Stacey in Brazil: Days 93-96- Rest of vaca

Weds we got up a little later and went down to the amazing Palace breakfast... yum. We contemplated what to do before we started back to SJC... hang at the pool, go to the beach, go back to Sugar Loaf... and decided just to walk on the beach for a while. I'm pretty sure we would have stayed another day if I hadn't had to be at work Thursday for inventory. So, I did a little shopping, and we went for a walk. Then around lunch time we hit the road. It was another easy drive and we got back to apartment well before dinner.

The rest of the week we hung out, ate a lot of fruit and other tasty foods, drank a lot of coffee, and enjoyed being around each other. We did go see Mockingjay Part 1 on Friday - it was interesting, at the movies here you select seats when you buy the tickets. A lady sat next to us whose daughter lives in New Jersey, she was nice. Oh, and apparently the marketers here have caught on to Black Friday - there were signs in a lot of store windows, but it wasn't that crowded so I don't think they've been too successful. Isn't it weird they left it in English? Pics below.

Saturday came all too quickly... and it was depressing. I think having Cheryl here was really, really great, and it just made me wish she was here all the time to share this experience with me. After I took her to the airport (I promised her I wouldn't cry on the drive back for safety reasons, but I did a little anyway) the apartment just seems so sad and lonely. It's good she was here because now she'll be able to relate more when I tell her about stuff, but it made the contrast of not having her here a lot sharper and sadder. It helps that I will be going home for the holidays in 3 weeks but I'm still trying to perk myself up. I just teared up typing this... ugh!

One of the two new hires I was training at the plant resigned while I was on vaca to go somewhere else for money. I'm glad he went ahead & did it - I didn't get to train that much anyway since I've been so busy with the budget, so he has mostly done project work. Not as much of a setback as it would have been if he'd waited a couple more months. So we have to hire another person and make the job more appealing apparently. And now that we've made it through the budget crunch, my focus has to be making sure every day gets me a little closer to going home!!

Yeah, nothing like a speedo view over breakfast. The side view was even better since his belly hung out from under his shirt but I wasn't quick enough with the camera.