It's cool and rainy right now. No praia for me...maybe next week. My "tan" from spending a week at Hilton Head has already faded. Where did I get such light skin??? All of my other family members turn a dark burnt brown color during the summer....but not me. The good news is I will be wrinkle free and happy when they all start to shrivel up as they get older.
Yesterday I took the bus to Plaza Shopping, which is the nice shopping center here in Niteroi, and met Virginia for lunch.
She ate two humongous rolls of sushi---and I did not. I had Yoggi, topped with fruit and nuts, and it was DELICIOUS.We took the van to Alcantara where we went straight to the tiny little salon where I used to get my nails done last time I was here. If you know me, you know that I am not one to go to salons and such and get manicures, pedicures, facials, and all that rot. However, this is not exactly a 5-star salon, if there is even such a thing. The girls that work there are nice and it's unbelievably cheap. For a full manicure and pedicure, including nail trimming, filing, foot massage, lotion treatment and these awesome designs, I paid only 18 reais....which would be about $9.
Nice, eh? Aren't you ladies jealous? Pretty shweet. And let me tell you, these Brazilian beauticians are waaaaay more fun to talk to than your typical Tammy (if you haven't seen the Bon Qui Qui nail salon sketch, click here for some creetal gel).
After about two hours in the salon...yeah, it's a slow process...I went back to the school, conveniently located one street over, and joined a class of young kids who were going to throw a party for me...however, it turned into another celebration of Alex's birthday, which was the day before...complete with yet another round of foam-spraying. Ahem. did I forget to mention the foam? Well, party foam is very popular...it's the consistency of hair mousse and yes, it does come in flourescent colors.
The other day I was sitting in the foyer of the school, minding my own business, when Alex came bursting in and showered all of us with the foam. Some, including Virginia, were lucky enough to be able to dive under the desk and escape with minimal damage, while others, including myself, got doused. The entry foyer was covered in the stuff. Good times. Thank goodness it just kind of disappears after a while. Anyway, round two of the foam wars occured on Thursday...apparently a few years back Alex got it full in the face from the secretary, Eliane, and now there will be no end to the foaming. Unfortunately I don't have pictures, but I have this foreboding feeling that tomorrow, which is the last day of class before winter vacation, is going to bring yet another shower of the fluffy stuff. I'm gonna wear a trash bag to my conversation class.
Today I got up early-ish, 8am, haha, and took the bus for Copacabana to meet Virginia. At the bus stop I asked a lady just to make sure that the right bus passed there, and I made a friend for life. She was getting on the same bus and talked to me the entire one-hour ride to Copacabana, telling me all the awesome places I still need to go in Brazil....
Virginia and I went to get our hair cut at her hairdresser and then we headed to Rio Sul for some serious shopping. After lunch, of course...went to a restaurant in the mall and ordered chicken with farofa, broccoli, and rice, and after a few mixups which scored me some free french fries we dug in. It was deelishus. I adore farofa.
At one shoe shop we had a hilarious time talking to the owner and one of the salespeople...the only guy in the whole store...he was so NICE, haha, and we taught him English phrases and he ALMOST convinced me to buy a pair of 5-inch stilettos, especially after he called me Giselle, but I RESISTED (for now). Hwever, I did buy a dress in another store. And it was discounted from $700 reais to $100....SCORE.
Around 5 Virginia and I made a quick ice cream stop...(the first since being here!!) and then headed out to catch the bus. And it was pouring. The thing about Rio is, when it rains, things get messy. And traffic gets TERRIBLE. People just shut down when it rains! For example, Virginia was supposed to sing at a restaurant tonight but because of the rain they just canceled the whole show since people don't like to go out in the mess.
Alrighty, I win the prize for the longest blog ever. Thanks and goodnight...
P.S. The 12- and 13-year-old students (guys) were dying to know if I had sisters; when they found out how OLD my sisters are they were severely disappointed. However, they decided to settle for my younger cousins instead. Hoo boy.
i haven't finished reading this post, but i thought i would just stop and mention to you that since you are older than me you will be getting wrinkles first anyway. ok. gonna finish reading now.
ReplyDeleteAnd just who might those younger cousins be that you're speaking of? ;)
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