of activities planned and handouts printed ready to advertise upcoming events for the new semester.  After spending the morning lesson planning and in meetings, I was ready for the evening classes to begin.  At 5:30 p.m. the power went out at the university and never went back on.  Everyone was sent home.

......

In my English Conversation Club sometimes I like to start with a short activity called "Highs and Lows."  Everybody goes around and explains something positive that happened to them that day along with something negative.  It sounds simplistic, but it often generates quite a bit of dialogue, conversation, vulnerability and emotion.  The interesting thing about my Brazilian students that I have noticed is that most of them don't have any lows.  Complaining isn't a normal part of the culture here and the well-known alegría of the people is alive and well, as far as I'm concerned.  A common refrain heard in the country is Tudo vai dar certo, or "Everything is going to work out one way or another."  It's a piece of advice I've had to take to heart lately as I feel like I've been knocked in the head by one too many mangoes.

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A webinar for teacher training that we are hosting

Returning as a second year ETA and living in Belém has had its challenges but I have absolutely loved my job as a mentor for 12 new Fulbright ETAs.  A large part of the job has been helping new ETAs make lesson plans, visiting their classes and giving advice about new games and activities.  It reminds me of how much I learned from my mentor in graduate school, Kristin Hawkins, and how much I still use from what I learned from her. 

Brazil Fulbright ETA Mentors

Right now, Fulbright is in the process of selecting ten new mentors for the next year and we get to participate by writing letters of recommendation and by being part of the interview panel.  Besides the obvious fun of accompanying grantees on a transformative year both personally and professionally, being a mentor has allowed me the privilege of working closely with the other mentors - one of the most creative, intelligent and ambitious groups of people that I have ever worked with.

No matter how old or young we are I think everyone could use a mentor and I hope that I am able to both have one and be one in the future.