Gatinhos para adoção

My friend Wilton and I were walking back from the university cafeteria a couple weeks ago and we heard this high-pitched mewling. We both thought it was a strange species of baby bird and dismissed the sound. But farther down the trail, this tiny kitten, all black and covered in brambles and dirt comes meowing out of the bushes.

In Rio Grande we have a stray animal problem. A lot of people don't fix their pets and abandon the unwanted litters. We have a ton of street dogs. TONS. FURG must have at least 30 stray dogs that wander around campus. There are hundreds throughout the city. Often people abandon pets on FURG's campus because they know that we're a bunch of bleeding hearts.

The two kittens Wilton and I found were most likely abandoned from another part of the city. They were only 30/40 days old - definitely too young to be out on their own... I don't want pets at this point in my life. They're a lot of responsibility and I'm not very responsible right now. But I couldn't leave these tiny abandoned kitties defenseless in the wild! So Wilton and I got a cardboard box and took the kitties to class with us the rest of the day and then took them home. Our Physical Oceanography professor was surprisingly chill with the arrangement and the kittens were on their best behavior until about the last half hour when they peed in the box and I had to excuse myself to go find a new one.

We took the kittens to Wilton's house and bought food and flea and worm medicine (they were covered in fleas). I named one of the kittens Fumarola which is the Portuguese word for hydrothermal vent or black smoker - a vent on the ocean floor that emits black smoke and strange gases and metals. The other kitten we're still debating what to name him.

Unfortunately on Friday, Fumarola got very ill. We called a vet and did everything we could but he died on Sunday. :( The other kitten is happy and healthy and tearing apart Wilton's house. hehe.

a box o' kittens in oceanography class

preciousss

Volteiiii

I arrived in Brazil on Sunday and I'm very excited to be back! Rio Grande feels exactly the same. I've already seen lots of my friends. I'm just happy as a clam. The only thing missing is a certain someone way up in Michigan. :)

My total travel time to Rio Grande was 28 hours. Unfortunately, when I arrived in Rio de Janeiro, my suitcases did not arrive with me. Either they jumped out of the plane somewhere over the Caribbean or they were chilling at the Miami airport.

It's day 4 without my bags. I think my patience for the astounding ineptitude that is American Airlines wanes as the only outfit with me becomes increasingly saturated in my sweat. I'll just leave that image there...

Yesterday it reached 100 degrees and today it was 94% humidity. I'm not sure that my hair ever dried this morning after I left the house. It was either wet from my shower or from my sweat. The only clothes I have are a pair of jeggings that I've worn for the past 5 days and some tank tops that my friends let me borrow so I'm struggling to remain positive about my delayed luggage.

Other than that, I've just been running errands. I'm trying to register for classes at the university but first I had to register with the federal police. There's a lot of paper work involved. 

I've moved into a new house here in Cassino. I like it a lot better than my house last year; there's more natural light and it's closer to the main avenue.

The view from my bedroom window

My roommate also has a kitten named Penny. Penny and I have been getting along well, even though she's a bed hog. She's a weird little cat: she likes coffee, oatmeal, and taking showers.

Estou voltando pro Brasil :O

I'm returning to Brazil in two weeks to continue the research I began last year. I'll be doing a masters of Physical, Chemical, and Geological Oceanography at FURG this upcoming year.

The greatest obstacle to getting to Brazil this year was acquiring a visa. For those of you who have already been through the process of applying for a Brazilian visa, you likely feel my frustration seeping through the page. *Deep breathing exercises* The consulate in my jurisdiction is in Houston, which is 10 hours from my corner of Arkansas. There were ~ 20 documents required for my visa application, which included an FBI background check and bank statements with the balance of my checking and savings accounts, among other things.

Unfortunately I can't begrudge Brazil their intense immigration/visa policies because the US takes the cake on being jerks about immigration (though France comes in as a close second - just google 'Marine le Pen' and 'Front National' or read this). Brazil, like many other countries, has a reciprocity policy. So the visa fees Brazil requires of US applicants are equal to the fees the US requires of Brazilian applicants. It's just so... fair!

I'm excited to return to Rio Grande but it's always hard leaving home.