Summertime - Reprinted with Permission

Guard season has begun! It is time for summer camps, losing weight, getting tan, performing your face off, and all of that! I absolutely love this time of year and thus I am having difficulty finding time to sit down and write.

 

That being said, I am enjoying my travels and the exercise and sunshine I am getting. Although there was a lot of rain today, and even a little hail. I do enjoy the rain, but this was a bit much.

 

Maybe I'll be able to come back when I have had a lot more time to think. Things are just too crazy right now!

J.M. Hope

Being sick abroad

There are some serious problems when it comes to being ill in another country... For one, there's not necessarily someone who will just automatically take care of you like a parent, a significant other, or a friend. I have been lucky in that my roommates are super caring about me as I seem to spiral downward more and more into sinus misery. I haven't been this sick in a few years, so I am sure it's because it's a bug from a different country and my body doesn't really know what to do about it. There are a lot of volunteers having the same symptoms as myself, some not quite as extreme and others just as bad.

Then there's the problem of what drugs to take. Some of the brands are the same, some of the names in Portuguese are close enough to figure out what they are, but without spending a lot of time researching and figuring out exactly what is going to make you better then there's going to be a lot of time wasted on the pharmacy. Brazilians love their pharmacies, too, they are everywhere and they are pretty much the go-to for anything related to health and hygiene. The pharmacists only speak Portuguese in my experience though, so unless you know exactly how to explain your symptoms in their language you will have a tough time figuring out what you need.

Finally, there is the hospital. There's a better chance of getting exactly what you need if you go there, but be prepared to wait in line and the entire trip to take 4-6 hours of your already precious and limited travel time. You will be looked at by an actual doctor, for free, but when I say "looked at" that's literally what I mean. There will be no examination, no blood tests, no nothing unless you show very specific symptoms of something like zika virus. They will look at you while you explain your symptoms, hear your croaky voice, and possibly look down your throat using the flashlight on their iPhone, but that's about it. Maybe that's all it takes and American doctors are just over cautious with these kinds of things.

The worst part of it all is that I SPECIFICALLY got every single vaccine available to me and brought tons of vitamins that I've been taking religiously every single day in order to avoid being sick while I'm here. I spent all that time and all that money and I've STILL contracted something. Maybe it would have been worse if I hadn't done all of that but honestly, this is pretty horrible. I can't really imagine what it would be like to feel any worse; I would probably wind up blacking out from the pain and horror.

Anyway, I need to figure out what is wrong with me and get some medicine that is actually going to help me get better. Or at least get me decongested so that I can breathe again! 

Jackie

My Secret to Learning a Second Language

I studied Spanish in high school.

And by the word "studied" I mean I was in the class for two years, I got straight A's, and I didn't learn a single thing about how to communicate with someone using Spanish.

So when it came time for me to learn Portuguese, I was lost. I knew that other languages were different from English; not just in the fact that they had different words but also different sentence structure, different grammar, different pronunciation, and so on.  What a daunting task! I really needed to find a different way to look at it if I was going to figure out how to communicate in Portuguese effectively.

The very first thing I needed to do was completely change the way I thought about other languages. I figured, I have been in school for so long and even during my studies for my second Master's degree I was still learning new words that were more specialized for my field. I was constantly adding to my vocabulary and a lot of the time these words described things I already knew, but had always explained in a different way. New words in another language had to be thought of as just that; new words. An expansion of my vocabulary. It wouldn't be easy, but it could be done!

Honestly, after that the rest was just a matter of repetition, plus reading, writing, listening and speaking practice. I felt the need to master the basics on my own before contacting any native Brazilian; I didn't want them to feel like they were wasting their time on someone who didn't even know their colors or how to count to ten. I made it a goal to get to an elementary level by myself and then find a "teacher" with whom I could converse.

Here come the resources. Rosetta Stone was first, as everyone always raves about its effectiveness. Yeah, no. I learned like four words and I didn't understand the why or how of anything because there weren't a lot of resources to back it up. Luckily, I only did the trial version because that would have been a HUGE waste of money if I had actually invested in the program. After some research, I found Duolingo. I don't know how it took me so long to hear about this because it's the most amazing program, app, website, and so forth all in one - plus it's FREE. Playing through that gave me an incredible base of vocabulary and simple sentence structure.

Pronunciation is difficult with a new language when you try to learn from an electronic voice. Though Duo's voice is much better now, it was a lot more harsh when I first started learning so I made a little investment into a $7 Learn Brazilian Portuguese CD from Amazon.com. I popped that into my CD player in the car and basically just listened to it on the way to and from work every single day. It was seven hours of content and made the ten minute drive more interesting. I wish there was a level two and so on because I would love to learn more words this way!

Finally, with the basics in hand, I took to italki.com to find myself a free language exchange tutor. There are THOUANDS of people online looking to practice languages they are learning and who would love to help teach you their native language... all for free. This is where I met Jean. I talked to a lot of people on italki of course, but Jean and my schedule just worked really well together so we spent a lot of time chatting in our spare moments. This is what really helped me excel in my education was being able to actually apply my language skills in real life. And he was learning English (although a little faster than I was learning Portuguese) so it made the whole process really fun and educational for both of us.

