Europe Trip Part 1: London

In the beginning of the year, a long-time friend of our family offered to take me to Europe as her interpreter and travel companion. Obviously, I said yes! And thankfully, everything worked out for us to spend 18 days between the UK and Paris. An awesome experience!

I must say, my first impressions of London were very, very good. It is so organized, efficient, modern, and has a great variety of people and cultures. Not to mention the glorious architecture and amazing mixture of ancient and modern buildings. 

Of course, I don't know if the people who live there consider it to be so, but compared to Brazil, it's off the charts in every aspect. Even the countryside, from an aerial view, is soooo organized, heh.

I was pleasantly surprised, thrilled, in fact, to be met at the airport by my dearest friend, Sam. He helped us get to our hotel as well, which was so very kind of him. Being that we'd slept about 3 hours in the previous 29 hours, it probably would've taken an extra long time to figure out how to do so (the brain stops functioning properly under such circumstances, heh).

We spent the next 4 days doing the tourist thing with another super good friend of mine, Angie. So many wonderful and interesting memories were formed, such as getting caught in a downpour and finding ourselves in the middle of the Pride Parade (that would fall under interesting, lol). 

Oh, and the museums and art galleries are to die for! I could spend months in them ... with a book ... and Angie ... sigh. 

Now onto a million pics! :D

Bible in Pictures anyone?

The sculptures are amaaaazing up close!

Awesome museum!

Something you don't see in Brazil (under current legislation):

Camdem markets ... too cool!

"Remember, remember, the 5th of November..." :)

London Eye. Yay!

"Floating" down the Thames:

Time for lunch...

Love that smile!

M&M's World:

Yum!

Sorry, Angie, but your face is priceless! Aha!

Buckingham Palace:

Tower Bridge:

Shakespeare's Globe:

St. Paul's Cathedral:

Sara Moody

I had no idea! I'd seen comments from mutual friends on Facebook with well-wishes and prayers. Yet somehow, in the midst of juggling a full-time job, college, mandatory internship, and two kids, it slipped my mind to dig deeper to find out exactly what was going on. It's not that I didn't care. And I know that you know that. 

I'm crying like a baby here, even though I know you wouldn't want that. How do you process the information and realization that a person so dear to you, someone who had a direct [positive] influence on you, might not be around for long? 

I know I sent you a message a while ago thanking you for all you did for me when I was in your care. But I want you to know, again, just how much you mean to me, how much your love, care, and devotion impacted me. 

You're my role model, "auntie Claire". You lived an amazing life and I know you left a deep and wonderful mark on many others' hearts and lives as you did on mine. I don't know how things will turn out, but I want you to know that you will forever live in my memory and my heart. And when I tell my kids stories about my childhood, you will be in them.

I wish I could hug you now, as a grown woman, and thank you again for seeing and acknowledging the good and potential in me, a little 9-year-old squirt. I still have the handwritten appreciation notes you wrote me all those years ago. I don't know how things were for you as a mother, a woman, a human being back then, but I know that you didn't let anything interfere with your job of caring for us, which you did with your whole heart and with a beautiful smile on your face. 

My definition of an angel is you ... I love you! 

Missy

Turning Three Decades Old

So, a month ago I turned the big 3.0 ... amazingly, I don't feel all that much older, heh. I know it's just a date, a number, which in the end adds up to measure my existence on this planet. I'm extremely grateful, however, to have made it this far with ok enough health, a wonderful family, and with the best friends anyone could wish for! 

I'm definitely glad my twenties are over. Despite the awesome times that were had, that decade was a tumultuous period of my life. Literally worse than my adolescence. I went through plenty of things I would have preferred to skip altogether because no, they did not make me a better person. Au contraire. I'm pretty sure they screwed me up for good. 

Anyhoo, I will enumerate the highlights of my life thus far, in chronological order.

