Brazil Days 2 & 3

Oi do Brasil!!! Mimi and I have spent the last couple of days exploring her hometown of Ouro Branco. It's a cute little town sitting in the middle of some gorgeous mountains. I was still adjusting to the time, so I woke up pretty late and had breakfast with our friend Mariana who has also been staying at Mimi's house with us.

We all went to lunch at a nice buffet, with a beautiful view of the mountains and I tried quail egg. It pretty much tasted like a normal egg, but smaller. After this, the three of us met Mimi's mom at the shelter where she works. A lot of our time here is spent meeting people and catching up with friends. One of the girls that stays in the shelter told me that I don't look American, but I'm not really sure what she meant by that.

View from the restaurant

After that, Mimi had a doctors appointment, so Celita (Mimi's mom), Mariana and I went shopping in the newer part of Ouro Branco. The sales people here are very friendly, and they often seemed very invested in what clothes you were looking at, which is a lot different than the US, although I think that they get some pay on commission. We also went to the supermarket, which is a lot smaller than US supermarkets and has many different foods. A lot of the produce they sold were fruits and vegetables that I had never seen in the US or had only seen the poor quality version rotting away in the tropical fruit section of Target. The mangos here are also ginormous!

Look at those mangos and watermelons!

Goiaba!

Later, we visited Mimi's aunt's house and had coffee and snacks. They had a beautiful garden and I tried a sour berry called "acerola" that tasted like a sour candy. Mimi's baby cousin, Lucas, was also there and was trying to help put laundry on the clothesline, which was very cute.

Acerola

In the evening, we met Mimi's friends from school for açaí, and Mimi caught up with them for a long time. They talked for so long that the açaí place closed and we had to migrate to a restaurant. Mimi and I got caipirinhas for the first time on this trip, and they were very good!

Cheers!

 Something really cool that I also noticed is that the stars look different here! I don't really know anything about astronomy, but you can just tell. At home, I always try and find the big dipper, but that constellation isn't visible in South America, although I did see Orion's belt. I also saw a shooting star, which I took as a good omen of my travels.

The next day, we walked around the old part of Ouro Branco and went to lots of shops again. It was very cute, and there are some cool historical buildings, like a church and a colonial house built in the18th century.

Casa Paroquial

Capela Nossa Senhora Mãe dos Homens

In the evening, I (attempted to) made Mac n' Cheese and S'mores, to have an American dinner. Cheddar cheese is actually really hard to find here, so we used this funny squeeze cheese that came out of a package. With some help from Celita, the Mac n' Cheese turned out pretty good and all the Brazilians were into it. The S'mores were less of a hit, but I don't know if sticky fingers are as pleasant without the ambiance of the great outdoors.

I can't wait to explore more of this beautiful country :)

- Emily Bettler