easter.
a few weeks before easter sunday, supermarkets and all grocery stores, had hundreds of thousands of "eggs" floating above customer's head. these eggs, of any and every various types of chocolate, 12inches in height, were nothing but a hollow "egg" of chocolate with a little surprise in the middle. the supermarkets were FILLED and i felt like i found the golden ticket and walked into wily wonka's magical land of every child's dream.
when my family went to select our eggs, i looked around for awhile, marveling at all this chocolate in one small area, saw the most beauitful egg, wrapped in gold foil which sprakled under the artifical lighting, it caught my eye. who cares if i didnt like the chocolate..it was beauitful nevertheless. i knew that was my egg. easy as that.
my sister on the otherhand. she wanted them all and she didnt want any. she decided on one and changed her mind later. i think she just enjoyed wandering the store and dreaming of how much chocolate she could store in her belly.
i was thinking of how many belly-aches she would be getting within the next few days.
for the easter holiday, my family would be traveling to my mother's city, Oliveira, Minas Gerais. Just a little over 6 hours of traveling, we managed to pull off the journey in around 9hours, due to crowded roads, getting lost, and highways being down. ohh the joys of traveling in brasil..
we arrived in Oliveira on Thursday afternoon, being introduced to my mother's side of the family ..her mom, my grandma, are the exact same person, smiles, laughter, and pure love, the only difference is that my grandma has a few more years behind her
we got settled in and then ran off to our first activity ..thursday evening mass. although brasil is a catholic country, that night was the first time i ever witnessed a catholic ceremony here. the place was crowded ..seemed like everyone from this small town came to that one church for the dedication of the last supper. we could barely find a place to sit ..we were in the back behind a pillar, i couldnt see anything, but i could feeel it. the service was long ..especially since it was also foreign to me. i'm not catholic and have been to very few services in my life so the sitting, knealing, chatting, is as strange in portuguese as it is in english. but it was a beauitful service and it meant a lot to me; my family isnt religious, they spend their sunday mornings at the country club reading the newspaper in their bikinis, so just that they took me, knowing how important church is to me, meant the world.
friday morning, the light spilling through the curtains at 7am, i woke early and walked with my mom through town. by 11 we were exhausted and dripping with sweat and ready to clean up for lunch. lunch was grilled salmon and shrimp as big as my fist ..my belly was really happy afterwards :)
later we all piled into the car and visited everyone from my mom's childhood. i met so many people, so many names and faces that i cant remember, that after we would meet someone new, ..i would turn to my sister and ask, who was that? she would shake her head, she didnt know either.
my sister's friend also came to Oliveira so we all just hung out ..doing nothing but talking.
i love my sister i really do. ..i remember being so excited to have a sister in this family. my first house, my sister was in germany; my second house, my sister studied in a different city ...so finally, finally.. i had a girl. someone to relate with and to tell secrets and ..a sister! i think i needed a sister more than anything because i miss my real sisters, those two crazy girls back home.
saturday afternooon was lazy in every sense of the word.
that night, there was a huge party in the city which i went with my brother &some of his friends.
i had nothing to wear, literally nothing. wasnt informed of bringing nice clothes. but my sister insisted that i loooked fine. she did my make up for me. she is 15years old and knows more about makeup than i do ..way more. i put a little eye liner on and she said ..let me help you ariana.
after she was done ..i looked like i was going out to spend some time on the road, if you know what i mean. i could only imagine barbara carr's look of disapproval because of all the black smeared under my eyes. she forced me to use lipstick and eyeshadow and blush ..telling me that i was just beauitful!
the party was banging, absoluety amazing, and lasted until 7:30
i got home, took a shower, changed my clothes, and got into the car to travel back to Ipatinga. i thought that i would definitely pass out in the car ..being that i didnt sleeep the night before. OF COURSE i couldnt fall asleep ..only person that couldnt sleeep. i got so car sick! it was horrible! i think it was because of not sleeeping and everything in my stomach ..but i was wrecked and had to pull over a few times. thankfully the journey didnt last 9hours ..just the "short" 6hours.
so easter came and went without much thought. i missed family
when i was sitting in the backsit, miserable, silent tears came rolling down my cheek without me even noticing at first. holidays away from home are the hardest ..anyone can tell you that. but when you are busy, and moving and meeting new people ..youre fine. but when youre not.
when you start to think of everyone ..of all the things you do each year, the same thing, the exact same thing each year ..that sometimes seem boring and predicable ..it makes tradition. and thats what you miss.
