I meant to write more about the Olympics immediately after they were over, but I’ve been sick for the last week, which tends to get in the way of things like that for me.

Anyway, we’ve both always enjoyed the Olympics, and watching them in a different country was a unique experience. There’s a lot less of the American teams, naturally, but you get to see a lot of sports that you wouldn’t in the US. Sometimes, that’s because these sports are dumb, like handball and racewalking. Other times, though, they’re pretty cool, like judo. And some sports, there’s a good deal of both Brazilians and Americans–specifically in volleyball, which the two countries collectively dominate. There was also a good deal of swimming on TV, because everyone loves Michael Phelps. Brazil also won their first swimming gold this year.

They did not, however, win the gold in soccer, much to the consternation of pretty much the whole nation. They were stuck with the bronze, after a stunning 3-0 defeat at the hands of the hated Argentinians. My 7th grade class, though, has as many Argentinians as there are Brazilians, so when I announced the score in the middle of a quiz, there was delightful consternation. Good times.

The Olympics are not just about bitter national rivalries, though. They’re also about kitschy corporate promotions. Here in South America, McDonalds treated us to the “China Menu“. This includes three items– the “Beijing Burger,” a hamburger with chop suey on it; “Rice Sticks,” two bricks of fried rice, deep fried; the “Imperial Dessert,” a sundae with some kind of banana fritter, topped with crystallized, caramelized sugar. The first is terrible (there’s a reason you don’t put chop suey on burgers, and Brazil isn’t exactly known for its chop suey in the first place), the second is pretty good (could use some bits of pork), and the third is fantastic. The term ‘Beijing Burger,’ though, is a bit odd, considering that they call Beijing “Pequim” here.

This is not, however, the strangest thing about the Olympics in Brazil. Brazilians have an odd relationship with/understanding of China. lt reveals itself in occasionally odd ways–ways that might be considered insensitive by, say, most of the civilized world. Things like a takeout place called “China In Box.” So then we were watching the Olympics on ESPN Brasil, and saw this:

And we thought to ourselves, “was that really what it looked like?”

Oh yes, it certainly was. It was the mascot for their coverage of the games, and we saw it dozens more times.

Yes, Brazil is definitely a different country.

It’s the dead of winter here in Rio, which means that it’s 85 degrees and clear. We took our first trip to the beach this morning, which was fun.

The week in general has also been fun. School started Monday, and despite our late arrival, Lorraine and I were both ready for it. Having done this once before–in a significantly less than ideal situation–is making my life quite a bit easier this time around.

The size of the school has pretty much stayed the same from last year to this year, which is probably good considering the explosive growth the school has had over the last few years. The largest classes got a bit smaller over the summer, but the smaller classes got a bit larger, so things, in general, are a bit more even now than they were last year.

Those of you who had a chance to hear our spiel this summer know that we were praying for visas for our director and his family. That prayer has been answered far more swiftly than some other visa-related prayers I’ve prayed, and they will be joining us on teh 25th. In the meantime, Bonnie & Larry Roots, a pair of NICS veterans, are filling in. So, that’s one prayer answered–now you can start praying that the new director is a sensible fellow who won’t do something silly like make the lives of his teachers miserable or anything.

Another prayer request–last year, I was never able to get real chemicals to use in my chemistry classes, having to make do with household chemicals and whatever I had on hand. In general it worked out, but I felt like I was shortchanging the kids. Now that I’m also teaching physical science (chem & physics for 9th graders), I need even more. It sounds like we’ve got a place to get them, though–just be in prayer that it all works out and I can get what I need.

Is there anything else to share? We get to watch the Olympics, but it’s all in Portuguese. Michael Phelps, though, is just as big here as he is everywhere else, and we watched Brazil win it’s first gold last night. I’ll have more about the Olympics, though, later.

After many trials, which included unpacking our three bags on the floor of Sea-Tac International Airport, rearranging our stuff, and repacking it into four bags, we are here, safe and sound. The same cannot be said of my guitar case, which is now minus one hinge, one latch, and a fair amount of its structural integrity, but the guitar came through unscathed, so I am not complaining one bit.

All of our luggage made it through, we got our taxi at the airport, and we even met another teacher there who came on our flight, unbeknown to us. Our first staff meeting this morning went well, and we are pleased to be back in Rio. School starts Monday, so we are frantically preparing.

Thanks for all your prayers.

Well, we’re flying out tomorrow morning at 8 AM for Atlanta, then at 8 PM from Atlanta to Rio. Because of this, I feel I am allowed to add Georgia to the list of states I’ve visited, since we will be there for five hours on a layover.

We’ll be flying Delta this time, instead of United, because of a hitch in the travel agenting. But we do have tickets, we do have visas, and we have luggage that weighs more than both of us combined.

So please pray that the skies will be clear, the security check-points obliging, and the customs agents benign. We should be at the school by about 9 AM on Friday, Rio time.

One of the things I really wanted to do when we came back to the states was go hiking. I haven’t been able to do a ton of it, but I have hiked some, and I’ve got video hikecasts of those hikes.

The first one is a short 4.4 mile hike that Lorraine and I took when we were camping up in the North Cascades National Park area:

The second one was just Abbey and I, an 11+ mile hike near Mount Rainier.