Vodka From The Land of The Wolf...

I looked up the defination of "procrastination". haha, it's a legit condition. Something to do with the prefrontal cortex where some type of neurobiological synapses are lacking...sounds serious, cause it is. If you think it's all crap talk, just live a day in my life with me for a couple of days!!!! Actually no...although I do admit that I procrastinate quite a bit back at home, I think this amplification of procrastination symptoms is directly due to the fact that Dr. Fitz put me in the most laid back, typical beach town, in BRASIL!!!!!!!! I'm struggling though...there's just something great about reading up on "procrastination" on wikipedia that makes it way too real.

This past weekend was 4th of July weekend!!! Happy Independence Day to the greatest country in the world!!! Ok!!! Don't freak out, I'm not some psycho nationalist or anything, but as great as Brasil is and as much as I don't ever want to leave this place...I love America...and being American. At first I was kind of hesitant to be so open about my "americanism", but lately, not so much. It's weird that it's taken a experience like this to bring that out in me. This was me before Brasil (and maybe living in Saudi Arabia has some responsibility for this): Americans are so sheltered, and close-minded...too scared to discover what else is out there, or too ignorant to appreciate it, or too unintelligent to understand the importance of culture especially so since America has been dubbed "the melting pot" of the world...and I'm not gonna lie, Saudis were not, and I repeat WERE NOT jumping for joy to see an American family come through the airport...can't say that i felt the love, ya know. So I kind of thought that it would be like here maybe, and maybe it is to some degree...and I know that Brasil and most of South America are pretty liberal, unlike Saudi Arabia. There is so much American culture here. It makes me proud. That's all I'm sayin. I told Brittany today that I just want to go back to the states for a couple of days, then come back. Just to recharge myself. To see if my "old" self is still there somewhere. I think it will be good feeling once we land back in our homeland. My mom would always tell me that she felt that way when she goes back to Korea. She loves America and is an American citizen, but to go back to where you were born and raised...well, in the midst of my americanism, I've always been iffy about the whole eating with a fork AND a knife AT ALL TIMES!!!!! It was just something that I refused to be a part of. I don't know why...until yesterday. I ran over to Mirantes (MY FAVORITE RESTURANT!!! OH GOD I LOVE THAT PLACE...i do go everyday :) and am very happy about it), made a total brasillian paleo plate and all of a sudden I looked at both of my hands...I dropped both fork and knife in either hand...immediately....

All in all....GREAT 4th OF JULY WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Let me say why: (and I dont know why I always resort to doing a list format...I'm not that type of girl, ANYWAYS)

Friday: Thiago...thats all I'm allowed to say ;)...i can just tell you that it's a guys name, haha...ONLY because sketchball aka Diego...I'm always proving to myself that if you set your expectation really high all the time for everyone, you WILL be disappointed. I can't believe this happened....So Friday, July the 2nd, 2010...I was asked TWICE about a threesome and managed to have "the talk" with somebody....oh, yes...."the relationship talk". I had to tell him straight up. "Dude, I'm leaving in a month and I don't want to become a Brasillian citizen, so I don't need you or want you...but let me go ask Brittany how she feels about this, hang on, be right back"...except for IT'S NOT GONNA HAPPEN YOU CAN GET OVER YOURSELF!!!!! I had to tell Brittany that I didn't like her like that. Hope she's not mad at me.

Saturday: will be titled "The Adventures of Praia Galheta". These adventures consist of a beautiful day at the beach with Cris, my Brasiliian bff and her boyfriend Ernie, touching the frigid cold Atlantic Ocean water with my toes...checking out hot surfers, me Brittany and Cris running from a naked man, Cris showing us her beachside crib....yep.....good day....can I just say that running that trail was a killer leg workout!!!!!!!! So, this naked man I can talk about, haha...just kidding, or am I? No really....Praia Galheta is a clothing optional beach. cool. but the trail to get from Mole to Galheta is HELLA NARROW!!!!!! SO IF YOU ARE WALKING IT AND THERE IS A NAKED MAN, YOU EITHER RUN THE OTHER WAY OR GET REALLY CLOSE TO HIM!!!! Cris was PISSED!!!! It was sooo funny though. I was just going to walk past dude and just ignore him, obviously he wanted some sort of attention, good or bad, but Cris told us to make a dash for it!!! That's where the trail run comes in....apparently he was following us...I didn't notice, (oblivious American girl?....perhaps)...at one point we stopped....so he could walk past us, God, he was so close haha, and Cris was so pissed that she yells "Could you pleeeeeaaase just pass?!?"...In English, LMAO...this guy probably thought we like it or something...except for that Ernie came to our rescue...Cris felt bad...I thought it was great. That's the kind of stuff I want to blog about :) "The TRUE LIFE Adventures of Brasil 2010". Is it bad to say that I probably would have been a little disappointed if I didn't see anyone naked. I mean, it IS a clothing optional beach...didn't get pics though...damn...(sooooo kidding, it was replusive)

Sunday: Let me just start by saying, it was so random and so GREAT!!! All because of Padua and Jania...great mini-road trip to the south of the island where you could really see the heart of Brasillian culture!! Brittany took the greatest pictures!!! So impressed. We saw so much culture that day...it was one of those things that tourists would not know to do!!! Very local...Fresh oysters straight from the ocean...we ate them steamed...we ate them raw...drank some brasillian beer, listened to some American music as we sat out on the patio...watched Padua play "handy-man"...ate some shrimp pollenta....WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?

That wasn't the end though...Brittany and I did 4th of July Part II...at the Blackswan where Americans got in free and got free food!!! I was hesitant to go there AGAIN, cause I didn't want to "run into anyone" if you know what I mean...and just as I was expressing those feelings to Brittany..."Oh. Oi Alessio, how are you. ha. ha." (then I ackwardly leaned in for the typical cheek kiss greeting and hit his face REALLY hard haha)...ummm....."ok. Tchau"....We ran into Vinni too, cute kid....I think the door guy charged me for my cover though, Oh well!!!! Greatest cheat day ever!!! American hot dogs and wings and shots and beer and annoying guys that no matter how times I told them I was American, asked if I was from Chile or Peru...idk...and cheese sticks with oregano, and stuffed jalapeno peppers...ahhhh.....wanna know how it ended?...at cafe cultura...with american apple pie WARM american apple pie, and classic chocolate cake with apricots :)

I'll end with...there's a strip of resturants right before you get to the heart of Lagoa that I need to hit up, one of which...Vodka From the Land of The Wolf...

...and I'm coming out of the closest...I'm a starer. I like to stare at people. Especially good lookin brasillian men...they do it too. I know that I'm offically "out" cause I was staring at someone the other day...(can I just take a moment to say that this man...was....GORGEOUS!!!!!!!! omg...I need to go back home)...and he caught me. See, usually I would just quickly look away, ashamed. Nope. I was like.."what? you're fine", in my head of coarse, although he probably wouldn't have understood me anyway. I made him blush, my work is done :)

GREATEST WEEKEND EVER.