Interview time!

Woohoo! I checked the mail on Wednesday and we received our notice from immigration for our interview. It is set for January 18th in Chicago. Yikes. I'm absolutely terrified. Although I'm scared to death, I'm ready to get the interview behind us so I can stop stressing and stop being a mad freak about saving every single piece of paper, envelope, picture, blah blah blah. This process has been moving extremely fast. It feels like it was just yesterday when we filed our paperwork. I hope the interview and everything after the interview goes just as smooth.

p.s. Neither of us are British, but I got a kick out of the cartoon..

Things I've Learned...

During the time that I've been with my husband, I have "learned" many things.

1. You can't cut a watermelon 10 minutes or more before eating it. You must cut it RIGHT BEFORE you eat it.  The watermelon has to be cut into large pieces. Any other way makes the watermelon taste nasty and your Brazilian husband will refuse to eat it.
2. Avocados make you fat.
3. Americans are pigs because we don't always shower at night. You know, some of us prefer a daily morning shower, not a night shower. This makes Americans pigs because you sweat when you sleep and bacteria will infect you. 
4. The cat is absolutely not allowed anywhere near the bedroom. If your Brazilian husband sees a little bit of fuzz on his shirt it will automatically be blamed on the cat. 
5. Cleaning means shoving everything where nobody can see it.
6. No matter how busy you have been the car has to be squeaky clean before picking up a Brazilian friend. If it's not clean, the Brazilian friend will apparently think you're a lazy pig.
7. Drinking old milk in your coffee is not a problem.
8. 25 degrees is not 25 degrees. It is -15 degrees, and gosh darn it! Without an Arctic extreme conditions sport boot he will freeze to death!
9. Nobody has been through what your Brazilian husband has been through. Nobody has as much experience as him....not even your 80-year-old grandpa.
10. Everything Brazilian is better. Everything American is crap. That includes the food, music, clothes, cologne, and probably toilet paper.

I could keep going but for now I will stop. I love the man dearly, but sometimes I have to laugh at the way he thinks.  Of course his culture is much different than mine. Not to mention, we were raised in much different ways. Things from his Brazilian culture are rather shocking to me, just like things from my American culture are shocking to him.

Webcams are a beautiful thing!

Last night my husband and I spent 2 hours webcamming with his family in Brazil. We haven't been able to do this recently because he's always working and with the time difference it just doesn't work out. Also, their internet connection is terrible where his family lives. Luckily enough we were able to visit for 2 hours, which never happens! His mom, little cousin, and 2 of his aunts were there. I love his family. They are always soo happy! This past summer my parents went through a divorce and it's childishly forced me to not talk with my mom. It's great to feel a motherly connection with his mom. Hmm..I wonder if I will feel that way when we are her neighbor?!  Anyway, webcams are a wonderful thing. It's WAY cheaper than calling and a lot of fun! I can't wait for the next opportunity to webcam with them.

Biometrics

My husband has an appointment tomorrow at 9 AM to complete his biometrics for immigration. This will be one of our first steps, or at least I consider it to be. Of course we could count all of the paperwork we did as steps but that was just a bunch of chaos and I would rather not think about it. Now we are getting to the real stuff! I'm nervous because we have a million different papers to take. We are travelling to the location so we have to drive about 130 miles. What if we forget one of the papers that we need to take? I'm sure that's impossible because we are both paranoid about that and have double checked everything several times. Although we have double checked everything, it's only human to forget something. Let's hope that isn't the case tomorrow!

Caio and Rafael

My husband works for a farmer who owns something like 45-50 farm stores. At the main store, which is near the town we live in, the farmer/owner has exchange students from Brazil come to work. Currently, there are 3 working but 1 is going home in a few days. That one hardly ever comes out for supper and never comes over to our place so we don't know him very well, but the other 2 are always with us. Their names are Caio and Rafael. I can assure everybody that when my husband and I are old with silver hair and wrinkles we will still laugh about these 2 goofballs.

