The past few weeks have been 2 or 3 days weeks because of Easter and Labour day holidays in Brazil.

Over Easter we took a day trip to Rio Negrinho and Campo Alegre.

 

 

There was a Beer and Burger festival at the Public Market.

 

 

I thought Friday was going to be a super exciting day as I had what I thought would be my final hospital appointment and get to take my cast off. I arrived really early (6:15am) and there was nobody else queuing which was unusual, I checked the date on the my appointment card but it was for the 2nd. A few other people also turned up, turned out though that the hospital was closed and they had forgotten and made some appointments anyway. I was sooooo ANGRY! Now I need to call back on Monday and they probably won't have any free appointments for a month. Sigh.

Well the past month has been crazy... not as oh I've been busy but as in I've felt like I was living in a novella/soap opera. 

It will have been a month tomorrow since I was shot.

We had spent the day at the pool and some friends were dropping us off back home. We were all outside the car say goodbye to each other when two guys came running over. Me being the naïve gringa thought they needed help.. then I saw the gun. The next part was all a bit confusing. They were shouting at us to run away, obviously I didn't understand what they were saying. I also had my bag so hesitated as I thought they wanted that as well. I think they shot to scare us into running, which by that point I was. They took the car and I looked at my arm and saw a tiny bit of blood. I thought I had just been grazed but then my arm felt really heavy and I shouted I think I've been shot.  At this point, we were trying to get anyone's attention to call the police as we didn't think we had any phones. Fortunately some neighbours heard and came out to help.

There's a CCTV that some kind person (sarcastic tone) released to the press here of part of what happened.

About 3 police cars arrived straight away but it took about 15 minutes for the ambulance to arrive.
The main things I remember from the ambulance were; I am never having kids if giving birth is worse than this pain, I hope no one puts anything on Facebook and my family finds out on Facebook, how do Brazilian hospitals work, am I going to have to pay for all this and I need to work on my Portuguese asap!!

I got to the hospital and immediately understood why Brazilians are protesting about all the money being spent on the world cup and not on health and education.

I was given some painkillers, then taken to another room where I waited, then a nurse, well mainly Fabio put a HUMONGOUS cast on my arm. Then I waited for my x-rays, which I found out a day later were taken incorrectly. The bullet had basically broken the bone in my arm and at this point they weren't sure if I need surgery to remove the bullet.

I was then wheeled into a corridor with about 30 other people, where I stayed for the next 3 days.

The nurses were amazing considering the conditions (They actually went on strike a few days later, have a look here.) and amount of patients they had. I then found out after my friend harassing everyone that my x-rays weren't clear enough and had to have them taken again. This was on Monday night, bearing in mind I had been admitted at 11pm on Saturday night.

I finally saw a doctor at 6.30am on Tuesday morning, he wouldn't let me wake Fabio up to make sure I understood everything but basically said  he had to analyse the new x-rays to see if I needed surgery or not. We waited for him to come back but I never saw him again.

 

 

 We were still waiting on Wednesday to find out what was going on but kept being told that my doctor was in surgery ... for the past 3 days...

Fabio went to buy me a proper support sling as the cast was so heavy that the sling the hospital had given me hurt my arm. On his way back a nurse saw him and said he would get a doctor to help me fit it. By some sheer stroke of luck, it turned out to be my doctor who then discharged me. 3 days after I had been admitted, having sat and taken up space in an over crowded hospital in exactly the same condition and cast I'd been in since 1.30am on Sunday morning.

During this time we were visited by the police, shown photos and they actually caught the guys on the Monday in the middle of another robbery.

We also went to pick up my x-rays, but they were at a different hospital, then they couldn't find them. But we finally got them.

I had another appointment at the hospital booked for 2 weeks time. During this time Brazil had a day that was recorded as the hottest day in the world that day, not fun with this badly put-on massive cast!!

