And the noughties are coming to an end

It’s unbelievable that the decade is almost over. Just like that. It’s a bitter-sweet feeling, since for the last few years I simply have not enjoyed anything of this decade, no matter where I was/am. At all.

So part of me is glad that it’s almost over. And I’ve made a resolution for the next year: I’m not putting up with shit anymore. No more. I’m sick and tired of accepting things the way they are and if I’m not happy I’m simply bailing on that. Just like that. And I got to think last night that I’m clearly looking in the wrong places and have been doing that for such a long time that it’s blinded me. I don’t wanna be blind anymore, seriously. I’ve obviously wasted all the good years doing shit and I’ve decided to do something about the rest of the good years that I have left, so there you go. I’m gonna set goals and I’m gonna reach them and I’ll finally have the chance to see what it’s like when you achieve things. As one famous guy put it: “hope is not a plan” — so no more hoping, just plans.

Going along with all the lists that have been published so far, these are the things that I considered important in the almost past decade. And bring on the 10’s.

Noughtie’s (oo’s) Events:

1. 9/11

2. War in Iraq/Afghanistan

3. London bombings

4. Bush elected. Twice.

5. MJ’s death

6. Economic crisis

7. You Tube

8. World cup 2002

9. Reality shows

10. Natural disasters (Tsunami/Katrina)

—  — Things that didn’t make the cut, but worth mentioning:

– John Paul II’s death

– Euro (currency)

– Obama’s election

– Bird/swine flu

– iPod

And one more eve around the corner

Last night I went to bed around 10pm. Had a bunch of Guardian Weekly(s) to read so I figured I would do some catching up with my reading, even though it was totally last week’s, last month’s news. I read for about two hours and decided to try and get some sleep. — oh, I actually finished Catcher in the Rye as well, after almost a year! Impossible to have a decent night’s sleep with all the heat. My bedroom was simply unbearable and I’m thinking we’ll have a pretty cruel summer ahead of us…

Anywho, woke up really early, cold shower and then supermarket. Timing couldn’t have been more perfect because the moment I set foot outside the building it started to rain, lightly at first. I was gonna take a cab anyway on my way back because of all the bottles of water and all the liquids and watermelon and other heavy stuff. The place was still walkable — sure, it was like 8:30am — and I quickly got a cab afterwards. I got home and then morning turned into night, completely dark inside and pouring with rain — and I was hoping to do some good cleaning… I guess the mop will have to wait until is dry again.

I’ve downloaded a bunch of Xmas albums (Nat King Cole, Sinatra, Elvis, collections…) and must confess that I feel a little better than before. I wish I could stay here for the night and carry on with my stuff, unfortunately that’s not a possibility. My idea is to get in and out within, say, three hours maybe? The bitch part is that I can’t simply make them drive me home right after midnight, and getting a cab is way out of the question — I think I learned my lesson last year, more than one hour waiting for a taxi that, being called upon, didn’t show up and I had to attack the occasional cabs on the street to try to get home. So I think I must come up with a plan soon enough. And I do hope that the building is totally empty by the time I get back to the flat.

Well, for some people is a great experience, maybe someday I’ll get to live it. In the meantime, all I can do is imagine. Merry little Xmas.

Finally a break — events of 09

Yesterday we had our little end-of-year party at the school. Pretty lame actually, probably because nobody was in the mood for that. There were some snacks and a pretty lousy gift, but nobody could’ve asked for more otherwise they would actually end up with nothing. I’m saying this because the teacher that last week didn’t show up for immersion class in the morning got fired yesterday. Kinda harsh, especially two days before Xmas Eve. We had arranged to get together afterwards but everybody was so down in the dumps that we simply went our separate ways as soon as the party was over.

I had a meeting prior to the party with the newbies that are helping us out with the immersion  in Jan/Feb. Four people showed up even though I had contacted six of them. I’m kinda worried about the work in the summer months because most teachers will have had no experience at all with these kind of classes. But you know what? I do not want to think about it until 4 January.

Look at these images:

It’s been really hot and humid and annyoing these past few days, so when I look at these air shots makes me want to be there, even though I know that if I were actually there I’d be complaining that I would have to go to work with snow up to my knees.

