DAy 196 Back in Brasília

It is good to be back in Brasil for many reasons. The most important one is obviously my beautiful Patrícia. Also high on my list are her family, the weather, food, people, and many little things like these two parrots who were perched above my bedroom window and singing for me.

The one negative I can say is that I still don't know enough Portuguese yet. I have been trying to study in Europe despite how hard it was to learn multiple languages at the same time. I know that with time it will come to me as long as I keep it up. The challenge is really in hearing the spoken language for me. There are many ways to say even the simplest of things and many more ways people can inflect their speech. If people speak slowly and enunciate I can usually do pretty well. If they talk fast, are excited, mumble, slur, use slang, speak quietly, talk over each other, or if there is too much extraneous noise...I am lost. I keep telling myself it will take time.

Patrícia starts her new job as Corporate Manager of Human Resources at Politec (very big IT company)tomorrow and will unfortunately be working a lot. It is a great job and I am very proud of her. She is very intelligent, professional, and sexy too. With that combination she can go far. Her working so much means that I will have plenty of time to study the language during the day. And hopefully catch up on blogging. We will see how well I do.

For some reason I always get about a half dozen mosquito bites right at first when I arrive here and then rarely after that. I don't know if it changes because I start eating the Brasilian diet or I develop an immunity and don't react as much. I don't care as long as I stop itching. Luckily this is not a malarial area.

Day 193 Transit Limbo

I was impressed by TAM Airlines on my flight to São Paulo. In my economy class window seat I had on demand movies on the seat back screen, great service, good food, and a free travel kit with a toothbrush, toothpaste, eye mask, and comb in a nice reusable plastic case. It was even better than Lufthansa, which is hard to beat.

With the flight delay I got into São Paulo at about 12:30am, missing my connecting flight to Brasília by two and a half hours. After waiting in three lines, because I kept asking clueless people, I got a taxi, dinner, and hotel vouchers from TAM. It was a good hotel, but after waiting with all of the other weary travelers for another half hour at the reception desk, I was not interested in the free dinner, only sleep. It was 1:30am and I had to go back to the airport at 6:00am, which did not leave me much time. I had my free breakfast at 5:00am with a bunch of Japanese business men and headed back to the airport. The flight to Brasília was especially short because I slept the whole way.

The thing that bothered me most about the whole experience was not the inconvenience or lack of sleep or dragging extra bags all over. It was that we flew directly over Brasília on the way, continuing another hour and a half south so I could, wait for eight hours and then turn around and come back. I saw the illuminated shape of Brasìlia below us as we flew. The airplane shaped layout of the city is hard to miss and I could even see the neighborhood where I would be staying. I had tried convincing the gate desk clerk that since the flight was delayed they should drop me off on the way to São Paulo, but she would not budge. I told her that Patrícia was waiting for me and I had to get there soon. Still no luck.

In DC I had to apply for a new visa to Brasil because my last one was a tourist visa valid for only 90 days. A longer term visa, up to five years, is up to the discretion of the consular officer. I went to the embassy early, ready with my documents, and dressed well. I was second in line behind a cranky old guy that was only going to be transiting through Brasil on his way to a ship. Because his brother had gotten robbed in Rio he thought Brasil was a dreadful country and didn’t bother to hide his opinion, rather, he seemed to enjoy loudly sharing it. I was surprised that even though he was rude and demanding, the consular officer remained courteous and patient with him. He had no right to go to Brasil. He was asking permission. He is lucky that Brasilians are such nice people; most other countries would have refused the visa.

When old cranky pants finally left, I pleaded my case for a long-term visa. I had to have a compelling reason, so I was honest: I was traveling the world and the woman I loved lived in Brasil and it would be bad if I neglected her. I showed a picture of Patrícia and me and chatted a bit. She said that Patrícia was very beautiful and understood why I wanted the visa. She could not say if I would get the five year visa, but told me to come back the next afternoon to pick it up and not to bother waiting in line. The next day I was making my way through the lobby full of waiting people when the consular officer saw me and excitedly waved and yelled for me to come up to the window. I think she was as happy as I was to see the five year visa in my passport. It seems that love may not be able to redirect a plane but it is a compelling enough of a reason to get a visa.

Day 192 Dead in New York

The dead body in the hostel lobby might have struck me as a bad sign if I had not been so tired. I didn’t kill the guy so I really didn’t care—just as long as they changed the sheets. The only thing that did bother me was the disinfectant that the maintenance guy was spraying everywhere but especially on whatever was dripping from the body as they carried it out. It wasn’t blood and my curiosity didn’t go so far as to make me ask.

Then the clerk told me that they did not have any record of my online reservation or deposit. Even worse, they only had two beds available, both more expensive than the one I had booked. I pled my case and got a discount on the one that wasn’t recently occupied by a corpse.

It had been a long day of travel by bus and subway from DC and by the time I got into my dorm room I was ready for bed. The first thing I did was to sniff for disinfectant to see if I got the right bed. It was the only time I was ever reassured by the lack of disinfectant, usually the opposite is true. It was midnight and I hit the pillow hard. I had to get up at 4:30 in the morning to get to the airport for my flight to Brasil so I needed all the sleep I could get.

Needless to say that I was less than pleased when, at 1:30 am, the security guard woke me from a deep, peaceful sleep by yelling at me. He was under the impression that I was in the bed under false pretenses and demanded to see my receipt. I groggily and irritably dug it out and thrust it at him. After checking it, making a call to the reception, and saying only, “sorry,” he left. They had overbooked the room and someone had come up to find me where they were supposed to be. It only took about 5 minutes but I was so irritated by the whole thing, I almost did not go back to sleep. I was even less thrilled in the morning when I found that one of my roommates had left the door ajar; anyone could have come in while we were sleeping and taken our bags.

Sleep deprived, I stumbled out into the frigid morning air at 5:00 am. I did not have time to stop at my favorite bagel shop across the street. I was loaded down with an extra bag of clothes and my new Rollerblades and could not sit down to enjoy my usual NY breakfast of a coffee, bagel, eggs, and home fries ($5). It was snowing hard and the two blocks to the subway left me fluffy white. That is, until it melted and it left me unpleasantly damp. While it took almost an hour to get to the airport, I was happy that I did not have to take a taxi.

The check-in line was short, I was right on time, and security went smoothly. I should have known something was wrong. The plane had been delayed coming from Brasil and was going to be departing three and a half hours late. I was going to miss my connection in São Paulo and would have to stay in a hotel. On the positive side, I had plenty of time to get some overpriced breakfast to eat. I got coffee and a bagel and paid 8 bucks for a days worth of wi-fi (for which I found out later they double charged my card).

I was happy to finally get on the plane. Even the hour of de-icing time sitting on the tarmac did not bother me. I was on my way to what my mother aptly called my “happy place.”