Interlude

The last two weeks have been pretty busy around here. I have:

• Submitted a final "practice" research grant for a class I took in Pittsburgh (via AdobeConnect);
• Presented the grant with my project group via AdobeConnect, PowerPoint, and Audacity (audio recording software);
• Reworked an entire 30-page article to submit to a journal (still working on this, actually);
• Began writing my proposal defense (the 20-25 page document that "proposes" the dissertation topic I will "defend" next Spring);
• Am working my way through 40 pages of Portuguese to debate in my "Energy & Society" engineering class next week;
• Preparing an oral presentation of a scientific article related to the reading for the same class; and
• Am working on GIS calculations and policy analyses for a different article to also submit to a journal.

On the non-academic side of things, i.e. during the breaks from reading and writing, I am:

• Looking for an apartment in Squirrel Hill (Pittsburgh) for the coming year and
• Planning a trip to [at least] Peru for July.

Oh, and did someone mention that Sunday is Easter? I haven't seen any Easter baskets yet, but I have seen plenty of hollow chocolate Easter eggs and some scary giant rabbits (see below). Actually, I'm kind of curious to see what Rio will be like on Easter morning; I predict either deserted or filled with nicely dressed people going to church. I'll be really happy when the stores stop stocking raw fish, unrefrigerated, on the shelves. (Apparently, salted and cured codfish is the traditional Easter dinner here. It smells sooooooo bad, as I can attest to since we've had fish drying in the kitchen for the past three weeks!)

Below are a few random photos I've taken over the past few days. I hope you enjoy them.

 I walked out onto the second-floor deck one night to find Eros sitting on the wall above the front door. I'm not quite sure how he got up there, but I have some theories:

  This morning's sunrise:

 There's this side of Easter ...

 ... and then there's this side:

 Here's Antonio giving me his best expression:

And Eros, either yawning or yelling at me to put away the camera!