oh blerg

looks like my brazilian visa didn't get it's second extension (super surprised, but then again since this is brazil! no, not at all surprised), so looks like all my and toni's plans are UPENDED and we are leaving brazil in 2.5 weeks. tons of mixed emotions! the girls! the end of sorocaba! reuniting with family! the girls! omg all the changed flights and various fees and what-nots! (sic?)

2.5 weeks!

well, i am out of here for sure. or else i will have to sell my soul to the brazilian police. toni my beloved husband of just 2 weeks (today! our 2 week anniversary!) is still up in the air and PLEASE EVERYONE PRAY that the london school of economics lets him take a round of tests in the US rather than sao paulo as he originally said, or else he will be here for ONE FULL MONTH ALONE.

noooooooooooooo! no! no!

but here's hoping!

gaaah!

you think you know happiness...

...and then you run off to new york city and get married to your dear german at city hall and then spend a week frolicking through the city and truly! how the level of bliss has just grown and grown!

toni and i are married! we are married! married! mar.ried.! ! !


we realize it came as somewhat of a shock to 98% of our general acquaintance, but this was to be expected as we had told only our families and a (literal) handful of friends of our plans. it made that tuesday at city hall feel so intimate and wonderful, and then we were so so excited to burst with the news afterwards to the world. (and boy did the world respond in kind - heavens how wonderfully kind people have been to us!)



are there words to contain all the feeling? heavens no. deliriously happy/bursting at the seams/absolutely ecstatic doesn't come close.

love!!!,
toni&julianne
:)

one very long photo journey from rio to ilha grande to paraty! yay!

p.s...

sorry to just add more sorrow to the web... so i thought i would try to balance things out and say that if any one is looking for the all-too-rare super-legit-really-GOOD news these days, i will have just such a piece for you in just 2 weeks time! yay! i can hardly wait! :)

managing tragedies.

hello to the world! here i sit with wireless (!) at lua nova's downtown office in sorocaba, unfortunately one of the only options either toni or i can manage to have any connection to the outside world. we have no internet between us, and with this and that and this and oh that too happening around the world, it makes us feel so horribly cut off. with no internet, no phones that work internationally, and no tv, we just have our own little bubble of sorocaba/araçoiaba to deal with, wondering how everything and everyone else is coping...

it can be so disconcerting to feel so helpless AND far away with intermittent connection, but things get even more disconcerting when your own little bubble has it's unique little tragedies to manage as well. (as is the case for everyone, no? see: philo of alexandria quote to the right --->)

in my case, the tragedy is this mad organization. truly, lua nova is a train wreck. 4 girls have run away in the last month, one girl in particular who i was very close to, and the thought of the life that they have chosen instead of persevering through the halting care at lua nova's shelter is heartbreaking and makes me worry beyond measure. where are they? what are they doing? how are they surviving?

it's just so awful to see how much the girls - the very community lua nova is supposed to be surviving - suffer from the huge weaknesses of this chaotic NGO.

alas.

in any case i'm off back into brazilian anonymity - one last visit this week to the girls out in araçoiaba before dipping further into anonymity for the next 5 days where my only goal is to show mom a good time down here in the tropics - heat and chaos notwithstanding :) yay! a visit from the outside! :)

até mais, pessoal!

beijos e abraços,
jooj.

*this is a picture of dear suellen, the girl who most recently ran away. bah! she is so great! oh! suellen, be safe wherever you are!

this breaks my heart...

such tragedies are just too much to take! i think everyone who reads this blog reads leslie's, but just in case you didn't see this about an old family friend, do consider helping!

beijos to you all.
jooj.

i didn't fully love brazil until i went to rio

and oh what a place it is! what contrasts and extremes! while the beauty is seriously beyond belief, i couldn't help but remember that back at work in aracoiaba were over 40 young moms who are recovering from the kind of drug-war-frenzied environment that are brazilian favelas - those rough communities you see climbing up the gorgeous green mountains from rio's perfect beaches. being in rio reminded me so much of being in cape town - you pinch yourself at how delicious the life can be! at how yummy the food is, how gorgeous is the architecture, and stunning beyond stunning is the landscape and history and culture, but then there are the cape flats. then there is cidade de deus.

not to say there is no beauty in the favela, and no horror in ipanema or leblon - it would be awful to say that they are these polar opposites with vicious residents in one and perfect residents in the other, of course the contrasts are more nuanced. but they are there for sure - constant and everywhere.

also constant and everywhere: absolute and full-blown celebration. ohmygoodness. i loved it. LOVED IT. not only is rio drop dead amazing on its own, but carnaval! what! never have i been in a place that embraced such pure and absolute enjoyment - all through 24hour dancing, parading, and singing in the streets. it was hilarious and crazy and so so fun (and safe, mind you!). i didn't want to leave!* how fab to see something else in brazil besides little sorocaba! so much to learn, so much to absorb!

oh rio oh rio... deixei a ti o meu coracao...

but enough talk. here are some videos of the carnaval street parties toni and i went to. keep in mind that the first video was taken at 8:30am saturday morning. the party is literally 24 hours. rain or shine. amazing.

*did i mention that mom comes here next tuesday?! and that we are going back to rio with her? oh heavens i am so spoiled. and can.not.wait!!!!

i don't know about you, but i want to meet sorocaba.

toni's computer died this last week (tragic!), and so he's been hanging lots around a little internet cafe in our neighborhood. i went there with him there the other night, and the guy behind the counter heard us speaking english... i left a bit early, and then when toni went up to pay, the following conversation (in broken english) ensued...

"are you american?"

"no, i'm german, but my girlfriend is american."

(in complete shock and disbelief) "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN SOROCABA?!? i want to TRAVEL! i want to see the world! I WANT TO MEET MANHATTAN."


ha. hahaha! oh haha. HA. finally someone gets it. hahhaa. oh sorocaba! what a funny place. little did this guy know that i virtually moved to sorocaba from manhattan. (via berlin, of course). oh hilarious.

still. as dull and frustrating and annoying and bureaucratic as life can be here in this town, at this blasted NGO, it does have one compelling reason for me to stay:

oh! i love these girls. all of that rest melts away when i'm working with them and their darling babies. um, isn't mariana gorgeous? and her baby aaaadoooorable?! ah!

happy weekend!

beijos,
jooj

despite the fact that my LAST post was about a holiday...

i promise i did work a bit in the meantime (full post dedicated to awesome new lua nova pics coming later today, maybs), but toni and i took another mini-cheap-little-holiday, this time to the beach...


ah... lovely, no? aren't we looking so happy on this beautiful, jungly, remote beach on the northern strip of an island off the brazilian coast? mmm.. i can taste the fresh maracuja juice now....

but wait wait wait - do you spy something fishy behind us?

let's look closer, shall we?...

oh yes. AWESOME. i told toni that if he dressed like that i too would snap some sassy photos of him. hehheheehehehe love.it.

newsssss

i was accepted into oxford's dphil (british way to say phd) history (of medicine) program(me) beginning fall of this year! YAY YAY YAY

one waiting game is over! (phew) yet three more remain in pending status....

toni has to be accepted.

i need to get funding.

toni has to get funding.


.....and if these three other things (miraculously) (truly, it would be miraculous) all happen, then in 7 short months toni and i will (once again) be cycling in narrow alleyways past ancient pubs like...

<----- this. (!!!)



aaaiii!!!!