I had a really hard time making friends in Brazil. Lots of factors played into the challenges, but language, cultural differences, and location were the biggest hardships. I figured coming back to Canada would be easy... I would have all my old friends back!

Did you realize that people's lives continue without you when you leave a place? No? Me neither... Yeah, well it's been an unexpected challenge trying to get together with my old best friends, simply because our lives are running on different schedules. The best part about the difficulties in getting together with my besties is that I have not been disappointed and they are still just as amazing as ever. Love keeping friendships strong.

But what to do about the gap I feel in losing those close friendships with people who understood all the difficulties in adjusting to a new culture and language? Who understands adjusting to another culture and language better than other foreigners? Now that I'm back in Canada, I'm just normal, not foreigner anymore, not special. 

One of the biggest surprises, I'm discovering, is how much I am relating to and bonding with foreigners who have moved to Canada. I'm taking this TESL Diploma program right now (which I am LOVING, and Danielle can attest to this as I update her with my newly acquired linguistic knowledge just for fun!) The funny/ironic part of this program is out of around 20 students, I am one of three English as a First Language speakers. The large majority of students are relative newcomers to Canada (let's not comment on how odd this is in a program of people wanting to teach English...) but what I do love is how interested I am in my colleagues trials and tribulations of immigrating to Canada and how much I have in common with them.

Without Brazil, I'm sorry to say, I wouldn't have really thought twice about how difficult it is to adapt. Sorry!

It's really promising and uplifting realizing that I can have a similar friendships with foreigners who have moved here. It fills the hole (and through the Brazilians and Portuguese friends I can still speak Portuguese!)

Good things are happening... and after a really happy weekend I feel more positive about our future here.

The time has come to get a job. I seriously didn't reeeeeeally consider how I would make money coming back 6+ months pregnant ... Everyone keeps saying "employers can't discriminate..." but, let's face it. If an employer is interviewing two people for a job and one is guaranteed to leave in 2 months and the other one isn't, who would you hire? I wouldn't blame them either.  So for now, I decided to go the 'working online' route. That way I can also work from my sofa!

There was this HORRIBLE commercial for an English school in Brazil that used to play all the time. Probably the most irritating commercial I ever saw while living there (WAY more annoying that Giraffas, Danielle! But that being said... I like the Giraffas commercials, haha)


Cheeeecher.... UGH! HATE! I vowed never to work for this school because of this commercial!

But then I got to Canada... and I have a baby on the way... a course that I'm starting (more on that later)... and so, ladies and gentlemen, you are looking at the newest addition to the OE team!

Actually upon further inspection of this school, I really liked their methods and views on teaching and it seems to be pretty open in terms of various teaching styles. Plus, they're flexible with my schedule. So in fact, it's a pretty great option for me right now. The only downside is the really brutal salary.... especially after teaching in Brazil where you can expect anywhere from R$30 working for a legitimately good school (not a big-box school) to R$60-80+++ teaching privately.

This school pays NINE dollars. My American friends... is this even minimum wage?????? In my province minimum wage is $10.25 - not that it's much better, but it would help if I could start at min wage at least.... oh well beggers can't be choosers and I've emailed them to see if I can start a liiiittle higher.  We'll see what happens.

In other 'back to' news, I registered for school again! Now I'm going back to work AND school which will keep me busy until the baby is born... I decided on a TESL Diploma program so that once I'm back working full-force, I'll be able to teach in public schools and Universities if I so choose.  My crappy little 40 hours TESL certificate will take me nowhere here... it's really amazing how many more opportunities there are in Brazil, just by speaking English and having a degree. 

My biggest fear now is how it'll be managing a new baby and a college program... The words look crazy even as I type them.  I'll have a little break in the beginning but I have no idea what to expect REALLY. I know what people tell me... no sleep, no schedule, life all about the baby... but I will really have to see for myself how I'm going to deal with it all.

Why would I put myself through all of this right now? Because seriously, I love this shit.

P.S. I wouldn't leave you hanging and not show you my beloved Giraffas commercials... Bahaha both are equally amazing!