Podcasts made for Chico's classes in Curitiba, Paraná

Talking about my experiences and American education



President Obama and the recent Presidential elections

Elections 2008!!!

Newscorner of Pike's Place Market, Seattle



Halloween in Wallingford, Seattle:)


A friend of mine in Seattle sent me these photos and I couldn't agree more! I am so happy that we FINALLY have a new and historic president, as well as one that can renew our reputation abroad as he continues to inspire hope and positive change in our country. I also just learned that Jimmy Smits' caracter in The West Wing was actually modeled after Barack Obama and Obama's choice for a Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel was the inspiration for Josh Lyman's character in The West Wing as well! We could have a real life repeat of one of the best shows ever on television!!!:)

People in Londrina were as excited as I was for the election. The different doormen who work at my apt. building would always ask me, "So, McCain or Obama?" If I took a taxi or got my nails done or went to the bank, anywhere that people could tell I was American, they wanted to know who I thought would win. The day after the election, I received Congratulations calls, e-mails and phone text messages. I know what America does affects the rest of the world, but still, it was so fun to see the knowledge and outpoor of support and interest in politics when it wasn't even their own country!

Just a couple of weeks before our election, Londrina had elections as well for a new Mayor. Two things that are different in Brazil from in the U.S. are that here, elections are always held on a Sunday so that everyone has time to vote (excellent idea - and why don't we do this???!!!), and it is mandatory for every citizen of Brazil to vote. This, I don't like so much. But here, it is taken very seriously. If you are ill or out of town, you have to justify your absence. You can't vote by mail or in another city. If you don't vote, there is a fine and your important documents such as license and social security number have the possibility of being revoked - they're not joking around. So they have a kind of "forced" democracy, but people believe that otherwise hardly anyone in Brazil would vote.

What's nice, though, is that people take Election Day very seriously, which I think is wonderful. The night before and the day of elections the streets are almost completely silent - it is a huge contrast from the typical Saturday night here. The Saturday night before Election Day, it is illegal to sell alcohol in the restaurants and bars after midnight. However, in typical Brazilian fashion, you can serve the drinks, they just have to have been paid for before midnight:)

Anyway in this election, there was a primary, and the two winners were Belinatti and Hauly. Belinatti has already been Mayor 3 times before, but he has countless legal charges against him and has embezzled and stolen some R$40 million! The problem is that the poor people love him because he bribes them, or builds them new houses and hospitals among other things. These are good initiatives, but he is completely corrupt. The attitude I kept hearing over and over for people who support him was that he may steal but at least he does something. Many people here feel that the candidates don't accomplish anything, so it's better to have someone corrupt who at least gives something back to the community than someone who does nothing. This is a terribly sad attitude, but one that seems difficult to change.

Half of the city supported Belinatti and the other half Hauly. Belinatti won by a couple of percentage points and there were parades up and down the main street by my house - people honking, fireworks, etc. I can't remember ever seeing such a display for an election in the U.S. Maybe after a World Series win, but even then we have organized parades the following day, not so much honking all over the city during the night:) But it was fun to witness!

Then two days later, it was announced that Belinatti would be tried in the courts and could no longer run or serve as Mayor! There was another parade all night long with the other half of the city:) They haven't decided yet what will happen, if there will be another election with all the candidates or just the two with the most votes after Beinatti. They're not sure. But it is absurd, because why was he allowed to run in the first place with all these lawsuits and charges being processed against him? He shouldn't have even been allowed to be a candidate. Londrina has gotten national press over their candidates in this election, and it has been somewhat of an embarrassement to the city, depending on your political view, of course.

But then I saw that something similar had happened in the U.S. with the people of Alaska re-electing Ted Stevens after he had been convicted of 7 FELONIES!!! What is that? Sarah Palin said something to the effect that the people of Alaska had spoken and she wasn't going to stop the process of democracy. Wow, well in this case I would agree with Winston Churchill when he said that: The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.


From Wikipedia
On July 29, 2008, Stevens was indicted by a federal grand jury on seven counts of failing to report gifts received from VECO Corporation and its CEO Bill Allen on his Senate financial disclosure forms, formally charged with violation of provisions of the Ethics in Government Act. Stevens pleaded not guilty and asserted his right to a speedy trial, which began on September 25 in Washington, DC, to have the opportunity to clear his name before the November election. However, it was on October 27, 2008, barely a week before the election, when Stevens was found guilty on all seven counts.If reelected, Stevens will be the first felon elected to the United States Senate.

It certainly makes you think twice when trusting the public to democratically make wise decisions. Still, we are so lucky to have the right to vote and to have a say in who we want to be our leaders. Whether obligatory, such as in Brazil, or optional, like in the U.S., it is still our responsibility to be active in the election process and make educated decisions in choosing the best person to represent us.


