Getting Settled in 'Bama

Hard to believe that it's been two years since we've posted to this blog. To say a lot has happened in the interim would be an understatement. A few updates: Jo and I finished our respective periods of international fieldwork, wrote up our dissertations, defense them, and graduated in May 2014! Miles Paul Meek was born on January 9th, 2014! We both accepted academic positions at the University of Alabama, and have moved to Northport, AL! Here are a few pics from our time here so far:

Tuscaloosa and Northport are separated by the Black Warrior river. Above is the Bama Belle boat, which might be Annie's new moniker.


We had a lovely visit from Grandma and Grandpa; book reading, magic tricks, and loads of pretending!

Annie and Miles are at the Capitol School, which is a Montessori School. I've gone and played banjo several times to volunteer.

Annie and I build a small raised bed garden in the back of our house.

We're trying to get out more and explore the Alabama outdoors. We took a lovely weekend trip with friends to Natural Bridge, Alabama, and the Dismals Canyon. Utah-like slot canyons and arches...in Alabama!

Given how hot it was when we arrived in August, in general, we've just been loving spending time down by the river, up around Lake Nicol, or in the shade at the playgrounds.

Looking forward to the cooler temperature of Fall, and more exploring.

Bonito, so bonito.

One thing that Bonito is famous for, actually the thing that probably put it on the map, is its' crystal clear rivers and diverse aquatic life. The place has been described as if someone let you go swimming in an aquarium. While the fish are not tropical ocean colorful, I think they're pretty amazing, as was the whole experience of snorkelling in the crystal clear water. Below is a video I put together with some music from "The Life Aquatic". Enjoy. o
p.s. this video was shot underwater with the Kodak equivalent of the flip video camera. I was incredibly impressed with the results, and then the next day it stopped working. Big surprise.


And because we've been getting some feedback that the blog is not carrying enough photos of Annie, well, here are a few gratuitous pics to keep those critics at bay. You know who you are!

 

Doing my dance

                                                            To the moooooon!

Bonito: Part 1

Bonito, one of Brazil's most popular ecotourism destinations, is known for its rivers, lakes, caves, and many species of fish and birds. The high concentration of calcium in the water causes everything else to precipitate out, creating waters so clear that one can see the bottom of its many bodies of water. We are in the midst of a five-day trip with the Weavers to this fantastic place.

The first day, we went to a municipal beach located on the banks of a narrow river. A natural rock bridge made a nice viewpoint for watching hundreds of big carp swimming around. You wouldn't know it from these shots, but families were picnicking, playing beach volleyball, and swimming all over the place.

Surprisingly, given their density, the fish didn't bother us when we were swimming.


On the second day, we went to the Lagoa Azul Grotto, a wide-mouthed cave with spectacular stalactites, stalagmites, and a lake of an incredible blue at the bottom. This is Bonito's most-visited site.

It was quite hike down into the depths of the earth, but the Weavers were troopers.

This picture isn't altered in any way; it's really that blue.

 

Jo translated the guide's descriptions of the cave's geology for the Weavers while Dave took pictures. Her Portuguese is amazing, especially considering that she has never formally studied it.

Annie stayed behind with a babysitter on this trip, but allegedly she had a wonderful time blowing kisses to the hotel staff and didn't cry once!

Sugarloaf

For one of our last evenings in Rio we took the cable car up to the top of Sugarloaf.

                                
                                     The view from the top is simply incredible, especially at sunset.

I had been to the top once before, climbing up the backside, but was really excited to take the more leisurely way up and enjoy it with the visiting Meek clan.

Of course, Jon's moustache, silhouetted by the sunset with Ipanema in the background was the view that stole the show.

Parque Lage

One of Rio's many beautiful attractions is Parque Lage, a city park with a large mansion that serves as an art school and performance space. It sits right at the foot of Corcovado, the mountain in the middle of Rio on which the Christ the Redeemer statue sits, and in fact one can hike a trail beginning in Parque Lage right up to the statue. We never made it the entire way, since it's very steep and actually rather long, but we did have a great time visiting the park and seeing a cello concert there.

Jon and his moustache were overwhelmed by the majesty of the park and its mansion.

Annie, however, was not. We consoled her with Rita's brush, to which she quickly got attached. She was ticked off when Jon decided he needed to do some on-the-spot moustache grooming.

But she warmed up to the idea pretty quickly.

Here we are in one of Dave's infamous self-timed pictures at the reflecting pool in the mansion, where there is now a swanky cafe. Annie's prominent belly was an accident. It's hard to keep that thing covered up.

The cello concert was in a beautiful hall of the mansion and featured musicians from all over the world. We saw a couple of Brazilians, one French Canadian guy, and a French guy.

Annie was content to read the program for about 10 minutes, but then we reached the end of her attention span, so she and I went and hung out in the park while the Meeks enjoyed the music.

Happy 1st Birthday Annabelle!

There are more posts on the way from our recent trip to Rio and time with Dave's dad in Brazil, but we wanted to get this time-sensitive one up before it was too late.

....................

Annie, you sure woke up in the most amazing mood on your first birthday.

 It was as if you knew that we were about to go completely crazy hosting a Brazilian barbecue for fifty of our closest friends here.

 Luckily, we had help with the decorating, because people have a very specific way of tying balloons and making streamers here.

 

Having raked, burned, blow-torched, and swept (in that order) our yard to obtain some semblance of the locally prized smooth bare ground, we borrowed the plastic tables and chairs from the derelict ice-cream shop next door to transform the backyard.

 

Yes, that is our cooking stove propane tank in the stroller. This was Jim's solution to the problem of having to carry it around while we attempted to blow-torch the grass away.

We bought 10 kg of beef and I made a salad and a large pot of farofa, 

or roasted manioc flour, to go with it.

 Here is the grill, which we built out of bricks and an old shelf from a fridge.

 Sweets made by one of our closest friends

Annie got all dressed up for the party.

 Here she is opening her very first official present, a book left in Brazil for her by her Bubby.

 She loves it.

The back yard filled up fast.

 Fortunately, we also had help with the grilling itself from a friend's father, since neither of us has ever grilled beef before in our lives. He had no idea we were going to put him to work when he arrived, but he was a very good sport about it. His wife cut the grilled meat into bite-sized pieces, then a few of our neighbors assembled and handed out plates of the meat, farofa, and salad to all the guests. Mind you, this all happened AFTER the cake and singing, which is traditionally (at least in this community) done first.

Speaking of singing, here's a video of the birthday girl's celebration (sorry for poor resolution, had to shrink file size for rural upload):