Our Last Week

(I am lacking creativity or great inspiration today, so I thought I'd just share what we've been doing recently.)

Our goal while we are down here is one weekend trip per month to a new destination. There is so much that we want to do and see, but for the sake of the pocketbook (or, um, rather his wallet) we are trying to do just one out of town trip each month. The excitement of last week was getting our March trip planned and booked. We are going to Ilha Grande for Easter Weekend, since Eric will have Good Friday off. It is an island not too far from Rio de Janeiro. You have to take a ferry over to it and there are no vehicles allowed on the island, so it should have a little slower pace. I've read that there are lots of trails through the Atlantic Rainforest on the interior of the island and some of the most beautiful beaches along it's coast. Just two weeks from today until we leave...we are pretty excited about it!

So on our remaining weekends, we try to stay busy in or around BH. Last Saturday, we had a date night. Granted, almost every night could be considered a "date night" for us, but I don't think it counts unless we both get dressed up and go somewhere, so Saturday night was a date night. :) This last weekend marked the end of the discount tickets for the local theaters, so we decided to take advantage of that. We went out to see A Virgem de 40 - Agora ou Nunca (which translates to: A Virgin of 40 - Now or Never). It was pretty hilarious and we understood enough of the Portuguese to figure it all out. After the play, we went to a churrascaria that we hadn't tried yet. It had been several weeks since we had indulged in all the meaty goodness that is a churrascaria, and now I feel like my iron levels have once again been restored (along with my hips...sigh!) I am already dreading the day we move back to the USA and no longer have affordable churrascarias at our disposal; Seriously, it is really that good!

All fancied up for our hot date Saturday night

Things are going really well (and really busy) for Eric at work. He's got plenty of projects he's working on and he's been putting in some long days. He leaves home at 7:30 (to be at work by 8:00) and on a good night he is home at 7:30 (although the last couple weeks it has been more like 8:00 or 8:30-and even after 9:00 on a couple occasions.) He says his days just fly by though. It is nice that down here he at least gets overtime pay even though he is salaried. I've suggested any overtime pay should be my "play" money. You know, compensation for the pain and suffering of having to go such long hours without my hubby around. No word yet though on whether the other half is agreeing to such an arrangement! ;) (I am pretty sure he won't be working on Saturdays anymore though. Two weekends ago, he really wanted to get some things done before Monday, so he suggested that I drop him off at the office for a few hours and then take the car and go over to a mall that isn't too far away. Silly, silly man. After comparing my shopping receipts to his Saturday overtime pay, he decided he'd come out ahead if he just spends Saturdays with me...not in the office. HA! In my defense, however, the mall is nestled between a Sam's Club and Wal-Mart, so those two were actually the big money takers.)

This week, I have found another thing that I love about Brasil: the pharmacies. Tuesday night I started getting a little sick and by yesterday it was obvious that I was going to need some medicine. I spent some time on WebMD confirming my symptoms with what I thought I was getting. (I'll spare you the details, but I was pretty certain I had a lower UTI-girls, you'll know what that is, you guys probably would just rather not know anyway, so like I said, I'll spare you.) We have really good health insurance coverage down here, but I just wasn't quite ready to tackle a doctor's office on my own, so I did some more research and found which medicines are used to treat my condition. It would require a doctor's prescription in the USA, but here I was able to go to the drugstore, talk with the pharmacist about what I had and what I thought I needed, and US$20.80 later (and that was not even using my prescription insurance) I came away with the exact medicine I found to be used in the US. Obviously, the prescription system in the US isn't all bad - I can't imagine all the resistant strains we'd be developing up there if Americans were suddenly given the opportunity to self-medicate with antibiotics and everything else. How many people would just try taking penicillin for any/all infection(s) instead of researching and figuring out which one is used to treat which illnesses? But, yesterday I was sure happy that I was able to do my own research and obtain the medicine I needed. Since this afternoon will make 24 hours of having the antibiotics in my system, I'm just hoping that it will start taking effect soon! (Oh, and don't worry, if it doesn't start helping by tomorrow I will get brave, grab my little Portuguese/English dictionary with medical terminology in it, and get myself in to the doctor's office!)