Okay guys I’m finally here. I have neglected posting but here is the journal of my first few days.
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It was finally here! The day of my departure! Of course, I was not able to savour it as there were a lot of last minute things to do! So I fought all night with iTunes in order to get it to sync some movies to my iPod. After all, I had a loooong flight ahead. And to my horror, the sync was not finished in time when I had to leave. So, grumbling and cursing Apple for condemning its consumers with the most fussy mp3 player ever, I cancelled the sync, ejected, got my stuff, and left.
Now that I was at the airport, I was unusually calm, which is more than I can say for my family. My aunt, mother, sister, cousin, and nephews were there. And my aunt and cousin were fussing over the fact that I had my purse open and telling me all the stuff I already knew as if I had never seen an airport before (Mind you I have traveled plenty of times both domestic and abroad—INCLUDING by myself with none of that silly “unaccompanied minor status” and I’ve fared quite well so far.) Nevertheless, they insisted on giving me packing tips while IN the airport and already checked in. Then they proceeded to tell me all about how I will get robbed because I left my purse open for two seconds even though I had it safely sitting between me, my huge football player sized nephew, and a semicircle of doting relatives. Give me a break…
In any case, I finally left, and of course my mother cried as I hugged and kissed everyone goodbye and went through the security gate. I sat for a moment and then it was boarding time, I was off tooo….
Washington D.C.!
No, I am saying it right. I flew from Miami and UP to D.C. to go to Brazil. But don’t look at me, that was the travel agent’s doing, I’m not going to question their judgment…But to satiate everyone’s curiosity (seriously, every single person that I tell jumps back in horror), I just say in a matter-of-factly tone, “to meet the other exchange students, there’s about 50 of us flying together from what I heard.” There. End of conversation, sure they could have flown to Miami, meet me and THEN go to Brazil, but, like I said, I not questioning it. I’m here, and wishing that I didn’t have to sign a contract condemning me to the exact route back despite the fact that TAM has a direct flight to Miami every Sunday, as many (seriously, many) enjoyed informing me.
But who really cares? It’s Brazil!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you Rotary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But I digress, so I was in the airplane now. The flight attendant was a former exchange student with Rotary. She recognized the characteristic Rotary blazer. I entered further and I heaved my overweight carry-on overhead, thanking God that I didn’t have to weigh it. I took my seat and asked some guy behind me how long the flight was. He didn’t know, but fortunately a middle aged couple sat beside me. A white lady with too much mascara and a tall black man with a cool-looking hat. I greeted them. Mind you, that this is very significant, as I almost never talk to strangers unless prompted (a fact that earned me a $#^& you ^$%&!!! the day before from some rowdy perverts when I walked home in Miami the other day.) In any case, they didn’t know the time the flight would take either (not like it mattered). I found out that they were on their way to Rome, and they traveled frequently. It was about then that the pilot hinted that something in the plane’s navigation wasn’t working and that they were going to fix it quickly in about 10 minutes, but its okay since they budget minor delays like this into the flight time.
At that point, I turned on my iPod to listen to my music, and to my horror there were no songs since it decided to delete everything, and the new movies did not sync. I reallllllly hate Apple and its amazingly inefficient iPod Touch syncing. (That’s right, I said it! I only bought the wretched thing because it had WiFi and I wanted to get a new nice cell phone after I returned, so go cry fanboys and fangirls! Steve Jobs is officially on my list…)
So, music-less, I sat squirming in my seat with nothing to distract me until the pilot announced that they didn’t have the part and that they were going to ask Jet Blue to borrow it.
