What else is new
Last Friday night we went out with some people from the lab to dance Forró, and it was more like Charlotte described it.
On Saturday Nick rented a car and we all drove down to Pipa beach, about 90 minutes away. It's this tiny, exquisite tourist town made of cute shops and delicious restaurants. The ambiance is incredible--I looked for pictures of the town on Google images, but it's all pictures of the beach itself. We stayed in a hostel next to the Dalí restaurant, whose walls were all relief murals of Dalí's paintings. There were tiny art shops everywhere. That's what this whole town is like.
We took a surfing lesson, and LET ME TELL YOU, I am going to go surfing every chance I get. The first time I managed to actually stand up on the board and ride a wave to shore, I had a Mara-like moment where I thought, "this is it, I'm going to buy a surfboard today." Surfing is unbelievable. I can see why it has its own elaborate subculture. Right now I am bruised and scratched and terribly sore, but as soon as I'm able to move without too much pain I'm going to rent one and get back out there.
My efforts to learn Portuguese have slowed down after the beginning of last week after the arrival of Nick and Allyson and Carmel, and the meeting of Lettie the ecologist who works downstairs, AND Pooja's friend Meghan who has been visiting. They are all nice people, but I wish there weren't quite so many gringos here together. I didn't fly all the way to Brazil to eat lunch in English.
We have been perfecting a questionnaire that looks for risk factors in families with a history of calazar. Currently I am extremely worried about the validity of a survey conducted in Portuguese by three English speakers. Today I gave several interviews in the field without Dr. Jeronimo there to help me, and I pretty much crashed and burned. We shall see what she has to say when I catch her after the lab meeting today.
Last night we went to a sushi place near our house that knocked our socks off. The charm of this place is that you fill your plate and pay by the kilo, so instead of tasting only two rolls you can taste a slice of everything in sight. Wow. Brazil has gotten delicious.
On Saturday Nick rented a car and we all drove down to Pipa beach, about 90 minutes away. It's this tiny, exquisite tourist town made of cute shops and delicious restaurants. The ambiance is incredible--I looked for pictures of the town on Google images, but it's all pictures of the beach itself. We stayed in a hostel next to the Dalí restaurant, whose walls were all relief murals of Dalí's paintings. There were tiny art shops everywhere. That's what this whole town is like.
We took a surfing lesson, and LET ME TELL YOU, I am going to go surfing every chance I get. The first time I managed to actually stand up on the board and ride a wave to shore, I had a Mara-like moment where I thought, "this is it, I'm going to buy a surfboard today." Surfing is unbelievable. I can see why it has its own elaborate subculture. Right now I am bruised and scratched and terribly sore, but as soon as I'm able to move without too much pain I'm going to rent one and get back out there.
My efforts to learn Portuguese have slowed down after the beginning of last week after the arrival of Nick and Allyson and Carmel, and the meeting of Lettie the ecologist who works downstairs, AND Pooja's friend Meghan who has been visiting. They are all nice people, but I wish there weren't quite so many gringos here together. I didn't fly all the way to Brazil to eat lunch in English.
We have been perfecting a questionnaire that looks for risk factors in families with a history of calazar. Currently I am extremely worried about the validity of a survey conducted in Portuguese by three English speakers. Today I gave several interviews in the field without Dr. Jeronimo there to help me, and I pretty much crashed and burned. We shall see what she has to say when I catch her after the lab meeting today.
Last night we went to a sushi place near our house that knocked our socks off. The charm of this place is that you fill your plate and pay by the kilo, so instead of tasting only two rolls you can taste a slice of everything in sight. Wow. Brazil has gotten delicious.