Happy Thanksgiving

I am getting a little behind on blogs...I guess life got busy all of a sudden. Anyway, last week was Thanksgiving and believe it or not they don't celebrate it here. I, however do. And because I was missing Thanksgiving I decided that all of my students would have to learn all about it. So I spend the whole week teaching about the history, and the culture and the traditions, and of course the food. No one here knows what stuffing is, and I found out, it's a little hard to describe...."a mixture of bread and eggs and spices" just doesn't really make is sound as wonderful as it actually is. Anyway, I ended up learning a lot about Thanksgiving history too. For example, I didn't know that the Pilgrims first went to Holland in search of religious freedom before getting funding for the trip to the New World. I also didn't know that there were 100 people on board the Mayflower, men, women and children and only one of them died during the 65 day voyage. Then over 50 of the died during the first winter and it wasn't until that March that they met the Indians and began learning how to cultivate their new land. Anyway...there is no stuffing in Brasil, and Turkey's not easy to find...so Kelly, Lance and I decided to to the next best thing...Tex Mex.

We made our way to our favorite resturant here in Brasilia...El Paso...I know, I know it sounds pretty corny, but honestly it is wonderful. On Thursdays they have an all you can eat fajita/taco/ect buffet, filled with fresh guacamole and salsa and everything. It's truely wonderful. Plus they have the best margaritas in the city.

So we have a great...though not so traditional, Thanksgiving.

My Friday student called to cancel class, so I sort of got a little holiday weekend too. The weekend itself ended up being pretty relaxing. I hung out with my friend Leo a lot.

He is applying to a program called Camphill which is a camp for people with special needs. He is really excited because he will either go to England or the US and he is conviced that his English will be flauless by the time he comes back. We have been helping his fill out the application and get things going. His nephew has special needs and he really has a passion to help people. So I am excited for his as well.