They arrived here in August about 2 weeks before we moved here. Neither of them spoke English when they got here. Caio is slowly learning but Rafael is another story. Imagine them trying to help customers in a huge store, especially Rafael! I pick up a few hours at the store during the week and I try to help Rafael if I see a customer approaching him. Customers are starting to learn that they don't speak English. Recently customers have been asking them, "habla Espanol?" OH BOY. That makes it worse!

Anyway, last night we had supper together. Our suppers always turn into therapy sessions for Rafael. Caio started telling my husband about how customers are starting to ask Rafael simple questions like, "how are you today?" and Rafael can't figure out what they are asking so he will walk all the way to the other side of the store trying to find someone to give the customer assistance. After the fact he realizes they were asking him a simple question! Poor Rafael. Last night he put his head down on the table. All of us thought he was going to cry. Caio being the nice guy he is stood up and patted Rafael's head and said, "don't cry my baby."

Last week Rafael had to put 200 pound salt blocks into a shopping cart. He kept telling the other worker to help him, but she kept saying, "no, you're strong!" Rafael said, "noo...noo...help." The other worker wouldn't help! I feel so bad for these guys. I can't imagine what it must be like in a foreign country, trying to work, and not understand the language. These guys are miserable. My husband and I try so hard to teach them English to make their days go by smoother but it isn't working! Does anybody have any suggestions? Also, they're attending English classes once a week but they're obviously not working.

Watching these 2 suffer makes me realize that I need to start learning Portuguese so I'm not in the same boat when we move to Brazil! My husband and I have bought book after book so I can start learning but I never have time to sit down and read them. He always translates their conversations for me, but I know there will be days that I won't have him to translate when we move to Brazil. These thoughts are very scary to me! Did anybody have a lot of trouble learning Portuguese? Does it come easy once you're in Brazil? Thanks for the help!

Thanksgiving With the FLU.

WOW. What a day. I worked 9-5, arrived at an appointment at 5:10...was there until 8. After that I went to our crappy mall and bought a new outfit for Thanksgiving. When we moved here I got rid of all my clothes so I had to buy a new outfit. Then, I went to Wal-Mart to buy ingredients for a Thanksgiving dessert. I am finally home at 10:14 and VERY thankful.

A couple of my coworkers called in sick today because they have the flu. How lovely! Around 2 I started to feel a few flu-like symptoms but decided to not think about it. It appears to me that if you think hard about getting sick, you usually end up sick. Apparently not thinking about it didn't work because I'm pretty sure I have the flu. To make things better, my husband has the flu as well. Of course he thinks he's dying. We are expecting to spend Thanksgiving with his boss's family so that might get a little interesting! I know one thing that is for sure...tomorrow will be a hectic day for me. I work 7-11 and then I have to rush home, make desserts, and get ready!

Oh, and the weather. It is currently raining. Ohhh no, not just rain. Freezing rain. I have never seen freezing rain before! How interesting. Where I came from it either rained or snowed.  I don't want to be a downer, but geez! I hope everything settles down tomorrow so we can enjoy our day! I guess it could be worse. I could be my stray adopted kitty outside in this nasty weather. That is a blog for another day! Happy Thanksgiving!! :)

My very first blog!!

After months of following a few expat blogs, I finally decided to create my own. My husband is ill tonight so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to take a few minutes and give some background information.

• We met in July of 2009.
• We have been married since August 24, 2010 and have started our paperwork for immigration.
• That is one of the reasons I decided to create this blog. I need an outlet!
• I am an American and he is a Brazilian.
• We recently moved 1,000 miles away from my hometown.
• He was presented with a job opportunity that was too good to turn down!
• He is a farmer and I am a student.
• We plan on moving to Brazil after I complete my degree.
• He is an only child and wants to be with his mother.

Each day presents a new experience and challenge now that I am married to him. I am 100% positive I will be sharing many stories as the days go by! :)