School

We've had a fairly low key last week or two, especially due to Charlotte's broken arm. It's put a damper on our beach trips! :) 

We did manage to go to the Sao Paulo Aquarium, which wasn't huge but was plenty big. The most exciting exhibit by far was the mermaid exhibit. The girls spent probably an hour looking at these girls in their mermaid tails. Charlotte kept asking me questions like, "How did they get here?" and "Why do they have tails", and "How come they were born mermaids and I wasn't?". It is just so sweet that she thinks they are real mermaids!! Love that sense of wonder. 

Charlotte started school last week and this picture is from the parent day when we got to know the classroom. Her teacher is really sweet and speaks fantastic English. The lessons are all in English but her friends are all Brazilian. We are hoping she can pick up some Portuguese from them on the playground.

 Here's the entrance of the school right past the security guy and the finger scan. Yeah, intense! But it's nice knowing they are so careful about the security. The security guy had our faces memorized before we even got there and knew who we were. (We had to send pictures of us all with the application.) The drop off and pick up are kind of crazy since the school is on a small road and the only parking is parallel. That and I am driving the biggest car of all the moms, and I am a silly foreigner who has still not mastered parallel parking. Also, we get some funny looks because I always have Clara with me and all the other kids her age are enrolled in the school. They often ask me why she doesn't attend.

It seems to be a really great school and Charlotte loves going. There was absolutely no crying when we dropped her off. They serve a snack every day of a fruit, some type of bread thing, and juice. On Fridays they get to wear dress-ups!

Our park by our hotel has these trees with giant leaves that make the perfect umbrellas.

Last Saturday we went to Parque de Cantereira, which is on the North side of Sao Paulo. It is massive and has botanical gardens and a mountain. We did the hike not quite knowing that it was sooo uphill. We were so glad Russell had come with us (not only for the awesome company) but he also helped us push the girls. The girls adore him and want to hang out with him all the time.

Charlotte was getting a picture taken of her uniform and Clara wanted to pose too. 

Our favorite of the uniforms: the cute red polo dress! Her school has the cutest logo of a little bear and a Canadian flag.

And some of the weirdness we saw: Why hire a sign guy when you can use a mannequin instead?

Peter's work has been going well but he travels up north to the plant for part of the week. I don't think any of us will be too sad when he has finished the track up there! A funny fact about Pernambuco (which is close to the plant), the beach is the 10th deadliest for sharks. They have a natural reef that you are not supposed to swim past and they made surfing illegal. Crazy! 

We are also hoping that soon they will get our things through customs and we can move into our apartment. Life will improve quite a bit with more space and toys :).