Day 42 - whole lotta nothin

This week at work was more unpleasantness than I was prepared for. This is when it's tough for my support system to be 4500 miles away. Thank god for FaceTime. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

I have a lot of work to do this weekend so there won't be much adventure to report... But next weekend there be a whirlwind trip to Rio so there should be some fun stuff/pics coming after that!

I got my first brazil pedicure this week in Aruja. It was really cheap - less than $14 USD - but it was really just the cosmetic stuff, not so much the relaxing stuff that I'm used to at home. I'm not sure I had the typical experience, I'm going to go somewhere different next time!

Jackie got her hair cut while I got the pedicure (she had never been to that salon before either) and afterward we tried a Japanese restaurant that was new to both of us. The inside was really neat, you can see a little of what the walls looked like in the pic below. Typically I would get the rodizio because I like to try a lil bit of a lot of different foods, but on their menu it said they charge extra for any food you don't eat, so I didn't go for it! Neither of us had seen that before, maybe that place has a big problem with people ordering a lot that they don't eat? Anyway, just got a sushi combination. It wasn't the best I've had but it was good. The servers bugged the crap out of us, guess they didn't have enough to do. Glad we tried a new place, but won't be going back there. 

So here there is a 10% service charge added to the bill at a lot of restaurants, so a lot of people don't tip any extra or only a little bit extra. I hadn't been tipping any extra at the joint across the street that I've been hitting probably once per week, so last weekend I decided I would leave enough to make up the times I hadn't and I left R$20, or about $8 USD. The service there is always good, but when I went there last night it was a whole different experience! I knew I was going there last night with only $5 USD to leave, so I asked at work if it was okay to leave US dollars, and my coworkers were stunned. They said it was way too much money to leave. But it's a lot cheaper than at home so I still left it last night. Hopefully the servers were happy and I'll keep getting stellar service!

I would like to point that one of the boats was Jackie's!!

Sorry, but every time I stare in awe of this view, you guys are subjected to it again! The hills don't look nearly as pretty here as when you're looking at them unfortunately.