Murder Mystery

This semester, I taught a 12-week beginner English course. The idea for the class was that it was a conversational based course for student who had little to no English knowledge. When planning the course, I was not sure how I could encourage conversations if the students didn’t have the vocabulary or grammar knowledge in English. So, I decided that the final exam would be a Murder Mystery game, and worked back from there. In addition, I made it an activity based course to encourage conversations. For example, we did a photo scavenger hunt throughout campus one day (which was hilarious and the students loved it), in two teams the class created an imaginary town, etc. This class made me realize I thoroughly enjoy teaching at the university level, but not younger than that.  

Last week Wednesday was their final exam. It had been a three-week series. We had a professor, who had done his Master’s thesis on Sherlock Holmes, come in and talk about Sherlock Holmes, mystery literature, and common character personalities. Then, I told the students the premise of who died in relation to the final exam game, and they chose their characters from a list (the list consisted of relationships to the deceased, such as wife, child, co-worker, friend, etc). Afterwards, their homework was to create their character. Here is the worksheet they had to fill out:

Then, they needed to create a routine for their characters. Over the following few days, I tied all the characters, motives, etc. together into one complete story, with a few twists and turns. On the day of the exam, I gave each student a clue sheet divided into three parts: 1) what they can say to begin with, 2) after new evidence was found, what they could add to the story, and 3) an alibi.

My students also earned cupcakes if they dressed up for their part. (I have realized that baking in Brazil is extremely difficult because the oven is in Celsius, has a different range, is not always correct, ingredients are sometimes different, etc.) Anyway, here is what my students looked like:

Although there were a few kinks, the story was more or less:

Franklin P. Dolittle owned Dolittle’s Funeral Home. Tuesday night, his wife found him in a coffin, partially embalmed (thank outside help for that part…Catherine and Jake…). What had happened was Franklin’s brother-in-law happened to be head of the Italian Mafia, and when Franklin’s brother and brother-in-law wanted Franklin in on their new drug ring, money from the mafia went missing. The brother-in-law thought Franklin stole it, so he went to beat the info out of him. Franklin’s mother saw this happening and wanted to know what was going on, out of rage that all of her children were part of the mafia, she killed him and tried to frame the wife. The wife being a nurse would know how to embalm, kind of, so the mom did just that. But she heard a noise and fled. Franklin’s employee, came in and found him that way and moved him to the coffin.

Obviously, there was more than that to the story, but overall, it was amazing! Only the priest was able to guess that the mother did it. I am so excited to see how it goes next semester!

—Two weeks later—

By the way, I am doing other things as well, but this class always made my day. They were a great group of students, and most are continuing in a second level next semester with me. I did teach an American Culture and Academic Life course for those going abroad in August. After the class ended, we did an American BBQ. 

Riviera & Alegrete

The week after we hosted brunch happened to be a long weekend. Thursday was a holiday, so most of the university was shut down on Friday, and then Monday was a Brazilian World Cup game. Jake’s new Gaúcho friend, Antonio, and his fiancé, Tchana, invited us to see their hometown, Alegrete.

Of course, at 5:30am, as we piled into the car, the first thing Antonio did was hand Jake chimarrão. After stopping at a farm to feed Antonio’s horses, and being surrounded by cows, we figured out we were on our way to Riviera, Uruguay for a chá de bebe. (It took me awhile to realize they were not talking about tea, it means baby shower.) And, I laughed as Jake and Antonio conversed the entire trip. (Remember that this was about a month after he arrived, and Antonio does not speak that much English.)

“Riviera is so much bigger than Chui,” was the first thought that went through my head when we arrived. I was surprised. It had just started getting winter coat cold in Rio Grande, and Jake had not brought a jacket. So, we spent a large part of the time looking for a coat for him. Of course, it couldn’t be a winter coat, like a North Face or Columbia jacket, it needed to be a Gaúcho jacket. These thermal jackets are wool button-ups look like lumberjack shirts, but are warmer. The biggest problem was Jake was too tall for the jackets. They didn’t have long enough sleeves, were too wide and still didn’t cover his torso, etc. I think we must have looked at 20+ stores. He did happen to find one that fit, and decided not to buy it at that time. Later, while the women went to the baby shower, Jake and the guys went back to buy the jacket and look for other Gaúcho items, specifically a mateira (the thing in which to carry all the chimarrão stuff).

