Pop

This is my dish towel. In case you can't tell, that is supposed to be a chicken on the top, and underneath is a nice row of eggs waiting to be eaten in their little egg holder cups. I remember when I was a kid, I loved having a hard boiled egg to eat for breakfast in that little cup. I thought it was so cool. Now they seem to be obsolete; I'm sure no one gives them as wedding presents anymore, and I had not seen them in stores in a long time. I have no idea if they have ever existed in Brasil, but they at least exist here in memory in my kitchen. When I first moved here, I thought this towel was so strange, and was baffled by the "Engrish" on the bottom of it. So much in fact, that I believe I already wrote about it once in my other blog. Eggs are Pop? In Michigan, pop is a carbonated drink, which made it even more funny to me. There are many other great examples of English here, perhaps I will begin a series...

Rain brings out all manner of creatures

Today we have some rain photos. It has been raining pretty much everyday since last week. It looks like it's going to continue to rain all the way through Carnaval which officially started in Bahia on Wednesday night.

First, a photo I took earlier and forgot to post. The rain seems to put everything on the move here, so I was only somewhat surprised to see a frog resting quietly in the cats' water bowl first thing in the morning. Actually, judging from the amount of water on the floor around the bowl, I suspect Lela was trying to get it out of there for some time, but some how proved unsuccessful. It's hard to see from the photo, but he (she?) has a lovely bright yellow speckled with black spots under the back legs that my husband insists is the poisen he (she?) carries for protection. We poured the bowl out in the garden, and the frog hung out under a cactus for another 10 minutes before disappearing.




Carnaval has begun in Bahia, more specifically here in our condo. Last night someone threw a Carnaval themed birthday party that lasted at least until 2AM, which is when some woman went screaming/laughing by our front window and woke me up. We get to "participate" in all the parties because we are right next to the pool, so we can either sleep through it, or roast with all the windows closed (although this only muffels the sound). The confettie and streamers are all over this morning, sticking to walls and sidewalks in the rain. There is even quite a bit of it in the pool, along with these strings of balloons so common at parties here. Rain won't ruin anyone's parade at this time of year.

What is it?

I just don't know. This strange construction seems to be made entirely of cement and is being erected inside a nature preserve in Busca Vida. This picture just doesn't do it justice. It seems to be a boxcar in the style of Frank-Loyd-Wright-meets-Salvador-Dali-kind-of-esk. There do no seem to be any roads to it and we didn't see any movement indicating an inhabitant. I have no idea what it's doing there, since I thought no one was allowed to build on or walk around in these federal preserves....

It's 78% of what you breath

Pick your non-poison. Air, like in the States (at least in some places) is free, but Nitrogen will cost you up to R$2 extra. Supposedly it will make your tires last longer by not allowing them to heat up so much while driving all over this hot hot city in the summer - an important detail where potholes the size of the car itself are not so "news worthy" as they should be. Sounds like a good deal, right? But how much longer will your tires last? No one seems to know. Another important point - no mixing allowed: once you choose N2 as your preferred gas, you have to stick with it. If you happen to be low and go to a station that doesn't have nitrogen available, you'll have to completely drain your tires and refill them with air. The infrequency N2 pumps in the city is what prevents us from putting it to the test.