Swimming pools and movie stars!

A few months back, my husband (I call him Caker) and I left Beverly Hills and moved to Brazil. Our business in Beverly Hills was losing money due to the economic collapse and so we wrapped up 2008 by moving to a city outside Rio de Janiero where we had been building a house. We had always talked about moving to Brazil because we owned a home here and loved the people, but the economy really helped seal the deal! We decided to move in late October and by late November we had closed our business, moved our stuff into storage, and moved to Rio. We believed (rightfully so) that keeping the business open for 2009 was only going to make us lose more money - why work if you are only going to lose money? Once we decided that there was no reason to work, the idea of actually moving to Brazil full time seemed not only plausible, but kind of smart.

Our home in Brazil was beautiful and calming. We bought it 2 years ago from some Swiss people and we loved it. For reasons that we can no longer remember, last year we decided to buy our neighbors ugly home, tear it down, and combine it with our existing home to make one huge home. I think our local Brazilian friend talked us into it one night over drinks! When we decided it would be fun to tear down two perfectly good homes in a foreign country and rebuild them as a larger one, the economy in the US was going great and we figured that we would continue to live in the US until our home here was completed. Times have changed!

In the last 3 months, we have lost our business (which was like our baby!) and moved to a completely foreign country in the middle of an ongoing construction project. It has been a wild ride. I miss Beverly Hills a lot, but it is impossible to go back. Our business is gone and although it has only been a few months, it seems like years have past. The old me has evolved. I have gone from a botox-loving shoe fiend to a surfer hippy. I spend my days barefoot, braless, wearing Caker's board shorts and picking sand out of my cracks. I am happier without all the Beverly Hills status crap, but I'm also a little surprised at how fast things have changed.

Here I am in my standard Brazil outfit: no bra, board shorts, no make up...and $1300 Valentino shoes
purchased 3 months ago in Beverly Hills when times were different.
This is the perfect picture of the old me and the new me!

Today we are two young professionals without jobs living in a house that is being torn down day by day. Every day the workers tear a little more down...they need to tear it down so that they can rebuild it. We started off with a nice 4 bedroom home and then we decided to buy our neighbors home, tear both houses down and build a 10 bedroom home - for just 2 people! In hindsight, our decision to buy our neighbors home and tear it down to build one super big house seems utterly greedy and stupid. A couple without children does not need 10 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms! All I can say is that times were different, we were doing well financially, and yes, it does seem ridiculous. By next week, both houses will be torn down and we will be homeless.

Here is part of our house under construction. The part on top is the second master bedroom and the part on the bottom is our gym. This used to be our neighbors house.

Here you can see the new house and the old house. The old house is on the left side. The workers keep tearing down more of the old house to build the new house! That's why we are running out of room!

Next week is our final week in the house. The workers have torn down everything except our bedroom and one bathroom and they are ready to knock it all down!

We have decided to spend the next 9 months touring the world on the Quantas One World pass, which is like a round the world airline pass that lets you go to 17 countries. We will be back here in Brazil in July and December to check on the house construction. In the mean time, we are going to circle the planet and see how everyone else is doing. Our first stop is Buenos Aires, Argentina...then on to Santiago, Chile and then the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador before leaving South America for New Zealand, Australia, South East Asia, China, Africa, and ending in Europe in November. We are skipping the middle east, though we will hit Cairo. I want to see Saudi Arabia and Iran, but we have been told that the visa situation is too difficult...Maybe by summer Obama will have worked some magic and things will be less tense!

This blog is going to track our travels around the planet so check back soon. We are leaving in a week for Argentina, so let us know your favorite places to eat, shop or visit.