Minutes later, he said that they didn’t get it, and then the flight attendant tried to do some damage control and encouraged us to wait. Everyone started grumbling and I chatted with the couple some more. They were worried since they only had a 2 hour layover in London to begin with and the plane has been grounded for 30 minutes and counting. As about 40 minutes passed, people began to leave to try and get rebooked on other flights. I sighed and went into my huge carry-on since I remembered that I brought my old mp3 player so maybe I can practice some Pimsleur…no luck…so I gave up and listened to some FM radio built-in to my ooooold mp3 player as I wondered why Apple consistently refuses to add it when iTunes sucks so bad. Eventually, I got bored with it as the couple going to Rome got their things together. It was an hour now. I wasn’t worried about the delay since Bokoff-Kaplan (the travel agency) sets really long layovers (bless their very intelligent hearts)! However, the plane was about three-quarters empty, and when I asked a flight attendant about the possibility of cancellation, she muttered an extremely vague answer and then muttered something unknown thing in Spanish. Not very encouraging…
I sat down twitching and looked at my phone. The chipper girl in front of me who was on standby in the first place and probably the only person on the plane without a connecting flight was starting to annoy me. They had to fly in the part from San Francisco! Things were not looking good… I called my mom who may have been hiding happiness at the prospect of me coming back, hung up, went into the overhead and pulled out my overweight carry-on bag of doom, then and went into my handy-dandy exchange binder to try and track down the number for Bokoff (which I later realized was on the departure packet in my purse). So, I called and told the representative about my dubious flight, but she advised me to wait it out and if it got cancelled I would have to wait the next day. I hung up horrified at the prospect of making a bunch of long distance calls in broken Portuguese to explain my rescheduled flights, and went on to call my mom again and tell my sister—who lives in D.C. with some mysterious chemistry job for the government—that I would have to rain check on that free lunch she was going to take me on during my formerly long layover. I hung up praying that I the flight would be only delayed after all, and sure enough, the flight attendant told us that we were changing planes! This was announced while I was talking to my mother, to boot! I’m happy it was then since that meant that I only had to hold my cell phone to the plane speaker and she heard everything, so I didn’t have to re-explain.
With a sigh of relief I gathered my things and made my way to the new gate trying not to lose the tiny ticket stub that’s supposed to grant us entrance. I got in the line and started chatting with a girl while simultaneously updating my status on Facebook and the Cultures-Shocked website. We laughed at the irony that the new plane was delayed as well. Eventually the flight attendant finished (their excuse was “cleaning”) and we boarded. Lo and behold! Who sits next to me but the enroute to Rome couple! Their connection was shot at this point.
With new flight, we got to D.C. painlessly. I got off and made my way to D-1 to check-in with the Rotarian, Mr. Wilcox. He said that they were looking for me, and asked to see my ticket, that stuff out of the way, he said I could drop my stuff there and walk around. Having nowhere in mind to go, I dropped my stuff beside an empty seat and sat down. Then two friendly boys introduced himself. One advised me to change some money into reais (Brazilian currency), and then when I asked how far down it was, he offered to walk with me. (Exchange students are so nice!)
So, we went down to the currency desk with a small gaggle of exchange students. My escort and I had a laugh at the mini personalized license plate one girl had on her back, and I said I thought it was cool, and then I suddenly recognized the girl and the other one she was talking to. It was Tess and Sarah from Central New York! (I couldn’t come to the last orientation in Florida, so I did a make up in New York.) So I tapped them on their shoulders and we had this whole “OMG! You’re here and I haven’t seen you in forever” moment in the airport and then my escort took an opportunity to escape (Geez…were we that bad? Haha!).
So, they waited for me to change the money as the poor, overworked lady tried to hunt down some reais to handle all these exchange students enroute to Brazil. But we me freshly armed with $60 USD worth of reais, the Central New York girls and I went our merry way back to D-1. As I got there, there were a few more students. I looked back and suddenly hear my name as Florida’s own Lauren Keister aka “Tangerina” (her capoeira name) waves. And no sooner when I see her and run up I spot Zazu, who calls me Ruby, and she quickly points out Adrienne and tells me that Suzy is around. Those last few names probably meant nothing to you, but other than Lauren, I met those girls through an exchange student website called Cultures Shocked. They are all from New Jersey and they were handled with Bokoff Kaplan as well. Then of course, I saw Asia and Becca from Florida. To my surprise, Andrienne and Lauren already knew each other, but then I realized OF COURSE they do I since already introduced them on Orkut (think Facebook/Myspace but with Brazilians).
