Go Niners!

49ers beat the Carolina Panthers 23-10! We watched the game at Majerle's Sports Bar in old town with our friend Rochelle, her cousins and friends - all SF fans!!  Super fun!  Next week: Beat the Hawks!  (Sorry Em and all you Seattle-types.)  (not actually sorry)

End of Week 2

Hello, again, people of the internets!

While this week didn't involve any world trekking, it was a week of day-to-day level excitements here at Shapiro Adventures.  You know, just two normal people (well, sort of normal) doing everyday-type things.  After two weeks of winter break, I went back to work teaching piano lessons to the kiddos.  Most of the kids didn't practice much over break, so there is a lot of review going on.  Matt has been working hard over at LearnVest, often working until 9 PM as January is a high volume month for them.  I guess a lot of people make New Year's Resolutions to get "financially fearless".  I'm sure it doesn't hurt that the CEO just published a book ("Financially Fearless" by Alexa von Tobel) that is currently on the New York Times bestseller list, #5, under the "Advice and How To" section.   Rehearsals for my chorus, the Scottsdale Chorus, also started up rehearsal again this week.  I was very happy to get back to singing!  I have a lot of new-to-me music and choreography to learn before our performances in February and March.  I'm also switching parts from Baritone to Lead, so I am excited for that big change!

Erin sings a country song!

Since last weeks Karaoke adventure spawned a conversation with another new Chorus friend, Erin, we decided to hit up Ernie's again for some more great singing!  Erin is really into country, so she sang a bunch of songs I was not really familiar with, but sounded great doing it!  I did a bunch of bad pop songs, including "Party in the USA" and "Oops...I did it again!", but I also ended on a classier note, singing "Walkin' in Memphis", one of my all-time favorites.

Matt also made some wonderful Amazon purchases - these are the everyday-level excitements I was talking about.  He got himself a cover for his new kindle, a chromecast, and a pancake batter dispenser.  The dispenser is pretty sweet.  I actually wanted it to assist with cupcake making, but we did make pancakes in a breakfast-for-dinner last night and it was a big success!  It does leak a little (as many reviews said it would), but the leaking sort of goes into the handle, so it was still pretty neat.  I made mini-chocolate chip and blueberry pancakes.  The mini-chips went through no problem, but some berries got a little stuck, but once mashed from above, came out ok.  Overall, I am pretty happy with that purchase.  The Chromecast is pretty amazing.  It basically plays to our TV anything from a chrome browser on a computer as well videos from certain apps on our phones (Netflix, YouTube, HBOGo, etc.).  It's nice to be able to watch on the bigger screen and also to be able to share with the other person what we're watching!  

On Thursday, we checked out a new restaurant in Old Town Scottsdale called "Citizen Public House".  It's a gastropub type place and the menu was really cool and we liked it a lot.  My friend, Janna, and I had the "Persian" cocktail made with gin and cucumber juice.  We Share the Mac & Cheese appetizer, SO GOOD, and the lamb burger.  We asked for it to be rare but in hindsight it was a little too raw!  Luckily, no one got sick - not that I was really worried.  Matt had the meatloaf and it was "yummy!"  I've decided that we should try to eat at a new restaurant at least every other week.  We've lived in Arizona for over half a year now and still don't know that many places, so I want to start exploring!!

And finally, there was some actually-huge-and-really-exciting news in my family this week!  My step-brother and sister-in-law gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Sadie!  She is so precious and I am so excited to meet her the next time I'm in Los Angeles.  There are definitely not enough photos of her, yet, but I am sure that there will be a million and one floating around soon.  Anyway, I am so happy that mommy and baby are healthy and starting a wonderful new life together!

Welp, that's all for today.  Now, it's time to hit the showers and watch the 49er's beat the Panthers in the play-offs.  Peace!

Winter Break!

Hello dear readers (if there are any readers!),

I suppose this is my first "real" post of the year!  I should think that we are all recovered from any New Year's Eve partying - we certainly took it easy, so there wasn't much to recover!

