Because Anna got in really really late from a party with her friends, our plans for the morning were put on hold.The trip to the meditation centre didn't happen. Instead Lucia and I had another language lesson over a lengthy breakfast. Arlindo was at his hospital performing a 4 hour surgery.
Breakfast consisted of papayas, freshly squeezed orange juice, toast, an egg, and cheese from Lucia and Arlindo's farm. Discussion was on children and on our cultural backgrounds. She is an extremely interesting and at the the same time interested conversationalist!
Arlindo came home early after his surgery in order to be present at our one o'clock lunch. Poor Anna was up as well but was obviously still "tired" from being up so late. We were going to meet Luiza and her mother, Mercia at a restaurant near Luiza's. A boat trip around the lake in Brasilia was discussed. Plans in Brazil are often very nebulous. Events happen, but as a rule to a Canadian like me, they appear to follow no set plans. Things just evolve!
The restaurant was Carpe Diem. It had a great reputation for feijoada. We were seated, just the 5 of of us until Luiza arrived. Her mom stayed back at the apartment preparing our dessert. We had caipirinhas before the meal with some appetizers. The restaurant had an excellent salad bar and an amazing buffet consisting of every kind of imaginable bean preparation to put on the rice, as well as many vegetable dishes. The food was great, the conversation was animated.
After this most excellent meal courtesy of Arlindo, we - Luiza, Anna, Patti, and I - walked over to Luiza's apartment while Arlindo and Lucia went home for a well earned rest. We were joined at Luiza's by one of Patti's students from Patti's first year at River East with the International students. She is a "real pistol", vivacious and bubbling with energy and with a great sense of humor! Luiza's mom, Mercia had prepared a few desserts along with juice, coffee, or tea! I had very little appetiteleft after the wonderful "lunch"! But we sat down and enjoyed.
The apartment was very spacious and the living room area had wall to ceiling windows overlooking the broad tree-lined avenue in front. The whole apartment was tastefully decorated and had a spacious feel to it.
We then took off in two cars for a sight-seeing boat cruise on Paranoá Lake which is a large artificial lake built to increase the amount of water available to the region. It has the second largest marina in Brazil, and hosts wakeboarders and windsurfers. The six of us, along with about 10 other people, were treated to a narrated cruise on this two-deckk sight seeing boat. The six of us sat on the open top deck and enjoyed a panoramic view of Brasilia.
We cruised by a peninsula on which was located the Palácio da Alvorada, the official residence of the President of Brazil. The palace was designed, along with the rest of the city of Brasília, by Oscar Niemeyer and inaugurated in 1958. One gets an impression of looking at a glass box, softly landed on the ground with the support of thin external columns. I told my students that originally we were going to have tea with Dilma Vana Rousseff , the current president, but that she had sent her regrets as she had to go to Germany to meet with Angela Merkel. I also mentioned that the past president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, also known as Lula, had invited us for a visit but he had taken ill and was at a hospital in Sao Paulo.
We passed by a large modern hotel which had hosted President Obama on his recent visit to Brazil. Further on and on the opposite shore was the Ecological Park Don Bosco which honors the Italian saint who dreamed of a utopian city in 1883. Brasilia, the modern capital city of Brazil, is inspired by this dream. Bracketing the park were many very stately homes whose yards extended to the shores of the lake. Passing this we approached and passed under the Juscelino Kubitschek bridge, also known as the 'President JK Bridge' or the 'JK Bridge', which crosses Lake Paranoá. It is named after Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira, former president of Brazil who was mainly responsible for the founding of a new national capital. As we passed under the bridge, we were told to make a wish as the boat sounded its horn. My wish was to be able to come back to Brazil very soon!
The boat then swung around and continued its trip along the opposite shore passing a very beautiful park and a golf course and gave us a view of the president's palace from the other side. We met or passed many pleasure craft enjoying the beautiful day on the lake.
When we got back to shore, Lucia was waiting to pick up Anna, Patti, and me to take us to the church she and Anna attended. It was a bit of a drive but with a heavy foot on the accelerator, she got us there shortly after the service had started. It was very African grounded, quite charismatic, and very very interesting.
After the service we stopped for some delicious ice cream on the way home. At home, we moved the clocks back one hour as Brasilia was going back from Daylight Saving to Standard time.
That night I dreamed that I was lying on my side on a hill somewhere and that I heard what was an animal or a snake coming up behind me. I quickly rolled over and was awakened when I hit the floor hard full length with the front of my body. I lay there shaking with laughter because I haven't fallen out of bed since I was two years old! But the quiet laughter soon disappeared when Patti in a very concerned voice started calling my name loudly. Because it was very dark in the room she couldn't see that I was all right. She had recently lost her father to a heart attack and he too had fallen out of his bed. I had discovered him on the floor in his apartment when I went to check on him because he had not responded to phone calls. She had an immediate vision that that was what had happened to me. When I had convinced her that I was all right and she had finished "scolding" me for scaring me out of her wits, I assessed the damage I had done to my body. Because I had broken the toes on both my feet so many times as I was growing up on the farm, I knew that I had broken 2 toes on one foot, and a toe on the other foot. As well I had bruised both knee caps quite badly. I never let on to anyone about my injuries as I didn't want to concern anyone and besides that, this was not something that I couldn't handle on my own.
An interesting end to day 11, not?
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