Thanks AP

One of the huge draws for me to move to Brazil, was that one of my best friends lives here. Yep, this is gonna be a post all about Andrea, also known as AP, Roomie, Principal and down here Andrea (said like Ann-dray-uh).

She's the one who sparked to idea of moving to Brazil in my head over ice cream at Oberweis one chilly winter day months ago.

Since I've arrived, we've both been swamped and uber busy. She's busy being an amazing Lower School Principal, organizing lots of school renovations (some complete, some almost complete), catching up with her old friends, getting to know new ones, assisting all the teachers, assessing students, balancing class lists and on and on. I've been busy with all the new teacher, new life, new everything. Both of our to do's have been exorbinate.

Yesterday we happened to bump into each other by chance while both of us were out to lunch with different friends. We made plans to hang out for last night. I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend it.

We both were in a low key kinda mood and she planned perfectly. We went to a wonderful area called Pontao (I need to learn how to make the breve over the a). It's right next to the lake in Brasilia. I'd heard all about it from Miguel, my teaching assistant, and so I was thrilled to be able to check it out.There's a surf shop, German beer garden/restaurant, other restaurants and it's just a nice place to walk around.

We opted to share a delicious opened face mozarella, sundried tomato and argula sandwhich. Yum! Part of the reason for sharing was so we could share some acai. Oh my goodness! Hadn't had any frozen acai yet. In the U.S., there's a huge rage with acai and healthy living. It this is healthy living, bring it on! This frozen dessert which was topped with bananas was so yummy.

Over dinner we just caught up. That's it. With as hectic as life has been since we arrived, it couldn't have been better. Just a chance to talk and talk.

Andrea's been one of my closest friends since we became roommates about 10 years ago. There are so many things that I love about Andrea, but last night reminded me of one of my favorites. She's a friend who no matter how much time or life goes by, we just pick up where we left off. It's effortless.

And one of the reasons why last night was so nice was that with everything for me being new, it was nice just to relax and spend time with a dear friend. And a dear friend who now only lives across a field from me, a 5 minute walk door-to-door. Doesn't get much better than that.

Now that I think about it, the past few days there would have been great chances to take photos together, but I missed those so instead I'll share one that Andrea and I took on the first day of school this year.

Thanks AP for last night. It was perfect!