Fancy Dinner and a New Bird

So last night, we went to a formal dinner for Alexandre's university. It was a dinner to honor the doctors, professors, and residents that the graduating students voted as their favorites. It was also a dinner to celebrate that the students are graduating in just over 100 days (that's right, people!! In just over 100 days, we'll be taking steps to get the heck outta hicktown!).

Anyway, the dinner was held at a sort of doctor's country club that's partly controlled by the hospital. It's right in our neighborhood, so we got all dolled up and walked on over.

After all the other events I've gone to with Alexandre's classmates, I wasn't expecting much, but it actually turned out to be really fun! There were yummy cheeses and hors d'oeuvres, and also bottomless champagne (fancy... and delicious!).

The best thing to do at formal parties is, of course, to gossip about everyone else-- what they chose to wear, who they brought as their guests, what they said in their speeches, etc. That's how we passed most of the time. Haha. There were 2 other girls at our table of 10 that weren't from The Group (ie the graduating med student semi-cult), so I tried to talk to them. It was pretty successful... more with one than the other.

Now that my Portuguese and my awareness of social standards are so much better, I'm realizing that most of the girls here are just really, really shy and a little immature... as opposed to bitchy (though, of course, a group of 60 med school students certainly has its share of bitches). I'm very much not shy and people say I'm pretty mature for my age (especially by Brazilian standards), so I think I usually just totally scare the crap out of these broads.  So last night I tried to change my approach a bit, and it was a bit more successful.

Also, with the bottomless champagne, a few of the girls who usually ignore me got a bit tipsy and opened up a bit and actually involved me in their conversations, so that helped (I think they're ones that fit into the shy category).

The actual dinner was decent (but forgettable, as is usually the case with formal catered dinners), but the actual catering service was really good, and the waiters (I guess they're waiters) were all very friendly and attentive. (The best part, of course, was the all-you-can-drink champagne!)

We didn't get many pictures, because Alexandre agreed to take pictures before we left if I agreed to leave the camera at home.  But we looked pretty spiffy, if I do say so myself!

And here's one that someone else took of me and my dear buddy Bruna (you can see the manicure I gave myself, the success of which was questionable):

Oh yeah, as you can see, I cut my hair and dyed it a bit darker. It has not been well-received (as evident by women's Latin American Honesty comments). According to the more traditional (read: caipira) women here, it's apparently sacrilege to dye your hair darker if you're lucky enough to be blonde (or even dirty blonde, which is still considered blonde here), or to cut your hair at all. But it's fine. It's my hair, and I like it, and Alexandre likes it. I don't care much about what the women at the gym or the corner bakery think about it.


Today, Bruna and I went for a walk around the local lake/park place. What a fabulous way to spend a Sunday morning! The coolest part was seeing what I think is a vermilion flycatcher (príncipe in Portuguese):

Really beautiful! Interesting fact: if they're kept in captivity, they lose their red color and turn dull and drab. They're migratory birds and they're only in Brazil for a short time, so I was really lucky to catch it.

So that was our weekend! I'm sad I missed out on the Rio American blogger meetup, but I tried to make the most of it. :)