Friday, March 17, 2006

As the waitress set them on our table, the golden, breaded, platter of shrimp smiled at me. Okay, maybe it didn't smile, but I was happy to see it. It came accompanied with an overflowing platter of French fries, and it was all chased down with a 2-liter of Kuat guaraná. Leandro, Carol, David, and I enjoyed ourselves at Boka’s Restaurant, just on the continent side of Florianópolis. Boka’s is famous for serving big platters for a table’s worth of hungry visitors. Probably the most interesting part of the evening was adjusting to eating finger food with a toothpick - each shrimpy shrimp, and crispy fry.

We had a nice time, leisurely eating and conversing, even for an hour after we were done. It's a pretty common practice in Brazil to comfortably sit around the table chatting; unlike in the U.S. where the waiters rush you out to make room for the next visitor, here they leave you at ease.

Knowing we would be riding in Carol’s car, I remembered my iPod and car-radio adapter; I was surprised to learn these car-radio adapters were a new concept to Leandro and Carol and probably most Brazilians; they enjoyed jamming to my iPod selection of both Brazilian and American music.

Dave and I spent the night at Leandro’s; we watched War of the World’s, my first time – good movie. Leandro’s roommate is in the Rio Grande do Sul, so it wasn’t any inconvenience to crash at his place. We plan on going to Institute and the beach tomorrow.