New Experiences to Note

First Day of School is Tuesday. ( tomorrow...)

Tobias is in K3- essentially a repeat of a three's program. Except here, he is in school for 4 hours every morning, 5 days a week. They feed him a snack. Lets hope it is more healthy than the breakfast options at the hotel. Left up to his own devices, he'll eat only jello and cake!
Zachary is in the T1 class. This is a transitional class between Kindergarten and First Grade. Because of the cut off, neither boy made it to the next level. The transition class at least takes into account the skills Zachary developed last year at Hillside Elementary. Again, they feed him a snack and lunch. He will be in school from 8 - 3 PM every day!
Here is a big bonus: in Brazil, in addition to an extra set of clothing, they also must bring a tooth brush, tooth paste, and dental floss!

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My driver's license is expired! Oh planning....
Even though I'd thought about not driving until December, I was going to leave myself the option. And since my first foray into traffic went well- reasonably well- I was thinking I would be driving by October. A driver + car can cost as much as $4000.00 per month!
Aside from the exceptional cost of a driver- I am limited to a 10 hour day Monday - Friday. Since the kids have to leave by 7 Am to get to school, this means I am stuck at home starting at 5 PM.
The up side: driving here is nightmarish. Signals are not used much, lanes are an idea as opposed to a practice, speeding is a must (though if you are caught by a camera or a cop standing on the corner with a speed gun the fine is outrageous), and motorcycles are like the Tasmanian Devil appearing out of no where, racing past a car, jumping lanes, and all in a whirl of Paulista dust.
Motorcycles work in packs--at a red they maneuver up to the cross walk and rev motors until the light shows an inkling of changing to green. The roar is deafening if you happen to be amongst them!And if you hit one of them as you are changing lanes, I'm told it takes about 10 seconds before you are surrounded by motorcyclists haranguing you....hmmmm

The boys are thrilled beyond belief about the motorcycles. And we spend most of our time in traffic counting motorcycles. It is not unusual to get up to 80 or 90 in a 15 minute drive.

To challenge the counting game, we've decided:

1. we can't count the same motorcycles
2. each of us gets a color- yellow, red- but not black because they are overwhelming in number and that makes it too easy to win.
3. we count the number of helmet-less riders
4. we count those with really big boxes on the back of the bike.

....or - well you get the picture..... ( 1-3 motorcyclists parish on Sao Paulo roads every day- not counting the few who make it to the hospital first)

And then there are the helicopters to count. If one is traveling across the city in a big hurry, and one has a lot of money, one avoids all the plebeians down below and instead flies from landing pad to landing pad. (helicopter crashes are counted on an annual basis- i don't have a hard number as of yet) But when we were here in February the big news was two helicopters had "fallen from the sky". In this city, it is a miracle they didn't crash into a building or crush multiple lanes of traffic.

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Things we have heard/seen/ experienced:

• Female taxi drivers wear high heels (most women do- it is just strange to seen one loading people into a taxi and then flooring it!)
• Cleaning products smell nice (sometimes) but don't actually clean anything--
• Paper towels don't absorb, they disintegrate
• Sugar is added to everything ...i.e. milk, except when salt is added....
  
• Toilet paper cannot be flushed in every toilet - look for covered waste cans... (now I get the bidet)
  
• There is a blaring TV everywhere-no kidding everywhere! (i.e. we have three in our hotel room= no. pf bathrooms we have...??? correlation??)
  
• if you use the credit option on your debit card, you will be charged 171%. Alex fell off his chair!
• Everything can be paid in installments, anywhere from 3 to 12. (See above note on credit options!)