Sooo..... about my life here.... Those of you that know me will probably have a few laughs over this entry, those that don't know me so well, let's just say that me and animals... are GREAT friends

My adventure has been quite an adventure I have gone above and beyond my comfort zones and have tried innumerous new things. The first big step was obviously coming to South America. On. My. Own. Without even getting here, I had already done something new. Crossing over to the big bad South. My first (of hopefully many) Equator crossings. Right away, my "delicate", white skin had a nasty surprise.... Ofcourse, the equatorial sun (where I am, we are barely far from the Equator) just LOVES white skin, it has a special joy in turning it bright red within minutes! And ofcourse, my skin got no exeption. What annoyed me most was that I caught a really really really bad burn on my shoulders the day BEFORE I had to go travelling with my not so light rugstack....

Another thing which, later turned out to be an embarrassing mistake, is the language differences! Brazilians speak Portuguese right? Ofcourse! So communication should be the least of my problems, yeah? Uhm... Big mistake there! Yes, the basis of the language is the same, but Brazilians have given Portuguese their own Brazilian twist... Duh! Brazilian Portuguese has its very own special accent... Which to me, sounded much as Spanish. Especial at the beginning. They also have their own words for some things. This made for some very funny, and often awkward mistakes in communication! I would sometimes get the weirdest responses, and only after much thinking over the conversation, would I get what the conversation was actually about, and so realizing the stupidness of some of my answers.

As most of you know, me and insects... Not a very good combination, especially the eight-legged ones. Well, yeah, Brazil has A LOT of those... So, my daily night ritual is as follows: before getting into bed, I go through my house with my slipper in my hand, smacking anything that moves. This takes a while as I am quite thorough. When my whole house is checked, and de-insectinized, I move onto the biggest part of operation Sleep. The bedroom... Oh yes, the bedroom gets an extra special mention. I will comb out, the ENTIRE room, from top to bottom, left to right, multiple times, making sure, that no insect survives my inspection. Then I focus my attention on the bed, mosquito net, and area surrounding the bed. Nothing will crawl over me.. So long as I'm awake. My neighbours must think me quite insane... Smacking sounds, every single night! Ofcourse, this is all quite stupid, once I drop of to sleep, there is no stopping the night crawlers.

I'm a great pet lover... but any animal besides those... I tend to avoid, but here in São Miguel. I have turned into a regular little farmer Herding cows in to the pasture, collecting them again in the evening, milking them in the morning. Gathering sheep and goats. Spending hours chasing baby chicks back into their coop, and if they can't be persuaded to return home, then just picking them up and dropping them at home. Sharing the kitchen with chickens, goats, and the odd piglet. Hehehe, can you just imagine me doing this? Me, right? Well, it's actually been great fun!

I love cooking and all... But really, cooking for myself, every day, 3 times a day, on a camping stove... Don´t think so. I started off really determined and confident, but this soon dawdled to making large quantities (for the leftovers), skipping meals, or just plain begging at my friends houses!

Tchau Galera! Até mais!