My teaching partner - Noah - catching a nap on the beach. Wish I could do that!

 Walking to the beach - still perplexed at the condition of the buildings and roads - Joselia (our host teacher) seemed to think it was just the norm. Never could get an answer to why things were so uncared for.

Made it to the coast - SOMEHOW - guess God was watching over us - This was an interesting experience. On the way to the coast I noticed so many unfinished buildings and many, many examples of what we would consider poverty. Literally mud brick huts w/thatched palm roofs - but satellite dishes outside each! When we got to the coast - building after building were dilapidated and unfinished. Felt as if I was on the set of Mad Max - post apocalypse film.   The beach was nice and not very crowded. I walked for an hour down the beach enjoying the moment and still happy I was in one piece :).

Saturday June 16th - We set off on a harrowing journey to the coast of Piaui - I have lots of pics to add to this post. The harrowing part of the day was the driver!! I kid you not - he drove an average of 90-100mph the entire time!!!! I had visions of carnage, but somehow we made it. When we did slow down (because in Brazil the government puts massive speed bumps on the road as you approach any town or village - thank God!!!) I took lots of images from the window of the death mobile. Scenes from a car!!!

Finally catching up on My BLOG - our week in Terezina was so crazy and days were so long I had little time or motivation to stay on top of the blogging.

Friday June 15th was my birthday eve and that night my new Brazilian friends - Super mario and Cristian - I have two new friends for life!!!

We started early again today - Noah (my colleague here in Teresina) and I presented to two classes today.  Awesome kids. They were all English I students and I felt like I was in a scene out of Good morning Vietnam. More classes today and then off to a festival called the June Festival (will write the Portuguese name later) - apparently lots of dancing and you know I can dance!!! LOL - will post pics of that later - just hope my dancing won't cause an international incident. Having an awesome time!!

Wow - where do i start? Missed posting yesterday but what a great day again in Brazil. We spent the morning at Marista private Catholic school where the students were amazing. I wish our students could speak a foreign language as fluently and with the confidence of the students at this school. They came right up and started talking - asking great questions and never missed a beat. After a great lunch on the lago we went to a foreign language school (I'll go back later and add all the names of the schools) again the students were so fluent and just wanted to talk and learn about us and America.
Made to our host city today and we went right to work (but not after a great lunch of local cuisine) we talked and interacted with seven classes. Wow - we were pretty worn out, but in a great way. The student's ages ranged from 15 to 45 and they were genuinely interested in learning to speak English. They asked so many questions and we laughed and learned from each other for about 4 hours. After all that fun went we out for another amazing meal - I'll post pics

Long day tomorrow and then off to the shore -

What a fantastic day in Brazil. we went to spend the day with students at the Elefante Branco (white elephant) high school in Brasilia. The students and the faculty were great. Lots of smiles and great questions - looking forward to going to more schools tomorrow. Kids are kids - no matter where you go :)

TGC Teachers with the faculty and staff of Elefante Branco

 The principal was fantastic - she treated us to a great lunch and made us feel part of the school

 This young man was amazing - he spoke fluent English and he said he learned most of it by watching Youtube videos and copying the way the people talked. What a small digital world we live in. He will be a success!!

Another awesome day in Brasilia. Went to the US embassy (no pics please!!!) met with some great folks that will share some great info about teacher and student opportunities to travel to Brazil. I'll share them here and on Facebook. Then met a really progressive Brazilian Senator - kind of socialistic ideas but relevant to Brazil and the current state of education and economic changes. Tomorrow a chance to interact with students and teachers - can't wait! 

Wow - we got to Brasilia - tired but excited to see this very unique city. Planned is the best way to describe this amazing place. Really reminds me of Disney World - lots of futuristic buildings and lots of wide open spaces. The teachers in this group are great - lots of laughs and conversation. Tomorrow we get to visit schools and the Brazilian Congress. Lots of great images to share - hope you like them.

The adventure begins - at the CAE?? don't know why they call Columbia airport CAE , but oh well. Going to ATL to meet the rest of the teachers in our group. We leave ATL at 9 and get to Brasilia tomorrow morning about 6.

Packed and ready to go. This is going to be an amazing adventure. Wow - Brazil
I'll be updating as I can

Here we are at Six Flags over GA

The girls had a great day!!!

Sorry - Guess I should at least introduce this Blog
I hope to chronicle my journeys near and far. Please excuse any English faux pas - I'll be freestylin some days.
Please add comments and suggestions of locations to visit and places to eat.  I'll be adding pictures to the blog but most of my images will be on my flickr site. I'll post the link later
Enjoy

Two days until my journey to Brazil. So what am I doing? Going to ride rollercoasters at Six Flags over Ga. with my awesome daughter, her BFF and one of my best and oldest friends (and his kids).  So as the blog title suggests - Life is a trip - just hope the coasters don't make me ill today!!!