The Wedding

Trip Start Sep 01, 2005

Trip End Sep 29, 2005

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Flag of Brazil Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Monday, September 19, 2005

Saturday was my Uncle George (not to be confused with Uncle Jorge) got married to his girlfriend of 9 years. The wedding was at 9:30 in the morning...which kinda sucked cuz getting up early on vacation was HARSH. The church was beautiful and so was the ceremony. I was all over the place taking pictures whenever I could. I hadn't used my fancy digital camera in a while and was starting to suffer withdrawal symptoms...so I needed to get some good pictures back in my system! The entire family (with th exception of a few cousins) was there. My 5 Uncles (Jorge, George, Enrique, Roberto and Pedro), 2 Aunts (Teresa, Gina) and maternal grandmother (Cirlene) were all there. No once could remember the last time they all got together. So I went bananas on the photo ops. My Mom would just kill me if I returned to Canada without the appropriate amount of pictures! I have 10 cousins! 7 of them were at the wedding. The oldest one is 19 and the youngest is 3. I loved every minute of it. So much family I had never met

My Aunts and Uncles

. They of course knew me before I knew who THEY were (see previous entry: "Gosh, you look JUST like your mother!"). People stuck around for only and bit and then people started making their way home. Lots of goodbyes, 'e-mail me the photos!', 'do you have MSN?' and 'hope to see you soon'. I hope so too! My family rocks.
My Aunt Teresa picked me up and was taking me back to my grandparents' house in S�o Pedro da Aldeia. My cousins Eduardo, Guillerme and Marcela were in the car. My other cousin Leo was at the wedding (he's the 19 year old one) but he lives in Rio with his paternal grandmother. On the way, we stopped at one of the famous 'Rod�zio' style restaurants of Brazil. The city was Niter�i. Niter�i is famous for its bridge. It's 14 km long and connects Rio to the cities of Cabo Frio and beyond. The Rod�zio is a buffet of sorts...an all you can eat MEAT buffet. I mean...sure, there is a salad bar nearby and stuff...but no one really comes for THAT. You sit down and the parade of 'gar�ons' with their skewered meats start arriving at your plate. Yes, they have well done, medium rare and rare meat all on the same skewer...and you just pick your piece and they cut you some premium slices right in front of you. I was in heaven. I warned my Aunt...I am going to eat them out of business...true carnivore coming through here! My cousin Marcela...who is 12 years old LOVES chicken hearts. They are the main attraction of these restaurants. I don't know why...I personally find them disgusting

My Cousins

. I mean...seeing so many little hearts for dissection in school and knowing anatomy and working with it on a daily basis...just couldn't do it. Same goes for liver. I mean...dude, I know what it does...I ain't eatin' it! She thought it would be funny to try to gross me out some more by chewing it loudly next to me and doing other kid-like things. Well, did she ever pick the wrong cousin to mess with! I launched into the cardiac cycle, identified all the distinguishable parts of her 'meal' and then went into 'diseases of the heart'. She lost her appetite, I wonder why? HA! Mess with ME, will she? Man, I sure ate my fill of some grade "A" meat. You can go in there and literally spend an entire day just eating. You can take breaks and then resume eating the yummy meat. No offense to vegetarians/vegans...but I love my meat...and an all-you-can-eat-meat-buffet is the best thing since sliced bread!
Hopped back in the car and then resumed the drive to SPdA. My grandparents were thrilled to see me. A whole 10 days without seeing their grand-daughter. You'd think it had been another 13 years! They wanted to hear all my stories. I took all my pictures from my camera and put them on their computer (they have Windows XP here). Thank God...my poor little camera was so full! So many wedding pictures! I am not going to even bother trying to tell you who is who. I have WAY too much family and your brains would be all in knots trying to keep track of everyone. Hell, I'M having a hard time! LOL!!! I gave the files names that should help you identify them better. The first set were poorly labelled.

On Sunday my grandmother and I went to Cabo Frio to see her sisters. Met up with some more cousins and their children and more family I don't even know how to classify yet! Took pictures of those people as well...posting them today!