Pregnancy

This week I got pregnant! Well not really. :) (Zika effects pregnant women=get zika you get pregnant, zika symptoms are fever and acheyness=my cold symptoms were zika symptoms.... fever=pregnant!) If you didn't get that, sorry.

I've been rotten at updating, so here are a bunch of pictures from Friday last week, Monday this week and yesterday! We had a grand adventure planned for today to, but the car rental being closed yesterday sort of put the kabosh on all of that. So I'm updating the blog :)



Isn't this a cool picture?? It's the street right by where we live.



'Stream' on campus where we collect.



Diogo teaching the proper collecting method. And my leg.





Same stream, farther down.



This innocent looking branch actually contains a spider!! Very sneaky indeed. Blended right in.



Every now and then I stop and wonder how on Earth Heavenly Father came up with insects. I mean, there are SO man different kinds! With different muscle attachments, different wings, legs, mouthparts (or modifications of). It is mind boggling. What a neat world we live in. Filled with so many things to learn and explore right under our noses!

Monday we wandered through Sao Carlos and stopped at the observatory. Here we learned why the moon looks different from the Southern hemisphere.



Interesting how different cathedrals are here.







Cool science building.





We were so hot and tired after all of our walking (and I may have had a fever at this point... not sure when that started... ) so this acai was much needed!





Ok, yesterday the goal was to understand the busses here. And we succeeded!! Almost. Took one at the end of the day in the wrong direction... but you know, we tried.



Zoo!





I think there is a cute monkey in this picture.











These birds are native to the Cerrado here??? Isn't that crazy? What kind of place am I living in??

Also, there is a super cool wolf here that mostly eats fruit... but he was hidden so we didn't get any good pictures.

Life is good, my fever is gone and the sun is shining :)

Remember that one art class?

I've always secretly wanted to be an artist, but two things held me back; even my doodles were too ugly and uncreative to ever hope for a future in art, and I just never had time in my schedule to take an art class to find out. A year ago I had the brilliant idea to take art 101 for one of my GE's. (Many of you probably remember this...) It was pretty disastrous. I had hoped to gain at least some basic skills and somehow learn to enjoy sitting and sketching things - doesn't that just sound nice and peaceful? Wake up in the morning and sketch the sunrise before breakfast? Instead I learned that not only am I bad at drawing with or without a teacher to tell me so, I also get bored of sitting and drawing VERY quickly.

When we first met Rhainer he told us he could teach us to draw in a week. My reply, fat chance, Becs, yeah let's do it! So last week we began, and here are the results:



There's this nifty set up you can use so when you're looking through the microscope you're also seeing your hand. That's how I did this one. (The dragonfly kept drying out though...)



Copying a drawing from a book, two damselflies and one dragonfly.



Two coenagrionids I believe.



Copy of a drawing of Hetaerina.

The coolest part is that I actually enjoyed drawing these! At first it was boring, but once Rhainer complimented me it suddenly became much more engaging. Funny isn't it, how much confidence a compliment can give you, and what a difference that can make. Bugs are cool :)

I love to see the temple...

Saturday I had the amazing opportunity to visit the Campinas temple with the stake in Sao Carlos! Several times A MONTH they rent a bus and drive the whole stake up to the temple, usually staying the entire day.



Not at the temple... but I love acai! Wish we had it in the states!



When we got back from the temple we blended maracuja, creme de leite, and doce de leite in the liquidificador (trying saying that one ten times fast!). Put it in the freezer and tada! Delicious mouse :)


We were watching a movie and this HUGE grasshopper hopped onto the couch. Insects are cool.



If you look closely you will see a gigantic black bee, I couldn't resist taking a picture of it. Imagine eating honey from that beast!



This was the back side of the temple.



It was so beautiful. We did a session in Portuguese, that was good language practice for sure!



Becs and I with our new friend Junior.



The view from the top. The temple is on a hill above the rest of the city, so we had a lovely view.



This cute little guy is called mindinho in Portuguese, or little finger. If you stick your finger out he'll come right on and suck all the sweat off! Isn't that sweet of him?

I was so grateful for the opportunity to enter the House of the Lord this weekend. The temple is a beautiful, sacred place, and I take it too much for granted when I live close. Every time I go I am reminded of how much the Lord loves all His creations. I'm so lucky to get to study some of them! But the best part is, we can all enjoy God's creations just by going on a walk. What a wonderful world we have.

As meninas

In case anyone was searching for one word to refer to Becca and I by, we found it. As meninas; it doesn't matter if there are other girls in the room or not, if we just met someone for the first time or not, as meninas (the girls) always refers to Becca and I. Reminds me a bit of how Ryan and Nick are always 'the boys'. Since we're becoming the same person, having one name helps.

Good news: I've been able to go running! Don't worry, I was told it is safe to run in the neighborhood here in the morning, and I always tell Becca where I'm running and how long to wait before being worried (even if she is asleep when I leave...) so we're all good on the safe side. I think it helps me remember Portuguese better, at least that's what I keep telling myself.



Our favorite girls in Assis on our last Sunday! We'll be returning, but we're not sure when and for how long... still... mostly because Becca and I can't make up our mind. Big surprise there.



We went out to lunch and felt like pasta... bad idea. The man just kept talking to us and telling us all these different things we could put on it, when all we wanted was a simple gnocci!! Ended up with a 'free' dollar bill  - no matter how many times we told him we didn't want that deal.



This girl is ADORABLE! and no, sorry Becs, I'm not talking about you. She's also built up my confidence with babies that Vivian has smashed down a couple times :)



Went collecting on campus in Sao Carlos and saw this beautiful boa constrictor! Actually, Becs almost stepped on it. Super cool.



These plants will never get old. In the words of Dr. Johnson, if there are some plants nearby, we have some friends :)



This spot used to be a perfect habitat for Hetaerina on campus, but some engineers decided it would be better to cut down all the grass, dam up the water, and clean out the trough. Can you believe it? Engineers ruin everything.



Isn't she beautiful?? I've been spending a lot of time practicing identifying damselflies, especially Hetaerina species. (This one is Hetaerina longipes, as I'm sure you were all just dying to know.)



Tried acai for the first time with these wonderful people! So grateful to have such great mentors and friends.



Practiced the sanding skills I learned over the summer when helping build aquariums.



The first time Becs took out her ukulele Davi ran away screaming, but look at him now!



This family is wonderful, we met Junior through Matt Lipps, and they had us over for dinner last Sunday. Delicious food, great company, and, again, grateful for the amazing friendships we've made so quickly.



Since every friend Becca and I know in Provo is either engaged or started dating someone, we responded by finding some guys of our own. I forgot their names.... but meet our Brazilian boyfriends! (Angie, mine is the one on the left.)



This was a very sad evening for me.... I was not able to finish my dinner. I'm not sure what is happening to my stomach, but it is very upsetting. What we are holding up is only half of our dinner, and I couldn't even finish one. Becs finished hers. I probably should run more or something.

Well that's a little update on our lives! Our Portuguese has slowed a bit, but we are learning much more about dragonflies, their behavior and taxonomy, about chironomids, and a lot of other random things. Biology is great, you should all study it.