Feliz Páscoa!

Tonight kicks off a four-day holiday weekend in Brazil. All companies and schools have Thursday and Friday off and the city of Porto Alegre will surly decrease in population by Thursday morning. Most people take advantage of one last summer weekend at the beach. However, it is supposed to be a bit overcast, possibly rainy and cool ocean waters in Florianapolis, where we were planning on heading for the weekend. So, we thought we'd take the long weekend to hang out with our new friends and sleep in late in the mornings and further explore Porto Alegre....ahhhh!

By the way, check out more information on Florianapolis (Floripa, as the brazilians call it). It is an amazing paradise island with fresh-water lagoons, jagged cliffs and white-sand beaches. The NY Times named it "Party Destination of the Year" in 2009. http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/travel/11party.html
Moreover, this is where we plan on taking our best Des Moines friends to celebrate New Year's Eve. Everyone dresses in white and parties until dawn on the beach. Sure beats the hell out of the ice and snow storms that are typical in Iowa that night!

I digress. I really wanted to share a fun tradition Brazilian's have over the Easter holiday. One of the funniest things I noticed were the "caves" of chocolate Easter eggs that they build in the supermarkets here. They hang these chocolate eggs, of various shapes and sizes and wrapped in bright colors, throughout the main aisles of the market. Check out Derrick trying to navigate his way through:

Being a new-comer to Brazil, Derrick's team teased him and told him that he needed to get an egg for everyone on the team. While this isn't necessarily the case, we decided it would be fun to take part in this fun tradition. Last night we ventured out (along with the rest of the city, I might add) to get the eggs for his team. Most of them have chocolate bon-bons and others have surpresas (or surprises) for the kids. It was a fun surprise for everyone that works for Derrick....and I'm sure they were all on sugar highs by the end of the day!

Admittedly, I don't know much yet about the difference, if any, in religious traditions here. But, I'll be sure to let you know after the weekend passes. Until then, I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed Easter weekend!

Abraços!