First money memories

Since I was a child I always liked saving money, my dad used to joke that "there might be a spider inside this girl's wallet" meaning I was afraid to open my wallet. I remember at about 9 years old we took a family trip to Chile, I brough a few bills of reais, Brazilian currency, and was laughed at by my family because my money "was useless internationally". On the way back my dad was giving generous tips to everyone to get rid of the dollars so he would not bring it back to Brazil and have to exchange it. At the airport we didn't know we still owed a ticket fee to be paid during boarding procedures, we could not find an atm quickly enough and would miss our flight until I asked "can my Brazilian money help?" My dad took the bills I had and ran to an exchange store, converted it to dollars and paid the fee...the joke was now on them " Taina saved the family from being kept forever in Chile due to being broke" or at least that's how it felt for me at that age.

The theft

We were on vacation, I was approximately 13y old and my dad gets a phone call at the beach saying someone broke into our apartment. My dad immediately drove back home to find everything completely turned upside down. Every drawer from every closet was open, all storage boxes thrown on the floor, the entire apartment was like a movie scene when they go distroy someones place. The thieves were most likely looking for money, gold, electronics and stuff they could quickly sell for drugs, they stole almost everything my teenager brother owned like sports clothes, videogames, baseball hats but surprisingly none of my things...but they did touch one thing that was precious to me: my little bank. They broke my bank and stole my coins, not much more than $5 dollars probably, but that felt so rude, invasive. Did they need to break the entire bank in pieces to steal a handful of coins from a little girl? I started hiding my money in better places after that.

Brazilian Food - Moqueca Capixaba

In Brazil there are lots of fish and seafood dishes and Moqueca is a special one. This unique fish stew is cooked in a clay pot and known as a local specialty from the state of Spirito Santo. Frequently served still boiling, you will find many ingredients like onions, tomatoes, cilantro. The one in the photo was cooked by my dad using Tilapia's filets and we like to eat moqueca with sides of white rice, fried planteins, and salad.

First Job - Casa do Patchwork

My first non-official job was at my mom's Quilt Shop. She opened the store when I was 13y and a Quilt Shop was a very new and different thing in Brazil, none of my friends knew what it was all about. My mom used to teach quilting classes to, mostly older women, while my aunt would sell supplies. After a few years I ended up knowing enough about it that I could already teach some basics, help fixing sewing machines, take care of emails, bank accounts, inventory, taking orders of personalized quilts for customers and helping my mom with the planning and execution of the projects. We were going on a few national Quilt exhibitions and at this point I was in charge of managing a business that kept growing. When my aunt left the business and I became officially the "store manager" I was also attending College to become a physical therapist so life was pretty busy, but I loved it. Eventually it became too much for me to do both and I chose the healthcare career.

Night life in Brazil

I lost a lot of weight, felt like I was the hottest girl in town, so confident, so powerful, going to parties every weekend wearing tiny sexy outfits and dancing so much. It was a combination of the self esteem of feeling pretty with the happiness of being social and dancing. I love dancing. I can dance by myself at home with music going on and have a great time. I was having so much fun, had tons of friends, so many contacts, I had become the popular friend everyone wanted to hangout with to have a good time. Trips to the beach, walks at the park, go out for dinner, sleepover, crazy drunk bbq meet ups...we did it all. Sometimes, rarely, I miss those days, but the party life doesn't mix well with 12h retail work shift plus taking care of the house and cats and paying bills.