Jake, in his new jacket, and me in Alegrete

I happened to find a 16G memory card for $12 (USD). I might have taken 300+ pictures over the 3 days…Here is the weekend through pictures:

 

The baby shower was an interesting experience. Let’s just say for the friend hosting the party, cost was not an issue. We walked into a pool house that was completely heated, with food on the table and workers bringing out drinks and more options. The best game that we played was strange, to say the least. Someone came out with a bucket of ice cubes. Within each ice cube was a plastic 1-inch baby and the water had been flavored with strawberries. The first one to suck the ice cube and free the baby won.

Lunch Line at Tchana's House. By the way, her dad is an amazing cook.

Antonio's brother-in-law invited us to see his horses. Although this isn't where is horses are, the landscape and experience was great. They kept saying it was the real gaúcho experience. 

Pecan Tree: I had no idea that pecans are covered by two different shells, the green one you see here, which is soft, and then the hard one below.

We picked up fallen pecans for the apple pie I made later that night. We also found out that you can open pecans by crushing two together. 

This is what a "real" gaúcho looks like. He works on the farm we were at. He is currently heating up water for chimarrão in the little can/pot over the fire.

This statue is in Alegrete. Can you guess who/what that is supposed to be?

We taught them how to play poker. We didn't have money or anything to use to show betting, so we improvised with pinhão, a type of pine nut. I was dealer for 5-card draw.

On the way home, we stopped in Bagé. We were looking for a mateira for Jake, and picked up one of Antonio's friends. On the way back from the 3 store border town next to Bagé, we stopped at this farm. While talking, we were invited to pick a type of orange off of the tree by the house and eat them. It was the first time I have ever done that. 

Fenadoce

A while back, the ETAs in Pelotas told us about a festival of doces that was going to occur in June. At the time, they did not have a lot of information, but I was excited. A festival of sweets? Count me in.

Pelotas, RS is famous for its sweets. Since Rio Grande is about an hour from Pelotas, doces de Pelotas are everywhere. Even the three snack shops at FURG sell a variety of them. Catherine and I have decided that doces de nozes (it is like a pecan truffle thing) is one of the best. The doces de amendoim (peanut truffle thing), is at the top of the list as well. Of course, I was excited to go to the festival, but I had no idea what to expect besides lots of sweets.

After waiting in line, two friends, Jake, and I entered Fenadoce and we were met by carnival rides, a giant building, and food tents. It was incredible. The building alone was gigantic. It housed booth after booth of people selling food, books, all things Gaúcho, clothes, blankets, and more. Additionally, other booths had travel and business information. Behind the booths sat the Cidade de Doces, the city of sweets. Set up as a mini town with little storefronts lining the indoor streets, place after place were selling doces. It was amazing. Our friends even bought us a cuia (the chimarrão cup), and engraved it: Lembrança dos amigos do Alegrete (A reminder of your Alegrete friends).

Jake and me in front of Cidade de Doces.

Cidade de Doces
I forgot to mention that the mascot of Fenadoce is an ant...

Jake found a giant cuia that he wanted to take home.

Doces
The doces de nozes are the milk chocolate and white chocolate covered sweets in the middle.

The doces even look like the Brasilian flag.

Once we had eaten our weight in sweets, we moved to another small building. As we sat and drank quentão (warm, spiced wine), we watched a group perform typical Gaúcho dances. Although the entire event was incredible, I was done eating doces for a while.

The Brunch Bunch

I love Brasilian food. However, I have been missing U.S. food lately. Additionally, I wanted to do something nice for all of our friends here. So, I decided to have a Saturday morning brunch for everyone. (First, I had to explain what brunch was.) 

