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| Half of the Huge Mall in Brasilia |
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| Andrea, Quinn and Darrell Crossing the Road in Brasilia, Brazil |
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| My Lunch Plate at the Feijoada Buffet |
Saturday. 6. Today Darrell and I woke up early around 5:30 am. The others in the apartment and even the Brazilian neighbors sleep later into the morning. We got up around 6am and were quiet in the apartment to go out into one of the sun rooms with our yoga mats to exercise together. Today we did a 40 minute exercise of DDP yoga. Then we made breakfast of eggs, toast, and coffee. Darrell likes cheese and I like avocado with my breakfast. We enjoy the quiet of the morning. We hang out at the apartment most of the morning. Jeremy and Quinn get up after seven and then Andrea follows them. Darrell gets his Saturday blog and mailing to his Bible students, mostly in Kenya, all completed. Around 11am we take Quinn with his scooter to the close playground. He rides around for about a half hour and then we ride the elevator back up to the 3rd floor apartment to put away the scooter and get ready to leave for our lunch reservation. We all go down to the underground parking and get into the family car. Jeremy drives us about 15 minutes to a lunch place. The local specialty is called feijoada. It is a buffet with Brazilian meat and bean stew. Jeremy said that the beans and meat would be mixed together in the stew, but at this restaurant they have a choice of 4-5 kinds of meats that are served separately and you choose and mix your own stew ingredients. Besides black beans, rice and meat there is also thin sliced and lightly cooked collard greens. Also is a lettuce salad topped with tomatoes and dill pickle slices. And there are caramelized bananas and sliced fresh oranges. We order bottles of water and fill our plates. The meats were all delicious and each unique in it’s spice. The meal was filling and enjoyable. After lunch we went to a giant shopping mall and walked around for an hour. Darrel and I got ice cream while we were there. We came back to the house and I took a nap. We went out for a walk in the late afternoon and had a light dinner.
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| Steak Lunch on Sunday at the Closed Highway Street Party |
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| Fancy Sunday Lunch Restaurant |
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| Uruguayan Grilled Steak with Sides |
Sunday. 7. Today Darrell made pancakes for breakfast. Everyone enjoyed them. Close to 10am Jeremy drove us to the local church that we’ve been attending on Sundays. Quinn decided to go with us. He went to the kids class while we were there. We came back to the apartment afterwards and walked to the closed highway for lunch at an Uruguayan steak restaurant. The steaks were amazing. Three of us ate an amazing meal for $44! Andrea and Quinn went to take care of a friend’s cat while the friends are on holiday. We stayed in the apartment relaxing the rest of the afternoon. I made a chocolate microwave mug cake and shared it with Quinn. He loves to see what treats the adults are having and then getting a bit for himself! Lol. He also keeps asking to play Candyland over and over. We took an evening walk as the sun goes down here at about 6pm.
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| Mid-morning at French Pastry Shop |
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| Scene Walking in Jeremy's Neighborhood in Brasilia, Brazil |
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| Quinn Having a Sweet Bun at Madame Brioche Cafe |
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| One Little Marmaset |
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| Phone Call to Owen in Alabama and Quinn Listening In. |
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| Quinn Getting Grandpa Time. Grandpa Resting. |
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| Sturdy Built-in Shelves That Darrell Banged His Head On |
Monday. 8.
Tuesday. 9. Darrell’s folks wedding anniversary. They are 90 years old and got married in 1956. This is also Jeremy and Andrea’s wedding anniversary number 11 I think. I’m reading a book called the Sleep Apnea Solution. I’m on my second day of diaphragm breathing exercises. I’ve discovered that my inhalation ability is needy. I’m going to work on this exercise regularly now in hopes that my snoring will improve. I’ve been dealing with snoring for several years now and it bothers Darrell more than me! Lol. Not really funny. We went to a french pastry restaurant for mid morning coffee and pastry. In the evening Jeremy and Andrea went out for their anniversary. We took Quinn to the playground and then made popcorn and watched cartoons til bedtime.
Wednesday. 10.
Thursday. 11. Today we stayed mostly at the apartment. We went out at mid-morning with Quinn to the French pastry shop and enjoyed a pastry and coffee. We brought a loaf of bread back to go with Andrea’s Italian dinner. After lunch Andrea took Quinn and went to do some errands and visiting. I had the instructions to preheat the oven and get the casserole warmed for dinner. During the afternoon Darrell researched airline tickets for some of our upcoming travel. I called the car storage garage in Ft. Lauderdale for November-January. I did my 4th day of breathing exercises from my book “Sleep Apnea Solution”. I also watched one of the doctor’s video lessons that came to my inbox. We all ate dinner together and enjoyed visiting at the end of the day. Darrell and I had an interview for a pet/house sit in Texas. In the evening we heard back that we were not selected for this particular sit. She liked us but the other applicant could do two dated in the same month that we could not. That freed us up to select a property on airbnb to stay near Darrell’s folks for our visit there. We decided on a full sized house next to the neighborhood that they live in. Hopefully we can have them and Darrell’s sister and daughter over some for meals or patio visits. We will be there for almost a month.
