Brazilian Stereotypes

For those of you, who’ve been reading me for sometime, might remember when I posted about my teacher at Alliance Française in Paris.
As I quote: " And now the teacher... Well, I wasn’t that lucky with the teacher in the first 2 weeks. He was really but I mean really prejudice against Brazilians. For him, we all are D-R-U-G D-E-A-L-E-R-S or Transsexuals. I was really annoyed with him in the beginning and I even tried to change classes, but it wasn’t any available spots in the other classes. So I had to endure him. After a while, he started to respect me, especially when he realized that I am more educated than he is, I traveled more than he did. My husband is an executive for French Company… So it was all about status. He really left a bad impression on me. He is the kind of person who does not want to grow up."
Well, I am kind of frustrated to realize that it is not only him that thinks that. Some people think we live in them middle of the jungle
and there are animals wondering around everywhere.
Yes, we do live in a country with HUGE social problems, HUGE political problems and HUGE SAFETY issues, especially Rio de Janeiro.
But, cities like São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and other major cities in Brazil have the same infrastructure as the big cities in US or Europe.
As long as you have money, you can eat in 5 stars restaurants, you can drive fancy cars, you can eat ALL Organic, because we do have a
lot of wonderful and fresh produces, we can travel overseas because we have a strong economy nowadays.
What frustrates me the most, people who write/think like this, might never have left their habitat and experience the world the same way I (the tupiniquim) did or even with all the information we have available nowadays, they think we live in trees, and our pets are dangerous snakes, even if they see a picture like the one in the blog banner.

Fabiola.

Padarias, Pandocas or Panificadoras

São Paulo is an amazing city when it comes to food. You can eat whatever you want, anytime you want. But one of my favorite kind f restaurants/diner is the padarias or pandocas (as the people from São Paulo call them).
Padarias, in the concept of the word, are places where they make, bake and sell breads (any kind of). But in São Paulo, they have a whole new concept.

1. They can be found at least one per block in the streets (big city blocks);
2. They bake so many types of bread that really drive you crazy (if you are a bread junkie like I am);
3. They bake a huge assortment of cakes and patisseries or pastries (sometimes I mess up with words in English and in French);
4. They make a wonderful espresso as well as a wonderful cappuccino;
5. They sell a huge amount of dairy products that it seems you are in a fromagerie in Paris;
6. They operate as a restaurant, so you can eat in a buffet and pay for the amount of food you will be eating;
7. They are a place where you can eat the best toasted french bread with butter and a typical brazilian cafezinho;
8. Last but not least
   They serve the most amazing sandwiches you can think of ;
   

So, of course I am totally in love with my new city and even if sometimes we think we live in the middle of the jungle.... São Paulo is a wonderful place to live!!!

Fabiola

I am so excited!!!

You all know I was born and raised as a Catholic.
I've been looking foward for some kind of Catholic Blog Roll, but I couldn't find until today!! Yeeeiiiii!!
I found the Catholic Mother's On-line!!! It is just great!!!

Fabiola

Our new house.

After a few weeks without going to the constructions site due to Paulo's health (I will write some other time about this), we went to check up on the construction, especially because the weather has been a little better in the past few weeks. I can say that they are almost there... Yeiiiii!!!
Those are a few pictures for you!!!!

Urban Violence

When you grow up in a country like Brazil, you see the violence grow up just under your nose. And it gets scarier by the day.
I come from a medium town which is known for the safety feeling, even though this is not always true.
So, when I see a police officer with his/her gun in hands it freaks me out.
Sunday afternoon, we went out to check some things for the new house. As we stopped in the red light, there was a "blitz" (I am not sure if this is the word in English). One of the police officers took the gun out of his belt and pointed to our car. I couldn’t understand what was going on. He wasn’t pointing to us, he was pointing to the guy in the motorcycle right beside us.
I know that the motoboys (the way they are called in Portuguese) are sometimes dangerous, and they rob people and bla, bla, bla, bla... but the police officer didn’t even ask him to stop before he pointed the gun and then asked the motoboy to stop.
Last week, I was having breakfast at the hotel where I stay in R*i*o de J*a*n*e*i*r*o, and there were two couples on the table right beside me (one couple was American e the other was an African Brazilian couple).
The Brazilian couple was telling one episode to the American couple that really freaked me out. He said that he was coming back from work late at night, driving his car, close to one of the most dangerous routes in Rio. The police officer pulled him over and asked for his registration and driver’s license. He showed everything and everything was in order. When the police officer says that there wasn’t any reason to give him a ticket or to ask for some bribe:
Police Officer: "You are not supposed to drive with a flat tire."
The Brazilian Teacher: "I don’t have a flat tire."
The officer shot the tire and said: "Now you have it, and I will have to tow your car, or you can give me some cash and nothing will happen to you."

I couldn’t stay to hear the rest of the history, but how am I suppose to trust someone who is suppose to take care of my safety in a country like this???

Fabiola

A Baby talk

We've been married for 7 years. We never really thought about having a baby. We always had something to use as an excuse like: to finish the house (in Bahia), to visit Europe, to come back to São Paulo and then to finish the house again(now in São Paulo).
But this year I will be 34 years old. And as they say the clock is ticking... I really need to make up my mind about this subject.
So, since New Year's party we've been talking about this A LOT.
About a month ago, close to our 7th anniversary, we finally made up our minds. We still have a big road ahead of us because of project, new house and our work schedules but we are finally ready to plan a family.
Our first task (actually my first task) was to find a new doctor in the new city. I got a good recommendation and made an appointment. Because of my work schedule I had to re-scheduled my first appointment. But I finally went. I talked to the doctor and I really liked him and I felt I could trust him. So he ordered a huge amount of blood tests, ultrasounds and a lot of other tests.... But by the end of my appointment, he said something that made me feel so OLD.....and I quote: "At you age, your are not so young anymore to have the first baby, you should start to take folic acid 3 months before you start to try to get pregnant. So when you come back with your test results I will give you a prescription without date, so by June/July you start to take it.".
Too much for a first impression, hum???