I was not sure what to expect, but we heated up the griddle once people started to arrive and made batches and batches of French Toast and pancakes. I also made cinnamon apple syrup and heated up some strawberry syrup. Since the house used to be a restaurant, the griddle was relatively big (six lines of flames) and we made enough food to feed 17 people within a few minutes. Amazing!

 

Everyone at Brunch

Afterwards, I taught the Brasilians that were over to play B.S. and Slap Jack. My hand was definitely red for a while. Then, we moved outside and played a giant game of Ninja. Once everyone had the hang of it, we played several games, getting quicker each time. By the end, the best ninja was Wesley, and all you saw were hands flying everywhere.

I AM THE NINJA!

Who is the Ninja?

Ninja dive!

Definitely would call the day a success!

It's June...?

Wow! It's already June. The last month has flown by, and a windy, humid cold has started to settle in. Coming from Michigan, I thought maybe I would be able to handle it. I was wrong!

The weather fluctuates between cold and freezing, which is intensified by our non-insulated house with no inside heating. We finally got heaters, but because of the lack of insulation, the rooms don't really stay warm unless the heater is on, meaning we live in a house that stays between 55-65 degree Fahrenheit. The rain also makes it colder. The colder it is, the harder it is to dry clothes and everything else.

Jake and Catherine both didn't believe that it got cold here. Jake didn't bring a winter coat, even though I told him it would be freezing, if not drop below, during the month of July (since the seasons are reversed). So, Catherine and I have been on multiple expeditions to find warm clothes. For some reason, it is harder than it seems. We've made our way to the mall in Pelotas, and walked around Porto Alegre.

Other than that, work has been great! My students are amazing, and they seem to be enjoying the conversational class and are motivated to learn English.

Additionally, I have started to take Libras (Brazilian Sign Language) classes, as well. I am thinking of even starting a research project looking into Deaf culture here in Brazil.

Jake has also made a new friend. The friend does not really speak English, and Jake has only been learning Portuguese for about a month. Yet, somehow, the two are constantly talking about something or another. The met on a Thursday night, went running together on Saturday, and then had an impromptu churrasco. By the end of next month Jake will be speaking Portuguese and his friend will be speaking English at this rate.

I Have the Worst Luck: Jake's Arrival

After contemplating my options, I finally decided to take a bus to Porto Alegre last minute. I figured arriving around 10pm was worth not having to be up early the next morning, since I was meeting my husband, Jake, at the airport at 11:45am. However, after an hour on the bus, I was still only half way to the centro; meaning I still had to sit on the bus for another 20ish minutes and wait for the 7pm bus to Porto Alegre. At that rate, I was looking at arriving at midnight. I decided it was better to eat my free dinner at FURG and try my luck with the 7am bus the next morning.

At 6:15am, I woke up and made my way to the centro. I was able to catch the 7am bus, and made my way to the Porto Alegre airport. The first issue of the day was arriving 15 minutes after Jake’s plane was supposed to land, to find out his plane was delayed an hour. The issues only piled up after that.

We missed the 2pm bus by a few minutes and instead took our time to eat and relax until the 3pm bus. I had never heard of this bus company before and made the mistake of buying sem seguro tickets. (I found out later that com seguro means that if you are injured in an accident, you receive money from the bus company.) Twenty minutes after our midway snack break, our bus broke down. We were told another bus was on its way, but was about 2 hours out. By this point, it started to get dark. To top it off, the bus did not have a hazard kit. Someone called the police to say we did not feel safe, but they never showed up.

Finally, a bus arrived, but the issue was there were only 18 seats for the 40 passengers. Jake and I were able to get onto the first bus, but this meant leaving his luggage behind with the broken bus. As we were switching busses, we found out the original bus had ran out of gas (if I understood correctly). Either way, we were finally on our way home, which we finally reached at 10pm. To make things better, we ate some awesome bauru and called it a night!

