Let’s the wedding season begin

Well, since we live in a so called tropical country, even though this climate only applies to Rio de Janeiro and up North, people get married all year round. We do not experience a boom on wedding schedule during spring or the summer for that matter or have a specific month or season to get married.
Since P@ulo and I got married, we’ve been living away from families and friends. So as a result, we’ve been out of the social life. Truth to be told, all our immediate family and friends are all married.
But, as P@ulo likes to tease me, we’ve been hanging out with younger friends since we moved back to S@o P@ulo. We are invited 3 weddings in the next 79 days. Two of the weddings are from P@ulo’s co-workers and the last one is from P@ulo’s cousin.
Under the Brazilian society rules, it is not acceptable for a woman wear the same dress with the same group of people twice in a row.
Based on that assumption and the fact that 2 out of 3 weddings will be in the same group of people, and that I already have one beautiful dress, I went out to buy myself one more dress.
The dress that I already had, it was wore it one time. It is a beautiful navy dress, really simple but it is really elegant. I love the dress; I wore it in my childhood friend’s wedding.

The dress, that I bought this week, is a burgundy dress with a little embroidery. It fit perfectly and it didn’t need any alterations.

I haven’t decided which dress I will wear in which wedding, but I will let you know.

Fabiola

Weekend in Review

I was longing for this kind of weekend: Yucky weather (rain and cool temperatures - upper 40°s) and lazy hours at home.
As the last paragraph said, we didn’t do anything special. We ran some errands like groceries shopping; leave a dress in the dry cleaners and watch a couple of movies.
The movies were all re-runs, but they were all good. We watched Indian@ Jones IV (once) and Austr@lia (twice). I had seen the Indiana movie in the theater when it was first released, so it was nothing new.
But I haven’t seen Australi@. We ordered on the PPV. I couldn’t have chosen a better movie. It was the perfect mix of drama and romance. And not to mention Hugh Jackm@n – what a handsome cowboy. Have you seen it?!?! I you didn’t and you like a good movie go for it. And I you did see, did you like as much as I did??

Have a nice week,

Fabiola

Paris in Review

Even though I missed P@ulo terribly, I had a really nice stay in Paris.
I worked hard. It was an amazing professional experience as well as amazing business opportunity to my company. I have a feeling that there will be a good harvest over the next 2/3 years for my company.
I went back to my favorite sites.
I ate on my favorite restaurants and I added a few more to my Favorite List.
I saw dear friends who live there.
I had dinner with Ryoko and her husband Giovanni. She was my classmate at Alliance Française. We hit it off on the minute we met. She is from Japan and she is married to a Franco-it@lian. They now live in Paris and they are expecting their first son in November.
I had dinner with Edu@rdo and Giselle. He was my mentor when I first graduated. They’ve been living as ex-pats in P@ris for the past two years. And they will stay for at least 4 more years. While Edu@rdo works, Giselle is working through her second Master’s Degree.
I went shopping in those wonderful magazines and even adventure myself in Babies Stores. I bought a few neutral pieces, just in case I get pregnant : )
It was really nice to go, but it is even better to come back.

Fabiola

Bo*mb shell combination – Br@zilian Women in a Fren*ch environment

Last time (and first time) I was in Paris, my French teacher was a little (to say the least) rude when he discovered that I was from Brazil. He said that on his opinion Brazilians were all dru*g de@lers or tr@nssexuals.
I could never figure it out where all this hostility came from, until I came here to work.
A part from the fact, that many Brazilians come to Eu**rope to marry Europe@ns only to get Europe@n Citizenship, there is a park in the suburbs in Paris, that is known to be a park for prostitutions at night. Nowadays, the prostitutes come from the Eastern Europe@n countries, but (there is always a but) when the park was opened and it became a prostitution point, more than 80 per cent of the “workers” were from Brazil and mostly tr@nssexual.
(Just a little note: prosti**tution in Fr@nce is a legal profession and they pay taxes over their income).
I had the feeling that the Brazilian guy, who is the project leader, told this fact to us, mainly because I would be prepared for some eventual comment or action towards me. And in all his polite behavior, he wouldn’t dare to give me a warning about something like that directly.
Since I am the most honest person and that cannot keep her thoughts to herself, I said: “So, what are you implying: Do I need to be careful with some bad comments or something like that?”
He said, and I quote “You know what, everybody here already knows you are from Brazil and that you have a high level of Education and you speak English and French fluently. Basically, no one would dare to make a bad comment towards you.”
I can say I came back with no incidents, but still it is a really uncomfortable situation.

Fabiola

Back Home

I made safely back home on Sunday morning.

It was a tiring 21 hours trip (with all the airport waiting and flight connections). I was so happy to see P@ulo and get to my house, my bed and my pillow.

I am already back at work since Monday and I can assure that the 5 hours time difference is marking its presence by the end of the day and I can’t work any longer J

The trip to Paris is over, but the French Project is still going strong.

I will be back with my final posts about my trip to Paris.

Fabiola

Farewell to Paris

I am heading to the airport in a couple of minutes. I am flying from Paris to Rome and from Rome to São Paulo.

So, see you back home!!!

Love,

Fabiola