Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Battle Scars

I am not beginning to bear my Brazilian Battle scars. The first one being my back. I have had significant back trouble since being here. I think this comes from a couple of different things...#1 I had back surgery when I was sixteen due to three herniated discs (what can I say, I was a rough and tumble kid...), #2 Before coming to Brazil, I slept on different beds, sofas, and planes #3 Sidnei bought me an orthopedic bed which is a little on the hard side, #4 the people of Brazil do not believe in cushions. Aside from sofas, all the chairs are hard. HARD. Even in church, the pews are straight wood. Those really kill me. So basically I walk like this: \ instead of walking like straight like a normal person.

My next battle scars are big red blotches all over my pasty white legs. These my friends are quite attractive. In fact my southern friends may be experiencing them as well. Mosquitos. They liked me in the states, but they LOVE me in Brazil. Generally in the states I just dealt with them in the evenings, but here my friends, they are available for sucking my blood 24 hours a day. And they don't just stick to my legs, though that's what they prefer. Nope they also like my arms, even the top of my ear!

My poor hands...my poor hands are battle scar #3. They have little red lines, blisters, all over. All because I was spoiled and had a dryer in the US. I have maybe picked up an iron all of two times before coming here to Brazil. When I arrived, all my clothes were wrinkled and hanging them up inside the guardaropa did them no help. So I had to pull out the iron. I ironed my little heart out for two days straight. I have the battle scars to prove it! And sadly enough, so do my clothes. It is not easy being a first time iron-er.

I can't wait to start cooking with a gas stove for the first time!
Har-dee har har

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can see you are already using workds in portuguese!!! That is so exciting! Are you going to take classes or just try to learn a bit everyday own your on?

Beijos!

Michele said...

OMG Steph...skeeters and I do NOT get along at all...I absolutely detest them. Do they at least have something you can spray on you? If you need me to send you anything, let me know!

So sorry about your back...with all my back trouble, I can sympathize with you!

Good luck girlfriend!

Hugz,
Michele

Kelli @ writing the waves said...

Ugh! Just another reason to hate ironing. I avoid it at all costs.

I hope your back gets to feeling better soon. :)

Krystyn @ Really, Are You Serious? said...

I sooo don't iron. I hope it gets better for you.

Maybe, in the long run, the no cushion will help? I hear that straight back chairs help your back.

Let me know if you need some OFF. I remember how bad they were in Nicaragua...and we had to get a malaria vaccine just in case.

Mandy said...

Have you had the pleasure of doing laundry by hand yet? Or are you lucky enough to have a modern washing machine? That has to be one of the things I hated most about Peru ;-)

Good luck and so glad that you are back with your husband, finally :-)

lovelydharma said...

Hey dear, Careful with those mosquitoes! Long pants! Socks! They tend to attack me too. Gringa blood. But seriously, you're in a yellow fever zone. Were you vacinated against it? You can get a free vaccine from SUS. Sorry, just one more thing to worry about! Well, at least one good thing about being here is that P.Therapy is pretty inexpensive for your back. They also have something called RPG that is big here. Originated in Germany - stands for repostural gymnastics - basically it's physical therapy type excercises. When things settle down, look into it.

Samantha said...

Oooh, I hope your poor back gets used to Brazil! And I feel you about the mosquitoes--I am super-allergic to those bites. I'd be freaking out in Brazil. :)

Belle (from Life of a...) said...

Did you get a Temperpedic-type mattress? My best advice is to be patient getting used to it. We've had one for five or six years and the first three weeks were awful. We thought we'd made a terrible (and expensive) mistake. About a month in all of a sudden we got used to it. I'd cry if I had to give it up now. Our backs feel lots better in the mornings than they used to.

Anonymous said...

If it makes you feel any better, none of our chairs/couches have cushions anymore either because Vincenzo hawks them all and freaks out if we try to get them back from his room. My bum hurts too!

Stephanie said...

I found you through Kizzy designs. She did my blog too!
I've loved reading a bit about your adventure. Good luck with those nasty bugs.