Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Ready for Brazil?

So which bathrooms can you use? They are marked either M, D, C or H....

I ask this to my bear cub who hasn't prepared at all for his trip today IMHO. (C or H, if you are a man, would be correct)

His answer: None of them. He will not go into public toilets. Just as well as there are few of them and one needs to negotiate  in Portuguese for each piece of toilet paper.

Well, then, you better pack your Immodium.


He's never been a fan of public toilets. He refused to use the ones in his elementary school and particularly those of the Y day camp we sent him to. This made him particularly eager to get home ASAP. Well he is young and probably can get away with this. However,  I, myself,  can not go for hours without some relief and have  found myself teetering on urine soaked slippery foot pads (when chemo had destroyed the little balance that I had) trying to aim for some hole in the floor without compromising the dryness of my clothes which I had hoped, in my haste, that were safely tucked away. (once I had miscalculated..see i bagni d' Italia: a balancing act)

I made him take the book on Brazil. With an eyeroll, he accepted it but he probably will leave it at home.

A bigger question:

It is late at night and you can't sleep. You are 5000 miles from home surrounded by people who don't speak English and you have refused to learn even a word of Portuguese. Just how are you feeling now?

Answer: I have no idea. I've never been alone in my life before.

He has many friends. At college, he had 2 roommates and after college, moved in with us where Julia already was living until he could buy a house. Now Steve would be happy to be totally isolated for 2-3 weeks. People are an intrusion for him sometimes but I am guessing that Josh is more like me in this respect and will freak out. Or he will make friends with the Brazilians though the ones he is supposed to be teaching are much older than him.

But he is excited to be going and to see a different part of the world.

His buddy is in town fresh from exploring South America for the past four months. At one point, he and his companion were robbed by assailants armed with chunks of concrete and a board studded with protruding nails. This did not make it into the blog that I have been diligently reading but I suppose he kept it out to spare his parents, even more diligent readers, any more worry than they already had.

I will be worried until he comes back.

Meanwhile, my new grandbaby presumably is now the size of a fig and Ms. Maya is developing a tiny pot belly at 14 months.

1 comment:

Cheryl said...

Oh Sue! No matter what the age of our children, mothering is always interesting.
Can imagine your pleasure at having him walk through the door on his return.
Ms Maya's tiny belly sounds so cute..

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