20 facts about me

1. I love travelling.
2. I am an extrovert and an out-of-the-ordinary person.
3. I speak four languages (up to now, 2014): English, Spanish, Portuguese, French.
4. I am an interpreter.
5. J.S. Bach is my favourite composer.
6. My hair is curly and I love it. When I was little, I did not know how to deal with my hair, and hence I did not like it. Now, I love it: it is easy to comb, and if I want it straight I can have it.
7. I tend to write without contractions (in English). After immersing myself into the Cambridge English exams world, I had to get used to not using contractions, and now I just do so.
8. I am a terrible dancer.
9. I love my family.
10. I do not like coffee.
11. I am learning to play the guitar.
12. I once played the piano as a child, and regret having quit.
13. I like wearing dresses.
14. Jane Austen is my favourite writer.
15. I wear glasses, I have been tempted to wear contacts, and have I have thought about getting the laser surgery.
16. I lived in Thailand and loved it. I lived in Brazil and loved it. I lived in Canada and loved it. Now I am in Mexico and would love to live abroad.
17. I am vegetarian.
18. I would love to travel to Africa one day.
19. I play violin, viola, and timpani.
20. I love petrichor–the smell of rain.

And it all continues...

This year (2013) started with a white Canadian winter, full of hopes, dreams, expectations and plans. Although I was away from my loved ones, I felt their love and care all the way there. The year passed and many things happened: apparent failures and also triumphs, lots of love and heartbreaks, but most of all many changes.

I had to leave Canada and return to Mexico. I applied for different scholarships and had some job interviews, but things were not working out (or so I thought). After a long search –and feeling a bit frustrated already— I came across an M.A. program in Guadalajara that was just what I had been looking for. It was there all the time and I hadn’t seen it. By August I was ready to start a Master’s that had been a dream to me until that moment: Translation and Interpretation.

The second half of the year was very difficult. Although I was very content with my academic life, it is not only about studying and working, and things were getting tougher on some other areas of my life. I was on the top of my rollercoaster, but little I knew what was next: what the end of the year had to offer. Then it happened, almost as a free fall and it was hard! But as I’ve always known, we won’t go through all our free falls alone: I knew my family was going to be there to catch me and God to support me.

I may have more free falls this year and the following years (that’s what life is all about), but I know that it is all part of my character building and though it is difficult, there’s always something to learn. So facing another hill in the rollercoaster of my life, I am ready to climb!

It's October, at UAG

It's already October and that means I am half way through my first semester of the M.A. in Translation and Interpretation. (And that also means I'm one more class to finish my M.A in Terminology!). 

Here are some pictures of the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara (Mexico), where I study.

Library

Humanidades

First day of class, with Prof. Finks

Chronicles of a winter in Canada - part 2

Continuing with my winter chronicles...
*click here for part 1

same place, summer and winter

In general, trying to cope with the winter hasn't been that bad. In fact, I find it better when it snows, or the few days after when there's still snow here and there. Not that it's starting to melt, it's not pretty anymore! Plus, it's still cold, but since you don't see lots of snow out there, what's the point of being cold?! I prefer it when it's all humid and snowing. At least I feel it's worth it wearing that big coat and those huge (but warm!) snow boots.

After one of the many snowfalls we had this winter.
Do you see the bust sign and the red lines? 
Well, that's where people usually walk to get in the bus.
The blue lines are for the sidewalk.

People had already told me that February was the worst month of the Canadian winter. In my opinion, in terms of temperature, January was way worse than February.

And February still looks white!

Then March started. Somehow, my mind started to think of spring, but at the same time I know that we still have a few more months of cold days. The snow is starting to melt (though I saw the news and there's more snow coming up tomorrow!), but that does not mean warmer days, yet.

Montreal, March 1st

In the meantime, there's pretty much no more snow in Toronto!!!!

Toronto, March 10th

What I've always liked about winters in the States, and now in Canada, is that though it is very extremely cold outside, once you're in the bus, metro or any building, that's it, you are not cold anymore. And you can find very warm winter clothes and boots.

So, in general, I don't think it has been a bad experience. Though I do want the winter to end already lol. The thing is that it's just too long. Yes, the snow is beautiful, but the temperatures are just not nice at all!

Chronicles of a winter in Canada - part 1

You can surely find many posts and articles about the winter (in Canada): how to survive winter, how to prepare for your first winter, Canadian winter 101, etc. And by no means this post intends to present a guide or a how to. This is just something I thought I had to write about, since it's my first official (two white Christmas holidays -Utah and Cali- don't count because both times were just for two weeks, with a car and on a holiday mood) and real winter. And by that I mean not the winter we have in Monterrey, with a few weeks days of 0º C and the rest of the season with temperatures around 10º C or more.

