Sunday--Ladies Day...

Sunday, October 11, 2009
Dallas, TX

Leadership in a Global Society doesn’t just apply to our Ursuline students. When I hear the call, I come! (Especially when that call is to act as Cultural Attaché of Shopping and Dining.) I hope I have well represented America to Ayalla.

Actually, Ayalla doesn’t need much introduction to American feasting and shopping. As I happily learned, she spent a year studying in Missouri while in high school. So my duties as official international advisor were soon dispatched and our day quickly became one that celebrated the rituals of female bonding.

And bond, we did. I learned that Ayalla is childhood friend to Lara (with whom I was able to spend time with when she visited last year—someday soon, I hope, the three of us will manage to be in the same country at the same time!) And, like Lara, Ayalla and I became fast friends.

We started off on a pilgrimage to Target—ever-so-much-more chic than the Wal-Mart of Ayalla’s Missouri days. We had a great time educating each other as we wheeled the big red cart through the aisles of sundries and such. The SAMS club in Salvador is one of Ayalla’s favorite places, but it was revealed that even there the shampoo and conditioner bottles are not as large as the “regular” size ones at Target. Thank you, American excess, for giving me 32oz of shampoo to clutter up the sides of my bathtub. (Can you imagine what Ayalla would say to the gallon-size containers at our SAMs club?)

Soon, we’ll wear our matching pink Navaho scarves (it’s still pretty chilly in Dallas, so that day might be tomorrow at the State Fair!), but for the moment, we will leave Super Target behind and head to that next bastion of style: NorthPark Center.

We had a delightful late lunch at La Duni—where Ayalla, herself a connoisseur of the Ceasar Salad, pronounced it “the best I’ve ever had”. We traded promises of recipes—salsa, oven-baked sweet potato fries (instead of the delightful, but messy, fried ones at La Duni), and a million other delights. (Plus, who knew that our sweet potatoes are a lovely orangey color while the ones in Brazil are…less than colorful?)

We had to decline the famed dessert menu. (Ayalla, like me, doesn’t drink that much coffee, and even though cuatro leches cake is fantastic, there was no room left. Even to split a piece.)


Off to shop for shoes, luggage, perfumes—oh, the joy of NorthPark on a Sunday. “They drink perfume in Brazil, they don’t use it” quickly became the theme of the day as we found gifts for seemingly everyone Ayalla has ever known. (I’m happy to report to all of you that your dreams of lovely scents are about to come true!)

Laden with shopping bags and fond memories of our day of fun female bonding, I drove back to Ursuline and left Ayalla at her temporary home.

So, as the Ambassador of Friendship, I think I’m pretty successful. And I’m already imaging that sad day when Ayalla, too, returns to the lovely seaside city of Ihleus.


Until the next time...
Jennifer Alexander