I think over 6 months have passed so I'm trying to carve out some time for our semi-annual family blog update. The Bentley family has returned to Sao Paulo after a fantastic month long holiday in Canada. It was great to spend the holiday season with our family and friends. I'll stick in some pictures below with some of our highlights. Our big news is that we are headed out on a new adventure. In early November, after a series of job interviews on Skype, Kim and I were offered jobs at the International School of Bangkok, Thailand. http://www.isb.ac.th/ ISB has an excellent reputation and we have had our sights on teaching there for many years now. Our good friends Brad, Peter and Patience, whom we taught with in the Dominican Republic, work there and helped by putting in a good word for us.
During the past autumn ground (and walls) were broken on our big cottage renovations. We are very excited about this. We have been working with my brother, Nolan the architect, and a local contractor on the project. It was pretty exciting to travel up to the cottage a few times to check out the progress and plan next steps. We also spent a lot of time and money at Home Depot in Cobourg during our last week of vacation designing kitchen's, bathrooms, etc. A special thanks to Nanna Mary and Grandpa Doug for hanging with G and Z as Mom and Dan were consumed with shades of cupboards, counter tops and bathroom faucets.
So we are well into our last semester (4 more months) in Brazil. Gavin is going to complete Kindergarten here, and has generally enjoyed going to school for the whole day, except when he has to do "hard work". He tells Zoe, "live it up there in the toddler class, as all you have to do there is play". He has made some good little friends and has started to love futbol (soccer). He plays on the playground almost every day. He still loves his down time on his own and has a great imagination when he plays with his cars, lego or dinosaurs. Gavin also lost his first tooth over the Christmas vacation while at Grandma Bett's house. It was an exciting event!
Zoe is a big girl. She has even lost her night time diaper, yes, that's right we have bought our last diapers in the Bentley house! She enjoyed her 3rd birthday at her Grandma Bett's house in Canada. She received a scooter for her birthday so she can try and keep up with her big brother. She is well coordinated, has little fear and never wants to sit back and watch. Needless to say, there are loads of bumps and bruises on her legs and arms at any one time. With her December birthday, Zoe is one of the oldest in our school's toddlers class. She loves school and seems to be a big hit amongst her classmates. Her teachers say she is a great little helper and one of the best cleaner-uppers, hopefully this skill will transfer to home.
I have been plugging away at work. We have some new administrators this years so it is always a bit of extra work getting used the them. There has been a lot more "department head" type
duties this semester so it will be nice to start in a new job where I can focus more on teaching and less on running a math department. I still run and swim most days to stay fit. We are going to travel to Brazil's capital Brasilia in April to catch up with friends who moved there, see the incredible purpose built city and run a half marathon, so I need to get in reasonable shape to not be too embarrassed about how much slower I am these days. Last semester I traveled to Rio de Janeiro for a math conference. My rock climber buddy Matt, a science teacher at my school, dragged me up Pao de Acucar (Sugar Loaf). For someone who has only dabbled in rock climbing and nothing to high, spending 4 hours hanging from the side of one of the world most famous landmarks by his finger tips was a hairy experience, but one that will never be forgotten.
duties this semester so it will be nice to start in a new job where I can focus more on teaching and less on running a math department. I still run and swim most days to stay fit. We are going to travel to Brazil's capital Brasilia in April to catch up with friends who moved there, see the incredible purpose built city and run a half marathon, so I need to get in reasonable shape to not be too embarrassed about how much slower I am these days. Last semester I traveled to Rio de Janeiro for a math conference. My rock climber buddy Matt, a science teacher at my school, dragged me up Pao de Acucar (Sugar Loaf). For someone who has only dabbled in rock climbing and nothing to high, spending 4 hours hanging from the side of one of the world most famous landmarks by his finger tips was a hairy experience, but one that will never be forgotten.Hello! This is Kim writing this part of our news. I don't have too much exciting to report. I'm enjoying my fifth year teaching fourth grade. I have a very nice class again this year and, in fact, just got back from a three-day overnight trip with my students where we traveled about two hours out of Sao Paulo to a beautiful camp. We have our Carnival holiday coming up in two weeks. This year we'll be heading to the Amazon Rain Forest for four days with my dad and his wife. We'll be fishing for piranhas, looking for crocodiles at night and exploring the wildlife. I'm sure our last few months in Brasil will pass by quickly. It will be very sad to leave our friends here and our great life, but we will look ahead to our next adventure.
As I mentioned above we left the warm (and rainy) Brazilian summer and traveled up to Canada for our vacation this year. We were hosted by our family and friends. It was a great time to reconnect and experience a little winter. There were several tobogganing outings on local hills, a few impromptu snowball fights, ice skating both in and outdoors and a huge snow man was built. Gavin and Zoe also had the chance to cheer on their big cousin Kyra in a hockey tournament. G and Z were excited to spend a few action packed days on their own with Grandma Joyce and Granddad John while Mom and Dad spent a few days up at Blue Mountain (a local ski hill/village ) snow-boarding by day and sitting in outdoor hot-tubs and eating in good restaurants by night.
Christmas morning was spent at Grandma Bett's house. Uncle Greg, Aunt Val and Great-Grandma Dot were all around to watch G and Z rip through some exciting stuff that Santa had left behind. Christmas morning is loads of fun with a 3 and 5 year on hand. Zoe's huge doll's house and Gavin's skate board were huge hits.
During the past autumn ground (and walls) were broken on our big cottage renovations. We are very excited about this. We have been working with my brother, Nolan the architect, and a local contractor on the project. It was pretty exciting to travel up to the cottage a few times to check out the progress and plan next steps. We also spent a lot of time and money at Home Depot in Cobourg during our last week of vacation designing kitchen's, bathrooms, etc. A special thanks to Nanna Mary and Grandpa Doug for hanging with G and Z as Mom and Dan were consumed with shades of cupboards, counter tops and bathroom faucets.Well, I think that's the big news in our family over the past few months. Thanks for reading, if you've made it this far. I'm sure we will update at least one more time in 2011!