On that note, I waved at Kyle from Buffallo, New York who’s actually going to the same district as me, but a different city. And then I asked a girl from Bermuda about Capri Wilson from Bermuda as well who is coming to my district. She would be going to Lauro de Freitas which is just north of me. As a matter of fact, her school is closer to my house than my own school! At this point, I went back to poor Sarah and Tess who sat amazed at my ability to know like half the students already.
It just goes to show that I don’t have to be freakishly outgoing to make friends in exchange-student-land, just be lucky and have Facebook/Orkut.
So, then I go to my bag and pull out my trusty custom pins. I swear that exchange students can smell them! As soon as I did, about 20 heads turned at the jingling sound, and as I handed one out, everyone went mad. I was like, whoa! Who knew they would be such a hit? So, I jumped-started the pin trading a bit. And apparently, people really love me and are quite willing to wear it on their blazers!
It was time to board, and so we made the long trek to our actual gate. My arm was very tired from that overweight carry-on. But at last we were there and boarded. We sat there chatting amongst ourselves as we waited, and I made fun of the Canadian, since she really said “eh”! It was cute! As a consolation, I let her make fun of my “yall.” In any case, it was a joyous occasion, we were on the plane to São Paulo, and I had two seats to myself!
Well…except, about 15 minutes later a tired looking boy, named Keith, shuffles through the ailse and stops beside my seat. So much for my free seat… In any case, as an extension of goodwill I start the applause off (since I make sure we applaud when we find missing students), and I offered him a business card and his choice of pin. But he’s greedy and chose the sketched AND the ”I love/Eu amo Sherise” pins. But hey, at least he asked nicely.
I found out he’s from long island New York and going to São Paulo, making him one of the lucky few with no more connecting flights… (Although I can’t complain, some kids had to actually change airports!)
I watched a movie on the personal TVs, amused myself with the XM radio, and then watched Kill Bill which was the only thing still left on my iPod. So now “Bang Bang” from the opening credits was stuck in my head all night—even at about 3 am when I checked the map on the TV and saw that we were over Guyana. After 9 endless hours of very uncomfortable chairs, and accidentally turning our seat neighbors into pillows in the middle of the night, we FINALLY reach São Paulo. I have never been so happy to go to customs in my life! Well…except for when the Rotarian that’s supposed to be watching us gets detained, and leaves us all standing there dumbfounded until he came back. Oh the irony!
Then we finally go through. It was so cool as the border patrol person said “Vai!” and understood it. (And believe me! At my level of listening comprehension in Portuguese this IS exciting…) So I move right along to baggage claim. I grab a cart and quickly collect the huge blue suitcase. Then I sat there in apprehension waiting for my red duffle as the huge crowd dwindled until it was just me and two other exchange students. Together we form the lost baggage club with Keith leading with BOTH bags lost which totally overshadows mine and the other boy’s one.
In any case, we filed the reports and the man assured us that it would be mailed to us. Apparently, mine never left my first airport. But at least the man was nice enough walk with me and he even taught me some Portuguese as I waited in the customs line. “Eu perdi minha bagagem.”
On the bright side of all of this, I only had to heave one suitcase through the airport to check-in.
With that out of the way, the remaining students that didn’t run off somewhere, stayed together, so I met some more people and gave away some more pins and cards. There was an outbound Brazilian who thought we were her group, and then another girl who got to say hi and bye to her host family. It would seem that her family was on the way to the U.S. that day and leaving her with a temporary family.
A few of the students went on an adventure to buy coffee and we were amazed by the real glass cups, until they had a spaz out moment figuring out that they give them directly back to the counter. Then I gave my pins to the student that I don’t remember seeing before, and one complimented the one I drew. Yay! Flattery! Oh and there was a guy with his violin. How brave! I couldn’t imagine putting an expensive instrument through this journey.
