Yesterday I needed to get a manicure done, a weekly ritual for me here when I'm not running around like a chicken with my head cut off, and I have yet to find a manicurist that I reaaaaly like. They were either too expensive (meaning it was R$30 or ~US$15 for a mani/pedi/massage/french tips) or I didn't like how they did the manicure. Yesterday those problems were solved.
I found the BEST manicurist BY ACCIDENT. I swear that is how the best things usually happen. I was walking up the main avenue in town after one of my tutoring sessions and I decided to find a salon. The clouds were also very ominous and it had started to thunder a bit, so I decided I needed to find a salon, and FAST. I walked up the street about 5 blocks and I ran into a pretty simple looking salon, and the manicurist was just cleaning up her space. I asked if they had a slot and she said sure, come on in! When I asked the price do do just my hands (I was wearing closed toe shoes that day so doing a pedi was just a bad idea), she said $R8, and I got worried it was going to be terrible, but since it was starting to downpour I decided to stay.
IT WAS THE BEST MANICURE EVER! She did it total Brazil style (check out this post that I remembered from a fellow blogger who is in Rio) meaning she managed to get rid of all my cuticle and excess dry dead skin around my nails (without me bleeding! a huge bonus!) ANNNND she slopped nail polish all over my finger. Brazilian manicurists do this because it helps to seal the paint around the nail (and yes, it works!). She was super nice and managed to clean off all of the excess nail polish even though the color was very dark. This is a big deal because for the most part, Brazilian nail polish remover sucks (note to self: bring back tons when I go to the States in June) and this is usually my biggest problem with Brazilian manicurists. They tend tend to miss spots and then I'm all irritated because I didn't notice it until I was already home, then I manage to screw up the whole manicure in my attempts to clean off the smudges... baah).
Anyhow, I'm sold. Problem? It's way far from my house, but just a few blocks away from one of my clients, SOOOO, I think this will be my new Tuesday or Thursday afternoon activity. Nails! :)
Hey Sista- I lost your phone number. Call me!
ResponderExcluirCongrats! I finally found a good one too. Makes all the difference in your day ;)
ResponderExcluirHi, Becky! I was happy to find your blog today. My boyfriend lives in Amazonas (I am in the US... right now, anyway), and I think you're the first blogger I've heard about whose Brazilian SO is also from a rural background.
ResponderExcluirI would love to read about how you and Humberto met and how you decided to move to Brazil... do you have posts about that somewhere?
Good morning how are you?
ResponderExcluirMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favour:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Brazil? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Brazil in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez
So you nailed the pedicure problem (and scene).
ResponderExcluir