Que Significa? and Feliz Acciones de Gracias

So the first week of language school was a roller coaster. The first two days were hooooorrrrrrible!! I could not understand anything . . . I think I was just overwhelmed and did not know what was happening to me!! Classes are completely in spanish, no english is used unless they can not describe the word to me in spanish. By Wednesday, however, I was starting to pick some words up and could speak a few things to my teachers which made life easier or at least it felt that way!! I still definitely have problems with understanding what they are asking me though! I seem to ask them all the time "que significa?" (what does the spanish word mean?) or "como se dice . . . ?" (how do you say . . . in spanish?) or my favorite word "si"!! I seem to say "si" even if I am not understanding a thing! I just nod my head and smile!

Above are pictures of the courtyard of the school and the classroom I am in for 4 of my 6 hrs. of classes. Six hours does not seem like to much but you are using your brain constantly, and it is very exhausting. My first class is with Blanca, and it starts at 9:30 and goes till 11:30. Blanca is a really good teacher, and I enjoy spending time with her. I have gotten to go do different things in the city with her at night. She teaches me grammar which I do the best at. My second class is with Tania and goes from 12 to 2. This is my hardest class because it is a conversation class and if you know me well you know that I am not much of a talker!! My last class goes from 2:30 to 4:30, and it is with Pablo. This class is vocab and other stuff. The first day with Pablo makes me laugh now because he started out his lesson by having me read something out loud and he realized I did not pronounce things right at all. He stopped his lesson, and we practiced the alphabet and pronouncing vowels for first three days!! More about the teachers will soon come!

Feliz Acciones de Gracias (Happy Thanksgiving)

So Thursday night for dinner, aka Thanksgiving, Estela took me out to a local food joint which is very traditional in Mexico. It is called a cenaduria, and it is a restaurant run out of a house and is only open at night. It makes cheap, traditional Mexican food that was really good! Estela ordered for me pozole, a corn and pork soup, a tostada, a hard tortilla with pork and sauce on it, and a sopa, a small corn tortilla with cheese and other good stuff in it. All of it was very simple but soooo good. And the best part about the meal was that is was only 62 pesos which is roughly $6!! Where in the US can you get a meal for two and be totally stuffed for $6. So it wasn't your traditional turkey and stuffing but it fit with where I was! I am so thankful for what God has done for me over the past few years and the experiences and people I am encountering. Thanksgiving ended up being a really good day which surprised me since it is my favorite holiday and I was missing all the festivities. But the Lord was present even in Mexico!! Below is a picture of the pozole and tostada and below that a taco (not what you thought the taco would look like right?!)

Lastly, I had to post the picture my family took back home during Thanksgiving. If you look at it closely you can see that they set out a table setting for me!! Supposedly my mom was adamant in my plate and cup not being touched!! I love you guys very much and know that I was there with you in spirit!!

Hola, Me Llamo Sarah!!

So the true adventure begins!! I made it to Guadalajara in one piece with all my luggage so it was a good day. To get to me final destination though I had to fly 15 hours, go through 3 customs, and think my luggage is lost twice! I was supposed to meet one of the school drivers in a red polo but that was not the case so after a few moments of searching for this red polo I saw a sign with my name on it!! The man was a teacher at the school and came to pick me and Clinton (an American that was with me in Rio) and take us to our home stays.

We first dropped Clinton off at his house and then it was my turn! Mi familia es Rodolfo and Estela. They have been housing students for the last 26 years and have had over 80 students live at their house!! Estela said that she has only had one bad experience from all the years of housing language students. They speak pretty much only Spanish but will help me if/when I have no clue what is going on. I understand some of what is going on but not that much so I just nod my head and say "si". Rodolfo is a lawyer so is starting to get ready for retirement and Estela is a homemaker. Rodolfo is very quiet and kind and Estela is more outgoing and is a great cook! They are now my Mexican mom and dad!!

