Rio!

I went to Rio last weekend! Long overdue, what a great city to visit! And one of the families my Dad taught on his LDS mission offered to let me stay with them.....not only did they let me stay with them, but they took me all over town! And taught me a bit a Portuguese. Of which my favorite word was "Caraca!" (emphasis on the "a" in the middle). Sounds a bit like Caracas, and it's the equivalent of like "Holy Cow!" But I digress.

The "kids" of the family my dad taught are all grown up now, married with kids of their own. Great families! Junior now works as an architect on restoration projects, and he gave me a cultural/historical tour of the city. Saw the cultural museum he works at, with great exhibits, and the courtroom that was used by the Brazilian Supreme Court until they moved the capital to Brasilia.

Then I got the amazing chance to go with him and some of his fellow restor-ians to Ilha Fiscal (or "Tax Island"), where they used to collect taxes from the ships coming in before they made port. Looked more like a castle to me!

This is me trying to be an artsy photographer like my sister. Not bad for never having had a class, eh? She says that I did a good job with the "framing" of the palm tree. Why, thank you :)


Here I am with Juliana, one of the "kids' kids." I do think the kids were a little disappointment in my lack of Portuguese abilities. Next time! I was definitely getting better at it by my 3rd day there, but then I had to leave. But we did find that you didn't need a common language to take silly photos together, so we took lots. Funny story -- after Juliana gave one of the blessings on the food, she said "Aw, Dad, she didn't understand anything I said." And I said "I understood that!" But it was true, I only understood the "amen."


Here I am with Adriana, one of the "kids" from the family my Dad taught. She was also my cousins' nanny when I was little, so we had a great time reminiscing and catching up. And her English was great! It gives me hope that I can retain my Spanish even after it's been awhile.


And here I am with one of the other "kids," Junior, and his wife Renata. Great people. P.S., you say the "R" like an "H" if it comes at the beginning of the word, or if it's a double-R in the middle. I.e. "Hio de Janeiro," "Caho" for carro, and "Henata." But of course, I think half of you who read this blog already knew that. The linguistics dork in me was fascinated by this. In Spanish, you roll the R when it's at the front of the word or a double, but the "H" sound reminds me more of the gutteral (sp?) French R. Fascinating. Moving on.

I wanted to give you all a play-by-play of something we saw in the national park we visited, Tijuca. It was beautiful! And we went to this....cliff.....where para-sailers and hang-gliders jump off. Wow! Here is one of the brave souls, getting ready to go


But wait, he had to make a phone call. It lasted for several minutes. I was trying to decide if he was saying "Yeah, honey, I'm about ready to go, just meet me down on the beach in a few minutes." Or if it was "Hi honey, I just wanted to tell you I love you, in case I don't make it." You decide.


And he's off!


And sailing down to the incredible Brazilian beach below.


This is the famous Cristo statue. So yes, I saw it. But he was covered in scaffolding, as part of a restoration project, so we didn't go up. Next time. I would complain more, but it made me so happy to wander the city and see all of this restoring going on. Well done, Rio!


Of course, you can't visit Rio without seeing one of the favela's. This is a photo (from the car) of Rocinha, the largest favela in Brazil. On another occasion, we were driving past a different favela, and saw that they had started putting up walls (apparently as part of preparations for the World Cup and Olympics). I had heard about such walls, and thought I remembered them being assosciated with some sort of controversy. I asked if the people from the favelas were offended or angry about the walls. Not really, was the answer. The privacy would be nice. Maybe true. I need to read up on the walls a bit more.


As part of my culturally-packed weekend, we went to the ballet! And not just any ballet, but Don Quixote! Which I have actually read, but have apparently completely forgotten, because I still have no idea who two of the main characters from the ballet were, and what their part in the story was.

Well, the spoiling-of-Shannon-while-in-Rio continues. Adriana knew someone from church whose son was in the ballet that night, and they all ushered me backstage afterwards to meet the cast and get pictures. Here is a picture of me with Don Quixote! He had already taken his beard off, so we were laughing about that. And P.S. you pronounce it "Don Quizhoche" in Portuguese, which caused some confusion for me in the middle of the play. "There's Don Quixote!" "Who?" "Don Quixote!" "Who?" "Don Quixote!" "Oh, Don Quixote!"


One more picture of me and Juliana, and of course, Kevin Costner. We just call him Kevin.

Avocados and Sloths

Avocados are really big here....




And sloths are really slow.... I almost ran over one the other night. At first I thought it was a dog, because the headlights reflecting on it made it look the color of a golden retriever....then I thought it was a wounded dog.....it was moving SOOOOOOOOOOO SLOOOOOOOOOOOW. Then I thought it was a dying dog, reaching out its paw with it's dying breath......and then this little face turned and looked up at my car. I SCREAMED! I'm not sure what I thought it was, but I had a lot of scary thoughts flash through my head. Luckily, I have a very thoughtful mother who sent me this picture she found on the internet, to help me laugh a little. Doesn't it make you laugh too!? Why do these sloths think they have a chance!?! STAY ON THE SIDEWALK WHERE YOU BELONG! Or in a tree, more like.

