The Rest of the Formatura

Sorry I've taken so long to put up the last details about Alexandre's formatura! This week was kind of chaotic. But the last two things I have to tell you about are the actual graduation ceremony and the final dance!

It feels like they were a hundred years ago, so I'm gonna be briefer than I would've been had I written this entry in timely fashion.


The night after the formal dinner was the collação de grão colação de grau (I can't spell), which is the part of the formatura that is most similar to an American graduation ceremony. The graduates were paraded toward the stage again, except this time people were (slightly) calmer, and the graduate's clothes were much more entertaining:

ha!

Their caps and gowns totally put American caps and gowns to shame (or, depending on how you look at it, put Brazilians to shame, what with the bib and all).  You can also see a bit of dress #4 in this picture. That night was kind of crazy (the place was way too small for the number of people that came) so we never got around to taking any more pictures together.

But anyway, this ceremony was just lovely. I was expecting it to be drawn-out and redundant (after the relatively similar ceremony on the first night). However, it was actually really powerful and emotional and it made me (and everyone else) cry and then want to hug everyone. A professor gave a speech that I didn't understand, but that made everyone cry and give him a standing ovation! It was something about sitting on his father's knee and learning life lessons, I don't know. I got lost. Too bad.

But the other speeches were from fellow students: one speech honoring parents who had passed away (tear jerker), one honoring living parents (during which graduates were so inspired that the emcee gave them permission to leave the stage to go down and hug their parents), and one student giving a big "thanks for the memories" to her fellow students. There was even a small live orchestra accompanying the ceremony and the speeches. And then the graduates gave their "do no harm" oaths and Alexandre became Dr. Alexandre!!! OMG WATERWORKS. (However, they received their title only after taking a picture with a borla (aka tea-cozy-turned-hat) on their heads, which just made me continue crying, except this time, it was out of laughter):

This is a picture of the borla thing  from the internet. Unfortunately, I was sitting too far away to get a picture of Alexandre in this situation.

The lighting was pretty bad for picture taking, so this was one of the only good pictures I got of Alexandre, but at least it was right during the moment when he was receiving his degree (if you look really closely, you can see the borla on the table):

So yes. What a wonderful night! So proud of my husfriend!

The last night was the baile, or the farewell dance. It didn't start until 11pm!  It was held at the same place as the dinner. What can I say? Small town.

However! Same place, but new dress! Alexandre's in a tux! And I'm in Dress #5, in all its glory:

Yeah, sorry, you guys saw that one in the dressing room pic. Anyway. It looks like it's photoshopped, but it's just my camera's weird night setting.

Anyway, I was a doofus and when I took out my camera's memory card to upload pics for the last blog, I forgot to put it back in! My camera alone can only hold 7 pictures, so that's how many pictures I took on the last night. Here's one more, after about 6 hours of dancing and debauchery at a dance hall with an open bar:

I think that picture is a pretty good metonymy of how the night went. Oh. I'll add in here that it was shortly after this picture that I was drunk enough to take off my Dr. Rey girdle in the bathroom and leave it on our reserved table. No one stole it, obviously.

We got home at about 9am, and the formatura was over, the end! And the best part is that my husfriend isn't a student anymore (thank you Jesus), and that I'm married to a doctor, and that even though it was an end, it's only the beginning for us. Ok, that's three best parts. But that's what Brazilian formaturas are all about: countless best parts!

Congratulations, Alexandre!