Brasilia is... nice.

Last week I hopped on a plane to spend 56 hours in Brasilia.  I went to the embassy for training, gathering as much information on running a nursing clinic as I could: I took 150 clinic photos to my dismal 10 city/architecture photos and blew through two pens trying to contain the information blasted at me.  I wrote, scribbled, copied, memorized. I listened, gestured, and flopped my arms around, feeling my heart nearly explode when I tried to navigate government paperwork. When I wasn't obsessing over how much gauze or how many hypodermic needles I'd need or whining about the cold (60F) weather, I quite enjoyed my time spent in Brasilia despite the fog and rain. Weather conditions were so bad that when we landed the plane needed a second go-around after bouncing off the ground, unable to stop. 

View from the Melia 21 Hotel. Apparently the tower has restaurant inside. 

All websites I found on touring the city pointed to the same TV tower to purchase a city-bus tour ticket, I figured it would be so easy to find. However, no ticket office nor anyone could be found. They'd been lost to the fog and dreariness so I opted instead for Belgian beer at Jack's Pub and fancy-pants hotel chocolate. To my surprise I discovered the chocolate nearly took care of my desire to sight see, as they had printed the most famous land marks right on them.

I recommend both the bar and Melia 21 for a swanky hotel experience. However I do not recommend eating late night gas station shawarma. Or early evening shawarma for that matter. It was not so great and spent several hours regretting my choice. Overall, I got to enjoy a drive over the JK Bridge and an early morning walk to the Cathedral before heading back to Recife. At risk of sounding disdainfully boring and lacking in creativity, it was... nice. Brasilia is a nice city. Quiet and nice. 

Juscelino Kubitschek Bridge 

In front of the TV tower. Who doesn't love Brasilia?

St. John and Pink Hoodie Girl.  

Catedral Metropolitana Nossa Senhora Aparecida

Professional Absentmindedness

You know what's fun? Sitting in my living room, eating yogurt and granola while reading blog posts of my fellow Foreign Service friends and nursing journals of profoundly interesting topics like dengue or repetitive stress injury. It was so fascinating I forgot to blink. 

You know what's not fun? Sitting in my living room, reading said Internet pages, while absentmindedly picking granola off my chest that somehow missed my mouth and experiencing a crunch different from the rest; a tiny, black and white crunchy moth met its maker today.

These innocuous 1cm sized creatures are everywhere, clinging to tree trunks, and bushes. They fly low and generally aren't scary but they are annoyingly sticky and have this amazing ability to attach to anything, defying wailing arms to brush them off.  More than once I've had to pick these moths out of Deets' hair and feel a pitch in my stomach every time because, well anything with wings freak me out. And today I ate one. It wasn't fun. 

I'm sure there's a lesson to be found here, but I am not sure where.