Friday, July 11, 2008

This would never work...

back home! 4-way stop signs? never!



I was just getting out of Tim Horton's and stopped at the stop sign, and as I was looking to the other drivers and paying attention to who got there first, I smiled and said to myself "this would never work in Brazil" LOL I can almost picture in my head all the accidents, all the yelling, all the "I got here first" LOL. I did a search on youtube to see what if I could find some interesting videos on how driving is in the biggest city in Brazil, Sao Paulo, click here for the search results.

Ok, Canada is not paradise, but so it's not Brazil. There's not the perfect place, the perfect place is what we make out of where we live. There's always 2 sides for everything, pros and cons. If I have to point out one thing that I really dislike about Canada, I don't even hesitate: winters are just too long! I mean, 'cmon, Spring officially starts in March, why does it have to snow until April? They say "Spring is just around the corner", and I blink and there she is, in all her glory, Spring, turning the corner and already waving goodbye! Argh! Then comes Summer, and if you think you'll now enjoy the warm weather, think twice: it comes with a price, humidity. So what you do? Stay inside and turn the AC on, especially on those days when humidity is a real problem and a warning has been issued. Ok, ok, you might have noticed that I pointed out 2 things! ;)

The last time I went visit my family I couldn't get in a car without having to unconsciously brace myself and hold the seat. LOL Traffic is just crazy down there, and my mom lives in a small city! Bikes (motorcycles) and bicycles everywhere! There's a somewhat new type of bike drivers down there called Motoboys <-- click to read a little about it.
They are everywhere, and I mean, everywhere. I don't think there's a place in the country where there isn't at least one Motoboy. The concept is interesting, and it comes straight from plain and simple survival, which we, Brazilians, are one of the world's experts, along with any other 3rd world country. When you have to "make do" to survive, you develop creative ways of using resources, recycling, and starting new and unique business.

Which brings me back to Canada. I have noticed a change in the last few years, but generally speaking, you cannot make a living in Canada fixing appliances and eletronics. It's cheaper to just go and buy a new dvd player, tv, or whatever, than getting it fixed. Reason is labour fees are just too high. I was really surprised, when I lived here for the first time (1990) to see all the "waste".

I got these facts below from this blog, Our Green Year:
  • 40 percent of all solid waste generated in Canada is from household garbage.
  • Each person in Canada generates 383 kilograms of waste. In other words, that is 30 garbage bags per person in Canada.
  • 12 million tonnes of waste is generated by residential homes each year.
  • Only 2.5 million tonnes is recycled.

'nough said for today. On a good mother's-heart-relief-note, my kids came back home shortly after I posted earlier today. Ethan hugged me for a long time and said that he was sad and missed me. Awwww....

I added some cool weather thingies on the right side, lookie, weather forecast widgets for both here and in Florianopolis, Brazil (the closest city to where my mom lives). I also added a translation tool. If you know of any other translation widgets, please let me know. I checked this one out and it does a pretty good job, but you know how funny and without meaning some translations can be, right?

Ok, now I am reaaaaaaaaaaaaaly gone!

Until I am back, God bless!

..:: ::..

3 comments:

  1. Stop sign in Brazil! Nunquinha da silva! hehe Agora entendo o que meu marido sentia no transito brasileiro. Pior que o mais triste eh que estive la em maio, e nao teve um dia sequer que nao vi um acidente, literalmente, e na maioria com corpo de bombeiros chegando. We are survivors!

    ReplyDelete
  2. hahaha, Elaine, eh verdade, no Brasil nem um stop sign funcionaria, imagina o 4-way... hahaha Aqui onde eu moro tem um, e p qualquer lugar q eu va tenho que passar por ele, a maioria respeita, mas tem uns completamente burroooosss, Deus que me perdoe, mas acham que o stop sign eh p aqueles dos caminhos contrarios, e nao p quem parou primeiro. Aih vira e mexe tem um idiota se metendo na frente da vez do outro porq o cara que vem de frente p ele foi e ele quer ir tb... eh horrivel. Se eu pudesse fazer uma ponte sobre soh p nao ter q passar por esse cruzamento eu faria viu. hehe.
    Vim aqui minha linda agradecer de coracao suas sabias palavras. Muito obrigada pela historia q me contou, imagino o quanto tenha sido dificil o recomeco p voce, alias, o recomeco eh sempre dificil, mas com um gostinho melhor, pois vamos com muito mais forcas, e enfrentamos muito mais, e no final, quando tudo da certo nos sentimos orgulhosas de nos mesmo. Quero seguir seu exemplo, e um dia contar minha historia p alguem que precisar. Essa primeira semana foi dificil, mas confesso que jah nao odeio matematica, I DISLIKE it, but don't HATE it anymore, I 've been doing all my homework and I was really happy that I got 4 right answers out of 6 on my first quiz. It's not perfect, but it's a good start. If for some reason I don't pass this class, I will do it again as many times as I need to pass it.
    Com relacao a seus filhos tendo sleep overs... acho que as maes sempre esperam que os filhos precisem delas, dependam delas, e eh dificil p elas aceitarem que eles crescem neh. Mas isso nao significa que ele te ame menos. Pelo contrario, ele te ama mais por dar a liberdade de ele poder crescer e viver as novas aventuras que toda crianca precisa p aprender a ser independente.
    Um dos meus sonhos eh ser mae um dia, e acho q a minha frustracao com Math eh exatamente isso... pois decidi q soh terei filhos quando terminar a faculdade, e se eu ficar stuck in Math eu vou demorar mais e mais p chegar ao meu goal. Complicado, mas um dia eu chego lah. Beijos ELaine.
    Obrigada pelo carinho e palavras de encorajamento.

    ReplyDelete
  3. WOW Elaine, estou adorando seu blog, muito legal mesmo... vou adicionar vc na minha lista de blogs legais!!!

    :-)

    ReplyDelete