Day 51: Curitiba

So yesterday I arrived in Curitiba and met Jeff's father's side of the family. How wonderful everyone is! I'm staying with Jeff's aunt. Yesterday we ate lunch out, then went shopping. After finding out I was a vegetarian, and that I don't eat chicken either--or fish, or bacon, or ham-- we went to the supermarket to buy some fresh veggies and fruits. And by "some" I mean $100 dollars worth (yeah, I already made a post on how wonderful the hospitality is here). I spent the afternoon at the house, eating, chatting, and watching TV. Of course, we Skyped with Jeff, which was very new to the family but very enjoyable.

This morning I met Jeff's grandfather, a very nice, polite, old-fashioned Brazilian gentleman. He, too, Skyped with Jeff in the afternoon. Then the family had lunch together. As he was getting ready to leave, he asked me if I was enjoying Brazil. I told him, "Of course, I'm loving it here. I'd love to come back and live here one day!" "Look," said Tia Maria, "He's crying!" Sure enough, he was. "How wonderful, how wonderful," he said through tears of happiness. When Jeff and his parents left Brazil, they left with the intention to come back, even though they never did. From talking to everyone, it really seems like many are unhappy that Jeff's family now wants to stay, and that Jeff has grown up as an American-Brazilian, not just as a Brazilian. For Jeff's grandfather to hear that someday the family, even if it skips one generation, might be reunited with its fatherland, he was overjoyed. It was wonderful to have met him, and I'm sure I will get another chance to see him in person.

Later in the afternoon, we went to the botanical park in Curitiba. How beautiful! Tia Maria insisted on buying me a jewelry box made from the Brazilian pine trees, which was very nice of her. After that, we went to the most enormous shopping mall I've ever seen. It must have been two miles of walking from one side to the other! We looked around, had a snack (which consisted of two small fries, half a pastel, and a soft serve ice cream cone), and then left.

Now I am back at the house, Tia Maria is making some dinner (which I am not hungry for, but will definitely eat because she makes really good food), and I am going to watch a little TV before bed. Tomorrow I fly to Sao Paulo the city, in order to watch A Noviça Rebelde, (The Sound of Music) and spend the Fourth by celebrating the death of Yuka's grandparents in some sort of Japonese commemoration which I don't yet understand.

Strange?

Yes, but this is my life here.

A picture I took of the botanical gardens in Curitiba. Ahead is a gigantic and beautiful greenhouse