Humongous heavy cast :(

The cast had been rubbing under my arm and got infected because I was sweating so much. We had looked into private healthcare but it was R$300 for a consultation and R$150 to redo the cast, so we were holding out for the public hospital, if they didn't change it, we were going to go private. When we went back to the hospital we had been booked with a hand doctor fortunately he said he would see me as otherwise I was about to start crying. I finally got the taken off, after all the nurses had  gawped and sighed at the old cast. The doctor actually redid my cast and made sure it was much thinner than the old one.

The bullet wound!! You can't even see anything!!

The infection was worse than the bullet wound!!

New, none smelly thinner cast!

The doctor told me I would be in a cast for the next 3 months. I wasn't very happy about this as another 3 months of Fabio doing my hair/everything wasn't a great thought.

But I was extremely lucky, the bullet didn't hit any nerves, so I can move my hand. The gun was an old gun, so it didn't ricochet, as it could have got my heart. I have flabby bingo wings which helped slow down the bullet but missed my arteries. So now I am a gansta with a bullet in my arm, as it is safer to leave it in. I also have a letter for when I go through airport security, in case I set the alarms off!!!

Fabio has been amazing throughout this whole process and continues to be so. He has gone above and beyond the normal husband duties and I don't know what I would have done without him.

The positives of this is that our relationship is now even stronger and it also put me on the police's radar! We had the Federal Police turn up at the apartment to check that we are a real couple for my visa. They wanted to see our bedroom and inside our wardrobe!!! So that should be all sorted in 6 months time... or so they say...

Also, on a happier note, today is our 6 month anniversary!!

Christmas Period

It started off with Secret Haviana Santa with work

Then a trip to Campo Alegre

Christmas celebrations on the 24th (as is typical in Brazil)

My first attempt at cooking a large scale Christmas dinner on Christmas day

Hanging out in the pool at friends on Christmas day

Celebrating new year in 40 degree heat

Well... the apartment is finally coming together... slowly.
We bought a kitchen unit on the internet and found out afterwards that it did not include free assembly. So after FIVE hours and a (few!) fights and mistakes we finally finished! The wardrobe also took us another five hours the next day!!

 

We have another small cupboard to arrive then I can properly set up my office and classroom for private lessons.

I have started my new position at work now which is exciting and unnerving at the same time. I am responsible for training and maintaining standards, which at the moment I am observing all the teachers to check they are teaching to the Callan Method and standard. After all the observation I had during my PGCE, it is a little  strange to be on the other side.

I am also training a new teacher that we have starting, as well as developing new materials such as alternative tests and training materials. I have a crazy schedule now but it's good.
I also have some new private students starting which is exciting to be able to teach them in my 'home classroom'.

We also spent the day at a friend's farm, which turned out to be a surprise engagement party. I was so excited for them as they are such good friends and have really helped and supported us through the wedding and move etc. Some old friends we haven't seen for over a year were also there so it was great to have everyone together.

I am feeling extremely lucky and content at the moment, as everything in life is finally falling into place. I have a great husband who I can finally be with, a good job which challenges me and am surrounded by great friends.

Happy Days!

The  first few months of married life has been craaazy busy!

I applied for my visa, which was actually a lot easier than I had thought it was going to be.

We were waiting on a super expensive police certificate, that also had to be legalised at the Brazilian Consulate to arrive before I could submit my application. It finally arrived, after 3 weeks along with a birthday present that had been sent 5 days before! I think that the post system here tend to save the letters until they have a decent amount before they deliver them. >:(

I wasn't sure if this certificate would then need to be translated, so after several phone calls, we were told we didn't even need the certificate, just a declaration I could type up myself. After several more phone calls, they also confirmed that it would not need to be officially signed in front of a judge or anything.

I was still highly sceptical and not expecting to actually have my documents accepted, which I nearly did not as the payment slip only did not have my middle name on it.  Seriously Brazilians are obsessed with your full name and you full parents' names.

So everything was fine and I was given a scrappy slip of paper with my photo on, which means I can legally stay in the country and work!! I have to check a website until it has been processed and they put the actually real visa in my passport.. this can take anywhere up to 2 years! And they can ask for further documents as well.