Congratulations America on choosing Barack Obama for 2008!!!!

Better late than never - 70s festa do aniversário

Because I was away for my birthday, we decided to have a party almost two months later on Nov. 1 - better a little late than a little never:) It was a 70s/ABBA theme, so people were supposed to dress the part and we had disco music and karaoke. It was mainly my students and other professors from the university (UEL). I think everyone had fun; it was very nice. Here are a few pictures for you to see the outfits and guests:)

Chucrute e Camarão (Sauerkraut & Bahian Shrimp) – what a combo!

The buffets are killing me in Brazil - I want to try everything and then I end up with "It's a small world" on my plate!

The first weekend of October we went to two conferences in Ponta Grossa (about 4 hours from Londrina). The first evening after the meeting, we had time to rest a little and then go to dinner at La Gondola. This place looked like stereotypicial Austria/Germany with huge mirrors and candles on the wall. And then hanging on one side of the room was a flat screen tv! Again, totally out of place with the rest of the decoration. But , as is usual in Brazil, they had a buffet with just about every kind of food imaginable. This is a problem for me since I always want to try a little bit of everything but then there are too many different food groups on my plate:) At La Gondola, first, I saw German sauerkraut and sausage, which I took, and then suddenly there was sushi and risotto, lasagna and shrimp from Bahia and my plate was a mess! I also asked for the house wine, which I assumed was a dry wine, but it turned out to be incredibly sweet and more of a dessert wine, which was a disaster with what I was eating! So, with this mix on my plate and sweet wine, plus a chocolate mousse dessert, you can imagine I wasn’t feeling too well by the end of the evening!

Telma & Jussara at La Gondola



Brazil's President Vargas had come to Ponta Grossa in 1943 and had stayed in the same hotel where we were - Planalto. He made a popular speech to a large crowd from the balcony of his room. So, although not stocked with memorabilia like the Beatles' hotel room in Seattle, we were still able to go in and take photos from the balcony:) Unfortunately, the view is now blocked by thick telephone & electric wires, but still you can have an idea. I think the hotel clerk thought we were a little nuts, but he obliged us anyway. He let us in the room and then went down to the street and took pictures of us with everybody staring! I wonder how many people would even ask to do this???:)



Telma, me & Jussara on the balcony of Planalto hotel where President Vargas stayed during his visit in the 1940s




Crossing the street to a very typical Brazilian corner - improviso bars with plastic chairs & election propaganda everwhere:)





Ponta Grossa is Brazil in a nut shell with its 70s style pedestrian area, plastic chairs & street vendors ready to sell any kind of burned CD, DVD, jewelry, etc. You can see their system here of having a bag laid out with strings ready to pull up at a moment's notice if the police arrive!






Telma & Jussara looking for interesting DVDs or music videos - the only way to shop in Brazil:)


Setting up again after a false alarm from the police! They weren't too happy about me taking pictures of them either!



And here, I need to re-paste a story I wrote at the beginning of the year about having a CPF when shopping in Brazil at Casas Bahia and Lojas Americanas, the kinds of stores here that have balloons everywhere, where you can buy everything on credit, and that look like they are straight out of the 70s. I was finally able to get a picture to go with that story so you can take a look again here:)






Foreigners can’t buy anything here…

One of the most comical things here has been trying to go shopping and make all the purchases I need for my apt., etc. How can a country go towards globalization when every system in the shops is set up to require a social security number? That was our question after trying to shop for the first time here. If you don’t have this, you can’t buy anything! Luckily, I was with a local, my host teacher, Telma, most of the time who could put things in her name. But now my phone, my printer, and even my alarm clock are in her name. If I don’t pay or skip the country, she is responsible!:)

Shopping is quite an experience. In most of the stores, you can’t just walk in and look around. As soon as you enter, a sales clerk comes right up to you, immediately, and asks you what you are looking for and what your name is, so they can talk to you personally for the remainder of the time you are in the store! Each time you have to say that you are just looking and then they will leave you alone, for about 5 minutes, at which point they come back up to you to see if you have changed your mind:) It made me laugh thinking of the Europeans who say that the American system is annoying with over-friendly sales girls. This is much worse. They are very helpful, but it would be nice to be able to enter a store and then ask for help only when you needed it. For this, I much prefer the European way.

