Happy 88

Today it is my grandpa's 88th birthday!!!

my cousins, my grandpa, me, my sister - his birthday last year

Talking about the old man makes me a little emotional - he is for sure one of the most important people in my life and, truth be told, if it wasn't for him and my grandma this family wouldn't exist.

You know how people say grandparents will spoil the grandchildren the way they never did with their own kids? Well this is absolutely true for my granps. I guess he was always working so hard and so stressed and worried to be a hands-on dad and also, those were different times. But as a grandpa, he's been the best.

I lived with my grandparents up until I was about 7 years old, and I remember leaving their house and going away with my parents being devastating. My grandpa would come back from work every day between 4-5pm, then we would hang out for a while and he'd give me a shower and get me ready for dinner. Then we'd sit side by side on the sofa watching the evening news before going to bed. He taught me how to ride a bike - and he bought my first, second, third bike... He'd take me for walks, take me to the fair, bring me beetles in a shoebox so I could play with them... Haha, yes - I collected beetles when I was a little kid.
He gave me a typewriter, and from that I developed my love for writing. He gave my brother his first guitar and payed for guitar lessons, and today my brother is an excellent musician. 

When I was 17 I moved back in with my grandparents. I guess those were our roughest times - I was a rebel teenager and he was feeling the weight of responsibility again. I had a boyfriend whom he loathed, and this sweet old man would actually walk up to my (at the time) boyfriend and say "F-you, you S-o-B!!!" hahaha. At the time it was terrible, but nowadays just makes me laugh.
And even in those rough days, he would still wake up at 5am to make me some tea before I left for work and walk me to the bus stop. He's always been by my side, even when he's not.

He's 88 today and I feel so fortunate that he's part of our lives. I'm so happy that he loves my husband and feels that he doesn't need to worry about this troubled girl anymore. I know he is sometimes a grumpy old man, but I doubt anyone who's 88 and is not grumpy - I just could not ask for a better and more loving grandpa.

Love you, granps!

grandpa, parents, sister, brother and I at the airport

The smelly-feet-ghost and other short stories

As I've mentioned before, my in-laws are quite peculiar people. My father-in-law came to Brazil a little over 25 years ago, he's from Taiwan. And as any Taiwanese, he has his own way of seeing life and the world around him... his Portuguese is only a little better than his social conduct and mind you - he doesn't speak Portuguese that well.
My mother-in-law is an uneducated farm girl. And even though she tries to read sometimes and learn about different things (she is knowledgeable in many things), some things she thinks and says are beyond comprehension. She can be very skeptical sometimes and question things - as everyone should -, but she can also be very gullible.

They lived in a very old house for many years and, truth be told, the place was falling apart. Since I met my husband I had been telling them to move out of there and when I came back to Brazil, one year ago, they finally decided to leave that place (I guess because they hoped we would live with them).

Although we decided not to share a house with them, I still helped them find the house where they now live.
Long story short, they loved it, but one day we while were visiting, my mother-in-law said she was worried about something.

The house was wonderful and much better than the previous one, but there was *one* thing bothering her.

Mother-in-law: My computer desk is right underneath the stairway, and sometimes while I'm sitting here, I'll feel a very strong smelly feet scent.
Me: Oh. What's going on? Do you have any boxes there?
MIL: No! I took everything out, there's nothing there...
Me: So where do you think the smell is coming from?
MIL: I can only think of one explanation for this... I think this house is haunted and there's a smelly-feet-ghost who lives underneath the stairway!!!

Yes, this was the only logical explanation she could find... true story. More coming soon.

Weekends in Brazil

I have an American friend living here in Sao Paulo, and a while after she moved here she told me it was hard hanging out with friends over here because most people just visit their families on weekends. I'm not sure if this happens exclusively in Brazil, but it is true in most cases here.
My husband and I are just really lazy so we don't do it every weekend, but we do try to balance weekends with friends / his family / my family. We could see his family a lot more (since they live relatively close by), but sometimes my husband is just not in the mood and, well... I'm certainly not going to insist.