New Year's Day was pleasant.  Matt and I went up to his parents' house for brunch and watched the Rose Parade and some football.  Early in the afternoon, we got an e-mail from a former coworker of Matt's who had an extra pair of tickets to the Fiesta

Bowl!  Even though we didn't have a particular connection to either school playing (Baylor and Central Florida), we still thought it would be fun to go see a Bowl Game and to visit the University of Phoenix stadium, since neither of us has been there since we moved to Arizona.  Since Matt's coworker was rooting for Baylor, we did, too!  It wasn't very hard to feel an affinity for Baylor - the mascot is a bear and the opponent was a stuck up warrior... sound familiar?  (The UCLA mascot is the Bruin Bear and that other team also has a silly warrior mascot!)  And since Tostidos sponsors the game, we ate TONS of free chips and salsa!  And our seats were excellent - 11th row from the field!

Matt has been back at work, even on Saturday, working really hard.  The company is having a big sales push through the end of the month, so I probably won't get to see much of his handsome face this week.  Thursday I went out to Karaoke with Jennifer, a friend from my chorus, and had tons of fun!  The place was pretty empty, so we got to sing several songs.  I sang "Son of a Preacher Man" (my classic), "Man!  I Feel Like a Woman" (because, I mean, why not?), "Written In the Stars" as a duet with Jen (she even remembered the harmonies!), and "I Have Nothing" by Whitney Houston (because what is Karaoke without the immortal Whitney?).  Jen sang some Adele, "Life is a Highway", and one other song that I can no longer recall!!

Friday I made some challah (sorry no photos!) and I even made an extra, so I put that one in the freezer to eat next Friday.  I have never frozen bread before, so I hope it tastes good in a week!  I wrapped in up in two layers of saran and another of foil, under the advisement of wiser bakers than myself.   Yesterday, I got together for some singing while Matt took a day to read and relax after work.  Today has been mostly about errands and getting ready to go back to "real life" tomorrow.  I had back to work and should probably start exercising again!  I twisted my knee skiing in Seattle, so I've been trying to take it easy.  I did some yoga this week, but I'm gonna try for an easy run tomorrow and see what happens.

Anyway, I know it's not too exciting, but it was winter break after all!  I hope everyone else has enjoyed their time off (if you had it!) and has a good time getting back to work.  I'll write more, soon!

New Year's Resolution: Bring Back the Blog!

Hello Blog-o-sphere and Happy New Year!

While 2013 may not have been quite as "exciting" as our year (and a few months) of travel was, it was still an interesting year. Last October, as we commemorated the 2 years that have passed since we first embarked on Shapiro Adventures, I decided to re-read our entire travel blog. I so enjoyed reliving the memories, that I have decided to take up blogging again. It is my resolution to try to write at least once a week, maybe more, so in a year I can remind myself of the wonderful things I've done and thoughts I've thunk during the year. (Even if I'm the only one who ever reads them - in which case: Happy New Year 2015 Future-Me!)

So to kick off the New Year of Adventuring, I'd like to recap 2013: This time last year, we were celebrating the New Year in Rio de Janeiro!
 
 Shortly thereafter we returned the good ol' USA, but adventures continued!
 We took a road trip that went from the Bay area (to see friends), LA (friends and family), Arizona (family), Texas (friends and family), New Orleans for Mardi Gras (and a family visit), Memphis (more fun family), and back through Dallas, Texas for a reptile show!

Matt got a job with LearnVest and we soon moved to Scottsdale, AZ so he could open their call center. (And subsequently, had to cut his long, luscious locks!)
 

We celebrated Matt's 29th here in Scottsdale, our 3rd Anniversary on the Salt River, and my birthday by moving into a new apartment! (and now that we've lived here for 4 months, it's ALMOST entirely unpacked!)
 

We had some fun adventures, which included me going on "The Price is Right" with my brother Jeremy (we did win some bikes and a coffee machine, which Jeremy swears is the best he's ever owned!), going on a hot air balloon (and Jeremy skydived out the side!), getting in shape and looking great for Halloween (I went as a Vulcan science officer), and going to Seattle for a Cousin's reunion! I also joined the wonderful Scottsdale Chorus and competed on the international stage in Hawaii, where we won second place!
 

