Once again this week has been amazing. Although filled with little rapid activity this week has been one of exploration of a new part of the city and relaxation with a hint of learning! On Monday I headed out, deeming this day the day of pain! Why you may ask, well it is the day I had chosen to got suffer through a waxing (and I am not talking about my eyebrows!). So I rolled out of bed at the reasonable hour of 1000 and got ready, popped a few ibuprofen to help out with the oncoming pain and began my fateful walk. The salon is a good 15 minute walk from here so I had time to psych myself up which actually consisted of calming my self down. I was saying mantras in my mind such as “10 minutes of pain, weeks of lazyness” and “Its not that bad! Just relax! It will be a story to tell!” but as I approached the Salon I realized that they were closed! Closed, but I had done so much mental preparing! So I just continued my walk a couple more blocks to the grocery store and bought some Pizza and Guava juice (which if you do not know is one of the few elixirs of the gods) and headed back to the hostel. Being that it was quite a drizzly day I decided to see if the book exchange had any good books but ended up settling for the only book in english called ’19 Minutes’ about a school shooting and the events that lead up to it and the events that followed it in the lives of the victims, the perpetrator, their families, and the law enforcement. I found a nice place in one of the many hammocks and began to read, and that is how the rest of my day until I went to bed contintued. I got a phone call right before going to sleep where my new friend Mary asked if I would like to go with her to the centre of Florianopolis on Tuesday. to which I happily agreed and set my alarm for 0700 the next morning.
Bright and early at 0830 I was bathed and dressed headed out to the car. Mary and her husband where happily waiting and we began our journey. We headed north towards the city of Lagoa and up the mountain towards the other side. We made a quick stop at a look out point where I was able to look over the whole city to see the houses, the beach, the dunes which as always was an amazing view. We then continued our journey which actually took us off the island for a bit. We stopped at the Santa Catarina Adventist Conference for Mary to pick up the Sabbath School lessons for her church and I ended up buying a Sabbath School lesson in Portuguese to add the language to another aspect of my life.
We then crossed the bridge back to the island and were dropped off at the mall. We then wondered around just window shopping stopping off in the food court to buy an Açai shake and some pizza. We then headed outside of the mall to catch a cab to our next stop. We got off at what seemed like down town and when we exited the cab we entered a park with one of the oldest trees in the state. I then took pictures of the old buildings that the portuguese used to rule from and we headed down a block to which I was greeted by blocks and blocks of stores!
When then went shopping to buy the things that Mary needed to get for her work (she makes clothing) and thus headed to fabric and crafts stores all over the city breaking the spell when we came across a chocolate shop where we stopped (at every single one) and bought some chocolate. After a long day of seeing different shops, going to the local farmers market and being chocolated out we hopped on a bus that would take us back to her house. When we walked the final blocks to her house we then waited for her husband to get home to drive me back to my hostel where I slept quite soundly.
When I woke up on Wednesday I recommitted myself to the day of pain and got up and ready to face it head on. I then headed down to the salon where I made an appointment for 1420. I headed a little further down the road to buy some juice and food to eat, headed back to the hostel, made some brunch and then headed back to the salon. I was ushered to a back room where I dropped my drawers and thus the pain comminced. But it did not in fact hurt as much here as it had the first time I had gotten it done. The reason being is that they use a different method/ wax here then they do in the states. In the states for any waxing they do they put on hot wax, layer that with a strip of fabric or paper, and then pull that off but here it is just wax that cools and then they rip off. After about 15 minutes of this process I exited the back room, now bonded with a total stranger, and got my nails done as a “hooray, I did it!” I headed back to the hostel where I picked my book back up, headed to a hammock and spent the rest of the day reading.
Thursday and Friday were both filled with cold rain showers, high wind and little sun. Days best suited for sleeping in and doing little. I made a little trip to the small market down the road for some necessities but that was my only venture outside of the hostel. Those who were at the hostel (including myself… obviously!) visited amongst ourselves. Oh and did I forget something… The World Cup started where of course we all watched Brazil defeat Croatia. Campeche was filled with the yells of the people in joy and sorrow and the nearly deafening sound of fireworks being shot off at the goals made by Brazil and at random.
Sabbath I of course headed to church and was picked up by Mary Stella and her husband to head to Sabbath School. Both church and Sabbath school went very well and afterwards I was invited once again to the same house as the week before. I happily obliged and we departed. For lunch we had Lasagna and salad with fresh Guava juice which was all very delicious. I also got to practice my speaking and listening skills as nearly 99% of the conversations were in Portuguese. I also got to hang out with the cute little dog they have. Later on in the afternoon at about 1500 the son, his girlfriend, and daughter headed off to choir practice and the rest of us went site seeing for me to take pictures. Although it was a pretty cloudy and rainy day the places were amazing and I got to learn a lot about the island and take some nice pictures. At about sundown they dropped me back at the hostel (where I should have stayed! Mom don’t read the following!).
Although it was almost dark I needed some fresh vegetables and fruits because all I had was pasta and bread and nothing actually good so I decided to make a quick run to the market. But here is the thing the little market close by doesn’t have any fruits or vegetables, the next closest market has a limited supply of these and I knew I did not want to walk all the way to the big supermarket because that was a really really long walk. So I asked if there was just a fruit and vegetable place that was closer then the super market and they said there was just walk to the Main Street and turn left “It is close” they said. So not even thinking about it I headed off (so here is tidbit of information, if you are in a country where they usually walk most places when they say it is close…. it is NOT CLOSE!) So after reaching the main road I made a left thinking the store would be right there but alas it was not so I began to walk, and walk, and walk. And you would think that being that it is dark I would have come to my sense and just turned around and gone back but no, my common sense told me your already this far it can be much further… It was! So after a good 30 minute walk I finally arrived at the store, shopped for 7 or so minutes, paid for my stuff and then headed back out. It was then and only then that I realized how dark it was, how many shady people were currently out and how far I had to walk on streets will little light and few people. At times I could smell the alcohol on people 10 feet before they even reached me I simply walked and tried to avoid eye contact with anyone. As I was about to reach a street I needed to turn on I realized that there was a group of men in front of me so I tried lagging back and hoping they would not turn down my street. They did, so I hung back a little, crossed the street and tried to remain as unnoticeable as possible. I decided to enter the little shop a few blocks down from my hostel to give them time to get far ahead of me so after browsing the small shop for about 15 minutes and only buying some bread I began the last leg of my journey with pocket knife in hand! But by the grace of God I made it safely back to my hostel shortly after with no complications
RAIN, RAIN GO AWAy…COME AGAIN ANOTHER DAY & FUTEBOL!!!