So with this scrappy piece of paper, I applied for a work card, so I can legally work in Brazil. I was told that I had everything I needed by the Federal Police to apply for one, so I made an appointment and went to apply. Turns out I didn't have all the documents I needed and we needed to go back to the Federal Police to get a criminal declaration with of course my whole family's full names on it.

But 2 weeks later I have finally got it!!!

 

On the fun side of things, we went to Vila da Gloria, a little town on the bay opposite Joinville. We went to a waterfall and ate seafood by the bay.

 

 

I have also been asked to present a lecture in Curitiba as part of a Summer Academy training people in cross-cultural communication. I'm excited about mixing with international volunteers and that area again but a little nervous abut having to present a 2 hour lecture on whatever I want!!!

 

We have also printed out some of our fabulous wedding photos I have a put together a scrapbook/album thing! It was so difficult to choose just a few photos!

 

And even better news, we have moved!! Fabs and I have an apartment round the corner from work. No more 2 hour commute and 2 super packed rollercoaster bus rides to work anymore!

 

More details to come!

 

 

Lua de Mel! Honeymoon!

So it turns out that our friends are not the alcoholics we though they were and we got some money back from the wedding venue.. enough for a delayed mini honeymoon!

We went to the Pousada Sombrero Verde in Praia de Itaguaçu in São Francisco do Sul. We had booked aroom, but when they found out it was our honeymoon, we got upgraded to a chalet!

We finally had a sunny day and spent most of Saturday walking along the beach, stopping for a beer, walking some more, stopping again.....

 

On the Sunday, some friends came to meet us and we spent the day in São Francisco do Sul.

 

This past month has been craaaaaaazy!!!
 
I had my fourth and final hen party in Floripa.

I spent a week in Rio with a friend from England.

 

 

 
Then my parents arrived and all the in-laws met.
 

 
I got married!!!
 
On the Friday, we had the registry office service, where ALL of the witnesses were late, one arrived just as we were being called in. Then the wifi failed and the live link didn't work. :(
 
It was all over so quickly I didn't actually realise I was married!
 

 
After we went for cakes and coffee.

 
And in the evening we went to Bezerro Grill.

 

On the Saturday, I arrived at the salon at 7am for primping and preening.

 

 
While all that was going on Fabio and some friends were under strict instructions, dressed the venue with all my handmade/painted/glued/sewn/button-ified decorations.

 

 Finally I arrived after being told to be an hour late  and there were speeches.
 

 
For those who don't speak Portuguese, Fabs said 'First I would like to thank my family (Joss, my Mum, my Dad, Felipe, Titi, my grandmother Rose,  and Mr and Mrs Ellams) for supporting us in this new journey. Also thank my great friends here and who are sharing with us the most important moment of my life. I remember that I always said that I would never find someone, but everyone said one day I would find 'my lid' to fit my pan. I just needed to be patient. Everyone who knows me, knows I am not patient! But now I'm here with the most beautiful person I have met in my life both inside and out, Joss I will love you forever! I would like to dedicate the first toast to Joss' Grandad, Mr Peter Moran who passed away a few weeks ago. Cheers Mr Moran! Now let's eat and drink!'

 

 

 

And the dancing did begin!

 

 

 

 

On the Sunday, it was Fabs' Birthday and we headed to the beach for a few days with the parents. However the weather was cold and rainy!

 

 

 

My parents, left on Thursday and now it's time to try and get back to a normal routine!!



Cold!!!

I am not a wuss when it comes to being cold, I prefer to be too cold than too hot.
But  I have moved to Brazil, and while I know it is in the south of Brazil, this is not on.....

-3 in Joinville, I did not pack for that!!!

 

Getting Married in Brazil

So several months of stress and worry, about R$600 later, we are finally booked in for our wedding!!! All my documents were fine and fortunately we got the day we wanted!!!

You can find what the Brazilian Consulate says you need here.

However, this was my experience....

I needed:

• Certificate of No Impediment, you can get this from you local registry office and costs £35. Some places say that this is only valid for 90 days, but the registry office in Joinville didn't bother. I had a mild panic attack as Fabio moved so the address was wrong on the certificate, but it didn't cause any problems.
• Full birth certificate with both parents name on
• certified copy of Passport in the UK, which cost £10

The Certificate of No Impediment and birth certificate needed to be legalised by the Brazilian Consulate in the UK, which cost £16 each. You send the original in a special delivery envelope include a  postal order for the amount and another self addressed special delivery envelope. They return it with a big sticker on the actual document.

