On A Hot Day You Head To The Mall

It was 40 degrees Celsius today, people. That's 104 degrees Fahrenheit, and totally unbearable when you factor in the 90% humidity. Even Brasilians were in hiding today. The few that we did see out walking were soaked in sweat.

We decided to escape to the mall, since I had a few things to pick up before we leave on Monday.

After getting my sister's birthday present (a teeny tiny bikini that I don't think she'll ever wear, but at least she can say she has one!), I headed into the bookstore because I say a display in the window that I just couldn't walk away from.

It looked like this.


And I walked out with this.


I'm so excited to have Twilight in Portuguese! I plan to read it with my dictionary as soon as I get home.

Our next stop was at the toy store for Gabi. The dolls here in Brasil have the weirdest little tufts of hair.




That last one with the long braids actually freaks me out a bit! Luckily, Gabi doesn't like tufts, so I don't have to worry about having any of these around the house.

Since Gabi was hungry, we went to the food court and got her some McDonald's, much to my MIL's dismay. But once Gabi saw the Golden Arches there was no way she was going to eat anything else. I might've also had ulterior motives in agreeing to dine there, because I knew they had Coke Zero. Not exactly the same as a Diet Coke, but close enough.

They also had this.


Banana pies. Like the famous apple pies, but banana. You just can't escape the banana here.

On our way out of the mall, we stopped at Carrefour, a huge supermarket. I figured it was now or never if I wanted a picture of the huge lines, and pulled out my camera.

Here's the line, though it was about half the size that I usually see. It comes down on the right, then turns back around on the left (the guy in white with this hand on his mouth is where the line u-turns).


The reason the lines are so long? The cashiers take their precious time checking people out. Maybe it's because they're nice and comfy in their chairs?


The one thing that they're fast at is getting something if you ask for it. Like you discover you have cracked eggs. No problem- the runner on rollerskates will skate over to the eggs and get you a new carton lickity split.


We took the bus home because it was just too hot to walk. Here was some graffiti across the street from our bus stop.



I LOVE Brasilian graffiti, at least in Santos. It's so colorful.

I'm lucky I made it onto the bus. You have to go through this turnstile.


It's TINY. I'd say about a size 12. I am not a size 12. But I squeezed through, thank goodness. Can you imagine if I'd gotten stuck in the turnstile?