Catching the Butterfly

One night last week some friends and I had dinner at a fantastic little local Brazilian restaurant. Eating the exceptionally good rice and beans part of my meal brought back a familiar taste that my taste buds have been deprived of for far too long. When my family and I lived in Brazil we sure ate some great food! I have already told the tale of Larry the Lizard, but that is just one of many memories I have of living in Brazil. In this post I will recount the memories I have of our second year there, a year in which we moved out of the city of Sao Paulo and lived in Jaguariuna. Jaguariuna is still in the state of Sao Paulo, but it is much, much more rural, and very beautiful. Moving to Jaguariuna meant we would be way too far to continue attending Escola Graduada, located in the city. The commute would not be worth it by any stretch. So my mother bravely chose to home school my sister and I.

At that time I was in second grade, my sister in fourth. Given all the freedom that comes with home schooling mixed with our absolutely beautiful outdoor surroundings, which included a pool and a very large field, and superb weather, I never wanted to do any school work. I became some sort of little wild man that wanted to play and have fun all the time and do barely any work whatsoever. Basically, I was a pain in the ass. My mom struggled to teach me the lessons and would get so fed up with me that she would send me outside with a butterfly net and tell me to go catch butterflies. At the time I didn't know that she gave me this task because  I was annoying her immensely, but I have since learned the truth. So she would give me this cheap butterfly net to get me the heck away from her for a bit and probably to burn off the insane amount of energy I had. I would go down to the large field on our property and begin the chase.

A Brazilian butterfly

My mom has since told me that she sometimes watched me run around chasing the butterflies through the vast expanse of the field. I can only imagine what that looked like, it must have been comical because there is no way a person watching from a far could even see the butterfly in pursuit. To my mom, it must have looked like I was chasing thin air and waving a net at it. The mental picture I paint of this brings a smile to my face. I only wish that there were videos or photographs taken of these dramatic chases, but I'll settle for the memory. I do remember chasing butterflies and I can say they that they can be extremely illusive. But I was determined and did not give up on the challenge easily.

I remember coming back up to the house with a butterfly caught in the net. The shock on my mom's face was priceless, she couldn't believe that I had actually managed to catch one. The goal had been to get me away from her for a bit and let me tire myself out. I took the butterfly I caught and put it in my trusty critter box, which I still have to this day in the very room I'm typing this in. Then I went back to the field and started over again. When I caught another butterfly I would bring it up to the house. I would let the one I previously caught go and put the new captured butterfly in it's place in the critter box. Maybe it sounds cruel that I put them in the critter box, but I did always let them go a short time later.

That second year in Brazil was different than the first and third years because we lived exclusively in Jaguariuna and my sister and I were home schooled. The level of freedom was incredible, we did school related things when we wanted, fooled around when we wanted, and had absolute control over the schedule of our day. I think that my sister and I spent the vast majority of each day outside because the weather was absolutely gorgeous practically every day. I spent enough time outside that I didn't even look white anymore. Thankfully I tan and don't burn otherwise I would have looked like a lobster. My sister and I spent all day together in our pool pretending we were stranded at sea, having water gun battles, and playing with our wide array of toys which included Barbie dolls, Batman action figures, some Toy Story characters, and many other random things, like Poly the Polar Bear and the Vampy of Vampy Vamps (whose leg broke off after I dropped him while taking him out of his hiding place in the freezer). We also used to hurl some of these toys across the pool, for what reason, I do not know, but we enjoyed it.

The picture above shows how dark my skin was as a result of spending all day outside everyday. And my lip looks like that because of an accident. My sister and I were both in a hammock at the front of the house and we decided it would be a good idea to bounce each other on it. I fell out and one of my teeth cut into my lip, resulting in a big, fat lip. There was blood, but that was about it, no lost tooth or stitches needed. That wasn't the only stupid thing I did that year. We used to go on family bike rides within the closed off community in Jaguariuna. This one time I went down a steep hill way too fast and I lost control. The handlebars were violently moving to the left and right, so naturally the front wheel was, too. Eventually the bike and I fell over onto the concrete. I had this huge gash on my left arm, but I won't go into detail to explain what I remember seeing because it's kind of disgusting. What I will tell you is that we went back home after that and I watched the Wizard of Oz while I rested. I'll never forget that incident because it left and indelible mark on me. The scar on my left arm is still there today, and if it hasn't faded yet, it's probably going to be there forever. I think it's a good way to remember the action seeking daredevil side of me as a young child.