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Meu marido e eu estamos casados há sete anos e nós nunca tínhamos considerado a possibilidade de ter um bebê. Nós sempre tínhamos uma desculpa: terminar a casa da Bahia, viajar pela Europa, ir morar em São Paulo, terminar a casa de São Paulo. Enfim, as desculpas estavam sempre na ponta da língua.
Mas este ano eu farei 34 anos e realmente sinto que o relógio está "ticking".
Então realmente temos que decidir e devido a este "deadline" temos conversado muito sobre o assunto.
Mais ou menos 1 mês atrás, finalmente tomamos a decisão de começar a planejar uma família. a nossa primeira tarefa (mas minha do que dele) era achar um bom médico. Consegui uma boa recomendação e marquei uma consulta que teve que ser re-agendada devido a compromissos profissionais. Mas finalmente fui... Eu realmente gostei muito do médico e senti muita confiança e sabedoria nele. Ele pediu uma "tonelada" de exames.... Mas ao final da consulta, ele fez um comentário que me fez eu me sentir muuiiiitttoo velha: 'Devido a sua idade, 3 meses antes de você iniciar as tentativas de engravidar, você precisa começar a tomar ácido fólico. Quando você voltar com o resultado dos exames eu já te dou uma receita, sem data,ok?".

Enfim, uma ótima primeira impressão....

Fabiola

My new blog - Meu novo blog

I've been blogging since 2005. For a whie I've been thinking about switching from MSN Spaces to Blogspot. So, I guess I finallu did it.
It is a simple lay-out with not so much "frou frou". But it still is the place where I talk about my life, my douts, my happinness and my frustrations too.
I hope you enjoy it reading as much as I enjoy writing it.
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Eu tenho escrito em um blog desde 2005. Faz algum tempo que tenho pensado em trocar o MSN Spaces pelo Blogspot. Fiz várias tentativas frustradas, mas parece que eu finalmente consegui. É um layout simples, sem muito luxo, mas continua sendo um lugar para eu escrever sobre minha vida, minhas preocupações, minhas alegrias e tristezas também.
Espero que vocês gostem de ler do mesmo jeito que eu gosto de escrever.

Fabiola

New Blog

Hey Guys,

I am starting a new blog take a look over there. http://ourgrandlife.blogspot.com/

The Old House and the New House.

As you all might remember, I told you:

Quote

New house

About the new house

...it will be completed in February 2008. The company has a 0 delay index in their history. So, we are praying really hard that they keep this way. They will deliver the keys on Feb. 20th and only after that we can put the hard wood floors (that I am dreaming of), the custom made cabinets. So I predict we will be moving by the end March.

Have a nice weekend,

Fabiola

Of course the construction is behind schedule due to a lot of rain in the last few months. We think that they will delay at least 30 days. I do hope it is not that much.

We are already looking for hard wood floor, pricing kitchen cabinets and marble for the stairs.... But we cannot order until they finish the construction and they allow us to go inside the house. We will have a meeting with the construcion company tomorrow and I will let you know.

On the othe side of the Tropic, we finally sold the house in Bahia. We are just waiting for the paperwork get done, so we will fly to Bahia to sign everything and get really ready to live in São Paulo.

I hope your weekend is great

~ Kisses and hugs~

The frustrating process of renewing my driver's license.

Under Brazilian legislation, any driver's license expires every 5 years and it is a national document (you don't need to get a new one, if you change states). And you can drive for more 30 days after the expiration date.

I got mine when I was 18 years old. So, this is my 3rd renovation. The last 2 times I was back in my home state, so the process was painless.

But this time.... I am living in São Paulo and drive to Curitiba wasn't an option. So, 2 days after my driver's license expired, I drove to a Auto-escola, a place where they teach people how to drive and asked them if they would do the transfer process. They said they would take care of the process, and the fees where R$ XXX,XX and I still had to pay the medical exam, as well the test. And as soon as I had both results I would come back and they would do all the process.

So, ok, no big deal. It wouldn't be necessary for me to go to any public office and wait for a gazillion hours.

I did my medical exam with a bonus, the doctor removed the "corrective lens obligatory" from my driver's license.

And then the Mexican soap opera began.... I studied all Sunday to the test, because there are a lot of questions about Emergencies on the road and about the legislation. Early Monday morning I went to take the test... When I got there, I couldn't do the test, because the auto-escola didn't transfer my paperwork... But I PRECISELY asked them if the transfer was supposed to happen before the test, and I do have an e-mail from them telling me I wasn't necessary. So, 0 X 1 for them. The owner of the Auto-escola profusely apologized about the wrong information and they would send someone to get my paperwork so they could do the transfer from Paraná to São Paulo.

One week later.... I went back to the test center and to my surprise (only not so much), the office in my home state (Paraná) did their job poorly and they didn't send all my information... so the office in São Paulo would have to open a administrative process for them to send the rest of my information... Meanwhile... My thirty days bonus time expired... And I CANNOT drive until I sort all this mess out.

So, finally yesterday I was able to do the test and now it is just a matter of a few business day to have my new driver's license.