I apologize for my absence from blogging. We moved to Pirassununga Tuesday afternoon. A long drive (2.5 hours) because instead of going "straight across" the bus driver took the "freeway" which means going far to the east until a fork in the road and then making a U turn and coming back on the other side of the fork (see the map on one of my previous posts). Upon arriving in Pirassununga we were told by our USP hosts that we would be staying in converted farm houses. More like small cottages, must have been for the farm hands in the old days. Each cottage has 3 or 4 bedrooms and 1 or 2 bathrooms plus a living room, kitchen, and front porch. But …….. no internet access. Oh no! What am I going to do without 24 hour access to the internet? The next day we were allowed to use computers at the symposium but internet access was incredibly slow. I had to go through internet withdrawal! But the bungalows are nice, in the middle of a farm, near the cows. Very rustic setting. Nice except for the nearby freeway with road noise. And … oh … the bugs! Because we are on a farm there are the occasional big nasty-looking spider, beetle, mosquito, and other creepy crawlers hanging around trying to get into the beds with us. But, we Cook College people know how to handle bugs - Raid!, better living through chemistry. One trip to the grocery store and we were fortified. I am more worried about the Capivara that I heard may be in the woods around the farm. Capivara are rodent-like animals that weigh 140 pounds and are almost 3 feet tall. I don't want to meet one of them when out for a walk at night.