Going back to the critter box I mentioned earlier, that box and I go way back. I don't remember when I got the little plastic box with the purple top, but I have some history with it. Besides using it to display the most recently caught butterfly, I also used it as a defensive measure for the house. The front door of our house had an enormous gap between the bottom of the door and the floor. Basically, we had an open invitation for uninvited guests to get in. The most prevalent of these uninvited guests were spiders. I don't have anything against spiders, in fact, I was absolutely fascinated by arachnids and insects when I was young. My parents both thought that I would end up going into biology because of my fascination. However, in Brazil there are some amazingly frightening looking spiders. You should have seen some of the spiders that came into our house. These big, hairy, mean-looking spiders could be quite alarming, but I'm positive they were probably more scared of us. When we would find one of these guys lurking around I would be summoned to get the critter box. By the magic of the plastic box I would escort the uninvited guests out of the house. I don't remember where I would put them, but I hope it was a place decently far away from the house. Otherwise it would not have been hard for them to get back in.

A Brazilian spider, actually it's a xenomorph from Alien

Not all the things that came in the house were uninvited. Well, they weren't invited, but there was no problem having them around. For example, we had gecko's in the house. Occasionally you could see one hanging out on the wall. They didn't bother anyone and they eat mosquitoes, so I think it was good to have them around. They were similar to Larry, my pet gecko for a little while who you can read about in the link at the beginning of the article if you haven't yet! The next time I blog about our time in Brazil I think I'm going to describe what it was like in Brazil during the 1998 World Cup, but don't hold me to it. I've been blogging a lot about memories recently, so I might delve back into my thoughts at some point soon.

Speaking of my thoughts, what am I thinking about right now? Well, I'm hoping that Portugal win against the Czech Republic today in the first quarterfinal match of the Euro Championships. I've chosen to root for Portugal for the remainder of the tournament because I cannot root against Cristiano Ronaldo. I cannot stand the amount of hate that CR7 receives and it makes me sick. So I hope that Portugal wins the tournament and CR7 jizzes goals in all his opponents faces on his way to leading the tournament in goal scoring. I love it when CR7 succeeds because it pisses off so many people, including Messi fans. Oh yeah, before I forget, Barcelona's president is an idiot for saying that CR7 is the 12th best player in the world after Barcelona's starting eleven. Remind me again who won La Liga this year? Oh yeah, it was Real Madrid. I didn't like who won the Champions League, Premier League, or Serie A, but Real Madrid won La Liga so I'm satisfied. I also stand firmly by my previous statement that Messi is not even the best South American to play for Barcelona. Ronaldo, Il Fenomino, dominated at Barcelona when he was 20, he was too good for the league before he moved to the then superior Italian Serie A where they actually play defense. So let's go Portugal.

I've also had a lot of time to think about a variety of different things over the last few days. Hopefully I'll have something marginally interesting to put up here soon, then. I've been thinking about my future and what I would like to do, the friend zone, revisiting the post I started in December about how life is like Mario Party that I have not touched since starting. I don't have much more to say for now, but I think it is only fitting to end this post about some good memories of Brazil with a musical piece that always reminds me of the time spent in Brazil. This song was popular while we were in Brazil and it was on the radio all the time on the bus rides to school. So without further ado, here is the song that reminds me of Brazil. Enjoy!




And yes, I know it's random.

Larry the Lizard

The struggle for content, other than a more thought provoked piece that I am in the process of writing, has met an end, for now at least, as I have stumbled upon some old photographs that have had me thinking of the past. At one point in my life I lived in Brazil and I must say that the memories are favorable. Many people around my age study abroad for a semester, but my family and I lived abroad for three years. In these three years I developed a good feeling toward Brazil, a country filled with wild nature, an unimaginable amount of potential, and some very friendly people. Upon rediscovering these photographs, I shall recount some tales of this truly wonderful experience.

