I'm really enjoying helping Mike with his students and am quickly improving my techniques . I hope to pick up some extra work soon.
Watched Casablanca (review) the old films
are much better than films today
We are organising a summer course I can't
believe it there are large banners outside the
school and the supermarket and large newpaper
advertisements all with name on. 
1. with
Cleiton and Clecio 2. photo 2
me in front of banner
I have spent a lot of time preparing the
Summer course. I like teaching and I like to share my
experiences with students.
The whole town is very
excited because a new McDonalds is opening. How
sad, people getting excited about crap American food. And
when it opened there seem to be 9 million people crowding
the streets outside every night.
2/12/98 I started teaching an intensive summer course every evening . The students think I am a little disorganised (because I try to put so much into the course) but I think they liked it .
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I went to do some guest classes at Nucleo school. They turned out to be big lectures ,but it was OK now I have the techniques for handling this stuff. (newspaper)
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I scanned some of the pictures I took in Turkey of my friend Mike (The Trekker Extraordinaire. here) Also some new Ghana photos
Friday I asked the
students if anyone wanted to go to a bar one of them took
me to one in Sao Carlos 45 Km away. 45 Km to drink a
beer ...a different scale to the UK. (Thankyou Agitio
for the special coctail beer with 2 whiskies in it !)
Saturday I went to a Churascaria
(BBQ) with Agitio and Marcos Quarry. They don't cook
the meat much it is almost alive !
Then after I went to a Hawaian party and a local
club (Melusa) with Nivaldo and his wife. We arrived at
1am and left at 5am ..Brazilian time ! It seems if
you go out here you have to spend the next day in bed
recovering.
We had a barbarcue on the Sunday at the
house and I went to a pretty boring rodeo show.
This week it rained a lot. One night
there was a big storm. The drains got blocked and we had a flood one downstairs room was 3 cm deep in water.
Friday some people took me to
drink Robodogalo, and to the famous
local
striptease club Comendador. It would take a million years to explain
what it was like ... very different from what I expected.
It was like some London clip joint where you pay to have
some girl sit and have a drink with you, but it wasn't
tacky or a rip off. Still I wasn't so interested we left
after ...hmm 4 hours .They paid $10 for the drinks etc
it's not really the kind of place I would go to if I was
paying myself.
On Saturday we all went to Cafe CanCun and danced to Forro music which I didn't like much. It's weird Brazilian people can't dance like we do , they don't follow the same beats. They have a strange system of paying in nightclubs. You go early pay for a table , then your drinks are free. They had made me try this drink called El Matador ..you drink while it's lit..Big deal I thought. Except when they bring it you don't just get one waiter. You get one with a large funnel, one with a trumpet and one banging cymbals. Though after all the ceremony the drink was really weak. (people are used to drinking very weak beer)
On Sunday as usual we played volleyball in the pool here. And watched a football match on TV. Mike takes football very seriously..more than religion.
I have spent much or this week preparing a treasure hunt for my students. They will walk around the town following the clues and answering the questions and finishing at a bar. It was a success .. I think they liked it. (We'll they seemed to love it)
I have been trying to
learn some Portuguese but it difficult , because
in a normal conversation I
can't understand the words. I only understand
when people speak simply. I
need to find a place where I can hear the
simple Portuguese then later
I will be able to understand the normal.
My friend Nelson who has
an English School in Teresopolis is coming to
Ribeirao Preto tomorrow. He
is going to Mato Grosso after Christmas. I will probably
go with him
Otherwise I have to be back to teach a new course on January 6 th