Daniel's youngest sister had her first communion that morning and, in addition to the fact that the extended family was in town for Daniel's wedding, what other reason do you need to have a huge family barbeque? The Calandrino clan all come come over on Sunday afternoons and eat about three cows worth of food every week. We got a call from Daniel as we were lounging around and talking about the wedding instructing us that we needed to get over to his house because the food was ready for us. Boy, was life rough.
Ricardo is quite a character. Soccer is a serious sport in Brazil, and some soccer rivalries are so serious that fans of one team are not friends with fans of another team. Daniel's family are all fans (as am I) of the Palmeiras team, but Ricardo is a fan of Sao Paulo. This rivalry is pretty tame, but neither of the teams like another local team, Corinthians, who are the equivalent of the Raiders in American football. Anita told us that her family was okay with her marrying someone who was a Sao Paulo fan, but would never let her marry someone who was a Corinthians fan. So, with Sunday being a big soccer day in Brazil, Ricardo was preparing to lounge around all day with his Sao Paulo jersey on. Stefan was telling him about the previous day and how he couldn't find a Sao Paulo shirt that could fit him (hmm...I wonder why ;o), so Ricardo went into his room and brought Stefan a Sao Paulo jersey with the Habib's sponsorship logo and everything. But, it was also autographed by the goalkeeper, so Stefan, humbly turned him down. Well, as humbly as Stefan can be. But since we were going over to Daniel's bastion of Palmeiras fans' house, he put on his old Sao Paulo jersey from the previous trip.
Then it was churrasco (Brazilian BBQ) time. We joined up with the family at around 3:00 in the
afternoon and most of the people had already eaten, but there was still plenty of steak and sausages and eggplant dish remaining on the grill and table. There were kids running all over the house and people littering the ground of the Calandrino compound, which was fun because they all knew us now and we all talked about the wedding and our upcoming trip to Fortaleza. The leader of the youth gang, Daniel's little brother Luis Estevo (who was about 10), had become good buddies with Stefan (mentally, they are about the same age) and they traded English, Italian, and Portuguese curse words with each other while Stefan threatened to throw him in the pool :o) . Right before we left, there was a surprise for Roland as Daniel's mom had made a birthday cake. His birthday was yesterday, on the day of the wedding, so she made a big cake with "27" on the top of it for him. The whole crowd sang happy birthday to him in English and
then did the happy birthday cheers for him in Portuguese as well. I could tell Roland was on the brink of tears with the event.The driver and van that was taking us to the airport that day as coming at 5:00, so at 4:30 we went back to Anita and Ricardo's to pack up our stuff and get back over to Daniel's place. Ricardo enjoys having lazy Sundays and was still laying in bed with his boxers and soccer jersey on, watching soccer while we were over at the churrasco so Anita teased him and told him to get off his lazy butt and go visit the family. Begrudgingly, he put on some shorts and went over to the house with us once we were finished packing. Obviously he's been spoiled by too many barbeque and Calandrino house parties and didn't appreciate them anymore!
While we were waiting for the bus to pick us up at Daniel's, the whole family came out to wish us all goodbye. Naturally, we too lots of pictures with them and we had to take oaths, in
Portuguese, that we would come back to visit the family someday soon. Of course, we had no idea what we were saying, but since Don Calandrino (said with a Marlon Brando accent) was the one making us take it, we trusted it was good. Ricardo then made us take another oath, in Portuguese, in which we promised to send him money every month. What a clown. Him and Stefan were so much alike that by the end of the weekend that Anita (Ricardo's wife) said that they should go spend some time in San Francisco together ;o). Of course we prefer to refer to Stefan as a jackass (asno in Portuguese) than as a clown :)When the bus arrived to pick us up for our journey to the airport and further onto Fortaleza, we all said goodbye to everyone in the family and said that we'd come back soon to visit them. They all said that everytime we come to Brazil, we only spend a few days with the family and they wanted us to come spend more time with them next time. As we piled into the bus, the two out of all of the family that didn't speak English, Daniel's mom and grandma, got very emotional and started crying. We could tell that we were truly honorary members of the Calandrino family...
