Life in the slow lane

So i havent gotten into the rhythm of a schedule yet, which means i have to sit here in this little room on this foreign computer to type all my emails and blogs...please excuse all the typos and random mix of thoughts. I am certain it will get better and I will get more organized in the next week or so.

I figured this week I would share with you some of the things that I find very odd here...

1. the Brazilian nun who is my roommate has more shoes than I do

2.  we dont have a mirror in our bathroom, or anywhere else for that matter.  some houses in the fazenda do so i will buy one when i go to town.  ive been using a 2 in square one and while i dont necessarilly need a full length mirror i would like to see my entire face at once

3. bats run on our roof at night--all night.  at first i thought they were rats and i asked a girl and of course i had no idea what she said and the word she used wasnt in my portuguese dictionary.  i had a dream that night that she had said `ratas bananas` which in my awful portuguese means banana rats and then i saw huge yellow rats falling from the trees.  thank God it was a dream.  but the bats are real and now i sleep with earplugs so im not freaked out all night.

4. we dont have a coffee pot.  we make coffee by pouring hot water through a filter with coffee held over a thermos.  despite this difficulty i still drink 3-4 cups a day.

5. i am starting to speak portuguese with a french accent.  there are some french boy scouts (i didnt even know there was such a thing) here for a month doing service work.  they are not expected to learn portuguese (like i am) and so all the french people living here (and there are lots) speak to them in french.  last night at my house we had 6 people at our house for dinner.  1 spoke portuguese and english, 1 spoke portuguese and french, 1 spoke french and english, 1 spoke only english (me, I can understand portuguese, but it´s not great), 1 spoke only french, and 1 spoke only portuguese....you can imagine the conversations!  Add to that my sparse knowledge of spanish and italian and you can imagine the mess of words in my head.

6.  it took me nearly 3 hours (of non stop manual labor) to do 5 days worth of laundry today.  and it was only my laundry.  i have a lot to learn...oh and an hour later it started to rain.  an extra rinse cycle should be good right?

other than that, it is beautiful here.  the landscape is like a dream and i have been very fortuante that the weather is amazing.  partly cloudy, only a little rain, breezy, nice and cool.  there is always music in the fazenda.  someone is singing´, playing the flute, violin, guitar, or recorder, or in some cases (like when all the french scouts sings together) howling like happy wolves.  Ive had no problem jumping right in and singing my american songs :)

this weekend I should be able to post some photos and video.  i have a great one from my welcoming party when everyone was singing to me :) 

i miss you all dearly (and my washing machine, espresso maker, pillow top bed, etc), but i know that this is the sort of life I asked for...for a little while at least.

tudo meu amor (all my love),
Sunny