-I just finished Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses and it made me love and miss my desert and the English language. I finished it feeling very whimsically complete. A quote that many of you will relate to:
"They said that a man leaves much when he leaves his own country. They said that it was no accident of circumstance that a man be born in a certain country and not some other and they said that the weathers and seasons that form a land form also the inner fortunes of men in their generations and are passed on to their children and are not so easily come by otherwise."
-I should be writing more, because maybe if I wrote enough I'd have 1/10 of Cormac McCarthy's talent
-I'm moving in about 30 days and we don't have a new place yet
-Our new beach town wasn't as great as we thought it'd be, so we're going to live in the next town over
-Am I going to find students?
-I'm going to spend about 1 million hours on buses this month on bus trips to the beach town on the weekends to help Alexandre look for apartments
- I'm moving in about 30 days and we don't have a new place yet
-I need to find a way to get cardboard boxes from the supermarket to my house without a car
-The wind is loud and it rattles our crappy window shutters and when it goes through the palm trees it sounds like a gorilla stomping through the tall grass
-It's funny how something slightly irritating suddenly becomes unbearable once it has an end date
-To throw myself a going-away party or to not throw myself a going-away party?
-Our top-floor apartment is leaking in 5 places and the landlord hasn't done anything about it all summer and I give up because I'm leaving in 30 days
-I'm leaving in 30 days and I have to pack up the whole apartment by myself and we don't have a new place yet
-Diet shakes are not a good idea for dinner if you can't sleep. You'll get hungry at 1am
-This once-a-week morning class just won't do.
What useless things do you stay awake thinking about?
Posts
Dear Danielle,
ReplyDeleteI have been staying up lately thinking about similar things...as you.
Finding an opportunity to allow me to go back home to Sao Paulo and be closer to my family.
Sometimes I will stay up if I have a big project at work too...and sometimes I will wake up in the middle of the night with a bright idea to solve a problem, so I jump out of bed and go straight into the office to execute such plans...I do get the best ideas and find the best solutions in the middle of the night.
Perhaps the peace and quiet of the night is good for clarity of ideas and less distractions... :)
Are you guys using a "Imobiliaria"?
Let me know if you need any more tips or if you are just coming down to a matter of this place versus that place...
You guys are smart and will make great choices.
I wish you all the best with the new move.
Ray
The next 30 days will be a challenge, for sure.
ReplyDeleteCan you talk to the grocery store delivery guy and get him to collect a big supply of boxes for you (show him the minimum size) and then have him deliver them when he has a full load? A few reais goes a long way...
My guess is you will discover a really cute place at the beach before this adventure is over.
When I can't sleep I put a crappy movie on the computer and fall asleep on the couch (urgh!)
Hey Danielle! (remember me...)I'm going to send you a regular email because I have a question for you - but I wanted to drop in here first to make sure you're still here! I'm a huge Cormac fan - I could seriously name my first born after him. I read the whole trilogy one after another. I have them if you'd like them on loan. They're completely different in style, but the all have the same bone stripping painful beauty.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your move - I'll have to read a little deeper here to catch up on your life! Do you have an atacado store like Makro near by? I got lots of boxes from them. Carrefore also if you go during the day when they are unpacking stuff and restocking shelves - you just wander the aisles to where the workers are and grab the empties.
All the best to you!
Robyn
I have the same problem and actually do what Gil does, well I go through patterns of restlessness.
ReplyDeleteYou could get a cab driver to help or pay a friend to drive you. Go during stocking time to be sure there are boxes.
Why go back and forth??? Why go to the city and stay a couple more days. Then go back and finish packing have your man do the documents for the rental. And you could always rent a pousada if worse comes to worse and you didnt find a place.
My husband and I had the same problem with our current house, I went hunting by myself.... besides women are the house keepers, you need to be happy-- he'll probably be happy with pretty much whatever. You know what he wants in a place anyway. If it's that big a deal take a camera. Get a rental agent they will drive from place to place so you won't need a car.
Hire someone to pack with you, that way it won't be overwhelming.... you should be able to find someone cheap. Hire someone young fresh out of high school or a teen that's unemployed. That will be cheap.
I think the beach will be hard to find students, it might be time to invest more into translations. Or if you don't need to work maybe invest into something else. Your talking about writing- why not write a book? Do some classes, start an organization or make a website about Brazil..... you seemed organized on the how to's in Brazil.
Hi again, Danielle,
ReplyDeleteJust a general comment really, but I've just spent some time reading through your posts and am really enjoying your blog. It's really hard to find people in similar situations to us, and so it's been great reading about your experiences of adjusting to life in Brazil, as I can totally relate to most of them! I don't know about you, but I find that I spend ages telling people (friends, family) about situations I find myself in over here, and though they give great advice, they don't REALLY know how it is unless they've spent time living in Brazil!
Anyway, keep up the good work.
Why does my dad wake up before sunrise and stomp around the house like an earthquake? ....why am I living with my dad?
ReplyDeleteI love love love love All the Pretty Horses. It's definitely one of my favorite books.
ReplyDeleteYour list of late night worries reminds me of my own. Really, instead of worrying just get busy and accomplish a few small things towards packing and finding a place. You'll feel much better. That always helps me.
I make a list of what I need to do and how long it might take and then I start with the easy things so I can shorten the list!