Rollin in Brazil: Eventful Tuesday... Who Would Have Thought?

Part I: The Ride to Work
This surprisingly busy day began with a few rain drops. My usual arrangement with Tiago goes as follows: if it isn't raining, he comes and picks me up at 9 AM; if it is raining, I take the bus. But as menacing as the skies appeared, it only began to drizzle, a few sporadic drops at a time, beginning right around 9 o'clock. Now Tiago is usually late anyways, so I decided to wait a little longer before heading out to the bus stop a few blocks away. I would learn later that he had sent me a simple SMS at 8 that read "go bus." I somehow failed to receive it. When he still had not arrived by 9:25, I decided it was time, and started off down the street.

I got to the bus stop and sat down, waiting for the next bus to arrive. After a few minutes, a girl, somewhat close to my age but perhaps a couple years younger, walked up and sat down, evidently waiting for the same line. We sat in silence for about five minutes before a car pulled up to the curb. The window rolled down and a woman the girl knew offered her a ride to the bus terminal. Then they asked me if I was headed there too, and promptly gave me a lift as well. I ended up sitting in the middle of the back seat surrounded by two child seats, one of which was occupied by a cute little girl of about 6 years (I am absolutely horrible at guessing the ages of children, though, so I'd put a +/- 2 on that figure).

At first I sat in silence as the two in the front conversed in Portuguese. Eventually, though, I had to explain in my terrible Portuguese that I was American, from New Jersey, here for an exchange with a company that works with telemedicine. Luckily, however, the woman spoke English very well, and the girl understood well, but spoke with some difficulty. On the way, I learned that the woman was originally from Argentina, so I of course told her of my 2 month stay in Neuquen four years ago. The girl, Gabriela, is a student at PUC-CAMP, a private university here in Campinas, and is studying medicine. We parted ways at the bus terminal with an enthusiastic goodbye.

Part II: Lunch
Instead of the usual lunch at the padaria (bakery) across the street from Edumed, I accompanied Tiago, his mother, and Rosana, Edumed's secretary of sorts, to the Don Pedro mall to eat a hot dog. The food wasn't the interesting part, though the hot dog was quite massive and filled with all sorts of wild toppings. More fascinating, perhaps, was the fact that I saw the first distinctly American people I've seen here in Brazil. They also happened to eat at the hot dog place, and their struggles with Portuguese were quite apparent. Even their mannerisms seemed American to me!

Another interesting tidbit I came across was the first girl that I've seen here truly supermodel worthy. The kind of girl most American men (and maybe women) think of when they here the word "Brazilian." She was quite beautiful indeed, simply walking through the foodcourt of the shopping mall with a couple of bags in each hand. Her hair even had that supermodel bounce to it. Fascinating.

Part III: After Work
At the end of the workday, I left with Tiago as usual. He said that he was going to a churrascaria for dinner, and asked if I would like to go. First, though, he was going to work out with Fucho to continue preparing for the physical test for the police force. He said that they were going to do some Capoeira, so obviously I asked if I could work out with them first, too. So Tiago brought me back to the house and waited in the car as I packed a bag with a change of clothes. We went back to his house, changed, picked up Fucho, and went to the athletic center, comprised of a gravel track surrounding a soccer field, and an indoor area where teams were playing handball. Much to my disappointment, we didn't do any Capoeira.

Later, we returned to the house to clean up and head out for dinner. Tiago's mom and sister came, as well as Fucho. Tiago's father wasn't home, as he had business to conduct in Rio. We squeezed into the car and drove over to the churrascaria, and ate back all the calories we had burned and then some.