urban – 3rdculturechildren

Showing life in Brazil to our American family members!

The eldest member of our US-based Miranda Family, comes to Brasilia! Or, as the kids like to call him, their ‘Abuelito’ 🙂
Here, joining the kids for some well-deserved Easter Egg Hunt fun, organized for the US Embassy community:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BSoQVUjhAp_/?taken-by=expatmomof3

Moving on, we’ve decided to join the Mirandas & the Nogueira Lima families: we all headed up to see the Brazilian part of the family in Fortaleza – taking the American ‘Abuelito’ to go visit the kids’ Brazilian uncles, aunts, cousing and grandparents? All aboard, heading to the Northeastern coast of Brazil for Easter Weekend! 🙂

https://www.instagram.com/p/BS37N2ihkSd/?taken-by=expatmomof3

https://www.instagram.com/p/BS6cBo9BaSg/?taken-by=expatmomof3

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https://www.instagram.com/p/BS8kDkkBVXZ/?taken-by=expatmomof3

Brazil & US Families together!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BS9nPZRhTU-/?taken-by=expatmomof3

https://www.instagram.com/p/BTFHa12BJ3Y/?taken-by=expatmomof3

Back in Brasilia, how about start the weekend fun for our second guest, with some typical feijoada, caipirinhas and tropical fruit juices, while listening to traditional “chorinho” [samba] and Bossa Nova? All by the lake Paranoa side, watching the weekenders riding their boats, jet-skis and kayaks… Table for 16 people, please!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BTNgelDBP5E/?taken-by=expatmomof3

https://www.instagram.com/p/BThieqvhds-/?taken-by=expatmomof3

Gotta always save some [physical] energy for joining the US Embassy community during a friendly basketball mini-tournament, right?
https://www.instagram.com/p/BTJw3yVBcGB/?taken-by=expatmomof3

Mid-afternoon sightseeing… ice-cream, anyone? Even better if it’s sold from a red vintage VW! 🙂

https://www.instagram.com/p/BTZmT91Bvqo/?taken-by=expatmomof3

Considering making and keeping healthy friendships [in our case, our expat fellow friends] are the most important part of this ever-changing life, a few images from a night with friends, celebrating life, friendship, birthdays and good food! One of the pictures here is a ‘multi-collage’… guess which!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BTMLLUWh9C7/?taken-by=expatmomof3

https://www.instagram.com/p/BTjeRVHh-4T/?taken-by=expatmomof3

https://www.instagram.com/p/BTj3mykhMNs/?taken-by=expatmomof3

https://www.instagram.com/p/BTgou-BBzGO/?taken-by=expatmomof3

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What now?? Some family time back at our Lago Sul house, having fun with the little “resident monkeys”? 🙂 Priceless!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BTPWTBFhuEV/?taken-by=expatmomof3

Brasilia, our current home, and a city planned to host the coutry’s federal government, is famous for [among other things!]:

a) its unique sky colors & the typical Cerrado vegetation

https://www.instagram.com/p/BTTv2YUhwPY/?taken-by=expatmomof3

b) its architectural lines and building structures, its religious/faith-based centers, bringing out a strange, yet passionate urban beauty:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BTcSx4gBGHG/?taken-by=expatmomof3

https://www.instagram.com/p/BTeWY6lhrOj/?taken-by=expatmomof3

Urban Beauty Photography: Flowers along the Streets of La Paz.

Pluck not the wayside flower;
It is the traveler’s dower.
~William Allingham

Celebrating our first month in Bolivia – our new post assignment, our new home. New life brings new expectations… Here’s what we’re seeing:
“Flowers have spoken to me more than I can tell in written words. They are the hieroglyphics of angels, loved by all men for the beauty of their character, though few can decipher even fragments of their meaning”. Lydia M. Child

“Pluck not the wayside flower;
It is the traveler’s dower”.
William Allingham

“For myself I hold no preferences among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous. Bricks to all greenhouses! Black thumb and cutworm to the potted plant!” Edward Abbey

“The flowers of late winter and early spring occupy places in our hearts well out of proportion to their size”. Gertrude S. Wister

“Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature”. Gerard de Nerval

“The artist is the confidant of nature, flowers carry on dialogues with him through the graceful bending of their stems and the harmoniously tinted nuances of their blossoms. Every flower has a cordial word which nature directs towards him”. Auguste Rodin

“Flowers have an expression of countenance as much as men or animals. Some seem to smile; some have a sad expression; some are pensive and diffident; others again are plain, honest and upright, like the broad-faced sunflower and the hollyhock”. Henry Ward Beecher

“Perfumes are the feelings of flowers, and as the human heart, imagining itself alone and unwatched, feels most deeply in the night-time, so seems it as if the flowers, in musing modesty, await the mantling eventide ere they give themselves up wholly to feeling, and breathe forth their sweetest odours. Flow forth, ye perfumes of my heart, and seek beyond these mountains the dear one of my dreams!” Heinrich Heine

Plant Nursery Photography: A visit to the ‘Vivero de Aranjuez’ in La Paz. (3rdculturechildren.com)

Weekly Photo Challenge: Urban

This week’s inspiration is “urban”. The idea behind urban photography is to photograph your city and the streets where you grew up as they are. Unlike the photoshopped pictures to which we are accustomed nowadays, urban photography presents a more direct, unaltered view of life. It is about documenting urban living space and how people adapt their environment to certain needs and vice versa. Urban photography shots provide cultural, social, economical, and ecological context all at once, and can capture social tension. Think of urban photography as a complement to street photography—it provides the context in which street photography unfolds.

This week’s photo challenge is guest hosted by This week’s photo challenge is guest hosted by Terence S. Jones of A Guy With a Camera. Here, I’m presenting two views of the same city, a ‘colorless urban”, and a ‘colorful’ one, seen below. Urban settings can be whatever we want them to be – sad and colorless, or lively, colorful, pleasant!

This week’s inspiration is “urban“. The idea behind urban photography is to photograph your city and the streets where you grew up as they are. Unlike the photoshopped pictures to which we are accustomed nowadays, urban photography presents a more direct, unaltered view of life. It is about documenting urban living space and how people adapt their environment to certain needs and vice versa. Urban photography shots provide cultural, social, economical, and ecological context all at once, and can capture social tension. Think of urban photography as a complement to street photography—it provides the context in which street photography unfolds. Thanks for the inspiration! ♥

Different views on “urban”:

Urban « e-Shibin Urban « Fenland Photos Urban « Flickr Comments Urban | Chittle Chattle Urban | Chittle Chattle Le città e il gioco. 2. | Empire of Lights Photos by the Dog of a Depressed Woman « Broken Light: A Photography Collective URBAN « beyond toxicity Urban | Just Snaps Urban – Downtown Oak Hill, Alabama | Humbled Pie Urban – Joy and Woe Urbanizando el tiempo « La Mandraka Urban « Pictures for Froghopper Urban « So where’s the snow? Urban Energy « the thirdeyeworld Urban | Wind Against Current My Urban Garden | Cardinal Guzman Urban « britten Urban | Figments of a DuTchess Urbaunite « bukaningrat ™ Urban « A year in the Life Urban « MaanKind Urbane | Canoe Communications wurban « A Meditative Journey with Saldage Urban « Efrata Denny Saputra Yunus Urban | Four Deer Oak