- Camping, fishing, gardening, hiking, playing sports, traveling (with family and friends) (5-30 y.o.)
- Learning to read (5 y.o.) (Mother's not around to confirm if it was 4 or 5)
- Realizing that I had a best friend (6 y.o.)
- Starting/getting collections (stickers, birthday cards, money, marbles, stamps, nature items, etc.) (7-11 y.o.)
- Learning how to touchtype (8 y.o.)
- Being the first of my family to break a bone (11 y.o.)
- Attending my first camp (15 y.o.)
- A childhood friend's visit after 4 years (15 y.o.)
- Learning layout and web design (16 y.o.)
- My first boyfriend-ish friend (16 y.o.)
- Having Alina (19 y.o.)
- Getting my highschool diploma (without ever having gone to school) (20 y.o.)
- Getting married (24 y.o.)
- Having Laura (24 y.o.)
- All 8 of us siblings being together again after 19 years (I think) (25 y.o.)
- Enrolling in college (26 y.o.)
- Seeing a good friend whom I hadn't seen in 11 years (28 y.o.)
- Traveling to Europe (30 y.o.)
- Meeting a good friend of 13 years for the first time (30 y.o.)

I don't know how many more years I have left in this life, but I'm ever so thankful that the following people have been in it so far, whether it was for a day, a month, one or several years. You made/make my world a better place! Thank you!

Topher
Angie (Tomas)
Martin
Gloria
Livvy
Daniela
Estrela
Davey
Mari-Ange
Nat
Brandt
Abner
Marimée
Dani
Julia
Tammy
Danny
Daniel
Gabriel
Rick
Sam
Nat
Michel
Noah
James
Chris
Angie
Jules
Juan
Jose
John
Johnny
Melody
Graciele

... the "uncles" and "aunts" Phil, Claire (Sara), Danny, Ron, Sue, and Ester.

And of course, my family! :D

Now onto a few pictures of the celebrations. First, we celebrated mine and my mom's birthdays together like 2 weeks before mine. We didn't have cake or pie, much to Laurie's disappointment, but we did have a nice time. 

Gabriel took me out for dinner the night before my actual birthday and we spent it at a hotel. His sister Ester stayed with the kids so we could go out. So kind. I ended up getting very sick but we still went out for sushi later that day with my folks. 

Then a week later I celebrated it in London with two of my bestest friends, Angie and Sam! Awesome. Beyond. Words. 

My big monkeys:

Moother!

Relaxing much? :)

BFFs!

Angie!!!

Tequila shots:

An up-the-nose shot :D

School Festa Junina

The wonderful season of Festa Junina is upon us once again. 'Tis the season to eat lots of canjica, paçoquinha, cocada, pé-de-moleque, bolo de fubá, quentão, caldo de feijão, caldo de mandioca, milho verde, and all the other yummy-ness. :) 

As usual, the girls participated in the presentations each class did at school in semi 'caipira' attire. Neither of them like to wear the straw hats, put ribbons in their hair, or wear the makeup that goes with the 'caipira' look. Laura's always the different one in her class, but since the important thing of these festivities is the celebration of [this part of] Brazilian culture and to have fun, I don't insist that she/they wear/put on what they don't want to. 

Our caipiras ... come to think of it, Laura's dress looks like something from Anne of Green Gables, with the puffy sleeves and all. 

Our pretty girl:

Posing:

The school sets up several inflatable toys for the kids to play in before the presentations. Naturally, Laurie played, and played, and ran all over the place, and ate, and played some more. By the time it was her turn to dance, she was a mess. I fixed her up, but somehow from the time I left her with her group to the time she got on stage, she was a mess again. Sigh. Her dance was the cutest thing, though. 

 Alina's turn:

 

Inhotim

Last month my brother invited me to go with him to Inhotim, an open air contemporary art museum. The last time I'd gone was back in 2009 with the folks and most of my siblings. The place is HUGE and since the purpose of our visit was to actually try to understand and "absorb" the art, we only went to 4 or 5 of the galleries in the space of a few hours. It was a most perfectly enjoyable day! 

On our way home we stopped at a roadside restaurant for a hearty "mineiro" lunch. We then continued on our way, up and down the winding hills of Minas. I didn't take all that many pictures, but the few I did are below. :D

A bird and fish in one of the lakes:

Rafa liked this piece of art:

The Cosmococa gallery ... interesting experience:

A lovely wooded area ... reminds me of Petropolis:

Resting a bit in one of the many lovely gardens:

This little fellow showed up: