19 January - shopping with Jefferson

today Jefferson took me shopping (since I don’t know where anything is, and need cheap stuff). My mission: buy my first bikini and get tickets to go to Bahia for Carnaval. About the bikini shopping, let’s just say it was frustrating. Seriously, the bikinis here are tiny! Tankinis just don’t exist. The only people that wear one piece bathing suits are grandmothers and guys (who just have their speedos/boyshorts…yes, they wear boyshorts). I had resolved to buy a bikini because my host mom almost had a heart attack when I showed her my bathing suit. She told me I’d stand out more in a Tankini than in a bikini, even if all the rolls on my body were hangin out. Naiana and Gilmara (other FIPSE-CAPSE students that studied a semester at Vanderbilt), gave me the same reaction. So I’m in the fitting room (as Jefferson waits outside for a half hour, as I try on 6 bikinis), and I finally narrow it down to a couple and then try them on back and forth and stare in the mirror for a good 5 minutes each time, trying to convince myself to buy one. I left the dressing room with my head down, but with a bikini in hand. I didn’t think finding a bathing suit could be so dramatic, hehe. On the up side, I found a relatively cheap (considering it’s carnaval) ticket to Bahia. I’ll be staying there for a week at Gilmara’s during the week we have no classes.