Making a fool of ourselves!

Living and Learning

As any person abroad, we have been facing some differences. In Brazil, for example, it is not common to use coin operated clothes dryer machine like here in North America. Because of that, we have an interesting story to tell you about our broad understanding of those machines. 

In the cottage that we initially were, there were two very similar machines, one with the lid on top, as we have in Brazil, and one with the lid on the front part. I chose the second one. I did not find the place to put the powder soap, but I thought the machine was so powerful that would wash and dry without powder soap. Sixty minutes later, I picked the clothes up. And all of them were warm. Perfect! I told my husband: "this machine is practical, but it does not wash very well, the clothes are not smelling good". And he said: "Maybe you should put the powder soap directly in the clothes". 

In the second use, I followed his advice and throw soap on top. But, again, I did not like the result... Week three: I selected the other machine. Sixty minutes later, clothes were washed and smelling good, but… still wet. So in that moment, finally, we had the great insight! We figured out that during our first two weeks we were “washing” the clothes in the clothes dryer machine!!! Of course the clothes did not smell good in the first two weeks… We laughed a lot and sometimes we remember how smart we were washing our clothes in the dryer.

Other funny story, now it happens at the gym. I was picking the weights gym up to work out and I thought that all the weights were weightless, so I chose the number “6” and said to myself: "Wow, I'm stronger here, working out with 6 Kg weight for each arm”. So, I was finding myself stronger during some weeks. Some weeks later, I was in a store that sells the same gym weights when I noticed that the weights were in pounds, not in kilograms. It means, I was working out with 2.73 kg.

The last one! The first time Renato and I went to the grocery store we did not have our own recyclable bags. And when we arrived at the cashier to pay, where are the plastic bags to put our purchase? There were no plastic bags with handles, only paper bags without handles. As a result, we walked back home (5 km) hugging the paper bags. Lesson learned. Now we always carry our recyclable bags and even earn cents off because of it.

Living and learning. See you!

Slowing down!

Kayaking class at Westwood Lake

As soon as we arrived in Nanaimo, we separated a day to go to VIU. Of course that every people we met asked us: which program will you guys take? And when we said “MBA”, everybody said with a grimaced face: “wow, it is a tough program, be prepared”. 

Well, the MBA started and we realized those guys were right… Tons of texts, assignments, tests, team projects and so on. Maybe this is the reason why VIU Campus Rec offers several outdoor and indoor activities to the students: not to allow them to become crazy!

We do not think the program is driving us crazy so far, however, just in case (!!) we thought that some different activities would be excellent to meet people and help us to be in shape! As a traditional Brazilian guy, I registered myself to play indoor soccer every Tuesday. Some minutes later, our Mexican friend Luis invited me to join the MBA All Stars team and play VIU’s Intramurals. Before he finished the invitation…I was already registering myself to the league and, thank God, now I am playing twice a week! My Brazilian friends do not believe me, because this situation is something like playing hockey twice a week in Brazil!

Of course Paty also should do something and she chose something that she was not so familiar: river kayaking! Brave girl… Although the Fall with its falling degrees was coming, she said, “I will”! The first class was taken in a typical British Columbian place: the Westwood Lake. The temperature was about 15 degrees (which for us is cold!), but she took the class and she entered the water. The best part is that she enjoyed that! The other classes were taken at Nanaimo River. The course was done and she learned how to kayak in different situations, had good times, made some new friends and the best part: left behind the stress! See you!

A day to say thanks...

Traditional Thanksgiving dinner

We are enjoying our first Canadian Fall. The temperature is dropping every day, as well as the leaves, that already adorn streets. In the beginning of autumn, specifically on the second Monday in October, Canada also celebrates Thanksgiving Day or Jour de l'Action de Grace in the Province of Quebec.

Weeks before the special day, we saw a different movement at the supermarkets. Everybody wants to buy turkey, the main dish of Thanksgiving, and the traditional pumpkin pie. There are all sizes of pumpkins to be purchased as well; some are already sold with decorative faces. They are being used in home decorating.

The central idea behind Thanksgiving is to be thankful for the past harvest and express gratitude in general. We received a very special invitation from our friend Karl to celebrate the day with his family.

It was a very nice night. House decorated with pumpkins, all family together (including the dogs: sweet Raffi and agitated Luca), games, good music and good drink (akavit, beer and wine) and, for sure, a delicious dinner. Traditional menu for the celebration: roast turkey and bread stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, sugar-beet and sweet potato pie. For dessert: pumpkin pie with ice cream. Hummmm... yummy!

Before dinner, Mary, Karl’s mother, talked a bit about Thanksgiving and invited Karl to express his gratitude. It was a beautiful moment in family. Our first celebration was really special and the family atmosphere made us feel closer to home. You can check some pictures here: http://tinyurl.com/233sjtl.

A special THANKS to all our readers this week. See you soon!

Where all the good people go?

With our friends Karl and Mariel, at The Butchart Gardens, in Victoria, BC

As we said and as everybody knows: this is a frozen land! Maybe, that is why Canadian people love to break the ice, start a conversation and be nice with people they have never seen before! It looks like we are still in Brazil, since people here are so receptive and solicitous. 

And we have lots of examples to prove it: Niki – a lovely VIU employee who answered patiently tons of e-mails we sent her asking for information about the University, about the city, about the weather, about places to watch the World Cup of Soccer; Ronda – owner of the place we stayed in our first two months in Nanaimo, who offered us a cabin with cable TV so we could watch Brazil’s World Cup games; Sterling – a bank account manager who, while we opened our student account, told us all his history in a funny way and recommended us to look for a bachelor in the building we are living today (now, he is also our neighbour!); Karl – our classmate and a brother: a former baseball player who is like a comedian, making us laugh all the time and also a person who is always offering help, tours, dinners...

If we will write about each nice Canadian we met and each interesting experience we had here in three months, nobody would read this post because it would be enormous! It has been a pleasant surprise and the point is that all of those good people and excellent feelings have helped us not to miss so much our country and family. Now, when Jack Johnson ask in that song “where all the good people go?”, we think with ourselves: all of them we do not know, but we are sure that some of them come to Canada!

As we met so many cool people here, it was impossible to write about other things now. So, on the next post, we will we share our first experiences at the land of maple leaf. See you soon!