So the first snow of the winter 2013 was in November 28th, but it was very light. Little I knew how bad normal this winter was going to be. Normal because last year, the first snow was on Dec 24th, there were very few blizzards, and by March winter was all gone. This time? Well, it's been lots of snow so far. And there's more coming!

Views from my apartment window

Luckily, Canada, unlike the USA, has a great déneigement snow removal service. This, added to Montreal's great STM (public transportation system), helps people continue living their routines, despite the terrible weather conditions.

Winter went on and I had to get used to very cold days, and walking on messy roads and sidewalks (half of the time it was hard to walk on the sidewalk, so we just end up going to the streets instead). I didn't have, yet, appropriate winter boots, nor a warm enough winter jacket, so I had to wear like 3 sweaters plus my jacket in order to kind of tolerate the crazy temperatures.

There's no way your shoes boots won't get wet, so better go for waterproof ones.

I spent Christmas at my roommate's parent's place, 2 hours drive from Montreal. It was good to get out of the city for a few days. Since they are all Québécois, used to this kind of weather, they all decided to go out for a walk (on a day with -15º C!). And wanting to get some fresh air too, I went out with them. Oh boy! it was a bad idea!!

Taken right outside the door, so I was still ok.

As we started walking, my hands, feet and nose started to get colder.

The day they decided to drive us back to Montreal (December 27th), there was a very very bad blizzard (la tempête du siècle, 45cm in one day) and it took us 8 hours to get back. Most of the time, we had to go 20 km/h in the highway and it was twice blocked because of a carambolage multiple crash. Twice the car almost got stuck on the road because of the snow, and a couple of times visibility was almost 0. When we finally arrived in the apartment, the entrance was blocked with snow.

We almost got stuck trying to get back on the highway after this.

The blue lines show where the sidewalk is supposed to be.

This is how I found my room window when I got back.

After that historic storm, there has been more snowfall, but nothing as bad as that one.

Curly hair experiment

So I am starting an experiment with my curly hair. I am sick of it right now. It's not that curly anymore, it's getting unhealthy and I sooooo want my curls back. 
I saw this blog post and I decided to do the same. It's a 6 week experiment. I don't have the famous curly hair book, but I'll give it a try by following the  suggestions from the blog. I don't have (yet) the proper conditioner (without curly-hair-killing ingredients), but I will start anyway.

I won't explain how the method works, it has been greatly explained here.

My aim is Sofia Milos' curls! They are SO PRETTY! And to think that my hair once looked like that. Oh, Brazilian water did amazing things with my curls, but they are now all gone :(

Sofia Milos

My hair does not look like that AT ALL right now. This is how it looks before the 6 weeks.

I'll trim my hair and that's the beginning of the experiment. I hope it works out :)

Major updates

Ok, so here I am, updating this blog once again. It had been a very long time (more than a year), but I will summarize it in a few pictures. From my time working in Montemorelos, I don't have any pictures (maybe because it was all the same routine!).


First of all, a little bit of my second trip to Brazil, this time to the state of Sao Paulo for a month.

I went back to Brazil in January 2010. This was a short visit to UNASP.

With my TESL trainers from England/Australia.

One of the lectures at the Music Festival @ UNASP.

And I had a chance to visit the Jewish-Adventist church in Campinas, SP.
Great church!

And I could not miss it, the Livraria Cultura in Sao Paulo.
I wanted to stay there the whole day!!

Back in Mexico, I retook my French lessons, this time at the Alianza Francesa Monterrey. I had great lessons and great teachers. And I also got the chance to pass the first DELF test. I still have a long way to go in French, but I'm happy I'm on the right track!

I went to a lecture given by Jack C. Richards, from Cambridge University Press. I even got him to sign a book for me!

A year later...

Changing the title (again)

I'm posting the old blog's title and description, just for the record.

Brazil Mission and more...

This time I write from Northeast Brazil. Here you will read about blessings and challenges of being a Missionary for Christ, as well as other adventures in Brazil.

This was the background picture of the previous blog title.
Picture taken by me, in Pernambuco, Brazil.

A wasted talent

Today one of the kids from the orchestra gave back his violin to the church. Even though he was not my student, it made me sad that he won't play anymore. It is not that we have lost our best violinist in the orchestra either.

Those kids, they all learned to play their instrument in church and develop their talents playing for the Lord every Sabbath in the orchestra. They did not even have to pay for their instrument! The church (and a sponsor family) bought all the instruments for them to learn and use. If it was not for what God has given to them through this church, I don't know how many of them would still be in church now.