P.S.: Balloon Boy’s parents in court waiting to hear the decision whether they’ll have to do jailtime for the hoax. And this actually leads to my top 10 events of this year:

EVENTS OF 2009:

1. MJ’s death

2. Obama’s Nobel Prize

3. Swine Flu

4. Glenn Beck being “fascinating”

5. Brazil hosting 2016’s Olympic Games

6. Best-selling author Sarah Palin

7. Oprah quits show

8. Ballon Boy hoax

9. Tea baggers

10. 30,000 more troops in Afghanistan

Worth mentioning, but not in the final cut:

– 20 years of Berlin Wall’s fall

– Tiger Woods’ 12+ mistresses

– Lombardi’s death

– Seinfeld reunion on Curb Your Enthusiasm

– Me getting laid off and rehired twice

***Final news: Richard Heene gets 4 years probation and 90 days in jail.

White Xmas, not for me

Not in the Xmas mood at all. It’s so wierd watching the news about the super cold snap that’s been going on in the US and Europe while experiencing temperatures way into the 30s. Last night was particularly difficult for me, took me a long time to fall asleep and at about 5am this fucking mosquito woke me up — and I simply can’t go back to sleep knowing that this fucking think will fly over my ear every 10 seconds, so I got up and waited. Started smashing everything inside my very spacious bedroom and there must be now some 20 shoe marks on the walls, but I eventually got the little bastard! However, after that it was virtually impossible to go back to sleep. I kept checking out the time and realized I was doing that every 20 minutes. I heard the alarm clock go off after 8am and Ipanema’s schedule on Sunday isn’t the best one. They have this programme between 8am and 10am playing regional music, which isn’t my cup of tea. I switched to another station and felt better and like getting up.

I turn on the TV and all they show is the snow in the US. I couldn’t help but wish I was there, away for this heat and non-Xmas spirit that we have here every year.

Washington DC

Alexandria, VA -- ok, I think this is a little too much...

(Pics from The Guardian)

As we are all going on vacation, we’ve got paid a couple of days ago and all I wanted to do was cry. Cry non-stop. That means I’m only gonna get paid again late January — almost 45 days from now — and I don’t see myself being able to pay bills. I’m particularly worried about the credit card bill since I had to paid the flat’s maintenance fee with my card, otherwise I’d be way into the overdraft limit.

I would like some day to have a white Xmas. I remember in London we had snow in the first year only on Boxing Day and back then it wasn’t actually common to snow in London. This tropical heat just doesn’t feel right for the holidays spirit and what really makes me annoyed is that for years and years we’ve had to accept the whole Xmas decoration that just doesn’t suit our climate. It’s ridiculous seeing Santa in a shopping mall and fake snow knowing that in a few moments you’re gonna get out of there and this excruciating heat will hit you in the face like a punch. But what should we do then? Dress Santa in shorts and flip-flops and have him sit on the beach kiosks drinking caipirinha? That’s a tough one, man… But anyway, maybe some day I’ll have the chance to see a white Xmas. What I will see for sure is a blank Xmas, all right: no money, no gifts, no joy, no prospects… just blank.

Cold snap — one week for Xmas

So, after going to sleep at 2:30am, I had the tough mission of getting up at 6:30am and I must tell you that it was hard… I usually wake up before the alarm clock goes off, even when it’s very early, but this morning I almost overslept. My boss and I had agreed that I would take the keys to the school in case the receptionist didn’t show up — even though the girl guaranteed she would be there to open the school. The thing is that she had been sick and we were worried about a no-show situation. So, I was supposed to call my boss in the morning if the receptionist didn’t turn up until 7:50am, so I would open the door and deactivate the alarm — and I needed a code for that.

Well, it was a no-show, all right. And also a no-pick up. I called the boss at least ten times and her mobile was switched off. There was one group waiting to take their final test plus the immersee. We all waited until 8:40am and nobody had shown up or picked up my calls. We finally got to get in nearly 9am, the group had gone home or to work and they agreed to return to the school at 12pm to take the test.

The immersee guy is nice, but I couldn’t stand the sight of him anymore. To add insult to injury, he was having a hard time understanding the listening exercise so I had to spend 15 minutes trying to cheer him up and motivate him and say that everything was gonna be ok — not paid to be a therapist… After that, I had to do one assessment over the phone and write the complete assessment to sent to folks at the company by the end of the day. Also, I had a chat with my boss and the company wants to see the whole planning for the February immersion in Santa Cruz, they are thinking about 10 people this time — this year we had five — and I can pretty much foresee myself preparing everything by myself — at least four different tasks for a total of five days of immersion. I’ll really have a bitch of a time trying to figure out who is going on the trip — and even who will teach the immersion here as well. Two more teacher quit yesterday, a total of six in five months. Does that say anything to you? Do you think things are running smoothly at school with these numbers? Apparently the owners don’t take notice of that…

I had a second session with the student in the afternoon and again one very hard session to teach. Even though the guy thanked me for everything, I can’t help but think that his impressions won’t be the best ones on this whole week. After spending almost 10 hours at the school I finally went home, turned on the TV on Friends and tried to unwind, could barely keep my eyes open and fell deeply asleep for some 40 minutes on the couch watching that crazy Beck blabbering non-sense non-stop.