This weekend and the one before were spent with my in-laws. They're not the most socially adequate people, and my father-in-law is Chinese. Oh yeah, here's some information on Chinese people: they usually have no awareness for Ocidental standards of politeness and they have no concerns to speak their mind, regardless of who it will offend or hurt. Add that to the fact that my father-in-law is not crazy about me... well, it's not a breeze to be around him.
I don't feel thrilled to go there, but in spite of all that, going there is also not as bad as it could be. They're such peculiar people, there's always a story after a day spent with the in-laws.

My husband's relationship with them is also peculiar. It seems like they depend on him A LOT (not financially, but in every other way), and he talks to them just like he would to any of his friends. His dad had a picture of a naked lady on his desktop background (don't get me started), so as a prank hubs decided to change it... to a naked tranny.
The more I talk about them, the more people think they are very bizarre. And they are, really. This was just another day at the Lee's residence.

I believe in a thing called love

I got back in touch with a dear old friend about a year ago. (facebook *is* wonderful sometimes.)
Since we last saw each other he got married and had 2 beautiful children, and was very happy and telling me how amazing his family was. A few weeks ago we talked again and he told me he's getting a divorce.

I love my husband and I make sure I tell him that at least 10 or 100 times every day. And he does the same. We're not at all one of those couples with all the PDA or always writing on each other's facebook wall how much we love each other and how great our love is etc etc, because we both think that's very unnecessary, and that does not - at all - mean we don't have a solid and loving relationship.
After a bit more than 3 years together we have all the intimacy a couple should have - and a lot more than what's acceptable, but what are you gonna do? -, we still have our romantic moments, we've sailed stormy seas and got past it together and what I personally think is the best... pretty much every night when we go to bed to sleep, we just lay there and talk for a while about everything and nothing. And we make each other laugh A LOT with the silliest things. Seriously, sometimes I wonder what would other people think of us.

So what I mean is, I'm sure about my feelings for my husband and I'm pretty sure he is too and we have no intention of ever not being the annoyingly perfect couple that we are.
But whenever I hear stuff like that, just makes me so sad and a bit angry because I *do* believe in such corny things as eternal love, but hey - maybe my friend did too, and now he's getting a divorce. It just makes me feel so cynical and skeptic.

I guess... no one gets married thinking "Hey, we can always get a divorce 5 years from now!",  so we just have to believe in this thing called love and try to power through all the rough patches together, for better or for worse... that's how our parents and their parents used to do, right?

Chestnut season out of season

My mom has this childhood friend who is an orchid researcher, and has the biggest collection of micro-orchids in the world. I went there a few weeks ago and fell in love with the place. But today we went back there on a different mission: chestnut picking!

Twenty-five years ago, when his elder son was born, he decided to plant a couple of chestnut trees. The result: 2 giant trees that produce more chestnuts than they can eat. And also, out of season, so they can't sell.

chestnut trees

When my mom told me we'd go picking chestnuts I thought, "great, and since it's so hot, I'll wear my yoga pants, a tank top and flip-flops!" But when we were going there, my mom, my grandma and my aunts were all gearing up with gloves, boots, hats and tools - I thought "How the hell are they gonna do it??? Where do they think they're going???"

In my head, we would get to this place with a beautiful tree and the chestnuts - as we know them, how they sell them in the supermarkets - would just be hanging on the tree, and I'd gently pull on them and they would come loose.

The thing is, chestnuts are a bit more complex than that. They actually come inside a very spiky cocoon, and you can't touch them with your bare hands - they're really sharp. So after they fall on the ground, most of them are already half open, we get two metal rods or screwdrivers or whatever tool you have at hand and crack them open so you can retrieve the chestnuts inside the cocoon. Wasn't I so glad I decided to wear flip-flops!...

inside the cocoon

For obvious reasons, I couldn't get my "hands dirty", so I decided to register the moment instead by taking pictures and climbing trees!

And at the end of the picking, a family of 8 monkeys decided to dazzle us with their presence... they were prancing around from branch to branch, 2 of them carrying their babies on their back, and making funny noises.

It was an awesome experience, as my aunt said - living and learning. I've eaten chestnuts my whole life and never had I imagined this is where they came from.
In the end, we had 30kg (66lb) of chestnuts to bring home, and the longing for the trip next year :)