Friday. 12. Andrea and I are going to tile class today. It is my third class. I have two projects going and hopefully will finish them today. I have a key holder shaped like a house and two coasters. Darrell will stay with Quinn while we go to craft class. Darrell and I wake up between 5 and 6 am. Darrell hit the top of his head on a low-hanging shelf next to his side of the bed. It was bleeding and we had to take care of that with Darrell’s first aid kit in our lighted bathroom. More on travel and injury in Nomad Notes. Darrell is recovering through the day from his head cut. At dinner time we all walked to the Syrian restaurant for dinner. Our basic order was flatbread sandwiches with a garlic sauce and Andrea added in an order of falafel that came with tahini and a small meat pie. Two of the sandwiches came with fries and we had drinks too. It was just the perfect temperature to eat outside and enjoy the evening.
Nomad Notes.
Winter in Brasilia means 75 degrees, sun, no rain, and some dried leaves. A couple talked to us at the grocery store. She told Darrell that her favorite ice cream flavor was the deep double chocolate. Both she and her husband said that it is far too cold to eat ice cream now! We sort of laughed and she said, "it's not cold for you, is it?”.
Favorite Food Finds: So far we have found our favorite foods have been the French pastry shop! Darrell loved his t-bone steak on Sunday at the outdoor Uruguay restaurant. I enjoyed that food too! We both really liked the Syrian restaurant too, and hope to go back at least one more time before we leave on Tuesday night. We’ve been buying sourdough bread at a local kiosk that sells bulk health foods. Darrell likes a soft cheese that comes in a cup with a lid. It tastes a lot like Laughing Cow cheese in the US, but it is slightly softer. I love that it is tropical and we can get fresh produce that is local. I have enjoyed eating the acai berry soft serve dessert.
Brazil Highlights for Me: We have enjoyed walking through the neighborhoods here with the shaded tree pathways. The Sunday closed highway street party has been an amazing and fun event for us. This season makes for perfect weather and being outside is very nice. Most restaurants have outdoor seating. With the dry weather, there are little to no bugs to deal with. Andrea assured us that the rainy season has mosquitos that they have to defend against. We should learn about the rainy season when we come back in December. Having our kids speak Portuguese has definitely made our time here easier. The people we have done business with have been super nice to help us through the process when they don’t speak english and we don’t speak portuguese. It’s worked out well. Some people have approached us to speak English with us. They like to practice and talk about culture or politics. Doing the tile classes with Andrea have been a treat! Spending time with Quinn at his age 3 will be remembered and treasured by us as his grandparents! I told him that he was my blessing and he smiled and giggled a little! It was so sweet. I then told him that I am your blessing too! It’s been such a sweet time for us all!
I’ve read the Sleep Apnea Solution book this week and began implementing the exercises and strategies to improve my ‘scores’ on different sleeping and breathing ratings. On the ‘resting pause’ score I started at 14. Today I’m at 20. The goal is to get to 30-40. Hopefully my snoring will improve as my score improves. I have a sleep study appointment at the end of October in Madison, Alabama. I’ll see how I do with these self-help techniques up until then!
Travel and Injury: In our bedroom at this apartment in Brasilia there are fixed box shaped shelves on the wall. One of the boxes has a low corner and the shelves are about 8 inches deep and coming out from the wall this depth. When Darrell got out of bed, he was bent over and came up hitting the top center of his head at the hard corner of the shelf. Our room was dimly lit as we were the first in the house up and trying to be quiet. He tells me he hit his head but it’s not bleeding much. I go around the bed with a tissue and dab the blood on the tissue and show him it’s a bit worse than he is aware. We move to the bathroom across the hallway. I look at it in the light. He goes back to our room and gets our first aid kit. I cleaned up his wound. It looks pretty bad as a gash with three lines of skin break. The bleeding has mostly stopped. I put some antibiotic cream and a bandage onto Darrell’s balding spot and some of the bandage sticks to hair too. I feel bad for him. He’s got an injury from living in a room for 5 weeks with shelves to avoid hitting. Now he’s hit one in our final week before leaving. I think about moving our bed a few more inches from the wall to give him some more room, and less chance of doing it again. So, this is when I think of traveling around and our injuries, our avoidance of injuries, our daily modifications for where we are living,sleeping, and traveling to limit bumps, bruises and breaks. With changing environments, bedrooms, houses, vehicles, and generally new and unfamiliar territory, taking care and observing our surroundings is an ongoing activity. When we owned a house, I had injuries at our house too. Living in a familiar surrounding in your own house for years becomes familiar and generally safe. Living in different houses and situations puts us on the lookout for keeping safe within our current space.
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