Brazil Trip Day 10: The Epic Weekend

Its been awhile since my last post, usually I only have internet in my lab so and when I'm here I'm working, not blogging. I'll try to post something at least a few times a week but until I have a reliable internet connection it won't be daily.

Friday:

Well this was the first weekend here in Brazil with friends. I knew I would have a good time but never as epic as it turned out. Like Gurgel said, "We work hard and play hard".

Things began rather relaxed, we went out for lunch to a restaurant called Veredas. Decent food and you pay food per kilo. It's all you can eat as long as you can pay. Here's a vid of us going to Veredas. It introduces my colleagues and has a hint of humor.

After eating a huge meal(wish I would had photographed it, was to hungry I wasn't thinking) we went back to the lab and worked till about 8:30. I then went home to take care of a few things and meet up with Gurgel. Our Plan for the weekend was to meet up around 9:30-10, go out to get Turkey necks, go to a school social, and wake up the next day for an Electrical engineering BBQ. We went to a Restaurant/Bar near by called "Bar Da Codorna". We ordered Turkey necks, Brazilian fried chicken and a few drinks. You can see my Guarana in the corner(Brazil's best soft drink). After having some laughs waiting for the food, I took my first bite of turkey neck and it was...... Delicious! Very tender, the meat just fell off the bones. It tasted nothing like turkey or chicken, both strangely and tastefully it had the flavor of the beef stew my aunt makes in the US.

(Pi, Gogino, Glauco and I eating turkey necks)

So turkey necks are checked off the list. The next step was going to the school social. They told me it was going to be sort off a dance(Forró) with all the school departments there. When we got there I was really surprised. Imagine 300+ people, a live band surrounded by kiosks were you can buy drinks, food and halls(since you'll lose your voice trying to talk). According to Pi this happens about once every month. After meeting a few new friends (Moses and Miss Moses), getting a hat from another friend, getting a fake mustache and goatee, and lastly an intro on dancing Forró I decided to give the dance a try. I headed towards the nearest cute girl, lowered my hat in a gentleman like fashion and asked for a dance. After her approval and excitement I brought her close, arm on her back, hers on mine and I took my first dance step. This is when the magic began, that is, I took the first steps of failing to woo her with my dance skills. It was bad, really bad. My feet crossed, my beat was off and when I spun her she hit her head on my arm. It was great.

After many laughs with friends and dancing horribly all night we called it quits so we could get some rest for the electrical engineering social.

(Upper Left L->R: Gaucho, Mariana, Me, Moses and Pi)

(Upper RIght: Pi and I)

(Lower LeftL->R: Mrs. Moses (Moises in Portuguese), me, Glauco, PI, Pedro, Gaucho, Moses)

(Lower Right: Me, Pi and Glauco)

(Oh and I also met prize fighter Maguila)

Saturday: EE Social

So the social was from 3 pm till about 10 pm. I saw a poster for it earlier that week. Thought it was a good way to meet more people, especially in my department and hang out with the friends I’ve made so far. Nothing to crazy, something similar to the EE socials at our school. A whole bunch of guys, one girl and snacks. Everyone I talked to seemed so excited about it which I found quite odd, but hey maybe they have good snacks?

Boy was I wrong! I guess the EE BBQ’s here are one of the most popular parties at the UnB. Imagine 2500+ people from all of the private schools and the UnB, a band and free drinks for any one who wants some. About 65% girls and 35% guys(probably only 5% were actually engineers). Tickets sold for about 70 Reals (we got in for free because Glauco’s brother was the Organizer and King of the BBQ) and people were pouring in from the main door and boats. It was like nothing I had ever seen. We all hung out, met many new people, and had a great time. I was going to bring my camera and take pics but I was warned of pick pockets so I did not :(

Sunday:

I met up with Gurgel and Ana at around 1 p.m. And we went to visit some more of the Gurgel family. I met old time friends Lara, Tata and their respective families. We ate really good food and some really tasty pudding and headed out. They were all really great and treated me like family. Over all it was a great time and it was good to see past friends as well. Wish I would had taken photos but unfortunately I forgot :(

But alas the weekend is over. We are all back in the lab working like crazy. I’ll put another post as soon as I can Tchao!