There are already fireworks

It's 7pm in Vítoria and the fireworks started about half an hour ago. Horns are blaring in the streets. All day, you could clearly identify voting preferences around town by fashion choices with Bolsonaro supporters wearing yellow and green and Haddad supporters in red. With 88% of the votes accounted for, Globo is calling the presidential election for the controversial, so-called Brazilian Trump candidate Bolsonaro. This is big news here.
Read a bit yourself: A Momentous Election in Brazil: What's at Stake?  

Drinking cane

I tried this drink today that is made from pure cane sugar. The cane is run through a machine four times and this sweet juice comes out. Yum!

Art Park Inhotim

Sometimes my job takes me to unexpected places. This last week, I visited an enormous botanical garden filled with fantastical modern arts pieces. A reserve located in the middle of a mining state, Inhotim realizes the fantastic vision of artists and conservationists both. It's about an hour outside of a major city in the state and is situated in luscious rolling hills upon which sit large installations of various artists. Sounds great, right?


So, you may be a bit skeptical about how this relates to English language teaching, right? Well, the foundation that runs the park has an education project for kids from the public schools in the small town nearby. Their goal is to educate about the environment and the arts and to provide opportunities for workforce development for Inhotim and the industries nearby. With a large portion of the art coming from outside of Brazil and the fame of the institution, they have a lot of international visitors who require English not only to navigate the park but also in the support services such as hotels, restaurants, and other tourist services nearby. Many visitors and artists come from the United States and the area around Minas Gerais is a major economic engine for international agriculture, mining, engineering, and technical companies. So, we are discussing supporting the integration of English into their existing education and training programs... and I got to visit this magical place for a rainy morning during my trip to Belo Horizonte.

I wish I had taken more pictures, but it was raining while we were there. Here are a few shots that I snapped:

A bronze tree suspended in air will eventually grow into the posts you see pictured

Work by Brazilian artist Varejão in a building dedicated to her work

Itamaraty

One of the most beautiful and iconic Oscar Niemeyer buildings in Brasília is Itamaraty where the representational space of the Ministry of International Affairs is located. Of course, there are the hidden mazes of bureaucratic spaces, but this is a majestic face Brazil puts on for the world.

Brasilia City Tour

Some of our good friends made their way down to visit from DC and Alaska, so we took the opportunity to play tourist in Brasília. It was fun to see our new home through their eyes and to have the time to talk and hang out together. Here are some of the highlights of a guided city tour of Brasilia.

Crystal Square is a beautiful park designed by Burle Marx in the middle of a Brazilian military establishment 

Memorial to Juscelino Kubitschek the visionary president that envisioned and built Brasilia as the capital in 1960

Inside Santuário Dom Bosco

A small church in the perfect Superquadra (concept designed by cityplanner Lúcio Costa) with gorgeous, iconic tilework from Athos Bulcão

The city plan

Tucked into the South Wing is the "perfect" superquadra with a gorgeous park and pond designed by landscaper Burle Marx

Ducking under a tree for some shade with our friends

The plaza of the three powers

The Kubitchek bridge connecting to the South Lake area

The Catehdral of Brasilia designed by Oscar Niemeyer

Wine, Cheese, and Chocolate

We escaped for three days of indulgences over Columbus Day weekend with a few friends. We explored the Wine Valley outside of Porto Alegre and then headed to a town with predominantly German-heritage inhabitants for some fondue and chocolates in Gramado. The entire trip was not only tasty but beautiful. The diversity of Brazil continues to stun.

 

It's Spring in the Southern Hemisphere

and the trees are flowering in anticipation of rain! Hard to imagine those of you with snow (sorry, Wyoming!).

From NE Brazil

This week I took a work trip to Northeastern Brazil, one the most historic, most beautiful, and most economically challenged regions of the country. One of the cities I visited was the UNESCO World Heritage site of São Luís, Maranhão. Originally settled by the French and with later influences from the Dutch and the Portuguese, the city has "good bones" with architecture from the late 17th Century located on an island right next to stunning views of the beaches and the ocean.



Here are a few pictures so you can also enjoy the view. I only had two days to explore but this is a place I would enjoy returning to, especially to get out into the neighboring natural sites such as Lençóis Maranhenses.