Me & the Brazilian Sun...Round Two!

So just a little update from our trip to the mall this afternoon. Flavia, Mom and I took a taxi over to a new mall (about a year old-very nice-very different from here) near her aparment so we could do some shopping and maybe catch a movie. I kept feeling worse and worse from the sunburn and as we were shopping in one of the stores I wandered off to another area by myself (anyone who has done anything with me will agree that I am good at that-I am always getting seperated-I did it at the market yesterday as well and so they had to go looking for me. I think sometimes I am like a child-or at least everyone knows how accident prone and oblivious to any danger signs around me I am and so they have to look after me like a child!) Anyway...I was just a short distance away looking at another rack of clothes and felt like I was going to black out-there was a table/shelf nearby so I sat down and closed my eyes and rested a moment and decided to get up again. I don't think I made it two feet before I really thought I was going to pass out, so I went back and set down. I had my eyes closed and my head in my hands when Flavia and mom walked up and wondered what was wrong. I explained how I felt and at this point I was feeling so light headed I also felt like I was sick to my stomach. Flavia went to the nearest store that she could find some bottled water while mom stayed with me. After sitting for awhile and drinking some water I felt like I could get up and walk around. I just walked arm-in-arm with mom and we went over to the dressing room so I could try on the clothes we were looking at. There was a bench in the dressing room so I just sat down and mom helped me try on one of the shirst while I was sitting there, but I wasn't in love with it, and I was feeling bad and my pain was getting worse every second from the burn and I just wanted to get to the drug store for some Aloe! So we decided to go and as we were walking out, luckily I was still arm-in-arm because I starting blacking out again. As this happened we were passing a guy who worked there (or at least at the mall) and he helped get me to a seat right outside the store and called the mall medical staff and I was taken in a wheel chair to the nurses station to be sure that I was fine. I felt so stupid!! Here I was, stupid American, getting so burnt that I was passing out at the mall! They checked my blood pressure, etc. to be sure I was fine and poor Flavia was having to translate that it was just from the sunburn-I think they thought I was crazy! Mom says I always find a way to make everything more interesting or dramatic-I guess she's right! Flavia's mom made it there, because she was coming to pick us up after work, and we were able to take the wheelchair with us to the pharmacy (which was in the mall actually-and didn't have aloe-but Flavia's mom found it somewhere) and then down to the exit. I was feeling fine by now, really more embarrassed then anything! (Somehow I still can feel embarrassed, even though I am doing stupid things all the time-you would think I was immune to it by now!!) I was sticking out like a sore thumb already-because I was white-but now that I had a white face and red & white splotchy arms and legs riding in a wheel chair in the mall I was a freak show on wheels for everyones entertainment!! '

We stopped at a store on the way home where Flavia's brother had said they had Rice Milk, but turns out it was made with sunflower oil so a no-go there, but they did have some rice cakes and some Corn cakes (like I had found when we were in South Africa) so I bought that and we made our way home. (Again, we were traveling through rush hour traffic, so what should have been a few minutes ended up taking around an hour!) Once we got back to the apartment I changed into a nightgown/bathing suit coverup and mom slathered me up with aloe and I was able to have some relief from the FIRE all over my sunburnt body!! I should have gotten some more pictures to post because as the evening has gone on it continues to get redder! All this from about ONE HOUR by the pool!!! I never would have imagined it was possible!!! (I wonder if any of the medicine I was on, or currently am on, makes you more susceptable to the sun, I never thought about that until right now?!?) I laid down for an hour before I got up for dinner and now I am typing this up while I have the energy. Hopefully another coat of aloe tonight will do the job and I can get some sleep because we are heading to the beach house in the morning! Whoo Hooo! (Don't worry-I will be putting on a TON of sunscreen and keeping in the shade as much as possible!!!) Tchau! (I finally got it right this time-hopefully I will remember for the rest of the trip!!)