I *heart* ping pong

Tonight there was a ping pong tournament at the Marine House. Intense. I love ping pong. There were about 20 of us playing, I lost in the first round (but I did make it go to three games!). Luckily in the second round, they needed someone to come up from the loser's bracket to fill in and even out the numbers, so I got to play again! Lost again, but my rhythm started coming back.... Then in the third round, my name got called out again to play! I was like "guys, I've already lost twice. There's no way I can play again." And that ended up being true. But in chatting with someone afterwards, we realized it was probably because it was getting hard to make the numbers work without any "byes" (you know, where someone doesn't have an opponent for a round, to even out the numbers). So I laughed, and told the organizer "ha, I get it, I'm the bye (comodin, in Spanish, as I have now learned)." I thought it was a pretty good joke. And he looked at me and said, yes, that's right. Oh.

Anyway, it was a great time, and you would not believe the incredible ping pong talent that came out of the embassy woodwork. Wow! There was one lady who I have seen at the embassy on occasion, quiet, never really talked to her.....well, she came to play. My jaw was on the floor, it was like watching little Mrs. Campbell from down the street walk over to your basketball goal, take the ball from you, and slam dunk. So great.

So, thank you to my family for playing ping pong with me, and I send you my sincerest regrets that the only thing we did with our table while we had it was....not use it, and instead try to hit each other with the ball. What a waste. And thank you to the Barlow Center Crew, who really helped hone my skills back in the day. And who gave me such a love of (or obsession with) ping pong that I cried the day I had to leave the B-Low. Yes, I was going to miss you all too, but I was mostly crying about leaving the table. Can we still be friends?

Northanger Abbey

Photo: Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images

There IS a point to this picture.

I'm currently reading Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (thanks Ashton and Marie!), and Ms. Austen is cracking me up. This book's style seems quite different to me, compared to Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility. Her satirical punches are still there, but they're much more subtle (though just as hilarious). I think most of her satire in Pride and Prejudice comes in the form of Mr. Bennett's snide remarks. In Northanger Abbey, Ms. Austen makes the comments herself.

Also interesting: she goes into GREAT detail about the town of Bath, how the purpose of the city was for everyone to mill about, observe everyone else, gossip, make contacts, and get healthy if you're sick, I guess. Oh, and it isVERY poor mannered to go riding about in an open-topped carriage, especially with someone of the opposite sex, and ESPECIALLY (heaven forbid) if they are not your sibling. *satire*

My favorite quote thus far:

"She [Catherine] was heartily ashamed of her ignorance [of not knowing anything about drawing]. A misplaced shame. Where people wish to attach, they should always be ignorant. To come with a well-informed mind, is to come with an inability of administering to the vanity of others, which a sensible person would always wish to avoid. A woman especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing any thing, should conceal it as well as she can."

Do you think Ms. Austen's sagacity no longer applies? Have you ever pretended not to know something, so that some guy (or girl) you liked could explain it all to you, trying to impress? Oh yeah, I'm thinking of at least a couple times watching football when I knew full well what the signal for a safety was, or why a team chose to do an onside kick, but did I let on? Heck no. Go Jane Austen, you sure know how to call it like you see it.

DISNEY!!!

So, a couple weeks back, my family and I did the most spontaneous thing in the history of our family's existence (est. 1984). WE MET UP IN DISNEYWORLD!!! Orlando is about halfway between Caracas and D.C., and since I was promised when Mom was pregnant with the twins (circa 1997) that we would all go as a family someday, we decided that there's never been a better time, to make our dreams come true. :)


We went around the world at Epcot, did the obligatory Teacups, Small World, and Pirates rides. Thank heavens we've finally all matured enough that no one wanted to ride on the Dumbo ride. But I guess someone in the family still hasn't quite grown up, because when Mom wanted a nice family picture in front of Dumbo, she made the mistake of calling out "Look like an elephant!" The results are below.


I definitely got in trouble for ruining the moment, though now every time I look at this picture, I can't stop laughing. I'm such a dork! That's my elephant trunk, by the way, for those of you with no imagination.

The whole family rode Space Mountain, which was a huge triumph for some members of our family. We also went on Soarin', the paragliding ride over California. Totally rad. Our family-size Ghiradelli's ice cream sundae was heavenly, and we sampled Norweigen, French, and Irish food. And the antics didn't stop:

We gave it our all, trying to get the sword out of the stone...


But Michael had to step in, as we all watched in awe.


Us three older kids slipped away in the evening to Hollywood Studios, primarily for the STAR WARS ride. The jump to light speed was particularly awesome. We also got our pictures with C-3PO, an AT-VT, and we each got a shot of us on a forest speeder. Awesome.


Luckily, we had some extra time, and decided to swing by Tower of Terror. As we stood in line, Rachel and I kept commenting on how crazy it was that we were going on this ride, as we had both sworn we wouldn't. Michael, who had been and had told us it wasn't so bad said "I don't know how I convinced you to come on this ride, I don't really like it." WHAT!?!?! By that time it was too late, and there was a 10 year old in line ahead of me going by herself so I figured I could handle it. It was OK.