Now that I reminisce over the past year, I wish I had been better at documenting the good times we had. I hope that this post will indeed launch me into a wonderful new year, where I can write about, and remember, all the great things yet to come. And indeed, there are some great things to look forward to: Matt and I will be vacationing in El Salvador in February, there are regional chorus competitions in May, we are attending two weddings, and that's all just in the first half of the year!

So, stay tuned as the NEW Shapiro Adventures launches in 2014!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Scottsdale, AZ....USA

Hello from Arizona! As some of you know, we have been traveling a bit around our home country. After arriving back in LA and catching up with people, we left on the 22nd of January and headed north. Instead of using public transportation as has been our modus operandi for the past 14 months or so, we took Sarah's vehicle and had to quickly re-learn how to drive on the streets of America. We headed up through Santa Barbara and spent a few nights in Santa Cruz. We were lucky enough to sit in on a university course about South American civilization so we would learn about what we visited. Then we continued our northward trajectory to San Francisco, arguably the greatest city on Earth. Tasty food, expensive housing, and hipsters awaited us. Someone tried to convince me to buy a pair of Lululemon pants, however we are on a strict budget and I successfully resisted. We also visited some important Bay Area landmarks like the Golden Gate bridge, the East Bay Vivarium, and of course, Hobee's. The East Bay Vivarium was just as we remembered, full of exotic reptiles and amphibians. We are in the market for a new tank for our pet snake, and once we find a place to live permanently we will probably buy a new one from there. We also spent a night in the south peninsula near my primordial homeland. Burritos were eaten, internet speeds discussed, etc, etc. After a delicious breakfast at Google we hit the road for Scottsdale, Arizona.

About a month after Sarah and I had left the country my parents sold their home in the Bay Area in search of warmer weather and more venemous wild animals. They decided on the land of gila monsters and rattlesnakes, Scottsdale, Arizona. So far, the only venemous reptiles we have seen were in the Phoenix zoo yesterday, although we did see a cool blue lizard while hiking a few days ago. My parents keep telling us about the javelinas, bobcats, and other wildlife in the neighborhood, but they must all be in hibernation at the moment. Other than that, the house is very nice and as you might expect we have been providing around the clock tech support for their computing and technology needs. At the moment we are planning to head out of Scottsdale on Tuesday and head east. We will be spending a few nights in Texas, in Austin and Houston before arriving in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. After that we are hoping to spend a week in Memphis and then head back. Thanks for reading and Go Niners!!

Back in America and Brazil by the Numbers

Hello from the frozen tundra of Los Angeles. Last Friday, in Rio de Janeiro we caught a 3:30 AM cab to the airport so that we could get there with plenty of time to spare for our 3 flights back to Los Angeles. Our first flight went from Rio to Lima, and left about 20 minutes late, only to arrive about 30 minutes early. We were about an hour delayed in boarding in Lima for our second flight to San Salvador, and after we were on the plane the pilot came on to let us know that Lima was having some problems with their radar and it would be another hour or so until we could depart. This would put us about 2 hours behind schedule and since we only had an hour layover in San Salvador, we started to discuss which beach we should go to should we need to spend an extra day or two in San Salvador. Luckily (or un-luckily) they held the third flight for us and about 20 other passengers on both flights and we made it all the way home. We were greeted by a plethora of loving family members who even made a funny sign for us. Despite my passport being completely destroyed and filled with stamps, they still let me into the country. Since our arrival we have already eaten at some of Sarah's favorite restaurants, including In-n-Out on the night of our arrival. We have been taking care of some errands we neglected to do while away, (car registration, etc) and are starting to plan a small trip around the continental US. Be sure to check back over the next few days for reviews of our gear, favorite places to visit and to live, etc.

Here are the bank account-emptying numbers from Brazil. Keep in mind that Brazil is possibly the most expensive country on our trip by most measures. In addition to that we did take some Portuguese classes, and Rio over Christmas and New Years was especially expensive. We entered the country on December 2nd with $111 and left on January 4th with $95, a total of 33 days in the country. We also withdrew $4172 from various ATMs. This comes out to $126.91 per day. This does not include the first class plane tickets to get us home. I felt it would be unfair to include that in the Brazil numbers. Generally bus transport in Brazil is more expensive than most other countries, rivaling Argentina in that respect. Even intra-city transport is normally over $1 just to get around town. Food prices aren't that much cheaper in restaurants although fruits and vegetables in markets are very affordable. Anyways, once my calculator stops overheating I will put together a by the numbers for the entire trip and I'm sure Sarah will have some thoughts to post as well. Thanks again for reading, and we will keep you posted!

