This Saturday was the best Saturday. *punto pelota*
It began around 10:30 by Marianna´s voice waking me up as she sang, ¨I AM READY!!!¨ She was, of course, refering to the wine tasting that happens the first Saturday of every month at Casa de Campo. My roomies had gone a few times and always had a hoot, but I´d always managed to be busy. I´d told my friend about it the night before when we´d gone out for drinks, and she said she´d totally love to go... if we could wake up on time to get there before it closed at 3.
I rolled over and put a pillow over my head, groaning, as I listened to the three roomies getting their purses and shuffling out the door. I wanted to get up and go, too... but I wanted to stay in bed more. When ten minutes passed and I couldn´t fall back asleep, I reached for my iPad and looked at Facebook. There, in my notifications, was a picture from last night with a caption from my friend Mirium: ¨I am awake. Are you? Wine tasting?¨
And that was enough to pull me out of bed and into the shower. ^_^
A train ride and metro ride later, we met up around 1:15 and purchased our 2 euro wine glasses - which guaranteed us unlimited free wine tastings! WHAT A DEAL! ;) We tasted every wine that was there - TWICE. To be honest, they weren´t really that quality, but after the sixth or seventh tasting, you kinda forget to stop caring about that. ;) Besides wine, they also had cheese and honey vendors. As the event was wrapping up around 3pm, Mirium and I decided to buy a thing of really yummy sheep´s milk cheese, a jar of the best, most sweetest honey and a bottle of organic white wine. She explained she was to meet up with her friends later at a park across town and that we could do a little picnic! Adorable!
Usually, I´m kinda against meeting people. I always say I want new friends and want to go on adventures, but the idea of actually physically meeting new people makes me a little nauseous. I´m trying to get over it little by little, but the percentage of times that randomly meeting people has turned out to be a fantastic success from the start is dangerously low. Empirical data proves that I am one of those kinds of people that needs to warm up to others before I can be myself and likeable in the slightest. My mom claims this is my Virgo rising in my chart and that this is somehow a beneficial thing to myself as a whole, but I´ve yet to see the splendid benefits.
Anyway, I have to admit I wasn´t feeling my usual nerves, as I´d had just enough wine to feel like a generally plesant individual. Actually, I was kinda excited to spend the afternoon with unknown people! I figured any friend of Mirium had to be cool, because Mirium was one of the only cool people in my whole Master´s program, and the odds of cool people having cool friends is considerably high. ;) At least, that´s what my wine-o logic was telling me.
As we approached a guy waiting at their meeting spot, Mirium turned to me and under her breath whispered, ¨You´ll either hate him or you´ll love him,¨ before greeting him with a big smile and two kisses.
It was definitely one of those moments out of a movie, and instantly I could tell this was all about to be really fun. ;)
When the other two girls arrived, we all took a walk in the park, introducing ourselves and looking for a perfect place to... hang a SLACKLINE! WHAT?!? It was simultaneous the most hippie thing and most awesome thing I´d ever been informed I was about to do. I´d seen people one day outside of my dorm doing it, but past that, I didn´t really know it was a hobby. So when this guy produced one from his back, I was amused.
Five little Americans giggling, chatting and playing in a park while eating cheese, bread and honey and drinking wine. Perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon! After successfully crossing the slackline on my own and going back to the blanket to sit and watch some of them playing with a volleyball, I felt for the second time that I was in one of those really cheesy teenage movies. And I loved it. ;)
After the park we hit up a Portuguese pastry shop (I think?) and then went and had frozen yogurt - but it wasn´t all of the sweets that made the post-picnic so... enchanting. It was the non-stop banter and conversation. For every comment I made, he had an immediate, witty response. And for every comment he made, I occasionally actually had to think before responding. o_O When´s the last time THAT happened to me!? This guy had the witty sarcasm of a Brazilian, but the creative intelligence and depth to really back it up. Had I known people like that existed, I would have started actively looking for them years ago! >_<
It was truly one of those super rare encounters in one´s life where you meet somebody for the first time and realize they sort of... get you. It´s spectacular, yet unnerving. ;)
A little after nine I finally left my new friends and went out to dinner at a Brazilian restaurant to celebrate the completion of my thesis with a friend I hadn´t seen since my birthday. Feijoada, patatas palhas and guarana was a pretty awesome celebration dinner, too! ^_^
XOXO
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