Hello Family & Friends! Our first week on the island of Florianópolis (nicknamed "Floripa") has been wonderful. We have learned so much about southern Brazilian life and culture as we adjust to the language, food, and customs here.
We celebrated Naima's 11th birthday this past week and Alex lost his second tooth! Now it is Winter here, which means that the temp hits about 70 degrees during the day, but at night it is COLD. We don't have heat or air but we are adjusting and the two space heaters that we bought today should help. (The cooler temps also mean no mosquitos!) We have been slowly discovering other comforts of home: a mall with a McDonald's (!) and a superstore owned by Walmart, plenty of parks for the kids, and great wifi, which means the kids can stream Netflix. Kenny is doing very well too and thanks to Skype and remote access, he can still stay in touch with his office.
My class is doing great. The picture posted above is the view from my classroom! It's amazing!!! The students in my class are very engaged; the majority of them are students from the local university here, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (or UFSC, pronounced "Oof-skee"). I'm giving a talk about my research at UFSC to the faculty and students in the post-graduate English program this Tuesday.
Below are a few pictures from our first week. On Saturday, we went on a tour of the island and saw several of the nearly 40 beaches here. Naima and Kenny actually braved the freezing waters of the Atlantic, while Alex and I huddled together on the shore!
We celebrated Naima's 11th birthday this past week and Alex lost his second tooth! Now it is Winter here, which means that the temp hits about 70 degrees during the day, but at night it is COLD. We don't have heat or air but we are adjusting and the two space heaters that we bought today should help. (The cooler temps also mean no mosquitos!) We have been slowly discovering other comforts of home: a mall with a McDonald's (!) and a superstore owned by Walmart, plenty of parks for the kids, and great wifi, which means the kids can stream Netflix. Kenny is doing very well too and thanks to Skype and remote access, he can still stay in touch with his office.
My class is doing great. The picture posted above is the view from my classroom! It's amazing!!! The students in my class are very engaged; the majority of them are students from the local university here, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (or UFSC, pronounced "Oof-skee"). I'm giving a talk about my research at UFSC to the faculty and students in the post-graduate English program this Tuesday.
Below are a few pictures from our first week. On Saturday, we went on a tour of the island and saw several of the nearly 40 beaches here. Naima and Kenny actually braved the freezing waters of the Atlantic, while Alex and I huddled together on the shore!
