Brazil!!

Wednesday, August 15, 2007
12pm

Well I made it at least to Sao Paulo. I’m currently at my gate, almost 4 hours too early, but all is well. My expectations of having to just laugh off a lot of things on this whole “adventure” have certainly been accurate. From the moment I arrived, I’ve had to stumble through a couple issues with my very limited Portuguese.

Let’s start from the beginning of this already interesting trip. I left 532 Brighton Ln. last night around 7pm, saying goodbye to my brothers and my very depressed dog. At the airport, I exchanged tearful goodbyes with my parents after checking in. From the moment I left them, who had so ensured that I had everything I needed, God was really taking care of me. I walked only a few feet away, into the line for security, and while I was standing I accidentally caught the eye of the guy behind me. Not feeling like engaging in conversation, I just smiled and looked back in front of me, but eventually he said, “Going to Sao Paulo, huh?” Well, yes, I was. Before I knew it, we were having a discussion about different missions agencies, because as it turned out, he was going to Jordan for a year with Arab World Missions. He walked me to my gate and we prayed together for our respective endeavors before he went to find his gate and meet a friend. It was definitely an ordained meeting, and it was nice to have that just before leaving.

As I sat alone at the gate, already surrounded by Portuguese, I had a few moments where all I could think was, “WHAT am I doing??” But the time had come, so all I had to do was get on that plane. The flight was great. There were only 50 passengers on the entire giant airplane, so I got two seats all to myself. This proved perhaps to be more painful than beneficial, but it was still wonderful and quiet. I took my Tylenol PM and was asleep before dinner, only hearing the faint question, “chicken or pasta?” as I dozed. While it wasn’t a very sound night, as I’d hoped, my medicated stupor was certainly helpful. I only recall desperately changing positions a few times. At one point my entire right leg was asleep, which I could only attribute to the giant arm rest protruding between the two seats. My attempts to check the time on my Ipod every few hours only resulted in lots of squinting, and then accidentally pushing play and running down all my batteries. I’m still a bit tired, and identify with the man sitting to my left who just snored very loudly as his head fell backwards. (He’s wearing sunglasses and looking at the TV, but we all know what is really going on.)

Customs and immigration were fine, I had no trouble getting my (too) heavy bags, though they apparently looked far too large for me to handle, because it seemed I was never without a helping hand to get my suitcases onto a luggage cart and then again to get said cart out of an elevator. Ai ai ai… When I found the check-in counter, I was proud of my Portuguese because I was able to request a window seat when asked which I preferred. And then the trouble started. The man explained to me that my bags were too heavy. Naturally, that was frustrating, because they weren’t too heavy in the US, but at this point there was absolutely nothing I could do. He explained to me the weight they were over, combined, and then handed me my ticket back, with a note attached and told me to go and then come back to him. I had no idea where he wanted me to go or what he wanted me to do, but he couldn’t seem to explain that in a way I could understand, so I just walked away to try and find an information counter or something. I left my bags with him, and went to another check-in person, who was kind enough to walk me over to the place where you pay for excess baggage. R$235 later, I returned, with a receipt, to that nice gentleman, who then handed me my boarding pass with an understanding smile.

Finally I made my way to a bathroom to change my clothes and try and feel like I had not just spent the night on an airbus. Now I’m settled in here at gate 5 (which I’m not exactly sure is the right gate…good thing I have a couple hours to figure it out) with some café de leite and pao de queijo. I have one man snoring to my left, and another kid to my right playing soccer on his computer, and talking to himself. Colorful language, as I understand. I’m not able to get online because all the wireless networks require a password or some pin number, so that’s unfortunate…but I have some books, a crossword puzzle, and maybe eventually another cup of coffee to keep myself busy until 3pm.

I’m still not sure what I’m doing here. I made it through customs, checked my bags, found my gate (hopefully) and in 2 ½ hours I’m going to get on an airplane that will take me to Iguassu Falls, where I will be picked up by my boyfriend. I still haven’t begun to realize that that’s going to happen either. I’m just waiting for someone to wake me up and tell me this was all a dream…because it sure feels like one. God is so good.