Continuing...

Thursday, November 23, 2006


Past couple of days & Turkey Day
Current mood: groggy
Category: Travel and Places

Nothing much happened.

Wednesday went to a Churrascaria place called Tauro with Flavia and Hubert (I've been calling him Roberto as the H's and the R's in Portuguese sound the same and Flavia calls him 'berto, so 1+1=3 in this case).

Food was good, they keep bringing chunks of meat on huge skewers and slice some off for you. Vegetables, sushi, rice, fruits, soups, etc. you go get yourself. Sausage was really good.

(Have I mentioned that dinner here is around 9:30-10:00 pm local? It's always late, and usually light. Lunch is heavier. Good strat.)

Thursday didn't get to too much, either. I was hoping to go to Nitéroi to see a museum, but we ended up leaving late since I was adding four hundred pictures or so to my albums - http://new.photos.yahoo.com/clintonhlowery/albums (the Today's photos groups 2 & 3) - and then we got turned around near a favela. We then went to see Dani's half-sister, Loana. Nice kid, looks kinda like Dani did at 20 (she's 18). Just graduated from high school, fixing to start college. Lives with her two brothers (who were playing MK3 like crazee when we were there), and her mom and dad.

We went to NorteShopping, which is like a poor man's version of Barra Shopping. (Similar to comparing a Westside strip mall to St. John's Town Center). One difference between the two - Barra Shopping would indicate the full price - almost everything (except the food) at NorteShopping was listed as 4 payments of this, 5 payments of that, etc.

They did have motorcycles for like 48 payments of R$120, ~ US$56.

After that, we dropped off Loana, ate at McDonald's (in Rio!), then I started feeling achey and I came back home. Dani went out for a while.

----------------------

I don't really know what I should be thankful for for Thanksgiving, considering I'm in a place where it's not celebrated (it is a purely American holiday after all).

Since I am a gringo (or norteAmericano, or Americano) as has been pointed out to me recently, the things I could mention are:

I'm thankful to have had a decent out-of-country trip for the first time in my life.

I'm thankful that my family are alive and doing well.

I'm thankful that the friends I do have tend to be honest and true friends, at least the ones I hang around with the most are. Deceivers, well, keep deceiving me and leave me blissfully unaware.

I'm thankful that I'm at point in my life where I have a job with decent income and a decent apartment.

I'm thankful that Twerp is still alive and kicking (and still biting me occasionally) after thirteen+ years as he keeps me sane and is the one thing that has never broke my heart at some point.

I'm thankful for the sun rising and setting every day and reminding me that there is true beauty in this world, even if sometimes you have to work to see it.

Udder dan dat, laissez le bonne temps roulez.

GO LSU KICK THEM HOGS' ASSES!!!