More recent occurrences

What is this, you may be thinking... two posts in one day? I live for unpredictability, that's why.

No, truthfully, I just have had a boatload of time on my hands today, as since late Friday night, I have been out of commission thanks to a little stomach virus. No worries, though, as things are definitely looking up, and I should totally be back in action tomorrow. Unfortunately, I didn't make it to school today, but Annelise covered my classes (thank goodness she got over the virus before I caught it, otherwise, no class?). Since I wasn't totally wiped out today, I was able to catch up on lots of things (blogging included, obviously).

Anyways, before passing out for the entire weekend, we had quite the wonderful opportunity on Friday evening! The American Consulate in Recife held a celebration for the Fourth of July. Luckily, we looked more into this event before going because at first we were told that the attire was just typical July Fourth clothing... not so much. This event was a step above cocktail dress, so we had to skip over to the mall. None of us brought anything near worthy of such a fancy occasion!

Decked out in our dresses, heels, and freshly done hair, Annelise and I departed for the celebration with Wellington. Our journey there was nothing short of typical. Step one: catch the metro (thank goodness for it not being on strike anymore, otherwise our trip would have taken SO much longer), step two: wait about fifteen to twenty minutes for bus, step 3: board extremely crowded bus and proceed to sweat bullets, step 4: disembark and wander until taxi is found, step 5: take taxi to event and try not to appear to disheveled. We like to keep things interesting, no matter the destination.

Once there, we walked in along a red carpet (appropriately colored for the occasion, I suppose) and were introduced to the U.S. Ambassador to Brazil, Thomas A. Shannon Jr. 'Twas a brief introduction, but we got to talk to him more later in the evening, and he's a pretty laid back guy. I approved.

All of us with the U.S. Ambassador (third from the left, rocking the snazzy tie).

After listening to an unique rendition of our national anthem and several speeches from dignitaries, mingling commenced! The room was huge and packed with spiffily clad ladies and gents. English and Portuguese were spoken interchangeably, so for the first time in a while, language was not as much of a hindrance! We dined on many shrimp hors d'oeuvres (plus the surprise lamb dish?) and met several people working in the foreign service, all of whom were very interesting individuals. Even better, almost everyone in our group of teachers were able to make the event, so we were reunited after almost a month! All in all, a very good night.