The certificate of no impediment and birth certificate then needs to be translated by a sworn translator when you get to Brazil. This cost us 177 reais / about £63.

We then needed certified photocopies of the translations and originals which cost R$3.80 per page which we did at a Public Notary.

Fabio needed:

• An updated birth certificate that is only valid for 90 days 
• Identity card and original CPF
• Copy of proof of address, such as a  utility bill water (surprisingly, this did not need to be in Fabio's name)
• date of birth of parents (if alive), date of death of the parents (if deceased)

You can only register the marriage at the Cartorio, a maximum of 45 days before the day you want and a minimum of 30. You need to take all the documents with you along with 2 witnesses who cannot be your parents but may be family members, they need to be over 18. They will need to take their ID and CPF also.

At 45 days, we then needed to 'enter our marriage papers'. All our documents had to be registered at the cartorio, which cost R$50.35, about £17. We then had to 'enter' them. They needed to know the professions, date of birth, place of birth and addresses of both of us and our parents, and also our 2 witnesses.

You also need to tell them if you want to change your name and if you get divorced how you will split the assets. You can either take out what you both put in or split everything that you gain from the time you get married 50/50. They put all the details into a contract, which you both have to sign.

They keep all the originals of the documents, which I did not realise, so now I need to get another birth certificate!!

The cartorio in Joinville (I am not sure if it is the same everywhere) only does weddings on Fridays between 12 and 3pm. The Monday before you need to go in with copies of the IDs of the people who will be your witnesses, you can have 2 or 4 witnesses.

So relieved all that is sorted..... next on to the visa process........ >:(

Back in Brazil!!!!

After over a year away from Brazil and 9 months and 14 days away from Fabio , I am finally back and with the Fabster!!!!!!!

I was dreading the flight, worried about the excess baggage, connecting flights, transfer airports at Sao Paulo and crossing the city in rush hour, but it was all fine! I ended up pay a hefty amount in excess baggage, but unlike last time it all arrived at my final destination.

I had extra legroom on my 12 hour flight, although it was a bit turbulent. The bus transfer across Sao Paulo was really easy and even at peak time took about 2 hours. It was raining a lot and flights to all the airports near Joinville had been closed, fortunately Navegantes the one I flew into wasn't and I just had a 45 minute delay!

So all in all a pretty stressless flight!

The new house is lovely, more pictures to come when it's sunny.

Lots of things have happened in the past few weeks....

a Men Do (a hen party with my male friends)

A hen party with friends, including a very classy afternoon tea, then cocktail making, then some serious dancing!

 

Moved out of Sheffield and back to in with the parents

A hen party with family and old neighbours, my Brown Owl and Playgroup leader!

 

Refresher driving lessons, after 10 years of not driving!

 

Several trips to the charity shop, to donate around 6 bin bags of clothes

 

Gained a Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) in Post-compulsory Education and Training (PCET) specialising in teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) - YES I  PASSED!

 

And on Thursday I fly back out to Brazil after over 9 months away from my fiancé! :D

A lot can happen in 8 years.......

Today it is 8 years since my volunteer programme in Salvador, Brazil with Cross-Cultural Solutions, and since I started this blog, to allow all the fabulous people that sponsored me to go to keep track of what of I was up to.

It is crazy how much of an impact that 4 week programme had on my life!!

In those 8 years I have:

• lived in NYC and worked for CCS  for 3 years
• travelled to and trained offices in Denver, Boston and Toronto about CCS programmes
• been an Advisory Board Member for the International Volunteerism Resource Center
• volunteered in Guatemala, Costa Rica, Ghana and China
• discovered I loved teaching while in Ghana
• moved to South Korea to teach for a year
• gained my CELTA
• taught in Leeds and Brazil on and off for about 2 years
• went back to my placement in Brazil 3 years later and was still remembered by name by the teacher in my class!
• met the man of my dreams  through an ex-colleges, ex-boyfriend's mum's nephew's birthday party and got engaged
• completed (and hopefully passed!!) a PGCE  specialising in ESOL
• Met and stayed in contact with some amazing and inspiring people

And now for my next adventure..... I am moving to Brazil in 37 days where I already have a job lined up, and if all my documents are in order, will get married!!!