The second year of our expedition, second grade for me, my family and I were placed at a house in the small town of Jaguariuna. Jaguarinua, located in the state of Sao Paulo, resides in a country setting lacking the sky scrapers and pollution of the large metropolis that is the city of Sao Paulo. The house we lived in was positioned on a large piece of land granting us great privacy and lots of room to run around and soak up ultra violet rays from the sun (which is what I did the majority of every day). In the front of the house we had a quite large in-ground pool! My sister and I spent countless hours swimming and imagining that we were stranded on a raft in an endless ocean. My sister and I basically lived outside, I only went inside to watch soccer (big surprise there), play 3D Space Cadet Pinball, or go to bed. I also fell asleep a few times outside swinging in a hammock. The back of the house was a barbecue area, which is where this first story begins.

Front view of the house

 In the barbecue area there was a sink, and one day I found myself in need of washing my hands while outside. I went to the sink out back and while I had one hand placed under the faucet and the other reaching for the knob, a small gecko leaped onto my hand. Fascinated by this tiny lizard, I stopped and just stared at it. I had seen many similar looking geckos in the house, they had taken up residence and helped us out by eating annoying flies. Interestingly this little guy was not moving, he (I decided the gecko was a male, but who knows) just sat there rather comfortably. I hastily decided that this gecko was my friend and I declared him Larry. Larry was my new pet and I was determined to care for the little gecko. So I retrieved my critter box that I had previously used many times to intercept and remove unwanted spiders from the house. There was a large gap between the bottom of our front door and the ground which allowed these hairy arachnids entry. I put my new friend, Larry, into the critter box so I could monitor and protect him.

Larry! 

The picture above shows Larry chilling on my left index finger. As you can tell I only had on shorts and underwear. I spent most of my time like this, must be what Matthew McConaughey feels like. I just remember the intriguing thoughts about why the gecko stayed put, barely moving at all. After a little while, I decided that I should get Larry some food because he must be hungry. It was time for some hunting, second grade style. Judging from Larry's size, I thought he must need something small to eat. So I had the idea of bringing him back some ants. There are so many different species of ants, some nasty, inhabiting our yard, never mind the country. In my limited knowledge, I only recognized two different types of ants in our yard. There were the black ants with the large jaws that had bitten my feet plenty of times or my hand when I rescued them from certain death in the pool, the ungrateful bastards. I also recognized the leaf-cutter ants, they were the ones that cut leaves from the trees and bushes, what a great process I had to go through to figure that one out. I must say that it was quite remarkable to watch the leaf-cutter ants in action. These guys clearly have a plan and I had a blast watching them. Some of the leaf-cutter ants would go up into the trees and bushes and cut the leaves loose with their strong jaws. Meanwhile, a line that could be traced back to the ant nest moved the severed leaves creating two-lane traffic. One lane marched from the nest to the tree undergoing cutting, while the other lane marched back to the nest carrying leaves, quite fascinating.

So I brought back some ants for Larry to chow on, or so I thought. What happened was interesting and could have been described as sadistic had I known what the results would be. After I released the ants into the critter box a battle that would end with death began. The ants swarmed Larry and began either biting or stinging, perhaps both, his innocent lizard flesh. Not knowing what to do, I watched in horror as the ants clearly dominated the fight. The food I had brought back for Larry killed him. At first Larry attempted to free himself from the merciless foe I had bestowed upon him, but alas he was no match for the ants. Larry's movements began to slow and soon after stopped. I stared at the lifeless body that now represented my ex-friend, Larry. While we were friends for mere hours, I had grown some sort of attachment to the little guy. With the help of my sister, we buried Larry's miniature corpse in front of our house. Not long after, I decided for some strange reason that I wanted to dig him back up, resurrect Larry. My sister helped me with this too, but despite leaving a marker, kind of like a tombstone, where we buried him, we never found his body.

Despite the tragic ending to the story, I still consider this a good memory. Brazil, what a place. I hope to go back again some day. I plan on releasing more Brazil stories/memories which can be portrayed with justice now that I have photographic evidence of what I am speaking of. And Larry, you will not be forgotten.