The key, though, is taking that first step and changing the way you think about language learning. Oftentimes the media makes a big deal out of people who are "multi-lingual" and there's really no reason to sensationalize this. I have met SO MANY people on my travels who know 4-5 different languages and are fluent in all of them! It only takes a small amount of time every day of practicing to get the basics down, and with the rate that people send me Facebook game requests I know there is a lot of free time that is getting wasted out there in the world!! :-)

<3 Jackie 

Getting Along in Rio de Janeiro

How do you get along with the locals in Rio? There are a lot of things that foreigners do that Brazilians would think were rude. However, mostly because we are foreigners they are pretty forgiving of us. Here's an example: saying "no." Brazilians NEVER flat out say no to anything. They always find a way to show their opposition to your request or statement without using that negative word. For instance, if I get invited over to someone's house and I can't go, my first response (even if I really really REALLY want to go) would be to say "No, I have to go to rehearsal this afternoon." But a Brazilian would just cut out the negativity all together by saying "I have to go to rehearsal this afternoon." It's the slightest difference but it is nice because it removes the negativity from the conversation! On the other hand, Brazilians are notorious for not being direct and I think this is part of the reason why. They don't just come out and say "no" about anything so they can come across as wishy-washy.

A second thing that I've noticed is super rude yet I do all the time is blowing your nose in public. This one will actually get me a few disgusted looks and grunts from people around. I have a horrible habit of needing to blow my nose at the end of a meal - which often happens in a restaurant when I am within reach of a paper napkin. Brazilians will go to the restroom to blow their noses, so I have been trying to condition myself to do the same thing, but it's definitely a difficult habit to break (seeing as there has never been a problem with it in the states!!).

One last thing I would like to point out isn't necessarily rude, but a common practice in the country that's hard to get used to. Don't throw toilet paper in the toilet. It's very important. DON'T THROW TOILET PAPER IN THE TOILET. When you've been tossing toilet paper into the toilet for 20-something years, it just becomes as part of your bathroom routine. This one took a couple of tries to break. But every bathroom you will use in Brazil has a trash can right next to the toilet where paper belongs. The problem is that Brazilian toilet paper does not have industry standards for being biodegradable and therefore it just sits in the pipes until it creates a massive blockage. That, plus within the older cities there are a lot of small pipes to contend with. It can make the whole bathroom experience quite an adventure.

Reversi - Reprinted with Permission

Like how last week I wrote a note about commitment, then this week I am writing a note nearly a week late? See how I did that? Ha! Life has been catching up to me, that's for sure, and I am trying to handle it the best I can.

 

I thought that, since it is the summer, I would have a lot less work to do and therefore more time to work on Book 2. Well, I doubt if that is going to happen at this very moment! I still want a release date this summer, and I know I gave you guys a release date of July 1, but I can already tell you that is not going to happen. I'm still shooting for having it out (at least on Amazon Kindle) by the end of this summer.

 

At the rate I am going (one book every other year) the entire 28-book series is not going to be finished within my lifetime!

J.M. Hope

Commitment - Reprinted with Permission

When you commit yourself to something, you should see it all the way through. So many people aren't like that nowadays.

 

I love seeing all the pictures of the older couples who say things like "We came from a generation where you fixed something when it is broken, you didn't throw it away." This is so true! I sit and think of everything that is disposable in our world today. Everything from plates, to furniture, to even houses! People actually put money into houses that are MEANT to be trashed after only a few years. Whatever happened to quality? To craftsmanship and pride in work? It makes sense, therefore, that we would believe all of our relationships to be disposable as well. We use them and use them until we've gotten what we want out of them, then we just get rid of them.

 

How horrible of an outlook! We need to change this in the next generation, and get back to a way of life where having someone in our life to lean on is considered a blessing and something to look forward to. The whole idea of "the ball-and-chain" and "taking the plunge" are such negative ways to look at love and marriage. Granted, marriage is not for everyone, but it should be shed in a far more positive light. Having more programs to help married couples work through their troubles would be great, but I also think that there should be manditory requirements for engaged couples to go through counseling before they can be allowed to be married. It would be so good for them to get a slap of reality to the face through the fog of "true love" that they feel.

J.M. Hope

Deadlines - Reprinted with Permission

Having deadlines always makes me nervous. I know the deadlines are of my own making for the most part, but having to have every little piece completed and ready to go by a specific date in time just plain stresses me out. I don't know if I feel as if I can't do it or what, but getting all of the stuff coordinated at the same time is difficult for me somehow.

 

At the same time, if I don't have deadlines, then I never seem to get anything done. So then I'm left with a specific NEED to make deadlines for myself.

 

Someone once suggested to me that I make deadlines for each little piece of the puzzle. I have deadlines for a lot of the things I need to do, but let's use my new book as an example. I should have a primary deadline for getting the first draft to the editor, a deadline for the second draft, a deadline for the cover art, and then a deadline for the Kindle manuscript. Maybe that will work, but I would just feel a little overwhelmed trying to keep track of all of those dates.

 

If you have any tactic you use to get stuff done and keep from getting stressed please share with a comment!

J.M. Hope