Jake eating bauru

I Have the Worst Luck: Rio de Janeiro

As Brasil’s version of Labor Day, O Dia do Trabalhador, rolled around, I decided that a trip to Rio de Janeiro was in order. Since it would be the last long weekend of the semester, I wanted to make my way for an in-person meeting with a professor who is on sabbatical in Rio. I had planned most of the trip ahead of time, but I had forgotten bus tickets. So, the night before I was looking up the bus schedule to get me to my plane on time. Somehow, I managed to find a plane ticket from Porto Alegre to Pelotas for the same price as a bus ticket. Nevertheless, that did not help me get to Porto Alegre.

After 4 hours of sleep, I woke up to make my way to the rodoviaria. I was exhausted and fell asleep on the bus, but somehow woke up 10 seconds before the right bus stop. At the rodoviaria, I was informed there were not any buses to Porto Alegre until noon, which would have made me late for my plane. So, I went to Pelotas instead. Besides being 10 reais cheaper, it was on the way to Porto Alegre and had more bus choices. Although there was a bus leaving 10 minutes later, the bus was full and the earliest ticket was 12:30pm. Freaking out that I would not be able to make my 5:15pm flight, I started calling some friends to see if I had time to catch the flight. One of my friends stayed on the phone with me for 40 minutes calming me down and telling me it would be all right. Around this point, I ran into another ETA from Pelotas. She was heading to Porto Alegre too, but she was taking the noon bus. Somehow, I ended up on the bus with her, and sat on the floor the entire way (about a 3.5-hour bus ride). The crazy part was that I slept 95% of the trip!

I managed to arrive about an hour before my flight, having already checked-in on my phone while on the bus. As I waited for the plane to take off, I mentally wished I was on the right plane. The sign had said Recife, and I knew that was not where I was going. (Apparently, the plane stopped in Rio, then continued to Recife. Passengers going to Recife did not have to deplane, so the sign said Recife instead of Rio.) However, the universe had other ideas. After sometime on the plane, making a new friend, we were instructed to deplane because there was an issue with the plane.

Finally, those who were head for Recife were sent to a hotel, and those who were headed for Rio were given vouchers to eat at the buffet place in the airport. We were told that there was a flight with another airline at 9pm that we would take. If we were not on that flight, we would be on another flight at some point that night, but there was not a specified time.

As I went through security for the second time, I was prompted to leave the gates and head to TAM for my new ticket. Since I did not have a checked bag, I was the first person to get my new ticket and went through my third security screening. I was also the lucky person randomly chosen for a bag search. After hours of travel, I finally arrived at my hostel in Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro around midnight.

The next day was somewhat better. I walked the three blocks to the Ipanema Beach and spent some time taking in the streets before heading back to the hostel. The other American invited me to go see Christ the Redeemer. We sat on a bus for about an hour and made our way to the tram station. Once there, we found out that next available trip was at 6pm; it was about noon. We ended up walking around and came across a company that took people to the park entrance via van. Deciding it was worth it, we headed up the mountain. However, we were greeted by two huge lines: one for the tickets, and one waiting for the rides to the top

Ipanema Beach.

As close as I got to Christ the Redeemer.

The view of Rio de Janeiro before heading back down.

Since, I did not have time to do all of that before my 3:30pm meeting, we headed back down to find some food. We ended up eating at a place where the restaurant chooses the dish for you. Across the street was a church with gorgeous natural lighting, which we explored afterward.

In the end, I made it to my meeting with minutes to spare. The meeting went well, and then I was off on my own again. I ended up going out with some Brazilians to a three-floor club that looked like a museum inside. Every floor was covered in antiques, statues, etc. Of course, this meant waiting outside for an hour before making our way inside.

As the trip came to a close, I was excited that my day of travel would be shorter with my second plane ride. Yet, another day had to be difficult. I had to pay for the hostel still, and I found out as I was leaving that they did not accept credit cards. I had to run three blocks to the bank while another person waited on me because we were sharing a cab to the airport. When I landed in Porto Alegre, I had 30 minutes to make it to my next flight, only to find out my connecting flight was in a different terminal. I had to take a taxi because the shuttle was not quick enough. I was sure glad to finally get home.

Nevertheless, the trip was full of stories and adventures! One, I am not going to forget anytime soon.