Mid-Week Update!

Not a whole lot to post about here today. We've had a few lazy days where it's rained a decent amount. Yesterday we entertained ourselves by watching Hot Fuzz and playing Bananagrams, what a day! Today we had a surprise visit from Kachico, Yuri's grandfather. He was super excited to see me and tried to talk me into coming to stay at his house for a few days. This guy can't get enough of his grand children, he's trying to adopt one more, what a sweet heart :)

In other news, I have a substantial amount of mosquito bites, something like 18. I must have sangue doce, or sweet blood, because they won't leave me alone!

We found out today that the wedding is on Saturday and in Jabaquara. It'll be about an hour drive from where we are. People make plans very last minute around here so I don't know of any other details, except that I haven't the slightest idea what to wear, and that multiple people will probably try (and fail) to teach me to Samba. 

We're at A, wedding is at B

We're trying to come up with entertaining ways to fill our time. So far we've been watching How I Met Your Mother from the beginning, watching movies, NOT itching our bug bites, learning to use my camera, and playing games. So far, so good. Next up? Some cooking. We've been wanting to head to the supermarket for days but every time we're ready to go, it pours. I've got a great recipe for a mango lemonade that we're going to try out soon :)

No need to worry folks!! My eye is healing very well, I should hopefully look less idiotic within the week.

Cheers! More updates to follow.

The Gash

It's lovely isn't it?

Also posting to let everyone know that there may not be a whole lot for me to write about during the week. Yuri is in school during the day (and I'm home learning Portuguese and sun bathing, ahem) and has to be up by 5:45AM every day so the nights aren't usually to crazy either, but I'll do my best to keep you updated.

Yuri's sister is coming to visit next week and we're also going to a nice wedding soon, so I'll have things to post about in the near future!

More Postinho?

On Friday night the plan was to go to a new place called O Rei Do Espeitinho, which means King of the Kabobs, but the place was pretty packed. Also, there were a ton of families there, so it seemed odd for us to meet friends there for drinks and snacks. So where else could we go? Postinho. I can't complain, the food is delicious and the service is always good. I've never been to Postinho and had a bad time, and this time I had my camera!

This is Postinho. I realize it doesn't look very exciting, but it really is. See the gas pumps? Friday was busy enough that they have to set up tables in front of the pumps, but on a less busy night, you'll be snacking on french fries and smelling gasoline as someone fills up. In this picture our table is the one behind the yellow box that says SKOL on it. Yuri is in red standing up.

Calabresa e batatas fritas (Fried kielbasa and french fries)

It was a great time as usual, and no door knob disasters occurred when we got home. We asked the waiter to take our picture, of the whole table, and he did. About 65 percent of us have our eyes closed, so I'll pass on posting that one.

Yesterday was kind of a lazy day. Yuri had some standardized tests so I went to hang out with his cousins.  Earlier that morning when his alarm went off, it scared me so badly that I bumped my head on the bedside table and now have a nice little gash near my eye. It's a good look for me, really. So a good portion of the day yesterday was spent joking about my injury. We also watched a movie and a Brazilian spelling bee, which actually was very interesting to me considering I'm trying to learn Portuguese. 

Yuri came to meet me at his Tia Sandra's house and we stuck around to play some video games because it was raining. We headed home sort of early because he had another test today at 8AM, ate a quick dinner of rice, beans and chicken nuggets, and headed to bed. 

What's in store for today? We don't know. We've been invited to Tia Sandra's for lunch, but Yuri spied some handmade fries being made upstairs, we we're not sure where we're headed yet. Will post more soon!

Postinho!

My first night here there were lots of new friends for me to meet. Where could we all meet? Postinho. For those of you that haven't read the earlier parts of my blog, Postinho is half gas station, half bar. In Brazil gas stations are called "posto de gasolina" which means that Postinho translates to little station. The food is excellent there, it's mostly appetizers and things for sharing but you can definitely get full meals there as well. They also have a Japanese portion of the menu. I didn't take my camera because we walked, and it was raining, but I got a good picture of us before we left.

So I met the friends, they're all gente boa (good people). We made plenty of jokes, and Yuri taught me how to say, "que mulecona" which basically means, what a sissy. It was definitely a fun night.

