4 Things Meme

All right, a week or so ago Alice tagged me for a meme and because I'm tired from having written that humongous post yesterday two days ago, which I'm sure none of you will have the patience to read (you can look at the pictures, though :), I decided to do this fun meme. Oh, and I think this is my "timeliest" response to a meme ever :) Of course I kind of cheated because most of my responses feature various things grouped into categories, but I just couldn't think of just four things each time.

4 activities I've been paid for (and these are all the "jobs" I've ever had):
- teaching English to 2nd to 4th grade children for 45 minutes a week and for various groups (children, teens, adults) and in various settings. (my first and only job in Brazil: young [middle class] people hardly ever work there, one usually starts working when going to college, like in my case).
- cleaning peoples' houses (what I did here in the U.S. before being accepted to grad. school - I stopped after I started to teach.)
- pet-sitting 3 or 4 times a day for 2 1/2 weeks (4 dogs - one of the them slightly lame and blind, they stayed indoors and I had to clean up their messes as well as feed them). It was in one of the houses I cleaned and it coincided with my first weeks of graduate school and being a T.A. Crazy busy weeks.
- teaching undergraduate gen. ed. literature classes both as a T.A. and instructor with my own class.

4 splendid foods:
- I love pretty much anything with potatoes, especially well seasoned and crisply baked in the oven.
- Indian food in general, particularly aloo gobi (potatoes and cauliflower)
- (Can ice-cream be considered "food"?) Italian gelatto, particularly from Florence.
- Italian pasta with various sauces: with porcini mushroom and a creamy sauce; with a tomato based sauce and grilled artichokes; with grilled vegetables, garlic and olive oil, and many others)... yumm!

4 grand drinks:
- Brazilian fruit juices, particularly cupuaçu (heavenly), cajá, acerola (which is actually not a Brazilian fruit, but the West Indian "cherry"). I actually can make them here in the U.S. -- the Portuguese supermarket chain Seabra (there are many in New Jersey) sells the frozen pulps. YAY!
- Brazilian açaí [pronounced ah-sah-eeh] (not exactly a drink, the authentic thing is very thick and has to be eaten with a spoon, oh, and lots of sugar, at least for me -- I was tickled today to see a new tea by Celestial Seasonings, my favorite tea brand, featuring açaí).
- mango lassi (yogurt and mango Indian drink -- I make it at home too)
- homemade strawberry lemonade (with frozen whole strawberries, prepared in the blender)

4 Movies I saw over and over :
- Sound of Music (I know... old stuff, but I always loved it, know all the songs by heart)
- Back to the Future I, II and III (my husband and his brothers LOVE those, and I like them too)
- Pride and Prejudice (A&E series and recent movie) and other adaptation of Jane Austen's works, like Persuasion, Mansfield Park, Emma,
- A Room with a View (particularly with my girl friends as teenagers)

4 favorite TV shows: (I don't have cable, so I can't really watch those that are still on)
- Most Anything from TLC, particularly A Baby Story, Trading Spaces, While you were out, etc,
- Sex and the City (watched only the full 5th and last season on demand when we had cable for a few months after moving).
Used to like:
- Ally McBeal
- can't think of a fourth one. I don't really care much for TV.

4 places I've been to: (very hard to answer, I have traveled quite a lot, so I've grouped them)
- South of South America - Argentina (Buenos Aires, Bariloche) and Chile (Santiago and Southern Chile - Osorno volcano area) - car trip when I was 7. I remember it well, though.
- Brazilian Northeast: Salvador - my favorite city in that region, Recife, Natal, Fortaleza, and
São Luiz.
- Main cities of Western Europe: London, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Rome, Florence, Venice
- 7 National Parks on Western U.S.A.: Grand Canyon, Carlsbad caverns, Rocky Mountains N.P., Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Bryce Canyon, Zion Canyon. (Hey, I have digital photos of these, would you like me to post some to the blog?)

4 websites I use lots: (that's a hard one, I'm always online, but I don't really have specific sites)
- tons of blogs
- Gmail, Google, Google maps and image too
- Amazon (for research too!), Netflix, of course, various banks
- For research: Library of Congress catalog and other library catalogs and academic databases

Should I tag anyone? Well, feel free to do it if you want.