Chegamos no Ouro Preto, uai
After a great few days with really fun colleagues and friends, we are here in Ouro Preto. its cold, foggy, and I love it. I just forgot my cerolas.
Its now 1030pm and a marching band and small parade just went thru town. We got to our room, in the Grande Hotel de Ouro Preto and were unpacking when our dear friend Heloisa called from the lobby. I have no idea how people here know these things... but she knew we were in town... since it was time for dinner, we decided to walk a few blocks to this nice little Italian place, and ran into João & Silva (the reitor of UFOP and wife who are sending their son to spend 4 weeks with us).
The past few days I have been in Maringa, at a conference on Mathematical Modeling in Mathematics Education. It was really good, and my closing keynote went well (tho almost an hour late - due to the fact that the bus got lost, the internet connection wasn't working and a very loud evangelical choir needed to perform before me... had lunch with Ze and Lenamar and their family, then my colleague Mario came and got me, and I went to his house with his family (I lost count of the cousins and kids) after that I was taken to dinner with two other ladies who took me to a great Japanese restaurant. I guess my talk went well, the ladies decided that they need to come to the States to do some research in classrooms... and Lilian (the wonderful host of me and the conference organizer) wants me to be on a banca ( member of a master's committee... via skype.
Today was great fun... woke up at 4am, showered and closed my lugged, checked otu and the taxi dude took me to the airport. Flew from Maringa to Curitiba (changed planes--managed a cafe com leite and a pao de quiejo), flew onto Guarulos, where I had to retrieve my luggage and recheck in... as the bloddy flight we were on was going onto Buenos Aires after dropping us off in Belo Horizonte (Look at a map and see if that makes sense). the creepy thing was that on the flight to Curitba a man got on the plane, and was looking for seat 16a (I had 17f)... there was no row 16... he was 'sposed to be on the next flight to Curitiba, so they let him ride along anyway. The gate we were looking for was 16 to BH... which by the time to we got to it, the flight had moved to 18...
I was in line and noticed that Milton was three folks ahead of me... so went and had coffee... then checked in and then were sent to the wrong gate... only to find that we had to recheck ourselves in in the International wing... I kept asking people "exactly when did Minas become a foreign country?" The rivalry between São Paulo and Minas Gerais is as fierce as California and Oregon... and besides having a good laugh with all the security folks (try THAT at home boys and girls!) I wasn't to surprised to have the immigration lady laugh and tell me, "Its always been another country" as i kept her from stamping an exit visa before she needed to.
We arrived in the Belo Horizonte, and (now automatically I am proud to say) went to the bus place to ride to the rodoviário to get the bus to Ouro Preto.
There is now some older rock music blaring from a republica...best get to bed, they have a lot planned for us over the next few days... and besides work, I know that copious amounts of beer and beef will be involved in the final negotiations.
Riders on the Storm...
Its now 1030pm and a marching band and small parade just went thru town. We got to our room, in the Grande Hotel de Ouro Preto and were unpacking when our dear friend Heloisa called from the lobby. I have no idea how people here know these things... but she knew we were in town... since it was time for dinner, we decided to walk a few blocks to this nice little Italian place, and ran into João & Silva (the reitor of UFOP and wife who are sending their son to spend 4 weeks with us).
The past few days I have been in Maringa, at a conference on Mathematical Modeling in Mathematics Education. It was really good, and my closing keynote went well (tho almost an hour late - due to the fact that the bus got lost, the internet connection wasn't working and a very loud evangelical choir needed to perform before me... had lunch with Ze and Lenamar and their family, then my colleague Mario came and got me, and I went to his house with his family (I lost count of the cousins and kids) after that I was taken to dinner with two other ladies who took me to a great Japanese restaurant. I guess my talk went well, the ladies decided that they need to come to the States to do some research in classrooms... and Lilian (the wonderful host of me and the conference organizer) wants me to be on a banca ( member of a master's committee... via skype.
Today was great fun... woke up at 4am, showered and closed my lugged, checked otu and the taxi dude took me to the airport. Flew from Maringa to Curitiba (changed planes--managed a cafe com leite and a pao de quiejo), flew onto Guarulos, where I had to retrieve my luggage and recheck in... as the bloddy flight we were on was going onto Buenos Aires after dropping us off in Belo Horizonte (Look at a map and see if that makes sense). the creepy thing was that on the flight to Curitba a man got on the plane, and was looking for seat 16a (I had 17f)... there was no row 16... he was 'sposed to be on the next flight to Curitiba, so they let him ride along anyway. The gate we were looking for was 16 to BH... which by the time to we got to it, the flight had moved to 18...
I was in line and noticed that Milton was three folks ahead of me... so went and had coffee... then checked in and then were sent to the wrong gate... only to find that we had to recheck ourselves in in the International wing... I kept asking people "exactly when did Minas become a foreign country?" The rivalry between São Paulo and Minas Gerais is as fierce as California and Oregon... and besides having a good laugh with all the security folks (try THAT at home boys and girls!) I wasn't to surprised to have the immigration lady laugh and tell me, "Its always been another country" as i kept her from stamping an exit visa before she needed to.
We arrived in the Belo Horizonte, and (now automatically I am proud to say) went to the bus place to ride to the rodoviário to get the bus to Ouro Preto.
There is now some older rock music blaring from a republica...best get to bed, they have a lot planned for us over the next few days... and besides work, I know that copious amounts of beer and beef will be involved in the final negotiations.
Riders on the Storm...
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