update

The "charmed" life of living in a hotel for a month is drawing to a close, as we finally have the keys to our house! This is both faaabulous, and terrifying, as the move into our house also signifies my move out of the comfortable neighborhood in the large city of Campinas, into the much smaller, less walking distance town of Jaguariuna. And internet will be nonexistant for me for at least the next two weeks.

As I mentioned before, Jared is a genius and found a way to bring our local voIP (internet-y, like Vonage but cheaper) phone from Atlanta and plugged it our internet connection here in the hotel, and I've been able to have much less culture shock with the morning calls to my mom and chats with my girlfriends. What a blessing! But with 2 weeks to go until baby makes her entrance (although I'm guessing more like 3) I'll have no contact with the outside world. And venturing into town by myself, although fun, is a tad more complicated with the language barrier. I did it yesterday, and I seem to make a scene everywhere I go. People keep trying to talk to me, I tell them I don't speak Portuguese and then I get swarmed with well-meaning types. Yesterday I met the nicest Polish lady at one store and then a hoarde of teenagers that searched a local bazzar for a birthday gift for me to give Jared's 20-something coworker. None of them spoke English, by the way - it was my masterful use of the Portuguese language that ruled out in the end - Eu precisso de.... presente... anniversario... vinte anniversario... mulher???" Although it was confusing, a pretty picture frame was found and even wrapped by nice teen and all is good.

This is a shot of the front of the house:



The house is fun though - and ginormous. The first floor has 2 master bedrooms, 2 regular bedrooms, 2 half bathrooms and 3 full bathrooms - one including a jacuzzi and a waterfall, if you can believe that. Oh, and a dining room and the kitchen. All tile, so when Jared and I speak to each other even in the same room, the reverb is so thick I can't understand what the other is saying. We're going to have to invest in sound proofing for sure! I'm kind of interested in seeing how awesome I sound with my violin in there - it's like singing in the shower!

Jared's job is just as agrivating as any other, but he seems to be coping well. He's busy trying to get us all legal and such, and finding ways to cheer up my days. He found me a doctor that speaks enough English to understand me most of the time and we checkef out another hospital Yesterday that we hear has some of the better anesthesiologists (sp?) in the area. I likes those bits of advice!

A week from today, Grandma Paget flies into Sao Paulo to help with the impending entrance of baby. She'll be here for 3 weeks, and I'm hoping baby DOES show up soon after Mom's arrival, because I sure could use the help. I'm due October 3rd, and the baby has begun to go a tad lower in my belly, but I have an inkling that she'll be a little later than the 3rd. With the move being tomorrow, and her crib being all set up in her new bedroom, we're closer to being ready for her.

Wish us luck.... things are getting close to being quite nuts around here, stay tuned!

preparing to nest...

Hallelujah! Things are starting to move around here. We're getting more and more legal here - just spent all morning getting fingerprinted and notifying the police we're here, we have a rental car so we can get around this crazy town (although we get lost a few times a day), found a doctor - a woman who speaks Eglish AND has an office within 3 blocks of our new home, and speaking of home - I got to actually SEE it today! The rental contract has been taking forever, and we're hoping and praying to get the keys officially tomorrow. And good golly it is gorgeous!! Filthy and messy (it has been uninhabited for a few months now) but huge, with lots of rooms and space for potential. Oh, and the biggest jacuzzi tub I've ever seen - WITH a waterfall. That was a big selling point for me, I must say:)

I'm now at 37 weeks and ready to pop. I feel pretty huge, although people still don't believe I'm in my 9th month. I'm getting a lot of sympathy from Jared though, that helps! So what does a couple decide to do for a wild and crazy weekend when the mom-to-be is within weeks of delivering her first bebe? Last weekend, we hopped on an 8 hour bus ride to visit Jared's old mission on the other side of the state of Sao Paulo. The drive was positively miserable, but the visit was fabulous. We saw a couple Jared baptised 10 years ago! They had pictures of him as a hearty young missionary, and could barely recognize him now. They stuffed us with food and filled me with stories of Jared 10 years ago. Completely wonderful and worth the drive, although I doubt we will be hopping on a bus any time soon!

We'll hopefully get to start nesting in our new home very soon and I'll throw some pictures up of just how ginormous it all is. It will most likely be empty for the most part, but it just means there's more space for Baby Paget and I to dance around in. Have a loverly day!

Our town

A whole week! I've survived a whooole week in Brazil! Of course most of the week has been spent in my hotel room as Jared is hard at work all day, but I'm resting for the insanity that is to come in about a month. I'm a few days away from being at the 9 month mark and goood golly am I pooped! One more month to go.... AK!

For your viewing pleasure, Jared found me some pictures of Jaguariuna, the town we'll be living in. It's quite quaint and small, and it seems a heck of a lot easier to drive in than Campinas - the bigger city we're staying in now. Cross your fingers that the house rental things come through soon - I don't know how much more room service food I can handle!!

First Time?

It's about time that I get my say in things. I can't leave everything to the wife.

Although it's only been about 4 months total, this has been an unreal experience. When I was in school I studied international business. We talked over different scenarios to help us to understand different cultures. We did case studies to help us understand different business situations. We did thousands of little things to prepare us for life in the "business world". And now here I am.

I'm an American working in Brazil for a Singapore based company. My boss is a former business owner from Singapore. His boss is the VP of the company- who apparently has dedicated everything to this company. She travels 95% of her life. My boss is in Brazil for a "business trip" that lasts 90 days at a time, with two weeks home.