God allowed Sandrinho to develop a beautiful talent > music. And what a better way to learn to play the violin than in church, worshiping our Lord every Sabbath?! Sadly to say, after a few years of classes in the conservatory, he decided he did not want to play for the Lord anymore. There, he saw that other kids from the conservatory play in orchestras on the weekend. Last year he was invited to be part of a group that practices on Friday evenings. He started missing orchestra practice in church some Friday evenings hoping his mom would let him go to the conservatory. Since he saw his mom was not going to let him go, he decided he was going to give back his violin. Around November last year he started saying he was going to quit. We all prayed for him, talked with him and his mom, encouraged him to continue, but he has finally decided to quit.

God gave Sandrinho one talent. For a while, he developed it and it looked like he was going to make it into two or three. But, he finally did like the servant in Matthew 25, he gave up and has "hid his master's money in the ground" (25:18, CEV). I pray that Sandrinho changes his mind and takes back that one talent and use it for the Lord.

Spiritual Retreat

It is not uncommon for the churches in Brazil to organize spiritual retreats during the Carnival holidays. I believe it is totally programmed with the intention of drawing the people's attention (esp. young people) to something  meaningful rather than waisting their time in events such as the famous Brazilian Carnival.

I was blessed to be invited to go camping with Central Recife SDA Church.

A nice visit

I love how God keeps surprising me making my life in Brazil a total adventure. I was starting to feel sad because I had not had a chance to revisit Maraial and see the church that started with our mission work during January. However, last Friday evening I received a phone call from Mrs. Sandra, the wife of the Mayor of Maraial, telling me she was sending a car to pick me up in Recife so I could be in her husband's baptism!

Not only did I get to be in the baptism, but I also got to see some church members and the new church that is growing there. It was a blessing!

With Mrs. Sandra and Vitoria (her daughter). I taught her violin for only 15 weeks, and she is already playing in church :)

Some church members. All a result of the mission project in January :)

The church in Maraial. This was taken at the beginning of the service. Later, more people came in. It was packed!

Mr. Marcos getting baptized. He's the Mayor of Maraial.

A sweet naughty boy

Jean was one of my English students during Caleb Mission. He was not supposed to be in my class because of his age, but somehow I could not reject him in my class. I felt like I had to accept him  even though he was older than the rest of the kids. Soon I discovered he was a naughty boy! He also had a look of a little gangster boy lol but somehow he would always come to class. Sometimes his older friends would come and tell him to go out with them, but he never went (I also did not let him lol).

The last day I was there, I sort of had a party with the kids. When Jean came, he just opened the door but did not get into the classroom. I could see in his face that he wanted to get in, but I did not understand why he wouldn't, so I left the kids inside and went to talk to Jean. I asked him to go in but he did not want to. He looked sad, so I asked him what was happening, I told him it was my last day with them and that I wanted him to enjoy the party together with the rest of the kids. Then he said something that almost made me cry. He said that he hates goodbyes because he does not like missing people. I tried to convince him to go in the classroom but he did not want, so we took a picture together. Then he finally accepted to get in, but he just sat there and did not really enjoy the party. I could tell he was really sad. In the end, I had prepared special gifts for the kids who did not miss any class during the 3 weeks, and luckily I had an extra gift, so I gave it to Jean.

Jean showed me that every kid has a sweet side, even the naughtiest of them all. He also made me remember that every single kid is important to God and that we should love them because Jesus loves them.

"And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me." 

(Matthew 18:5)

Missao Calebe 5.0

Maraial, Pernambuco, Brazil

I'm finally posting some pictures of Caleb Mission (previous post about it).

The whole month of January was a blessing in Maraial (and I'm sure it was a blessing all around Brasil where the "Calebs" were). I was the first to leave the group (I came back to Recife on Jan 31st); therefore, I did not have any information about the number of baptisms they had. However, to my surprise, Mr. Marcos and Mrs. Sandra (the Mayor or Maraial and his wife, who is adventist) came to Recife yesterday and decided to visit me at the Union. She told me that 16 people were baptized and that her husband is getting baptized this coming Sabbath. It totally made my day, my week, my month!

I left without seeing the fruits of the mission there. All these time, I had only been praying for them, but yesterday the Lord allowed me to hear just a little bit of what He's doing in that town. The Lord is pouring his blessings unto those people and is guiding them to the light. I thank my Lord for allowing me to be part of that story, but most important, for allowing me bring people to Him.

Calebs in action (L to R: Mauricio, Naide, Sendy, Mr. Itai-the evangelist, Rafael,
Wesilany, Cizinha, Jessica, Sister Vade-the cook!, Cristina and Jedson.)

My kids!! I taught them English every evening for three weeks.

Maraial

Inviting the people of Maraial to the community service project and evangelistic meetings