Formatura: The First Night!

Ok! The formatura's almost over, and this is the first time I've had more than a few minutes to myself. So of course I'm using this time to inform all you dear and anxious readers about the event!

We've had 4 of the 5 events, so I might break the entries up a little bit (there's so much I want to tell you, and I've been taking notes! No, really. I literally have. I've been keeping a pen and little papers in my clutch purse, just to remember the stuff to write here). A short version is: sleep a little, wake up, shower, pile on makeup, dress up, funfunfun, go home, sleep a little, repeat. But my blog is all about the long versions!

So, here we go: The first night!

The first night was a sort of kick-off ceremony. Each graduate was called to the stage one by one, and had to cross a sort of fashion show runway through the cheering audience to get there. This was when Alexandre's chosen song was played. He ended up going with Frank Sinatra, but after hearing other people's choices (things like the Ghostbusters theme song, the song from House (get it?), and that song by Usher that goes “do-do, DO do! Yeah yeah!”), I was a little sad that we didn't go with the bedroom rapist rapper. As the Brazilian commenters predicted, this part of the festivities was totally joyous and entertaining and not formal (even though we were all in formal clothes). People made funny signs for their graduating family members. Some were wearing colorful clown wigs and throwing confetti as their family members crossed the runway. Most people had noisemakers. Dear buddy Bruna is graduating, too, and her friends and family all made matching bright green shirts with her picture on it. Haha.

Alexandre crossing the runway...Look what a rockstar he is!!

This first event was held on a soccer field that had been covered with a temporary tent and converted into a sort of hall. It was stiflingly hot. (We're in summer now, remember?) And of course, because we were operating on Brazil time, we had to sit and wait for the thing to start for over an hour later than the scheduled starting time. So everyone was sweating and complaining, EXCEPT ME. Why, you ask? Because I was wearing a girdle. That's right. All of the Dr. Rey infomercials convinced me to buy one. (Joking, I freaking hate that guy. My own insecurity was enough to convince me. I love how the commercial says “don't be embarassed or the victim of mean comments!”) Anyway anyway. The girdle was as uncomfortable as all hell, but it hid my pansita AND my sweat. More about it later.

The whole event was just a happy night. As each graduate crossed the runway, I realized that I didn't dislike EVERYONE. There were a lot of people who I was happy to see. And I was even happy to see the ones I don't like, because this graduation means I don't have to see them being rude and drunk and stupid at any more parties ever again! Whoo hoo. Oh yeah, and the runway part was also an opportunity for me to learn a lot of people's real names. In case you don't know, medical school upperclassmen are notorious for giving embarrassing nicknames to incoming freshmen. They're used so much that I don't know what to call some of these people now that they're not using the nicknames anymore. (By the way, Alexandre's nickname is “feio”! (It means “ugly”.) Isn't that horrible?!!? He's not ugly. That's just mean. Another reason I'm happy that he's graduating and leaving his med school turma-cult. I did my best to change it to “bonitão”, but my efforts were in vain.)

Anyway anyway. I was left to chat with the sister-in-law in the audience, because the younger brother-in-law is so shy that he's practically mute, and the parents sit at the front in graduation ceremonies. But we bonded over gossip about the graduates: her love for it, and my wealth of knowledge on the subject.

But yes, back to Alexandre!! Awww, he was so happy and looked so handsome up there on the stage. I saw that he spent most of the ceremony making wisecracks to the people next to him, forcing them to cover their faces and stifle their laughter. (I couldn't hear him from my seat, but I know all too well his “har har, I'm being a smart ass” face.)

The rest of the ceremony was comprised of award-giving and speeches in formal Portuguese. Most of the details were lost on me, but I got the general clichêd jist. Alexandre got a little plaque for his involvement in student council during his first years of college, and I was reminded that ordinal numbers in Portuguese are hard! (I remembered this because, while American universities refer to graduating classes by the year that they graduate (ex, class of 2010), Brazilian universities refer to them by the ordinal number of classes that have graduated from that school, (for example, the 45^th graduating class, or the 28^th graduating class). So I heard a lot of ordinal numbers during the speeches.

Oh yes, and I saw my first giant black moth of the season, there in the makeshift auditorium! It was flying around by the stage, then it landed on the state flag, and then flew into the front of the audience, probably scaring the bejeezus out of someone's poor mother. Luckily, we were seated too far away for it to attack me!

But all in all, it was a very happy night, and a great start to the formatura.

Here's our first dress-up pic of the formautra! (To answer Nancy's question, I rented one dress, bought 3, and borrowed one from Alexandre's sister.) I call this green dress my fish dress:

Later:  The Mass and The Dinner!!

Keep reading about the formatura here.