"When in Rome, do as the Romans" there's a saying that goes. At home when the sun is shining, we always tend to try to absorb as many rays of sunshine as we can, because they are few and far between. Here, however, there is rarely a lack of sunshine, and because of the intensity of mid-day sunshine, the sunshine drives us into the shade. When you walk along the street, any bit of shade is where the people walk. Sitting on the bus; the "side with shade" is always filled up first. Now, as freshly arrived Norwegian, starved of sunshine, I used to seek out the sunny bits, and was often the odd one out as I walked along with Brazilian friends. Now I have become "one of them". It's become almost something automatic to scout out the shade and walk towards it. I have even been known to ask on the bus which side is the one with shade. I suppose I could say: "when in Fortaleza, do as the locals do"...
Tomorrow is the 17th of May. But for any Norwegian, this particular date isn't like any other date in the year, it's the 4th of July of Norway. And this year I am actually here. However, some preparations had to be done to get ready for tomorrow. One was getting my national costume down from the loft. I got it a few days ago and tried it on. It's a wee bit tight, but I think it'll be fine. This evening I ironed (or rather started ironing) the blouse which is hand embroydered and made of linnen (so those of you who have a clue about fabrics, know that linnen is the opposite of no-crease material). And the second part of the preparation was polishing the silver. I tried the "foil-in-hot-water-with-salt" method, but I don't think it worked too well. I did a bit of polishing with toothpaste after that and it looks alright. At the end of the day I'm the only one who will notice the level of polishedness of my silver. I have also got my camera on charging re...