The ride in the bus to the airport was much quicker than when Daniel drove us a few days earlier. Most likely that was because we were talking the whole time about the wedding and what our plans were for Fortaleza. Daniel and Kelly were flying from a different airport and so we would be at the hotel by ourselves for an hour or two before they arrived. Daniel told us about what happened when he and Kelly went to the hotel the previous night after the wedding. Apparently, the room they were going to stay at didn't have hot water, which wasn't a big deal to Daniel but it was to Kelly. So they called up maintenance and found out the whole hotel didn't have hot water. Daniel, slightly intoxicated from the wedding party still, was worried that Kelly was going to get really pissed at the people at the hotel but instead it turned out that when they went downstairs to leave the hotel, HE was the one that got pissed off. He was cussing and swearing at the people at the receptionist desk and saying even though it wasn't their fault, he was pissed off and very angry. They nodded and agreed that this was unacceptable, but Daniel just kept yelling at them and said that if they don't agree with him, he was going to jump over the desk and kick their ass. They nodded and agreed with him, but he just kept yelling and screaming. It was pretty funny the way he told the story.
Since they had to find a new hotel, they were thinking about just going to their new apartment and sleeping there, especially since the hotel that they had initially wanted to stay at had been booked up for a long time. Or so they thought. Daniel was talking to his father about the situation at the no-hot-water hotel at some ungodly hour in the morning and it turns out that Don Calandrino (said with a Marlon Brando accent) had some connections - go figure. He apparently knew the owner of the hotel and made a quick call and they had a room at that hotel. It's good to be part of the Calandrino mafia!
Many people think it's weird that we were travelling with them on their honeymoon, and it certainly seemed weird to us as well. But Daniel insisted that we come with them, saying that they would have their whole life together and that they don't get to see us very often. They would be spending time hanging around strangers if they went by themselves, so it would be even better if they had friends like us around.
On the way to the airport, Daniel also told us some interesting things about fuel technology in Brazil. I don't really know much about Brazil, but apparently they are very advanced in the area of alternative, renewable fuel for automobiles. They developed a way to use alcohol made from sugar cane as a fuel. And, since Brazil is very well known for their sugar cane plantations, they have an abundance of it. The alcohol also burns much cleaner than oil and all new cars in Brazil now have the ability to use use this alcohol or gasoline. In fact, you can use both alcohol or gasoline in the tank, the car will seperate it automatically. Check out this article for more information. I guess that's what you get when your country doesn't have stocks of oil and natural gas, not to mention the fact that our country is run by people from the oil business!
We made it to the airport with some time to spare, so Daniel and Kelly dropped us off and then went on to their airport for their later flight. While we were waiting for our flight, there were some plasma TVs in the terminal showing the Palmeiras soccer game. We watched for a while then headed over to get something to drink. I then remembered that three years ago we had been introduced by Daniel to the tasty cheese bread, pao de quejo. Since we were buying something to drink, what better way to settle or stomachs than to eat some tasty cheese bread with a soft, gooey inside. I bought two of them and liked them so much that I went back and bought six more. My stomach wasn't exactly pleased with that decision on the flight, but I sure was!
The three hour flight was pretty standard, we were all exhausted from the previous night so I slept comfortably with my neck pillow in the middle seat between Stefan and some random guy. Roland and Csilla sat behind Stefan and I. When we finally landed in Fortaleza, Roland was livid about the screaming kids on our flight. After he was done cursing the kids, I questioned whether or not Csilla would want this guy as her children's father ;o) . Roland said when he becomes dictator of the world he will ban children from flying until they are like four.
When we got to the hotel, we checked in and got our rooms. The hotel didn't know if Csilla was a man or a woman, so Vas got a room with two double beds rather than a queen sized bed, so they
weren't too pleased about that. In any case, after unloading our gear, we headed down to claim our spot in the hotel lobby for poker. We played cards there about three or four times that weeks, utilizing the new poker chips that I brought him from NYC. They were actually pretty nice to have.Kelly and Daniel arrived about an hour and a half later and joined into the fun. Kelly hadn't played poker before so Daniel tried to explain it to her but she quickly lost interest in Texas Hold'M. We crashed a few hours later, planning on getting up early for our bus trip to the first beach of the week....
Justinho, tomorrow the beaches start
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