The primary business language in our office is Portuguese. I have to be completely bi-lingual though- as my boss doesn't speak the local language. English is spoken only when necessary. The cultural differences between the Singaporean and Brazilians is unreal. Americans are somewhere in the middle- which often leaves me right in that spot. I try to translate the Brazilian "we'll get it done whenever" to the Singaporan "DO IT NOW" and vice versa. This is a truely global experience.

Case in point: I arrived this morning expecting a PO that was promised me by my brazilian counterpart at our customer yesterday. In fact he told me the 4 times I called him yesterday that he was working on it right then and i'd have it FOR SURE in a half hour, 2 hrs, before 6 and before tomorrow morning. The PO wasn't in my inbox this morning. What I did have waiting for me first thing this morning was a phone call with Singapore and China about some equipment damaged in transit to Brazil. 45mins of my working our details with China for replacements. 1/2 the phonecall was in Chinese, half english.

I wanted International Business. Now I have it. All this time my poor wife sits bored out of her skull in a hotel- waiting for the realtor to get around to finishing up the rental contract for our house. She'll get to it sometime. Yesterday when I called she told me she was working on it. I'm beginning to believe that doesn't really mean what I think it means in Brazil...

BraSil, take one....

So this weekend, Jared rented a car and we got out and saw lots of loverly things - our home in the town we'll be living in (it's in the process of being rented right now), the largest mall in South America (I ate at McDonalds), the LDS temple in Campinas, and we even took a tour of the hospital we're thinking of giving birth in. And did I remember my camera the entire time??? GAH!

So far, I'm coping well. Jared is at work today and getting loads done (he does love to be productive) and today my big excitement was that I ventured out of the hotel alll by myself and bought myself some lunch. At 2 different stores! We're in a super safe neighborhood, but I've never been by myself somewhere that I couldn't speak the language. It's a tad terrifying. So far I can say

Obrigada = thank you
Tudo bem = how's it going?
Eu no falo Portuguese = I don't speak Portuguese

I'm good:)

Oh, and one reason that I am not too terrified is that Jared had this BRILLIANT idea - we have an digital internet phone - we just plug into our router and call all over the states, even parts of Europe - all for the low low price of $20 a month. Well, Jared wondered if he came to Brazil and took all his equipment and plugged it into the internet here, wouldn't it work? And dagnabit, it DOES!!! I'm sitting here in Brasil, and I have already spoken to people in California, Georgia, Texas and Colorado. Oh, I don't think I could survive this without that blessing. So if you have our home number in Atlanta, you can continue to call and chat with us. We're here! Cool, huh????

And before I go, here are some pics Jared's mom snapped of us at the airport as we embarked on this wacky adventure:

Alll of our huggage:



Holy crap, this is all ours???


She wanted a close up of the big tummy:



And here's the one for the photo album -


Enjoy!

destination: known

Just a jet-lagged note to tell the world that we're here and we're fine. Brazil isn't all THAT scary looking!

Leaving on a jet plane

No pictures tonight - just a quick note to say that the tickets are bought - the bags have been packed and unpacked, and we are officially leaving for Brazil tomorrow night. The baby has been kicking like mad, but I'm pretty sure she'll stay in there for the flight at least - she's not due for 6 more weeks, but you hear way too many crazy stories from people at times like these.

Next post is going to be from a hotel in Campinas... AK!

Passing time

While our brave hero is off in Brazil, I am here home, fretting and making a general nuisance of myself. We're waiting for his work authorization, and it's getting to be crunch time as I now am in my 3rd trimester and as of September 3rd, I'm not allowed to fly. If I give birth here, I'm stranded in the states until the baby's paperwork comes in, at least a few more months. It's seriously enough to drive me absolutely crazy!!

So I was lucky enough this week to have my dear friend Annie come visit me and try to distract me from all the insanity! And in the spirit of distracting me and helping me enjoy my last few months of pregnancy, it was her briiiiliant idea to go on a road trip to Savannah, Georgia this week! Here is all the picture-y goodness!

Here we are with our obligatory in-the-car heading-out-for-adventure shot:


Our first stop was the infamous Pirate House were we relaxed and soaked in some local folklore:



Everyone visiting the Pirate House should definately check out their daquiris - this pregnant lady gives it at least one thumb up! (disclaimer - it was Annie's AND it's a virgin daquiri - the picture was too priceless to pass up:)



Next we took a tour of the haunted spots in Savannah - quite creepy stuff! We're standing on a bunch of dead bodies (they found a whole bunch are under this street!) with our awesome tour guide:



Then Annie had found out about some place called the Crab Shack in a guidebook she'd read - and good golly am I glad she's literate!! It was the funnest place I think I've ever eaten at - there were live alligators to gawk at (Annie has a thing for the gators) and ever table had a huge hole in the middle with a garbage can right there so after you eat the shellfish, you can chuck the shells right there in the trash. Hysterical!! So of course I had to get some shellfish, and I got my favorite - crawdads!!!

Annie took a picture of me taking a picture of my crawdads:



Did I mention I love crawdads??

The next day we went by a famous fort... my memory is not serving me well as to what the name was, because it was so hot we almost passed out! But we stuck through it long enough to take a picture of this guy - in a full WOOL uniform in 90 degree temperatures!! Insane man, and he's even smiling!





After that, the beach on Tybee Island was unquestionable. We were so hot we barely even made it to the water, but oh, it was so worth it when we got there! Here is me in all my pregnanty glory:



The partners in crime:



More of my pregnanty glory:



We both made signs in the sand for our husbands, but I made this especially for all of y'all in internet land:




Then on the way home, we tried to see how many places in the car we could get gummy bears to stick. Yup....






So that was our loverly weekend. Still biding time until the husband returns....

From the top

Let's do a little math...

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One heckuva ride. More to follow...