a praia bahiana

estou no brasil, na bahia, em salvador, na praia. here is the view i've had from my hotel window for the past few days.


from here on out my blog will serve as a mini-portuguese lesson as well.

PORTUGUESE LESSON #1: THE ESSENTIALS

Olá. Tudo bem? (Oh-lah. too-doo bay) 1. Hey, what's up 2. Hi, everything ok? 3. Yo, how's it going?

Onde é a praia? (On-djee eh ah pry-ah) Where is the beach?

today i will move in with my host family. i got to meet my host mother last night. her name is conceição. she has been hosting students with this program for six years! so even though i'm just one on a list, she took my right in as a member of the family. i love the brazilians. also, she lives right across the street from the hotel, so i'll still be right on the sea! yes, life is good. tá boa.

they're growing up!

yesterday was graduation at the preschool where i work. the kids were all dressed up and so excited to graduate. we saw a slide show with baby pictures and recent pictures of each of them, pictures of the classes, and shots of them doing different kinds of activities.

then they each went up with their families and received their diplomas. for every child, a teacher read a few sentences of some nice things their friends had to say about them. for example, "i love her because she has a beautiful dress and beautiful shoes. she has beautiful all over her!" or, "i like to play with him because he likes to catch girls too." it was very sweet, touching and very funny.




last on the program was a little concert to be given by yours truly. when i first got on stage, i knew these kids were not going to be able to listen to thirty-minute set i had planned, so i decided to cut it down dramatically. the first song was a sing-along called "the great big moose." the kids were into it, but by my fourth song, i knew i was losing them. the last song i sang was a duet with my coworker rachel. another coworker shareen actually managed to record it. annoying as it was at the time, the video actually turned out to be pretty funny.

flight of the conchords

i can't remember who first introduced me to them, but i started watching flight of the conchords clips on youtube a few years ago. they're a comedic folk music duo from new zealand. i just can't enough of their stuff. i was flipping channels last night and noticed they were on hbo, and apparently they have their own tv show now. i was lucky enough to have happened upon the series premier. i recommend you check it out. you can watch it here. in the meantime, here is a little teaser:

11 days and counting

jake shimabukuro is my new hero

back last june, when i bought my first ukulele, i posted a video of a famous ukulele player named jake shimabukuro. here is a video of him performing the same song, "while my guitar gently weeps," live in concert with an uber cool extended intro. this guy is incredible. the bridge gets me every time. it's about five and a half minutes in so you have to wait for it!

it's always better when we're together

amelia and i are finally roommates! but only for three weeks...