Everything was fine and dandy when we came back, until I headed upstairs to go to the bathroom. When I came back down the door wouldn't open. The knob has been broken for sometime now. So in the middle of the night, from both sides of the door we turned and turned and turned the knob and it refused to open. I ended up laying down a spare mattress and catching my Z's there! In the morning I waited for Tia Andrea to wake up and had her come bust down the door. And she sure did. So it's broken for sure now!

Today was a beautiful day, but I needed some serious sleep. After a little reorganizing of my suitcases and a good shower and a loooong nap I'm positing all we've done so far to catch everyone up to speed. The plans for tonight are still up in the air. There seems to be some sort of Churrasco (which is kind of like a Brazilian BBQ) going on upstairs at home, but we've also been invited out to a new bar that's specialty is kabobs. Mmm! Either way I'll be sure to get good pictures tonight :)

Traveling: Stressful, But Worth It.

What a trip!

This time around my bags had to weigh less than 50 pounds and my carry on had to be less 40 pounds. I'm starting here because that was incredibly hard. Between the clothes that I had packed and the gifts that I had to bring 140 pounds was almost not enough. Somehow I managed. I packed things like an absolute nut job, but everything was in and protected.

Flying out of Boston was easy. I got to the airport about 2 and half hours before my flight left. I checked my bags, one at 46 pounds and the other right at 50, and said my goodbyes to Yuri's Mom. After some good hugs, good lucks and a few tears I moved into the security line, and cruised through. Right before we started boarding they announced that it was very full flight and if you had 2 carry on bags they would check one for free. I'm jumped right on that. It was a smooth flight and I got a few good pictures.

I had really hoped to get a good meal in before my long flight to Sao Paulo, ya know, something balanced and with real flavor and sustenance. Didn't happen. I had just enough time to trade out half my money for Brazilian Reais before it was time to board.

I ended up sitting next to an old man, probably in his 80's, from Minas Gerais, Brazil. He was very nice but also VERY talkative. He learned early on that I could speak enough Portuguese to understand him and from there on out had 2 things he really wanted to talk about: Crossword puzzles and Niagra Falls. We got into a fun pattern on the plane. I would turn my head and fall asleep and just as I was drifting off he would say, "Oh oh! I forgot to tell you this story about Niagra falls!!" I think I got about 3 hours of sleep on my 9 hour flight. It was also the most turbulent flight I've EVER been on. Here are some pictures of Sao Paulo from the air:

A little sunset action leaving from Atlanta

When I arrived in Sao Paulo a series of small disasters occurred. When you first get off the plane you head to a section where they stamp your passport. The clerk took mine, left with it and came back a good 15 minutes later, just to tell me everything was fine and stamped my passport. Next, you move onto customs. They pulled me aside to search my luggage because I was by myself and had SO MUCH stuff. I made it through after ample time and took all my luggage to be rechecked in for my last, but small flight to Vitoria. I waited in line for almost a half an hour before I was told that I was in the wrong line. After finding the correct line I was told they had lost my reservation (My window seat!!) but would take care of it and find a way to get me on the plane. I was the last one to board the plane. I got the seat that's DIRECTLY next to the bathroom. Who was I sitting next to? A couple in their 70's that absolutely could not keep their hands off each other! Good lord. Here are a few pictures flying into Vitoria. Don't mind the window in all of them, I took them from a distance...

The bridge coming into Vitoria is beautiful and fairly famous.

All things said and done, I made it. I traveled alone to Brazil, spoke only Portuguese and made it. Whew!

Last, but not least, a few pictures from the ride home from the airport:

To the left is Praia de Camburi (Camburi Beach)

Oh palm trees, how I missed you.

UPDATE!

That's right, I'm headed back to Brazil. I've worked long hours for a long time and I deserve to spend a vacation with the one I love! Here's the itinerary!

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 22, 2012

FLYING OUT OF BOSTON: 5:15PM
ARRIVING IN ATLANTA: 8:06PM

FLYING OUT OF ATLANTA: 9:35PM

THURSDAY AUGUST 23, 2012

ARRIVING IN SAO PAULO: 8:15AM

FLYING OUT OF SAO PAULO: 10:50AM
ARRIVING IN VITORIA: 12:35PM 

Let's hope they aren't "cleaning the plane" for an extra 3 hours before the longest leg of my trip this time. Let's also hope the "steak dinner" is just as good as it was last time ;)

So FIQUE LIGADO! (That's Portuguese for stay tuned!)

I'll be sure to post plenty more pictures and stories as the trip progresses!