We're Flying Home When? (Day 7 in Brasil)

Apparently one should never tempt fate by saying "we're enjoying our penultimate day" -- this morning (after our usual breakfast at the padaria and lots of hearty ciao's) Mike went on-line to check tonight's flight home and found it was canceled. The next scene was Mike on the Vonage phone to Continental in the US, Fred on the landline phone to Continental Brasil (while fielding calls on his two cell phones), and Nancy on the computer. Eventually Fred got through and was told we would be put on the Sunday night flight, getting in Monday morning. When I protested, he gave me the phone and I got to explain to the nice Brasilian agent that we had work on Monday and couldn't arrive that morning. Eventually he offered a Saturday flight, leaving at 8:45 am (Brasil time), arriving at JFK (my least favorite NY airport) 4:45 pm (EST), on a plane operated by TAM (the Brasilian airline, partner with Continental). We agreed.

So, we had the whole day ahead of us. And what else is there to do but shop. Fred took us to a nearby mall. We left Mike in a nice chair with a folder of work and we strolled around the mall. Many of the stores were having big sales (mainly on clothes and shoes). Apparently Fred felt I knew what I was doing because he left me to go to a quick meeting across the street. After wandering around for a while, I found the Brazilmania store where I was able to buy a few souvenirs. I went down to show Mike my finds (leaving the bag with him).

Then I found two different homeware stores. You'll see my photos of different glass objects, fondue pots, and caipirinha kits (allows you to make a really potent Brasilian drink). There were also all the items needed for your own barbecue -- huge skewers, huge knives, etc. As with any good mall, there was a McDonalds; this one had a separate stand for the ice cream.  Lunch was at German restaurant where we all had rib eye steaks (what else would you eat in a beef country?) We went to a huge bookstore in the mall where Mike found some more DVDs of Brasilian musicians. Check out the photos of movies you know and love, but in Portuguese.

One of our other friends (Fabio) came over to join us for dinner. We met him last year when he came up to NJ with Fred. We went to a really lovely pizza restaurant where we ate outside among the trees. We had an appetizer that was a Brasilian version of eggplant rollatine. Mike's pizza had mushrooms and onions. The other pizza had cheese, egg, asparagus, and parma ham (it tasted really good). There are photos, but none of dessert -- my guava tart.

Hopefully in the morning I'll be on a plane home and the next time you hear from me is from NJ.

Day 7 photos