July 16th, 2005

I arrived in Porto Alegre, Brazil, on June 6th, 2003. A week later, on June 13th, I was in “Ponto Frio” department store, buying a bicycle. The bike came disassembled, and I was trying to explain to the clerk that I would like to ride it home, but with my rusty Portuguese, he didn’t understand me. Luckily, a girl who was shopping in the store on her lunch hour did understand me, and could see that I was having trouble explaining this to the clerk. She explained to him for me, then he told me to come back tomorrow to pick it up. I thanked the girl, and told her the least I can do is buy her lunch. I asked her name. “Patrícia” she told me. Ironically, I met her on Friday the 13th.

In August of 2004, I asked Patrícia to marry me. We decided the wedding would be once we returned to Canada. In July, summertime, where the guests would have fewer excuses to refuse an invitation! However, before we left Porto Alegre, we had a "noivado" (engagement) celebration to accomodate her family and friends who were unable to attend the actual celebration in Canada. A noivado is a celebration in Brazil, where the bride and groom-to-be officially get engaged, the priest blesses the wedding rings, and they wear them on their right ring finger until the wedding.