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This message was intercepted and decoded by the intelligence experts here at Shapiro Adventures:

Greetings fellow Americans. This is Jeremy, leader of the Shapiro Adventurer extraction team. I've been sent to Brazil at the request of the families of Sarah and Matt, and with the approval of the United States government, to bring them safely back home to America. Justine, my deputy leader, and I are happy to report that our mission is almost complete. In less than 36 hours, the famed adventurers will be on board an airplane headed home. This blog post is meant to serve as a mission update for the concerned parties at home. 

We arrived on the evening of the 27th after 3 flights covering over 24 hours of travel time. The adventurers were sitting outside the apartment waiting for us. It was good to see that they were alive and well.  Right away we began immersing ourselves in a taste of the lifestyle they had become accustomed to over the last 14 months. The first night we quickly learned that sheets and blankets are unnecessary in 90 degree weather with 80% humidity. The first day we met up with our local contact, Alessandra, who brought us to a local mall in order to purchase swim attire for Sarah and Justine. Matt and I both agreed that based on the cost of such little material involved in their bikinis, there is no way we could afford to buy one with enough material to cover ourselves, so we used the ones we brought from home. After acquiring the necessary equipment, we proceeded to the beach for some sun, sand, and water. For simplicity sake, I'll only describe Copacabana beach once: awesome. White sand, blue ocean, light breeze, hot sun. There are vendors that walk by every few minutes selling food and drinks. Our favorites were a mix of ice tea and lemonade, and pastries filled with meat. One vendor of such pastries, who happened to sell us food on two separate days, even offered to let Sarah stay at his house if she ever returned to Rio. (The extraction team assessed this vendor to be an agent of an opposing force, attempting to prevent Sarah from returning to the US, so we neutralized the threat.) Later that evening we visited Sugar Loaf mountain. I almost lost my sandal over the edge of the mountain, but was able to recover it and continue the mission. The views were great. The next day we practiced our alternate means of esacpe from Rio, AKA, hang gliding. Thanks again to our local contact for setting this up. After that, more beach going.

After two days of what Sarah and Matt described as "really busy days," (recall, day 1: shopping, beach, sugar loaf, and day 2: hang gliding, beach), we apparently had to take a day to relax, by--you guessed it-- sitting at the beach.

On the 31st, the police began blocking off access to and from the beach via the roads in preparation for the New Years celebration. We were prepared for this contingency, so we activated our emergency plan, which consisted of sitting on the beach and getting tan. The New Year celebration was excellent. Over 2 million people were estimated to be on the beach that night. Cruise ships anchored off the coast and barges laden with fireworks positioned themselved in between the coast and the cruise ships. At midnight, no less than 5 barges lit off simulatenous shows of fireworks for over 15 minutes. It was beautiful.

Yesterday, I attempted to track down a local operative who could help me keep up my skydiving currency, only to learn the hard way that Brazilian work ethic is not necessarily up to US standards. The rest of the day was spent napping and going to the beach.

Today the four of us went to the Christ the Redeemer statue that overlooks the city. Matt and Sarah weren't that impressed, as they'd seen a bigger statue in Bolivia. Justine and I, however, took cheesy tourist pictures in front of the statue, along with the throngs of other people there. On the cab ride down the mountain, we got an impromptu Favela (slum) tour, as our driver barrelled down steep and windy roads in a car with questionable brakes, yelling "Favela! Favela!"

And that is the progress of our mission thus far. The four of us are in great health, having maintained a steady diet of Acai (a frozen blended fruit dessert that we have all eaten no less than twice a day) and Brazilian meat. Thank you for entrusting the lives and safe return of the Shapiro Adventurers to us. We look forward to the homecoming parties. Extraction team--out.

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