A Mommy in Brazil

Moving to Brazil wasn’t really a difficult decision for me. I told my then boyfriend (now husband) that I didn’t want to stay in London any longer and either we moved to Sweden or we moved to Brazil. One day I just said; ‘Lets move to Brazil!" And that was it; we left.

I was never worried it wouldn’t be alright, I’ve always been sure that everything works out for the best in the end.

We came on a hot day in September. I remember looking down over the wheat fields from the plane admiring how beautiful it all was. We took a taxi to my then to be mother in law who cried when she saw us and embraced me as a daughter, she’s been like a mother ever since.

After a few days we started talking about finding somewhere to live and we started walking up and down the streets in the neighborhood to look at houses. After a month I became a bit depressed and was hoping for us to find a home soon, as much as I like my husbands family I prefer to have a distance between us. I believe it was in the beginning of January we found a house and moved in; one street away from my in laws.  It’s a good distance, not too close but still close enough if you need anything.

A sunny and hot day in February we finally became husband and wife. It was a simple ceremony and I wore a pink dress. Yes pink, absolutely pink , but it was beautiful and I was happy.

That’s only the beginning of my Brazilian expat life.

How did you begin your expat life?

I don’t intend for this blog to continue look like this, it is a temporary solution until I get time and inspiration to update the design.

Somehow it is so much easier to design for others, wonder why….

It hasn’t rained since… actually I don’t even know since when. Since forever it feels like. Probably close to two months. Everything is dry, the dirt is everywhere and the common winter allergies are not showing any sign of going away.

If it wasn’t for the allergies it wouldn’t be so bad. It’s not pollen, it’s the air,the dry air. The symptoms are like having a cold or flu and the only thing you can do is use anti allergy medicine and nose drops. When my husband was in England he never got sick he said but here both he and I are sick all the time. The only one who isn’t is our son, which I am very grateful for of course.

Last year they issued a water restriction and if it doesn’t start to rain I fear they will do it again soon. Which will be really bad because most people use a lot of water to rinse off the dirt and dust in the yard. A necessary thing when it is so dry.

But today my MIL told me that she heard it might rain this week so hopefully there is water on the way. I never thought I would miss the rain as much as I do now.

I always think the beginning of a new blog is the hardest part. Those first posts before you start posting regularly, somehow I want to jump to the middle straight away and start posting away. And of course I can, it is my blog after all

This blog will contain a little bit of this, a little bit of t and a little bit of… lalala… yes you got it, a bit of everything. But it will mainly be about expat life – The life we live after we move away from the country were we grew up.

So where does the beginning begin? When we are born, before, after, when we move away from home, when we move to anew country? When? I don’t know. It will be different for everyone. My Expat life began when I moved to London as a 19 year old and worked there for 8 months. That is when I got the taste of life outside Sweden. It was so different, so far away but still so close. It was good.

Perhaps too good because after that I always wanted to move away again. I went and came back, did some Asia traveling and went back to Sweden. Then I took off to London again and stayed there for about 5 years. London was my home. The dirty flat where I shared a cramped apartment with other Swedes and unwanted house bugs. It was good. Except for the bugs that is.

And now? Now I live in Brazil, as if you hadn’t figured that out by the name of this blog huh?

… There was a little girl who dreamed about learning French, move to Paris and live a happy life.

She never came to France nor did she ever learn French. Instead she discovered Italy and fell in love with the culture, the food, the language and decided to move to Florence and learn Italian. She didn’t think she would ever get married or have kids, that was something that others did and she would perhaps share this joy with someone after her thirties… in a long distant future, she thought.

She never moved to Italy nor did she learn Italian, instead she ended up in Brazil where she learned Portuguese and today she loves living there. Today she is married to a Brazilian man, mother to a wonderful little blond guy and not even thirty.

That’s only the beginning of a long story…