Friday night: We started with TGIF, which is a lot better than the TGIF in Mountain View. It's a lot more intimate and social, and lasts until about 8 pm. They have food and drinks and people are all talking a lot more than those in Mountain View. One of the great things about this office is that everyone seems to know everyone else and they are all pretty good friends. Back in Mountain View, you only go to TGIF with a couple of people that you know from your immediate work group and then when it's over, it's over. So, after TGIF, we hit the bar scene. The idea of going to Swingers was shot down by somebody, much to my dismay, and we hit this low key Samba club and danced until 3 when we decided to go to the after hours place, Aubra. I didn't quite see the sun rise, but it was darn close.
Saturday, we had to get up really early to head to Ouro Preto. By really early, I mean I got up at 10:30 and met up with Meghan, Jim, Sarah, and Tom at around 11:30 or so. I wanted to hit Ouro Preto again because the last time I went, it was such a nasty day and the rain kind of put a damper on things (ba dom chin). The first piece of excitement was Tom and the rental car. He was all excited about renting the car and driving to Ouro Preto, but it was clear that driving a stick wasn't his forte. Every time he would start from a stopped position, the engine would rev and then we'd peel out. It was like Tom's signature move. Still, he did get us there safe and sound, and wide awake.
Ouro Preto was a lot better this time around. I had more of a relaxing time and got to take some pictures of the churches in the sun. At the end of the day, we tried to find this mine called Mina do Passagem. It was an old gold mine and had tours of the mine shaft. Unfortunately, we got there about 15 minutes late and missed the last tour of the mine. Basically, you are allowed to ride into the mine shaft on a rickety cable car. I was expecting something straight out of an Indiana Jones movie, but it was a little better than that. Still, it goes fast and there aren't wheels under the tracks like there are on roller coasters to keep you on the track. I got some pictures of the people on the last tour being hauled up.
Saturday evening, we headed to an Italian restaurant in Savassi. Savassi is notably a good place to go for food, however, this restaurant was quite possibly the worst Italian food I have ever eaten. Not only that, but the service left a lot to be desired, and that is an understatement. We had to wait for about 30 minutes just to order our food, and that was after asking for the waiter to come over to the table. We ended up making a big joke of it when Tom started timing the various sacraments of the meal. We started taking bets on when the food would get there. Meghan had 20-25 minutes and Tom had 25+ minutes. The food ended up getting there at 24:58 so Meghan won all the dough (R$8 to be exact). I think that she deserved it to, because she was the most pissed and hungry). Later, we met up with the Brazilians at a bar called Frade where they brought out a ton of meat and mandioca, which I didn't have because of all the food that we had at the Italian restaurant. When 2 am rolled around, we hit up a Forro dancing at a place called Flashback. So, I realize now that I pretty much suck at Forro. Still, the girls are nice about it when they tell me that I have to learn. Bubble and I finally crashed at 5 am and I slept in a bit on Sunday.
Sunday was Meghan and Sarah's last day in town. As Jim probably did his own thing to say goodbye to Sarah, we took Meghan out to a kilo for lunch and ran some errands. Tom didn't come with us and instead went shopping, but I still felt his presence, or perhaps just heard the sound of screeching tires as we were grabbing some dessert.
After saying so long to the girls, I went with the nooglers to see a country western called 3:10 to Yuma. I really enjoyed this movie and it was a good way to end the excitement of the weekend.
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