Amor no tem edade

This entire week has gone by in a blink of an eye.

Segunda-Monday:
We went to the feira (market,fair) for portuguese class-it happens every Monday. I bought the most delicious morangos (strawberries) of my life. Tried so many cool fruits! Other than that, it was pretty platonic-class, a lecture on venture capital and privatization of companies in Brazil... muito chato (very boring). I slept a lot today because I was so exhausted from going out Sunday night.

Terca-Tuesday:
We went on a company visit to a Brazilian Real Estate company called Cyrela. We even got to meet the CEO of the company, which was pretty cool. We talked about Brazilian saving accounts and mortgage systems. To get an apartment in Rio, you need a CPF (like a SSN) and prove you can earn at least 1/3 of the mortgage payment… sucks to live in Brazil, financially…other than that- I’m all in!

I went to the lavanderia today, literally had not done any laundry the entire time I have been here. I walked along the beach while I waited for it to be done. Dad would be so proud at how much I conserved my laundry amount here because I have to go do it myself. When I got home, Alessandra was asking me how Americans like to eat avocados. I explained that we made it into guacamole! In Brazil, the only eat avocado as a fruit, with sugar. The entire family was astonished that guacamole is a mixture of salt, lime, onions, and garlic. Lesley, you would be proud because I made a great batch of guacamole for them to go along with dinner. I’m just so domestic, aren’t I?

Quarta-Wednesday:
My first Brazilian Churrascaria experience! We went to the Churrascaria as a class and let me tell you, I couldn’t eat for the rest of the day basically. Every type of meat, every type of food anyone could ever want in life. So crazy. Right after that, we all hit up the praia (beach) such nice weather! The waves were so intense they knocked me down and practically drowned me. Wednesday night I went out with a girl named Priscila. We ate at a cool noodle place on Farme de Amoeda, I could barely eat though…we then had a couple of drinks at a bar next door and then went to salsa night at Guimo’s pub just like last Wednesday. My friend Sandra from the plane ride was there again and of course our group of people! Too funny, I would make friends on a plane…

Quinta-Thursday:
Today we went on a company visit to H. Stern. If you don’t know this jewelry company, it was started by a jewish guy named Hans Stern who emigrated from Europe to Brazil after the holocaust. The presentation started off with a simple question. The lecturer asked, “does anyone know who the biggest seller of gold is in the world?” Answer: Wal-Mart. He talked a lot about maintaing prestige and the black box that their jewelry comes distinguishes them. The building was absolutely gorgeous. I loved the tour-lots of gems, I tried to get a few of my classmates to propose to me, unsuccessful. They showed us their specialty Alice and Wonderland ring collection which was the craziest things I have ever seen. Diamonds galore.

After the day learning about H. Stern, Paola and I went to get our nails done. We got a mani/pedi at a really small place nearby for 18 reales. This is equivalent to approximately 12 USD. That’s freaking ridiculous, best deal of my life.

Avo (Grandpa) came over for dinner, god is he a crazy guy…he kind of reminds me of Harvey a little bit. He talked about all of his girlfriends (they range between the ages of 45-65) because he said the older ones are better lovers. He asked me, voce vive para amor o ama para vivir (do you live to love or love to live?) Also, he said Brazilian women bicker with you all day…but if you really want to make them cry, all you have to do is say one word: gorda (fat). He is such a funny guy. He invited me on his sailboat on Sunday, so that’s going to be really fun!
I went out to Le Girl tonight…it’s a lesbian club in Rio. It was interesting…Paola and Ximena went with me and we made a friend there actually from Minas. In minas they give three cheek kisses apparently, cariocas (from Rio) give 2 cheek kisses.

Sexta-Friday
Today we all went out to lunch at a kilograma place with our professor, Jama and the director of IBEU, Lorena. Ana met up with us which was awesome because we hadn’t seen her in a while! We had the afternoon off from lecture but it was raining, bummer! Paola and I went to the mall, shopping leblon. We can’t buy anything though because everything in that mall is practically upwards of 100 reales. Jesus Christo its expensive here! We hung out for a while…went into some little shops on Visconde Pirraja and such, fun timess.

Right now, im getting ready to go out for a big Friday night in Rio! Tchau meninos!