Thursday - July 4, 2013
Got to the airport where Aunt Léa, Aunt Inajá and Gramms waited for me.

Before anything, I stopped at the Duty Free to buy my brother Lelas special licqueur... But I could not recall the name of the thing.

 "Honey," I told the girl at the store, "it is something with M... Malaga, Maluga, Ma-something..."

"Where is it from?"

"Oh, I don't... Mexico?"

She let me walk around te store and look for it. And I looked around in absolute exhasperation as I had no clue what to be watching for.

Oh, there it was! AMARULA! From AFRICA! ... Yup, this is me...

Just as I thought, my checked in luggage didn't make it to Salvador. Good thing I had checked in an empty suitcase and brought everyone's orders in my hand luggage.

 After filling in the missing luggage paperwork we headed straight home for some fam-time:
- openning gifts
- setting up electronics
- telling jokes about each other

Aunt Mima, Mateus, Catarina, Mom, and of course my brothers Lelas and JP all came for lunch. Black Beans and ....

"Where's my Guaraná, people? You know I don't drink this Coca-Cola thing..."

As usual, Lelas and I had an argument over lunch. An argument that would never end...
As usual grandma got flustered about it.
As usual Mom said, "That's why every time they started arguing I left the room and only came back much later to check if there was any blood to clean and body pieces to collect."

As usual we all had lots of fun zapping each other with witty jokes - especially about Mom's ex-husbands ...

Good Old Fam Time...

By the end of the day I had a busted toe - my cursed second toe on my left foot - which kicks everything it finds in front of it and is in a constant state of pain. I tied bubble wrapt around it and became the joke of the rest of the evening.



Friday, July 5th, 2013

Trying to study all day ... Our out-for-breakfast plans were thwarted bc no one showed up on time. Lelas showed up for dinner and we finally drank some of his amarula drink.
More family time - zapping each other with jokes, teaching my aunts how to use some electronics, eating boiled peants, and... buyng songs for my karaoke and installing them on the device.


Saturday, July 6th, 2013

In the morning, I went up and down the 21 floors 3 times to work out ...
...
Bad idea ... 6 hours later my 2 calves were sore and my knee was busted - I tried to do the bottle top dance later that afternoon and could not hold my legs all the way down.

At around 8 am - Off to the Island with Gramms, Aunt Léa and Aunt Inajá. Mom and JP arrived later, bc JP had class in the morning.

In the evening we sang karaoke till 2 am.

When we arrived at the house we found it was surrounded by water - I had never seen it like that before. It had rained a lot, ok. But that isn't natural - all that flooding. Something is wrong with our plumbing or with the street plumbing. Gramms will have the handyman look at it this week.

Gramms also told me the plot next door, which I intended to purchase, is about to be built on soon. That's just too bad. I guess I can't buy that plot and extend our property.

That is our retirement home, you know. I'm investing on it.

Sunday, July 7th, 2013

We were up by 10... JP was up by 1 ... we ate breakfast at 12 and lunch at 3.

Mommy fried plantains for breakfast... oh, they smell so good! they taste even better!

We couldn't walk to the beach because the path was soggy and people had gotten stuck and lost their sandals trying to make it there.

While Gramms cooked lunch, I sang on the karaoke. I love singing! I stopped singing when one of my aunts reminded me I had to go study... argh!

Lunch was a bunch of left overs with fresh farofa and fried sun meat.
My fam is pepper crazy and that's how they eat it:

Late afternoon - We cleaned up and drove to the ferry. Back home by 9:30 pm and Gramms decided to order pizza for dinner since the food she cooked last Thursday was finally eaten up that afternoon...

Aunt Léa gave me her Claro chip to use in my phone so I don't have to buy another chip this year.

Not a problem to her - everyone in Brazil has several different chips of several different carriers. A case study, if you ask me ...

Monday, July 8th, 2013

On the road to Feira de Santana at 6am.
We got to Feira, dropped JP off at class and I had to walk downtown with Mom so she could go to the doctor's.
It felt like a blast from the past. The roads I knew so well (3 years of my teenage years spent there).
I really dislike the place. I feel like I have left nothing of importance in Feira to make me go back. But mom insists on my coming here every time I come to Brazil. I come to hang out with her ... but she can come to Salvador just as well and we can go to many places together. It's a sad thing that she still lives in Feira. It is a sad excuse to drag me there. I don't miss Feira, and I know that no one in Feira misses me.
Tried to study in the afternoon.
Completing my U.S. History I online summer class has been extremely hard since I set foot on Brazil. I am so not motivated. As much as the subject is exciting, I just want to hang out with the fam... Come on, Vika, you can do this.

I noticed the txt message I sent to Beta last night never went through, so I resent it. Hope she can till find a way to come visit.

Mom and I went to the store to by Brazilian snacks that I like. Bought Taff Man E - one of my favorite drinks growing up. Found out the darn thing has WINE in it!!!!! What? Really? And that´s a kid drink? ok, I drank wine throughout my childhood. Hehehe - alcoholic little girl...