There will be changes soon, and not very good ones. When that happens I really don’t know what I’m gonna do. I’m reaching the deadend pretty fast and about to hit the wall soon. — Watching the news today, the cold snap is hitting Europe for the weekend and holidays. I wish deeply I were there to escape from this hideous weather and city.

P.S.: This very day 20 years ago the first The Simpsons programme aired. I was 11 and yes, it’s been a lifetime…

Can’t count on people, but seriously, can you blame her?

Yesterday was a day that I seriously, seriously considered calling in sick. I went to work in the middle of the afternoon, almost fainting because of the heat, to discover that the teacher that was supposed to teach the 8am class didn’t show up, and it was only acknowledged after 30 minutes, when the student came to the reception area and said he had been by himself all the time. Not the news you want to receive when hungover.

I’ve mentioned before that apart from organizing the programme, I’m basically in charge of the classes that other teachers can’t teach because of schedule. So, I spend a lot of time with the immersees and I’m not saying it in a good way. Altogether this week, I spent almost 13 hours with the guy and believe me, that’s a lot!

So, as the teacher didn’t show up — and she would be out if the programme anyway because of “lack of commitment” — we decided that somebody should teach her 8am class this morning, and guess who volunteered? Myself, exactly. But really, would I have any options? I was not thrilled AT ALL to have to work at 8am and stay there until 5pm, but hey it’s my fucking job, right???

But the fact that the girl didn’t show up: let’s be honest, nobody gives a shit and they are actually looking to be fired since they would collect some cash on benefits.

This has been the longest week ever. When you so want something to be over that’s when time seems to drag on.

Great Friday morning

Unbelievable…

It’s exactly 07:21am and you might wonder what the hell I am up so early and typing up stuff. I had to do this now otherwise I would forget and it was just so unbelievable to forget….

I woke up by myself, with no alarm-clock aid, at 06:40. Wow, ok, bearing in mind I had gone to bed at 02:00am that was a little shocker. Anywho, as I was already awake I turned on the radio to listen to some music and some headlines  — that’s the only way I know important stuff happened in Brazil — and there’s this show with this really under-qualified, unprepared presenter that makes you wanna cry. I usually wake up and listen to Victor Hugo’s show right after this one, but today it wasn’t the case.

The girl — she sounds as though she’s 17 (she might be…) — was interviewing a guy about the movie 2012. I don’t know who the guy is but apparently he’s studied the Mayan culture and civilisation for many years and I started listening from this point:

— (girl) — …so I watched the movie and, of course, the special effects are amazing, just unbelievable, but the movie wasn’t about the Mayan calendar at all, right? I mean, I thought I was gonna get to know a little bit of the story. So, according to their calendar the world’s gonna end in 2012, right?

— (guy) — er… not exactly. The Mayans were a really advanced civilisation, they had actually more than 30 calendars for different things. For example, one of them lasts 260 days because this is the time of a pregnancy and…

—  … so their calendar had 260 days?

— no, only this one. But anyway, I don’t want to sound alarmist or anything but all the things that we see in the movie, they’re pretty much gonna happen to us. Not the story plot, of course, they needed something to connect the events but all the catastrophes, they’re actually happening…

— (…)

— because every 26,000 years the magnetic poles they go upside down and there is a series of events that comes with it. For example, all the volcanoes in the world will erupt, so imagine the millions of tons of sulphur in the atmosphere, nobody’s gonna be able to breath. They calculate that only 1% of the humans will survive…

— Well, in the movie they decide to build some sort of Noah’s Arc and actually very few people survive… But this isn’t happening to us, right?

— It will. It’s impossible to save everybody. And we have something extra here. It’s the first time in history that this is happening and the populations have nuclear arms, so imagine what can happen… This is a wake up call to everybody. If we start dismantling the bombs now, we’ll have a chance to avoid complete annihilation.

— So, there’s is a chance the world won’t end?

— The world isn’t gonna end. It’s a cycle. Every 26,000 years something happen but this is the first time there’s is a real chance that everything could be over unless we do something about it.

