It was the birthday of one of the Rotarians at my
club so he invited us all to his house for a churrasco. A churrasco is a Brazilian
– style barbecue and I guarantee I have never seen anything like it. It includes
every type of meat that you can think of. One meat that I got to eat that you wouldn’t
find in the UK is “linguca” it’s a Brazilian type chorizo-style sausage. I wasn’t
too fond of linguica so I stuck to chicken for most of the night. There was a man
who was hired to cook the meat so the family could enjoy the evening. Another thing
that we don’t get back in the UK is “farinha” It’s basically flour that you dip
your meat into before you eat it, strange huh? The family also hired someone to
sing and play the guitar while everyone was eating and socialising. Just like
when people are hired to sing back home, Brazilian singers have a book of
standard songs they play so everyone there knew all the songs…apart from me of
course! While all the adults sang and danced the songs that were being played I
sat quietly and listened to them sing while watching the stars. It would have been such a perfect night if it wasn’t
so cold! While the adults relived their childhood days, all the children had gathered
inside of the house. The house had a karaoke machine so obviously we had to
have a go! After a few hours of very loud singing (from adults and children alike)
it was time to sing happy birthday. However what I didn’t realise was there was
three birthdays that we were celebrating. This meant that there were three
MASSIVE cakes, and we sang an extra-long version of “parabéns para voce" (happy birthday to you) at about midnight my host mother decided to go. I don’t know if it was
because it was a school night and every child there did have to sit an exam at
7AM the next day (but this is why I love Brazilians, they didn’t let a small
thing like exams get in the way of their fun!) or because her husband had just
started singing into the microphone >.< after a long round of “thank you
for coming” and “goodbyes” we finally managed to leave. As soon as I got into
the car and I was away from all the loud music and good food I was suddenly exhausted.
But it was worth it, I got too eat some of the best meat Brazil has to offer
AND I spent the night with some of the nicest people in Brazil :)