You can buy almost everything on time (in installments) and one store especially, Casas Bahia, is well-known for its installment plans on furniture and appliances, among other things. You feel like you are in a time-warp in this store; it reminds me of a store right out of the 70s. They have balloons on the ceiling, which look either like a Republican convention or a 70s sitcom where all the balloons fall down on the 100th customer of the day:) Everything in the store looks 70s – green and orange sofas, large refrigerators and washing machines for sale all on display in the same large, open space, and all with desks around the store for customers to sit down and talk to a clerk about how many installments they can arrange to make the payments. I again felt like one of the 70s sitcoms where the father works at an appliance or dry cleaning store – aka The Jeffersons, Good Times or Maude. It’s quite an experience to go there. I had to exchange my alarm clock that didn’t work and it took one hour. The time to talk to one clerk who sent me down the store to find another person who sent me downstairs to a little office where another person proceeded to tell me that they could exchange it, but it wasn’t possible today because it was Saturday! So, I had to go to a different Casas Bahias to make the final exchange at the Mall where they are open on Sundays and can exchange:) Luckily, I finally received my temporary ID card from the Federal Police, which means that I have a number with can allow me to get another number (CPF, like our Social Security), which will allow me now to buy things on my own and also make hotel and airline reservations online, something that is also impossible for foreigners to do unless they have this CPF number!






Ponta Grossa - ENFOPLI & EPLE conferences
The first of the conferences we were at was ENFOPLI on Thursday. This is a group of English teacher trainers throughout the state of Paraná who meet once a year and the rest of the time communicate via an online forum. This was just a one day event so, needless to say, we were all just a tad tired after taking the overnight bus, arriving at 4:00am and then starting the meetings at 8:00am!

But it was nice. Samantha, the coordinator of the online ENFOPLI site talked about all the tools to using the site to its utmost capacity. And then teachers talked about research and projects they were doing at their institutions and we discussed a text on Communities of Practice and how those networks can form for teachers, both at the university and in online communities. Everyone had a chance to say things they hoped could be improved at their institution next year, especially with regard to the internship programs which send future English teachers into the public school system for a teaching practicum.

The second conference was EPLE (for Teachers of all languages in Parana). This was Friday and Saturday and in addition to Telma, Jussara, and Samantha's presentation on Communities of Practice, I also presented on book clubs and reading groups at the university, and three of our students at UEL also gave presentations on projects they have been working on at the universtiy as well. So, it was three very full days in all and then we went back to Londrina Saturday afternoon by bus.

Everyone at the Botequim bar after the EPLE conference on Friday


My students, Igor, Marcella & me

Samantha, Telma,Eliane & Claudia

Viaje para Chile (9/10 - 9/21)

This month, I had the opportunity to go to Chile for 10 days to help work on the MECESUP project with Telma from UEL. This is a project that 6 universities in Chile are proposing in order to have a unified and integrated curriculum for their Teacher Training programs. Telma was invited to help finalize the curriculum course strands, as well as work with teachers and students of universities on Critical Pedagogy in the northern part of Chile, in La Serena. I arrived a week later to attend meetings in Santiago and participate in the discussions. Unfortunately, the dates were not planned very carefully and they coincided with Chile's Independence Day - Sept. 18. So, most of the universities and teachers were already on vacation. I did have the chance, however, to meet with professors from Universidad Alberto Hurtado in Santiago and work on the final writing of the proposal with them. The head of the Pedagogy dept. there, Mary Jane, was hosting Telma and so we saw her a lot, and also had the opportunity to meet her students when Telma gave a talk for them on Reflective Practices and Democracy in Teaching. I also met with the people at the Ministry of Education to learn more about the teaching/volunteer programs they sponsor in Chile, which was very interesting as well. I really liked Santiago. It had a European feel because of the architecture, size of the city – 6 million, and the outdoor cafes and pedestrian areas. I think the city could be a good fit for me in the future. We’ll see!

The whole experience was great. I learned a lot about Chilean history, culture, and food while we were there, and a bit of Spanish too, which was fun. We were in Santiago for 7 days, where we were at the university for part of the time, and touring the city the rest of the time. We also took excursions to Valparaiso (UNESCO heritage site) and Viña del Mar, which are twin cities on the water about 90 minutes from Santiago – very charming, and Valle Nevado, the ski resort in the mountains - marvelous! Then at the end of our stay, we flew south to Puerto Montt (~ 2 hour flight) to visit the mountains, volcanoes and lakes for 4 days, which topped everything in terms of beauty.

The area of Puerto Montt was settled by the Swiss and Germans, and definitely looked a lot like Switzerland, or even the NW of the United States too. Since Chile is such a long country, there is a little bit of everything. In the north there is desert and then as you go further south, you are getting closer and closer to Antarctica, so obviously it is much colder with glaciers and ocean. We weren't that far south, but in an area where people can go skiing or visit snow covered volcanoes. It was truly beautiful. Take a look at the photos below for more details!

