A Quarter of a Century
Autor: Valerie de Estados Unidos | Publicado: 2011-12-19T04:03:00-08:00

Wednesday was my 25th birthday.&nbsp; It was strange celebrating a December birthday in the summer time and I'm sure I'll feel the same way about Christmas on Sunday.&nbsp; Most of the day was spent hard at work preparing manuscripts for submission and meeting about changes and details.&nbsp; I'm really enjoying the projects that I've&nbsp;been invited to work on so far and am looking forward to the next months in terms of research.&nbsp; When I got home from work, Deia had bought be some delicious candies from one of the docerias in town and I treated myself to one of the best chocolate covered strawberries I've ever eaten.&nbsp; Later that evening we went to Cruz de Malta for dinner and were joined by Rafa and Cauane, Carolina, Milena, and Maria Laura, Ana and Pedro.&nbsp; I ate a delicious&nbsp;steak with provolone cheese accompanied with of course a sweet caipirinha.&nbsp; Ana bought me a caipirinha kit (now I just have to figure out how to make them), Rafa, a great lotion, and Pedro thought an alarm clock would be a good choice for a gift (not sure why as I'm always early for work).&nbsp; 

And as to stick with tradition, I asked Deia to take some pictures of me for mom to remember the 25th.&nbsp; This is only the second year in my entire life that I haven't been with her to have pictures made on my birthday.&nbsp; I also greatly missed having Laura do my hair...

Friday, after attending a seminar about accelerometry (which was very well delivered, thanks Felipe!), I met Deia's dad who had flown in to help us drive back to Floripa.&nbsp; My Portuguese on Friday was pretty good and we talked about&nbsp;his trip, what we like to eat, and how he has quit smoking.&nbsp; Deia also found out that she aced her PhD qualification exam so we went out to Nella Pietra for pizza to celebrate.&nbsp; The pizza was made fresh, and afterwards, we even ordered a dessert pizza with strawberries and chocolate.&nbsp; 

Saturday, I went with Samanta to Rio Branco.&nbsp; Now saying that I've been to Uruguay because I've seen Rio Branco is like saying that I've been to Mexico but have only seen Nuevo Laredo.&nbsp; Rio Branco is small with a main street that is made-up&nbsp;of duty-free shops.&nbsp; The Brazilians love it because no taxes is unheard of in Brazil it seems.&nbsp; There were quite a lot of people plummaging through the aisles, making last minute Christmas purchases.&nbsp; We ate panchos for lunch which are just hot dogs and then came back to Pelotas.

Sunday,&nbsp;Deia, Paulo (her dad), and I got up&nbsp;early and hit the road by 8am to arrive in Florianopolis sometime around 5pm.&nbsp; The drive was long, and sitting in the backseat, I slept most of the way to avoid motion-sickness.&nbsp; Last night, we went to a Mexican food restaurant here called Guacamole because I've been dying for some tortillas.&nbsp; The food was pretty good and the margaritas were better so I can't complain!&nbsp; After dinner, Deia and I drove around and saw some of the island by night.&nbsp; I can already tell I will really like this place and am looking forward to experiencing more of it this week.

(As a side note, I forgot to bring the plug for the camera to download pictures so this week's and next week's blog post will be sans photos until I get back to Pelotas.&nbsp; Sorry for that!!)