It's been pretty much non-stop since my parents arrived on Tuesday morning, and not entirely without bumps along the way.
We'd made a reservation for an SUV to pick my parents up from the airport since they brought three suitcases, but when it came to get us on the way at 5:30am, it turned out to be a sedan (there was some miscommunication somewhere along the line). Eli was pissed since he'd made the reservations months ago and had reminded them several times, and the driver was furious that he'd been misinformed, but we went anyway since it was late. We waited for an hour for my parents to get their bags, and then somehow squeezed into the car in took them to their hotel.
In the afternoon, I took them to lunch at this great Middle Eastern restaurant in Copacabana, though they were totally jet-lagged and in heat shock. Later, we went to the Museum of Modern Art to see the Vik Muniz exhibit at my dad's request, and both of my parents loved it. We brought them to our apartment, which they liked but couldn't bear the heat, and then went out for a late dinner at our favorite pizza rodizio, though it was much slower than usual.
On Wednesday, my parents jet setted around Copa in the morning while Eli and I barely managed to drag ourselves out of bed, walking on the boardwalk and checking out the sandcastles they are oddly obsessed with. Then, they decided to look for decaf coffee, since they don't drink regular. I'd warned them this would be a difficult task (unless they hiked over to Starbucks in Leblon), but they didn't quite believe me. They ended up, ironically enough, at a popular cafe called "Cafeina" (Caffeine), which of course did not have decaf. I guess they were desperate, and they wound up drinking caffeinated coffee for the first time in many, many years, which had more of a cocaine-like effect that a coffee bean. In their caffeinated stupor, they made friends with some Cariocas and wound up sitting and talking with them for awhile, and got to our house late. When we met up with them, they were practically vibrating they were so caffeinated.
We all headed to Centro, where we had a light lunch (lanche, as the maitre de informed me) at Confeitaria Colombo, since my parents had loved it so much last time. I showed them the Portuguese Reading Room, one of the most beautiful libraries in Brazil (and the world), and then we wandered the narrow streets down to the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, my favorite museum in Rio, where we checked out the Brasil Brasileiro art exhibit and their new money exhibit, both highly recommended. I was thrilled to find they built a Livraria da Travessa there as well, which is one of my favorite Rio book store chains.
Later, we miraculously did some errands even though my parents were wilting in the heat, and then went to dinner at an Asian rodizio. We were supposed to meet Eli's family at my parents' hotel after dinner, but we left late and apparently his dad did not want to come a half an hour later. So they met us at the restaurant and the conversation was less awkard than I expected, until the bill came and there was a great deal of confusion but luckily we hightailed it out of there as soon as we paid. Then we went to my parents' hotel and sat around chatting and exchanging gifts, which turned out to be totally fine, though a bit tiring from all the simultaneous translation. In the meantime, Eli's poor sister managed to get food poisoning or an allergic reaction or something and spent most of the time in the bathroom the whole night.
So I'm glad we're getting out of the city and that we got the awkward meeting of the families out of the way. It really was fun and relatively painless, but than again, it's only once a year. Now we're headed to the beach for a week, where Eli and I are staying with my parents in a rental house. There's bound to be plenty of awkwardness left this week!
