Before I begin, I wanted to let you know that the attached document is all the emails I’ve sent so far about being in Brazil. I just added a good number of people to the list, and a lot more since the very beginning. I’m flattered that people actually like reading the emails I send. So just for good measure, I figured I’d send out the whole novella. If you want to read it/ pass it on to your friends/ pass it on to your favorite publisher… great. If you don’t… great too.
My Thunderstorm Story:
Last Saturday evening, we had a thunderstorm. Now, when I say thunderstorm, I mean like a tropical downpour with all the fixins. Here’s what happened to me:
6:45pm: I was walking home from the grocery store when it started to sprinkle. It normally takes about 20 minutes to walk from the store to my apartment. I was like, “That’s okay, I’ve walked home in the rain before. It shouldn’t be too bad before I get home.” Ten minutes later, it was down pouring! Like seriously, raining cats and dogs. Thunder and lightning were happing all over the place, and it seemed like every street lamp that I passed lost power. So there I was, carrying tons of groceries, wearing flip-flops, hiking up the hills of Macaé on cobblestone streets, in the dark and pouring rain.
7:10pm: I finally made it home and dumped my bags in the kitchen. I decided to take a breather and sit on the couch and see what was on TV before I put everything away and showered.
7:30pm: The power went out for a minute and came back on. Then, the power went out and didn’t come right back on.
7:45pm: Figuring it might be a while before the restoration of electricity, I commenced putting my groceries away by flashlight. The entire neighborhood was out of power. I still hadn’t eaten dinner, but now the microwave and stove wouldn’t work. It was warm… and extremely muggy… as you might imagine, and I didn’t have air conditioning. So, I had bread and butter and cheese for dinner, opened the porch door to let a breeze (and a flock of mosquitoes) in the house, and read a book by flashlight. It would have been more fun if I had someone to hang out with, but I was home alone. It would have been more romantic if I had a bottle of red wine, but I didn’t (and nobody to drink it with). And it would have been less itchy if the mosquitoes weren’t coming in for the free buffet.
9:00pm: I went into my room to get something. I don’t remember what it was, but when I entered my room, I thought to myself, “Why is there a puddle on my floor? What is going on?” Using my flashlight, I figured out that the water was pouring in through the poorly sealed hole in the exterior wall for the air-conditioner. Usually in the US, they are mounted in windows. Here, they just cut a hole in the wall… I mean, why not, right? It was then when I realized why my entire apartment has tiled floors instead of cozy carpet or classy hardwood floors- holes in the wall that let rain come in… sweet.
9:15pm: I finished removing all my valuables from my dresser (that was soaking wet) and the floor and from path of the river coming through my wall. I returned to my book, the mosquitoes, and the joy of my skin sticking to our cheap, white leather sofa.
1:30am: The power finally came back on. I took a shower, cranked up the air-conditioning, applied Benadryl cream to my new mosquito bites, and went to sleep.
13 March 2008
10 March 2008
Jess-scapades (props to Gabi Harrison for that term)
Dear Patient Readers,
I think it's been a while since the last installment of the Brazil Digest. I apologize to anyone who has been anxiously awaiting, compulsively checking their email, hoping and praying that my next email would appear in their inbox. I've been working a lot and staying quite busy.
There are a couple things that I've learned about my daily life that I didn't know before. The restaurant next door that I eat at every day is an oilfield worker hub. Every day, between 11:30 and 1:30, the place is full of people in coveralls of various colors, representing their respective companies, coming to eat the food at this place. It's the classic Brazilian self-service style. You fill up your plate like you would in a buffet, and then they put your plate on a scale and you pay based on how hungry you think you are. Anyway... the place looks dirty in general. The food is really greasy, and nothing really tastes too good, but by the time lunch rolls around, we've all been lifting tools and throwing 36 inch pipe wrenches around all morning and would basically eat anything that seems remotely edible. The point of my story about my midday meals is that I learned the unofficial name of the place. I actually don't know the real name, nor would anyone know what the heck I was talking about if I referred to it by its real name. Previously, I referred to it as "The Restaurant." Now, I can refer to it as "Mosquinha Feliz," which means "the happy little fly." I find it so funny... I hope you do too.
I have good news and good news. My school was approved! That means that I will go to Paris, France (well, actually Melun, France) at the end of May, and I will be there to study sand control engineering until the end of July. It's a total of 9 weeks. I'll have classes all day during the week and hopefully got to travel some on the weekends. I'm pretty excited about it! I mean, who wouldn't be, right? I'll have to have my roommate, Gabi, teach me some French so that I can order at restaurants and find the bathroom in public places and such. Just make it four languages to confuse me even more. Good grief!! (I actually love learning new languages... don't let me fool you).
The other good news is that my name is finally on the official list to go work offshore. Despite hearing about a helicopter accident here in Macaé three weeks ago, I'm excited to go do the job that I signed up to do. Hopefully I will get to go this month. We have two jobs, and we don't know who from our staff is going to get to go to each one. The one I might get to see is not on a rig, but rather a drill ship. Seasick city. :-/ I hear mixed reports on how much the ships move... even in good weather. Hopefully if I go, I have enough Dramamine to keep me from wanting to die. :-)
Speaking of being sick, I had my first bad experience with bad food here. Oh boy!! I spent an afternoon in the bathroom at work, trying not to throw up or pass out and having gastrointestinal issues quite often. I stayed home the next day. It has actually taken over a week to be completely better. The doctor told me to stay away from vegetables, dairy, and greasy food. Eating at Mosquinha's, that diet is nearly impossible. Even the pasta and grilled chicken is greasy. I don't know how they manage it. Thank goodness for medicine and modern toilets!
