Night 38 - Dinner With Friends - April 5, 2013

We drove from the racetrack past Nina's godmother's house, but she was not in.  So off to the bus stop where we met her husband, Rick.  He is a big guy, maybe 6 feet 4 inches, and he took over the driving duties.  First stop was their apartment for refreshments and refreshing.  The building is right beside the racetrack, but opaque sheets cover the fences during actual races - blocking the view of most of the track, but none of the noise.  Nina told me that when she was a young child she thought the roar of the race cars was the sound of time passing.  Great people, and a nice place with good views...

Next we discussed where to go for dinner.  There was a pizza place that they liked, rodízio style (all you can eat) with good quality, or another place that served typical food from the northwest of Brazil.  Since we can get pizza anywhere in the world, we opted for the northwest style, after being assured that it was normal meat, rice, and beans rather than bugs and grass.  The name of the restaurant is the same as the name of the food, Baiåo de Dois.  The place is near a lake, and our table at the edge of the patio had a couple of mosquitoes hovering around.  Rick suggested we should move, but they seemed to disappear.  We learned later that they had descended on K's feet, and she now sports over two dozen mosquito bites on her ankles and toes.  Nina joked that it was the friendly nature of Brazilian mosquitoes to give her so many "kisses" of greeting.  



The meal consisted of a few varieties of beef with rice, beans, and a type of bacon that was really crispy and thick bacon fat.  Caiprinhas for us and juice for the other couple.  Then flan (called pudim here) for dessert.  Excellent food and company!

Fully stuffed, the next stop was Nina's sister's apartment, where we would meet her sister, brother-in-law, and nephew.  While the young boy was excited to meet foreigners, his real joy was to see and play with his uncle Rick.  One reason we were there was because we had expressed interest in going to a football (soccer) game this weekend, and Nina's brother-in-law is the expert.  He grabbed his laptop and was quickly on the case, researching all the possible games and venues for the next two days.  Unfortunately the news was not good.  All the Såo Paulo teams were playing away games, out in the countryside surrounding the city, except for one, on Sunday afternoon.  Unfortunately that one team is FC Corinthians, passionately loved by their fans, and passionately hated by everyone in this particular family!  I pointed out that they could go and cheer for the opposing team.  They acknowledged that the other team, San Bernardo, was OK, but it was still a visit to the home of the enemy.  Given there were no other choices, they decided to go for it, only to find that the game was completely sold out!  The next best choice was a road trip to the Palmeiras stadium, two hours each way.  They were willing to do it so that we could have the experience, but I had to insist that this was too much travel time.  Instead we could watch the game on TV.   We enjoyed good conversation, more refreshments, and good company, after which Rick drove us all the way downtown to our apartment to drop us off.  Amazing and wonderful family!

K, Nina's sister, and Nina

Mateus and his uncle Rick