— So if the governments dismantle their nuclear bombs…

— Well, there could be a chance…

And it basically went on and on like that and I couldn’t stand it anymore so switched to another station, they were playing Phil Collins, I felt a little better. What’s wrong with these people? I mean, Not only did she give up the movie, but what kind of a sick person would a book an interview like that for a Friday morning before 0700am? I seriously, seriously thought about not going to work or teaching the immersion next week or showing up ever again because, really, what’s the point? So after that Victor Hugo was on, and he was trying to speak in a peace & love kinda tone, you know, trying to cheer folks up, but then when giving the weather forecast he basically said that we’d have a big storm coming for the day, hail and 100kph winds. Well, that couldn’t be more appropriate…

No snowballs, please!

If only I had gone to work yesterday… Need to confess that I’m not used to working Fridays anymore, should I show up in the morning? Afternoon? I do want to finish as soon as possible, but then if I happen to have a lie-in… down the drain! I don’t want to take my lap top tomorrow, really hate having to carry it around, it’s heavy, it’s dangerous and if it turns out to be sunny I can even walk instead of taking the bus.

Today was an ok day. I guess all the end-of-the-year restlessness is finally taking place and everybody is doing their private countdown to 2010. This has been such a difficult year with so many things going on, so many people starting and leaving the school, so many things we’ve had to put up with silently and not being able to unwind. One more teacher is quitting, the fourth in four months, she’s given her notice this week and now we’ll really have some shortage for January and February. And the cherry on top was learning this afternoon that I couldn’t use two teachers in the programme next week because they have to fill in for a guy at another branch. Once again I need to increase my workload and run the risk of doing a shitty job — as has happened before — but at least it is only one guy and his level is Pre-Intermediate. The only problem is that English for Accounting class that I still need to prepare… excellent…

I’m watching Fox Report — yes, I do watch some Fox News programmes… — and they’re saying unemployment rate in Brazil is 7.5%, compared to 10% in the US. However, they don’t show people’s average income down here. Yesterday was paying-the-bills day and these fucking bills set me back almost 90% of my salary. No kidding. I had to pay some stuff with my credit card otherwise it’d be overdraft time for me. But using credit card isn’t my plan at all, because now I don’t know what I’ll do to pay that bill next month and I don’t want this to become a snowball. No snowballs for me, please!

Oh, and now O’Reilly is saying if he were a poor Mexican he’d also try to cross the border illegally to provide for his family! OMG! — He’s angry about Law & Order SVU saying that him and Beck and Limbaugh are the cancer of the nation, voicing their hate for illegal immigration. And his commentator is now saying that the show has really bad ratings and nobody’s really watching it… It never ceases to amaze me…

Missed me at work? Don’t think so

I usually don’t work Fridays as I can work all the hours I’m supposed to in four days. So Thursday is usually a day that I sleep late — or later –, have a few beers and get ready for the weekend. I decided to take this day off today, on Wednesday and the day I decide to stay in turns out to be a beautiful one in a while. Clear blue sky and not extremely hot.

I ended up, of course, watching some TV. Again watched part of Jornal do Almoço, you know, to see what I’ve been missing lately, and the first report was on a charity soccer match that gathered more than a ton of food for the underprivileged. Ok, nothing wrong with that, pretty noble. However, they must have spent more than five minutes on this piece plus other useless sports news — national championship finished last week, nothing interesting to say AND there is a 30-minute sports show right after this alleged news programme.

I think Glenn Beck should quit his “news” career and become an actor. He should really go for that Oscar or Golden Globe because it’s unbelievable the way he acts in front of a camera, a show with zero news value on TV and apparently that’s what folks want nowadays, right?

There was also this report published in the LA Times about Brazilian police violence and killings being condemned by the Human Rights Watch. How long has this been going on? I think it’s grown over the last decade but maybe we have more access to information so we have the feeling the violence has increased but actually it hasn’t, I’m really not sure. So, what should we do? Things always go downhill in this forgotten land because of this combination: a.corrupt government b.unawared and powerless population c.bureaucracy. I have for long given up on believing that Brazil has a future, I know, not very patriotic. But I’m tired of seeing those politicians protecting each other and returning favours. The population has no power whatsoever to do something about it. I was talking to a co-worker about it and for starters election shouldn’t be mandatory. After that, there should be some major shake up in congress and senate to put an end to this over-protecting system of ours, where the population cannot “fire” somebody for stealing, doing an awful job or lying — we sure get the merciless boot if we do that in our workplace, don’t we? So why shouldn’t we be able to do that to them as well? It’s the old idea that a government or federal job gives you some sort of security, so once you land this job you are entitled to do whatever you want, no limitations.