Another great thing about the house is my new friend Rita!! From the first time I saw her and she saw me, we had an immediate bond. I love her because she runs in circles when I come home from school and will curl up next to me when I am doing my homework or on the computer. And she looooves to give besos (kisses)!! If you haven't already guessed Rita is a dog . . . a chihuahua at that. She does not like her picture taken so this is the best I got right now.

My room is pretty big especially consider the room, I mean closet, I used to have back home!! It was their son's room. For decorations he placed all menus, tickets stubs, fliers, and matchbooks from his travels! Its pretty neat to look around and see what it was like to be a teenager in 90s. You can see some of the decorations in the picture below.

There is another student living in the house also. His name is Julio, and he is Portugal. He is studying at a university in town. He is really nice but when he tries to speak Spanish to me, I do not understand him at all!! With Estela and Rodolfo I can at least get the gist of what they are saying!!

The first couple of days at school were realllllllllly hard. My teachers even commented on how much better I was doing after the first two days. I was soooooo overwhelmed I think for one being in another country and two not knowing the language. Being a perfectionist I was making it even harder on myself and still am a little! There will more about the school on another post shortly.

More from Rio de Janeiro

My flight to Atlanta to get to my flight for Mexico City to get to my flight for Guadalajara was not until late Saturday night so fortunately I had a free day to go around and sight see a little bit. I ended up signing up for a tour with the hotel and expected it to be me in a big bus with lots of other foreigners. Well did I get a surprise!! When my tour guide came to get me from my hotel my transportation was just a small car. At first I was the only person but then we picked up a family of three from another city in Brazil. Our tour guide was a young guy from Argentina, so he could speak perfect Spanish, English and Portuguese. So for 130 Reales I got a personal tour guide in a car run on sugar cane!!

We drove past the beaches of Barra de Tijuca and then went up the mountain some to the largest urban rainforest, Tijuca National Forest. It was a really neat place and I wish I could have spent a lot more time there. The national forest was so much different from any of the national forests in the US.

Once we went through the forest for a little bit we headed further up the mountain to the Christo Rendetor (aka Christ the Redeemer). It is a really surreal sight!! You have this massive statue on top of this mountain overlooking a huge city with lots of beautiful beaches. It was not the best day to be up there because it was really cloudy. Sometimes you could not see the statue because you were in a cloud. You could see God though through the beauty of the mountains and the sea and even the city.

After the seeing the Christ the Redeemer I was dropped back off at the hotel and packed for the 24 hour trip that was ahead of me. I hope that I can go back to Rio some day and really get to be a tourist! God answered many prayers by allowing safe travel, nice people, and a overall great week!!

Welcome to Schlumberger!!

Above is the sign entering into the Latin America area headquarters in Rio de Janeiro. It was a week full of sitting and listening to presentations but I got to meet a lot of fun and interesting people! My class size was thirty and the percentage of the people are from countries all over Latin America.





Flavio, Maggie, and I headed to the office. All of us are in the same segment of Well Services but we will be doing different things. Flavio is my Brazilian friend who sat next to me at most of the training sessions. He asked me a lot of english questions which was actually pretty fun. He will be stationed in Brazil, as well as Maggie. They most likely will be working on off-shore rigs and get to wear bright orange coveralls!

One night at dinner with some of the gang. It was a night of great food and great company outside at a resturant with a live band. The best part about my job already has to be the diversity. Pictured in the picture above is a Chinese, a Mexican, a Ecuadorian, a Venezuelan, a Norwegian, and a Colombian!!

Two of the nicest people I met, Karla and Adan. Adan made me laugh all week!! They are both from Ecuador and will be headed there to work. We got to eat at a Brazilian steakhouse, Procao, at the end of the week. They would bring spears of meat to your table. It was such a fun environment!

At the last day of class we got all our PPE apparel. We got our beautiful blue coveralls (aka Big monkeys) and our steel-toed boots. In the picture are Ma Jimena from Colombia, Adan from Ecuador, me, Alejandra for Mexico, and Alexandro from Venezuela.