daniela etc. » 2002

Archive for January, 2002

Jan

Since I’ve Been Back

Topic: shopping

whole foods Let’s see I’ve been back for a week now but I’m not sure much has happened. Heidi took care of my plants while I was gone and I must say she did an awesome job.

I was back at work on Wednesday and didn’t have as many emails as I had expected. The worst part was looking through my notes from the days before I left and remembering everything I had to deal with upon my return. I guess I did a very good job with blocking all that during my vacation.

On Thursday I met up with some friends and we had a relaxing night out. Friday my jet lag caught up with me. I tried to do some shopping but only managed to go to Whole Foods and Safeway. I was in bed by 11:00 PM.

Sunday and Monday were pretty uneventful; I can’t even remember what I did. Speaking of which, I need to go move my clothes from the washer to the dryer.

Posted on January 20, 2002 at 3:06 pm

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Jan

Trip Recap

Topic: travel

I’m home sick today… On the bright side, it gives me a chance to catch up with all my blogging.

Brasil
Getting There
I left on dec. 19th and had to fly through Miami (my least favorite place). Luckily everything went well (except for my upgrade which never happened since I had a restricted fare), so I can’t complain. On the flight to Miami, I sat next to a cute older Korean guy. He couldn’t speak a word of English so he just smiled the whole time. When the flight attendant came by with the beverage cart, he held up his indicator finger on his right hand and placed his left indicator finger on top of it, horizontally. She looked puzzle so he thought for a while and finally said: “T”. It was very cute.On my flight from MIA to Brazil, I sat next to a very nice girl and we had the first row in Economy Plus so we had all kinds of legroom. I swear, I think legroom in Economy class is shrinking. On the trip to Miami, my legs were touching the front seat the entire time. Oh, and as embarrassing as it is to admit it, I watched The Princess Diaries on that flight. Going to Miami, I watched Tortilla Soup, which I really liked (aside for the fact that the Brazilian guy was really Russian or something).

my sister
My dad was waiting for me at the airport. It was very humid; I forgot what humidity felt like after being in California for the past 2.5 years. It was great seeing my parents again. It felt as though I hadn’t seen them in a long time (it had been 1 year). My sis came by for dinner that night and she looks just as beautiful as ever. It’s strange to be home without both my sister and my brother (who now have their own places).

guaecá
We left for Guaecá a couple of days later. My mom and I went in one car and my dad drove alone with the Jeep in tow. Somehow he almost beat us there even though he had left after us. Somehow I’m also not surprised. My aunt Carmem and Uncle João were already in Guaecá with my cousins. My brother and sister arrived a few days later. Christmas was nice, very family like which was something I had been craving lately. Then my sister and cousins left and we started getting ready for my friends’ arrivals.On the morning on the 27th, my dad woke me up because Sofia had called with bad news. Tina and Chuck had missed their connection in Chicago and were only arriving the next day. We were all pretty bummed about that especially since they were wasting one of their vacation days in Chicago (in the middle of winter). So Sofia picked up Su and Nathan on the 27th and we arranged for Everaldo (my dad’s driver at the bank, more about him later) to pick up Tina and Chuck on the 28th.There were now twelve of us, fifteen if you count the housekeeper and her family (mom, dad, uncle João, aunt Carmem, Tico (my brother), me, Sofia, Tina, Chuck, Su, and Nathan). Paty arrived a few days later. The funny thing is that it didn’t feel like that many people. For new year’s eve of 1999, we had just a few more people but it felt like a crowd (mom, dad, grandma, Mi (my sis), Tico, Sabrina (his girlfriend at the time), Paty, Sofia, Bas, Veronica, James, Gaston, Sergio, Tom, Arthur, August, Marcus plus Carmem, Ge and Daniela (housekeeper, her ex-husband plus their daughter).

ilha bela
Anyway, New Year’s was great, the weather couldn’t have been better (it rained two years before so we didn’t go to the beach at midnight). You can read more about it on Tina’s blog. We didn’t do much at the beach, just hung out in hammocks and played Buraco (a Brazilian card game. Everyone got addicted to it). We also went to an island across from Guaecá (Ilha Bela) one afternoon and ended up staying for dinner since the line for the ferry was too long.

my sister’s apartment
We drove back up to São Paulo on 1/3 and Su and Nathan left for Rio the next day. On Friday night we had dinner at Mi’s new apartment, which is absolutely incredible, I had only seen pictures. It is totally her style and it was awesome to see what she had done to it. We then went to Sofia’s place for dessert. Her apartment is also beautiful, and her dog is the cutest.

country house
On Saturday, the rest of us went to Embu on Saturday and spent Sat. night at the country house (playing more Buraco).

Su and Nathan came back to São Paulo on Monday and we spent the next few days shopping and etc. They left on Thursday and it was strange how quiet the house was. Thursday night, my parents, Mi and I went out for dinner to celebrate their 32nd anniversary. My brother came up with some excuse not to attend. I then spent the night at Mi’s apartment. The weekend flew by and I left on Monday. The trip back was pretty uneventful but I did manage to score an upgrade from Miami to San Francisco. That means that even with a restricted fare, I could have been upgraded before. It’s really all about whom you talk to and whether they’re willing to help, isn’t it?

Posted on January 19, 2002 at 3:02 pm

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Jan