Let's see what the next 8 years have in store......

Wedding fever!

I've been really quiet because of all the uni work and wedding planning that has been happening, however the light is slowly appearing at the end of the tunnel in regards to uni.

More excitingly, there have been lots of developments on the wedding front.
My dress arrived the other day. I had found a dress I really liked but it was about £3,000, after searching through some wedding forums, I found a guy in China who could make it for for £120... sounds too good to be true right? I ordered it in plenty of time just incase it did go horrendously wrong, or it was some big scam, as you do hear some horror stories.

BUT

It wasn't!!!!! The dress is extremely well made, it's fully lined, has boning in it and is an exact match to the dress I wanted but of course in red! Honestly, I was really over whelmed by the quality of the dress.
If you want a dress making, send Jeff a picture, your measurements and you can pay via paypal and about 2 months later a fantastic dress will turn up on your doorstep. Jeff can be contacted on jeffliu8800@yahoo.com.cn. I cannot recommend him enough.

The only issue I had was that I have lost quite a bit of weight and will now have to have it altered, it was also realllly long. I am guessing it will cost me about £90 to have it altered but then it's still only £200 for a wedding dress - not bad!! 

Our finger print wedding rings also arrived this week. The rings were hand made just for us by Chris Parry, again a fabulous job and couldn't recommend him enough either! 

 

 

Photo by Chris Parry

 

After schlepping only a boot's full worth of stuff up 3 flights of stairs, I finally moved in last Sunday. I was quite please with how well I packed. I remember when I moved to a house in Huddersfield and we had to use a van. This time I managed to fit pretty much everything in the boot of the car!
The apartment is really nice and grown up, right next to a tramstop and right next to a park.

View of a hot air balloon from the balcony

The first 3 days at uni has been induction and getting to know each other and the university.
Next week is the placement induction. I am only in (I think) on Tuesday morning. I kind of just want to start and get on with everything. I know when I am in the middle of placement, assignments, lesson planning etc. I will wish for the week of nothing back!

Yesterday we went to Sheffield Food Festival and had look around. Tried a few types of jam and some flavoured vodka. I was almost knocked down by some granny eager to get her free shot!!

I also discovered London Road, which had loads of different types of restaurants and we went for sushi at Yama Sushi.

Last week was spent mainly up in Leeds/Huddersfield but we also went camping in Robin Hood's Bay. Fabio was slightly concerned about the weather and being cold but we were really lucky and it was pretty good.

We also met up with lots of my old university friends, did lots of drinking and eating and more eating and even more.

I worked out that we visited 10 cites/towns and travelled at least 894 miles as well!!
We took hundreds of photos but here are some of the best!



Unfortunately all good things have to come to end and Fabio flew home (very) early this morning. :(

Next stop Sheffield and start university on Wednesday!

On Wednesday, we ventured into Wales, where Fabio had his first professional hair cut for years, courtesy of Uncle Ron.

Then on Friday we headed into to Liverpool.
We looked around the Albert Dock and also went to the Museum of Liverpool, which was really good. I would highly recommend going!

We also headed to The Cavern Pub, where there was actually a Brazilian band who were going to be playing later on that night!

On Saturday, it was Fabio's birthday. We went to Damon's as if you go on your birthday, you get a free meal and cake. He managed a rack and a half of ribs!

After, we went to Telfords, where there was a live ska band called Buster Shuffle playing. Which judging by the amount of jumping/dancing Fabio did, he loved it!

On Sunday we had a 'Welcome Fabio / Fabio's Birthday / My Birthday / Belated Engagement' Party with the family and dedicated blog reader Siany-Poos!

 We even got a cake with our faces on it!!