Santiago
Downtown Santiago Pablo Neruda's house Telma at the Cathedral square La Mondea - Government Palace Santiago Library




University neighborhood



Sully's restaurant:
This place was a beautifully renovated house with several floors and a terrace with a view of the city. It was situated in this quiet neighborhood as seen above near Universidad Alberto Hurtado. What was so funny is that everything was very chic and sophisticated, and then in the room where we were eating, on the wall were huge blown up photographs of the MN Gopher basketball team and perhaps the Vikings football team? Although, I love the MN sports, somehow they didn't quite fit in this atmosphere! I said, the owner has to be an American from the midwest, and it turned out he was, from Michigan:)


View from the terrace
Chirimoya (graviola juice), tomato & mozzarella salads... ...and basketball? Mary Jane, Telma & Manuel

Go gophers! :-) Universidad Alberto Hurtado Me,Telma & Mary Jane In memory of the people who went missing from the university under Pinochet Barbeque at Olga's apt. With English teachers from the university Sunsets from Olga's balcony

Excursion to Valle Nevado


Snow, snow, snow...
Telma at Valle Nevado




Enjoying the sun & view from the terrace Skiers below The hot tub at Valle Nevado Hotel There was a Starbucks in Santiago - at last, coffee to go!! My Birthday at Como Agua Para Chocolate Valparaiso & Vina del Mar At casa sebastiana - Neruda's house (Valparaiso) Shake hands with me (Neruda) The hilly streets of Valparaiso Eating ice cream at Vina del mar (just a tad cold for helado, but oh well:))

Puerto Montt/Puerto Varas
On Wednesday the 17th we flew from Santiago to Puerto Montt. That turned out to be an adventure in itself because when we got to the aiport we learned that they had changed our flight from 8:00am to 10:45am. We could either wait or go 20 minutes early on a 7:40am flight. We got on the earlier flight, but then instead of a direct fight (1 hr and 45 minutes) we had a 3 hour flight with two stop-overs. Well, we got to see the middle of Chile on our way there, I guess:) So, once we arrived, there was supposed to be a van to pick us up, but because of all the confusion regarding our flight, there was no one there. The number we had to call someone was in Argentina and not locally because there were 3 parties involved - the travel agent in Londrina, someone they contracted in Argentina and finally our group in Puerto Varas!!! This made no sense, but gotta love working with travel agents! So, we took a taxi to our hotel and then spent most of the day calling Londrina and trying to figure out exactly who our local contact was - chaos! At least the first day we were there had somewhat cloudy and rainy weather, so we didn't feel like we were missing too much by not being outside. Finally, we talked to the tour agency in Puerto Montt and figured everything out. We were able to set up our excursions for the next couple of days, because two of them we had already pre-booked, so, if we hadn't been able to contact someone we would have missed out on what we had already paid for! Very frustrating experience, but in the end the tour guides were great and everything we saw was beautiful. We stayed in Puerto Montt itself, which is a fairly large city and not very attractive. The better place to stay is Puerto Varas, a smaller quaint town with a beautiful view of the volacano and closer to all the excursions than Puerto Montt as well. But we couldn't have been luckier with the weather. We had incredibly clear, sunny days, when normally this is the rainy season! We must have taken at least 50 photos of this volcano, Osorno. Here is just a sampling of them and others from this part of the trip:)

Puerto Montt View from our hotel - Diego de Almargo The heroic (or murderous) generals who founded the area - Puerto Montt Spicy peppers in the store Chirimoya Excursison to Frutillar (small German town) 9/18
On the way to Frutillar - Chile or Ireland?


Osorno Volcano Taking photos on the way to Frutillar Telma near Frutillar Frutillar On the pier in Frutillar Telma & me at the fisherman's port - Puerto Montt

September 18, Chile's Independence Day - Puerto Montt

People only hang their flags during this week before Independence Day, and they really were everywhere!



Dancing La Cueca - traditional Chilean dance



We saw this dance in more atmospheric places than the shopping mall:) But this video has the best view of what the dance is like. So, in the mall at Puerto Montt...




Excursion to Peulla Osorno volcano from the bus Telma & me & the infamous Osorno on the way to Petrohue On the way to Petrohue Osorno from the waterfalls Me & Osorno from the boat On the boat Telma on the boat Boat Ride to Peulla Ponte Agudo volcano from the boat In Peulla The boat harbor in Peulla Osorno volcano Osorno in the evening (from the boat) If it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium - we were passing gorgeous scenery on our boat, and half the people were sleeping!:)

Our last day - Saturday 9/20 Puerto Varas Empanadas - our staple diet:) Beautiful views coming and going from Santiago From the airplane - arriving in Santiago At the airport - leaving Santiago ADIOS CHILE!