As we were walking out of the park, we saw what looked like the entrance to a concert hall. And it said Aerosmith. And I thought "An Aerosmith concert?" But NOOOO, it was a Rockin' Aerosmith Rollercoaster! Oh my gosh, it was literally the most awesome rollercoaster I have ever been on! They set it up like you were late to the concert, up flew a "stretch limo," you got in, and.....there are no words. Pretty much it just shoots you forward like a rocket, and then you twist and turn (upside-down, even) through the streets of L.A. trying to get to the concert, with rock music in the background. We watched the car before us fly off, and everyone's jaws were on the ground, even the 250lb macho dudes in front of us were like "Whoa."

So that's my Disney update. I didn't mean to dedicate an entire paragraph to that Rockin' Rollercoaster, and I don't mean to imply that it's one of the 100 things you should do before you die, but, well, it is.

OK, drought's over

Not THAT drought. The reservoir and dam where Venezuela produces most of its electricity are still dangerously low. I'm talking about my drought in blogging.

Now, I've never fasted for Lent, but I decided the other day, if I were to fast for Lent, I would give up reading Harry Potter for 40 days. I've been reading the series in Spanish, and I get just as absorbed as I do when reading them in English. Unfortunately. Hence the total lack of blogging, and the fact that I'm STILL not quite totally....unpacked. So, in a moment of desperation, I told myself I'd have to give up Harry Potter.....which turned into this crazy idea that I needed to finish the last book before Lent started, 'cause there was no way I could go 40 days with out sneaking a peak at the last few chapters. So last night, I am proud to announce, I finished the last of the 3,670 pages of the series. And I nearly couldn't stay awake while interviewing today, but no matter :) You actual-Lent-practicioners can go ahead and give me a hard time, I think I cheated.

Anyway, I'm going to bed, but I wanted to say that 1) I'm back to blogging, 2) that maybe you think I'm crazy talking about Lent and Harry Potter in the same blog post, and 3) that I walked away from reading the series yet again in awe about how love is more powerful than any other force you'll find in this world. And now that I'm done being self absorbed in a book series, maybe I'll find a little more time to share it. Love,that is, not the books.

Happy New Year!

I still had people telling me Happy New Year last week, so I figured it was OK that my New Year's post was more than two weeks late...

I was going to do a whole post on the New Year's festivities here, but I couldn't get the video to upload (dang it). Just imagine....a warzone. Have I told you that fireworks are an obsession here? As in: they had fireworks ON STAGE at the Nutcracker Ballet. I thought for sure something was going to catch on fire. But it was kind of cool. After living here two years, I'm either going to turn into a fireworks-hater or a pyro.

Anyway, this year at midnight, we kind of missed the countdown, then all of a sudden, it sounded like a mortar attack!

DUCK AND COVER!!!

And then we shouted Happy New Year.

And then we relived the countdown at 12:30 while we watched the ball drop in New York.

I've never lived in a war zone, but the flashing lights throughout the valley, and the constant booming through the night were definitely....bellicose. Or belligerant? And, no joke, some neighbors from the building we were in.....were shooting fireworks off the roof, and these fireworks had an uncharacteristic downward trajectory. A couple did their *pop!* right outside the window, so we leaned out and shouted "MAS ARRIBA, MAS ARRIBA!!!" Well, that worked for awhile, until one firework came zooming in and *popped!* right in the living room! Yeah, we slid the window shut pretty fast.

In more recent news, this past weekend, I went with a bunch of folks to Morrocoy National Park.
It was beautiful! Pictures coming up below.....we caravaned in 3 cars, mine being one of them, and let me tell you -- caravanning is an art. It is IMPERATIVE that you know the signals and the plays ("he's running defense for you, go!"). I think it's going to take a couple more instructional sessions until I can pass Caravanning 101.

Morrocoy is a national park made up of islands, or cays. It's also kind of like a wildlife preserve -- we saw flamingoes!!! Whole flocks of them. When they all took off out of the water and started flying away, I felt like I was ON SITE for a National Geographic filming. No good pics of that, sorry.

Our journey through the national park started with finding the boat and boater who had been recommended to us. Which was tricky. After driving for what felt like hours, through hills and dales and deserty wastelands (which my Jeep loved), we found the place. We jumped on the boat, and headed through.....

THE MANGROVES!!!

They were beautiful, the trees with their giant roots came right down into the water. There were "roads" cut through the trees that we followed till we got to the ocean.

And the ocean was gorgeous. So clear. At various points, our guide jumped in and brought up a starfish or sea urchin for us to check out. The picture above is of "La Piscina," or "The Pool," where everyone parks their boats and gets out to swim. It's shallow, crystal clear, and the perfect temperature. So awesome.

Then our final stop was one of the bigger cays, Cayo Sombrero. By that point, we were all pretty pink, so we found a perfect spot under the palm trees, and lathered on some more 50 spf. I think the locals thought we were crazy. I reapplied about an hour later :)

So that was our trip! Not bad, eh?