Muito Prazer!

Hey y`all~!

Tudo bem? Tudo bom. Well, kind of, haha!

On the eve of São Joao, I went with my `mom,`her friend, and my `sister,`(aka, Lee, from Illinois!) to this restaurant where we had some food while listening to live music (a man with a good voice and guitar skeelz, ooh yeah!), and watching couples dance! One of the songs we heard was a portuguese version of Rihanna`s `Umbrella`song, haha!

Anyways! The night was pretty fun, since these old guys (and I mean, OLD. like.. 70`s or 80`s??) who still had a lot of energy in them, would ask my `mom`s`friend to dance with them, then ask the rest of us to dance with them... so, I danced with 3 of these dudes! haha! My dancing was awful (kind of salsa-y, waltz-y?), and I`m sure I frustrated them a lot with: 1. the fact that I could NOT move at all, 2. I wasn`t really letting them lead... woops!, and 3. I hardly speak/understand any Portuguese! But, anyways, it was a fun night!

The food was good, with some nice seafood infused stuff, but, I think I had an allergic reaction or something.. (NOT because i apparently lack enzymes in my stomach that can`t digest meats! I think that`s not true, btw... ahha!) Because I started breathing a little heavily, getting shivers/feeling cold, and just feeling awful. The next morning, I had a fever/headache and some hives on my knees (why my knees?? i don`t know...?!), but I took some allergy medicine, and they went away in about an hour, so.. yay! So, i think that the culprit was this soup I had with `sururu`, a type of clam... I think when I was eating it, I felt that it really WARMed me up, but.. perhaps it was also my body already reacting, haha?!? Anyways. I`m all better, now, so, all is well.

For actual Sãp Joao... OH MAN. the firecrackers would NOT stop! During the day, I`d be counting to 10 to myself, and sure enough, another firecracker or two would go off and scare the bezeejes (sp, please??) out of me! For breakfast, we had this dish that was (of course) made out of cornmeal, coconut milk, and sugar.. and was I THINK baked or steamed (cakelike), and then sprinkled with some cinnamon (they love cinnamon, here, too, ahha!). twas GOOD.

And on actual São Joao night, we were about to go to Pelourinho, again, to go listen to some music, but.. we figured that there`d already be SO many people there, that it wouldnt be comfortable at all to go. Plus, there`s the danger of being pickpocketed, etc.. so we would basically stuffing money into bras, pockets, taking off jewelry... meh. I already experienced Pelourinho last week, so it was okay that we didn`t go again! So, instead, my `sister`, Lee, was in the mood for pizza, since apparently she hasn`t had much luck with GOOD pizza, here! The main reason being... apparently Brazilians put TONs of cheese on the pizza, but.. no tomato sauce!! So, we ended up going to this `Italian`place that our `mom`said served the BEST pizza in Salvador.. and, true, it was good pizza (we had simple marghuerita pizza and this pizza with sundried tomoatos and arugula?! i`m not much of a fan of the arugula.. ahha!), BUT. It still lacked the tomato-y goodness that we Americans love. Seriously, lovers of Chicago deep-dish pizza BEWARE. Brazilian pizza will SEVERELY dissapoint, ahha! Anyways! What`S funny, though, is, because Brazilian pizza lacks tomato sauce, they instead have KETCHUP as a condiment! So, basically.. last night.. I ate some pizza.. with KETCHUP. YES I DID. And, although it tasted a bit on the sweet side, it actually.. tasted good! :)

So, it wasn`t a TYPICAL Sao Joao, but, it was fun, all the same!