Last night, we had a Completions Churrasco (my department had a barbeque). It was at my boss's boss's house. (Jorge is his name.) Everyone loves a good party here. We bought 12 kilograms of meat, 7 cases of beer, tons of garlic bread, ingredients for caipirinhas and more. I think pretty much everything was gone at the end of the night. The best part of the evening was when my bosses were making people take shots... does that happen in the US? I really don't know, but I don't think so. I found it hilarious. I got to play with my other boss's two daughters. They're 3 and 5 years old, and I was chasing them around and talking to them in Portuguese. It was great. It's funny that a 3 year old has a better Portuguese vocabulary than I do... funny or depressing... I'm not sure which :)
Attached is a picture one of my coworkers took of me working in the workshop. It's what I do everyday. It's a little out of focus, but you can have a reference, and picture me there for hours every day. Don't forget that it's basically outside, and it's been 90 degrees or more for the past couple weeks. I'm helping my coworker, Raulmar assemble one of our tools. I'm using a 36" chain wrench that you can't really see in the photo. Yeah, I'm pretty hard core.
Well... this is pretty long already. I have some more to tell, but I will do that in a later installment.
Thanks for making it with me to the bottom of this email :)
Um beijão (big kiss),
I think it's been a while since the last installment of the Brazil Digest. I apologize to anyone who has been anxiously awaiting, compulsively checking their email, hoping and praying that my next email would appear in their inbox. I've been working a lot and staying quite busy.
There are a couple things that I've learned about my daily life that I didn't know before. The restaurant next door that I eat at every day is an oilfield worker hub. Every day, between 11:30 and 1:30, the place is full of people in coveralls of various colors, representing their respective companies, coming to eat the food at this place. It's the classic Brazilian self-service style. You fill up your plate like you would in a buffet, and then they put your plate on a scale and you pay based on how hungry you think you are. Anyway... the place looks dirty in general. The food is really greasy, and nothing really tastes too good, but by the time lunch rolls around, we've all been lifting tools and throwing 36 inch pipe wrenches around all morning and would basically eat anything that seems remotely edible. The point of my story about my midday meals is that I learned the unofficial name of the place. I actually don't know the real name, nor would anyone know what the heck I was talking about if I referred to it by its real name. Previously, I referred to it as "The Restaurant." Now, I can refer to it as "Mosquinha Feliz," which means "the happy little fly." I find it so funny... I hope you do too.
I have good news and good news. My school was approved! That means that I will go to Paris, France (well, actually Melun, France) at the end of May, and I will be there to study sand control engineering until the end of July. It's a total of 9 weeks. I'll have classes all day during the week and hopefully got to travel some on the weekends. I'm pretty excited about it! I mean, who wouldn't be, right? I'll have to have my roommate, Gabi, teach me some French so that I can order at restaurants and find the bathroom in public places and such. Just make it four languages to confuse me even more. Good grief!! (I actually love learning new languages... don't let me fool you).
The other good news is that my name is finally on the official list to go work offshore. Despite hearing about a helicopter accident here in Macaé three weeks ago, I'm excited to go do the job that I signed up to do. Hopefully I will get to go this month. We have two jobs, and we don't know who from our staff is going to get to go to each one. The one I might get to see is not on a rig, but rather a drill ship. Seasick city. :-/ I hear mixed reports on how much the ships move... even in good weather. Hopefully if I go, I have enough Dramamine to keep me from wanting to die. :-)
Speaking of being sick, I had my first bad experience with bad food here. Oh boy!! I spent an afternoon in the bathroom at work, trying not to throw up or pass out and having gastrointestinal issues quite often. I stayed home the next day. It has actually taken over a week to be completely better. The doctor told me to stay away from vegetables, dairy, and greasy food. Eating at Mosquinha's, that diet is nearly impossible. Even the pasta and grilled chicken is greasy. I don't know how they manage it. Thank goodness for medicine and modern toilets!
Last night, we had a Completions Churrasco (my department had a barbeque). It was at my boss's boss's house. (Jorge is his name.) Everyone loves a good party here. We bought 12 kilograms of meat, 7 cases of beer, tons of garlic bread, ingredients for caipirinhas and more. I think pretty much everything was gone at the end of the night. The best part of the evening was when my bosses were making people take shots... does that happen in the US? I really don't know, but I don't think so. I found it hilarious. I got to play with my other boss's two daughters. They're 3 and 5 years old, and I was chasing them around and talking to them in Portuguese. It was great. It's funny that a 3 year old has a better Portuguese vocabulary than I do... funny or depressing... I'm not sure which :)
Attached is a picture one of my coworkers took of me working in the workshop. It's what I do everyday. It's a little out of focus, but you can have a reference, and picture me there for hours every day. Don't forget that it's basically outside, and it's been 90 degrees or more for the past couple weeks. I'm helping my coworker, Raulmar assemble one of our tools. I'm using a 36" chain wrench that you can't really see in the photo. Yeah, I'm pretty hard core.
Well... this is pretty long already. I have some more to tell, but I will do that in a later installment.
Thanks for making it with me to the bottom of this email :)
Um beijão (big kiss),
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