Isn’t The Daily Show the best thing on television? It’s a shame that we don’t get the programme here. CNN International airs a weekly “Global Edition” of The Daily Show with highlights of the week, which kinda helps a little but leaves you wanting even more — it’s a half-hour show. On his website full shows aren’t available for viewers overseas, which is also a shame. Why is that, I wonder? Not only this show but other TV channels also don’t allow viewers from other countries to watch their shows — apart from 60 Minutes, I should mention. Again talking to my co-worker about TV, I totally agree with him when it comes to Sunday evening: we would switch to from Fantástico to 60 Minutes in a blink of an eye. As I have no options for the end of the weekend I end up watching FX’s night shows. “My Name is Earl” is funny and I also see The Office’s reruns. Sunday night is the worst time of the week, I believe it’s even worse than Monday morning — and this is a tough one to beat!

Tomorrow I’ve got some serious shit to do at work. Must finish the feedback on the teachers and also prepare some material on accounting — that’s just beautiful… — for next week’s immersion. Yesterday I was contacted by the folks at the company and learned that only ONE student is coming… That was the best piece of news of the week. However, we’ll resume the classes on 4 January, no buffer zone after the holidays.

…and Canada is ruled by the Queen!

(written on Monday Dec 7)

The climate change conference is happenning in Copenhagen — Cop15. Recently the world has been talking about the “leaked” — Media Matters for America calls it “stolen” — emails that all the figures that proved the temperature rose over the last century have been changed so that the world would believe scientists and do something about global warming. There couldn’t be a better Xmas present for Fox News and Republicans, who now are telling people to continue living the way they have been since there’s no evidence of global warming, or, that there isn’t global warming at all and the temperature has been actually declining and the world’s becoming cooler.

Look, I truely believe something is going on in the world. I don’t know if the numbers were actually changed, I don’t know if the temperature isn’t that high as it’s been said, but I look around and certainly see something is going on. I just wonder if people in, say, 25 year’s time, will start doing something about it when it’s too late. I like this add on CNN Going Green which reads “Climate change is global, but the solution is local” and that’s totally true. Just this morning before going to work I was throwing out the trash and saw a lot of bags filled with plastic bottles, papers, milk cartons, etc. in the organic bin. I mean, what’s the problem with these people? If I lived in the slums surrounded by uneducated, unemployed folks whose main preocupation would be to get something to eat at the end of the day, then I’d understand the non-recycling attitude. But among all the people that live in my building, I guess I’m the only one struggling to make ends meet. They come from rich families from the countryside, which pay for their education and also their cost of living in the city and apparently they change their cars every six months, you know, newer models are necessary. But contrary to what many might think, money doesn’t mean awareness. Countless times I’ve seen paper wrappers on the floor inside the building, as if it were their personal playground — and then I ask myself if their mothers back home would allow them to do it in the house… Well, they might have a couple of maids to pick up their shit after them… It’s truely saddening.

Work was ok today. I was able to do a lot of bureaucratic stuff at the school that I should have done three weeks ago. Prepared a few tables with the feedback results, both on teachers and students, registered another employee to assess next week, but I still have some shit to do. This no-immersion week couldn’t have been more welcomed by everybody. My goal is to finish all the 2009 work in 2009, so that I can go on vacation with nothing in my mind. However, next week –which is the last with classes in the year, has to be good. We really need to make those two students very happy so that the comments are favorable — last week’s guy gave us good numbers.

And talking to my colleague about countries and states and independent states and territories — TMI for me, but… I kinda asked him something I’ve always thought about but was too lazy to look up: what is Canada? I mean, I know it’s a country (dahhh) but who rules it? He did a little googling and we found out that ultimately it has a Prime Minister representing the country’s interest but the Queen still has power over the country (a constitutional monarchy). And not only Canada, but Australia and New Zealand as well. So they’re all part if the Commonwealth, along with some other 50 countries, but each has a different relation to the UK. Really confusing but interesting to know that those three rich countries haven’t gone completely independent.

And finally: are Teabaggers forming a new party? Bill O’Reilly says “they need more choices, no matter what kind of parties (are being put together)”. Well, with the experience we have here in Brazil, with dozens of parties and political chaos, I think I’d prefer fewer choices, you know, more conciseness.