Consulate Friends

Fortunately Jesus was beautiful when I awoke this morning, otherwise I might not have had a photo to post. I had to leave my camera at home because I had an appointment at the US Consulate- they don't allow any electronics inside the building. So after Portuguese class, I rushed over, arriving a bit late, which didn't matter because I had to sit there an hour before my "appointment" actually happened anyway. I was able to make friends with some fellow citizens- one, a mathematics professor teaching in Ouro Preto has invited me to visit him and his partner sometime (which is wonderful because OP is supposed to be gorgeous- and not too far from Vitoria) and a Brazilian/US Citizen named Cassia who used to work in international development with the MCC in Mozambique (now works oil development in Rio?). They were both interested to hear about my research- I swear I could talk about it (and all the questions I have related to it) all day. And now my passport is 3x larger than it was yesterday (2x larger was the same price as the 3x, so I supersized it. I guess I'm still very American.)

Matt and I had a mis-communication today about where to meet up and such, so we ended up "meeting" back in the apartment after wandering separately around Centro. Got to see the Teatro Municipal (very beautiful) as well as the buildings that collapsed and the Convent (most of it was closed). Matt checked out the Candelabra... or whatever it's called... and it appears I will need to check that out too.