Eventually I had to make my leave. I made my way to the gate, well, until the lady watching up ran up and told me I was going the wrong way. So, making my way through security, I go to the correct gate…well at least it was the one on the ticket…As I reach to the gate it was boarding time, but I saw neither line, people, or even plane! I asked the man at the desk if he spoke English, but I wasn’t that lucky. Fortunately, asking “Onde????” and showing him the ticket was enough to get the point across. Evidentially, there was a gate change. So going to the right gate, I got on the right plane and it had no problems.
What a relief…
I was happy to see a man speaking English on the first row (I sat diagonal to him on the second row). He was from Las Vegas and visiting his fiancé in Salvador. Nice guy. He wasn’t an exchange student, but he fell in love with Brazil when he did the Semester at Sea program in college. We had a nice chat through the flight when I wasn’t cooing in broken Portuguese at the cute little toddler in the front row. Then as we walked out and toward the baggage claim, there were people waiting with bracelets and this instrument thingy that made a cool sound. Mr. Vegas said, “There go the Baianos!” so I guess that’s what they are called.
I got my bag, happy that it arrived even though is was a struggle to handle, and made my way out. Now it was time to meet my family. I walked out slowly, and tried to close my jacket a bit to make the Rotary logo more visible since it was open as the button decided to pop off earlier in São Paulo. (Uh-oh, am I getting fatter?) As I reach the end of the line, I hear a soft “She-ree-see?” I look and see a dark haired woman and a blonde little boy. This is my host mom and host brother!
I’m here! I’m really here!
My host mother went somewhere quickly, leaving me standing with my new brother. He said something, and I didn’t understand a single word. Yipes! Outsmarted by a 9 year old! Let’s restart this, I explained that I didn’t speak much Portuguese, and then asked what his name was, it took about 20 tries to pronounce it right.
Then my host mom came back and we were off to the car. On the ride home, I tried to hold a conversation with my limited Portuguese. It was very hard, but I got through! My pronounciation sucks! It seems books will only take you so far. I think I did well, especially since verb conjugation book, and big dictionary were in my other luggage that vanished, and I completely forgot my crutch…err…I mean phrase book!
My host brother is sooooo cute though. I never had a little brother before. I have nieces and nephews but they’re old enough to have more attitude than I can handle especially since they’re American :p.
When I got home, I was so pleased to see that the house is gorgeous! And there’s a hammock in the living room! I met my host father as he was building an amario? (closet with drawers?) In any case, I was tired, so I unpacked, took a shower, and went to sleep. The next day we would be going to the family’s other house.
In any case, what a day! Getting there is certainly half the fun!
And the moral of the story is that exchange students are nice but, bring nice pins and they will jump you!
Beijos,
~ Sherise or Shereesee now…I guess silent e’s don’t exist here…even words without e’s seem to get e’s at the end as shown by my brother’s attempt to say “cook”. He says “Cookeh” Soooo cute!
Day 2
I woke up, at about 6. My host cousin and roommate had arrived sometime during the night. But I just lay there in bed until the sun rose and then I got up and greeted my host mother. “Bom dia” is pretty to say. I should wake up before noon more often.
I took some picture of the house and host mom let me take a walk around the condominio. It is a nice place, a woman was up early taking a power walk. We are also next to a park and some empty area that they were using for a “festas” the night before. So I suppose Brazil was singing my arrival!
I walk around the whole neighborhood. There weren’t many people out since it was still pretty early. Also, it is a very guarded area with a automatic gate at the front, and a electric fence and/or a wall with broken glass on top surrounding the whole thing.
When I came back, I found out that it was father’s day here. I wish I had a good gift!
I wished him father’s day in in the Portuguese my little brother taught me moments earlier. Then we ate breakfast, and my host dad found my broken Portuguese and my host mother’s broken English very humorous. Afterwards I relaxed on the hammock and Leo (my host brother) wanted to show me something. I still have no idea what is was, I just smiled, nodded, and said yes.
Then I watch a bit of the Olympics until it was time to go to the beach house. It was very pretty like a home out of a magazine, and there was even a maid. There was a little black boy with about 6 years named Paulo, who I later found was adopted. He kept staring at me. I guess maybe because I look normal, but I speak so weird.
There was also 15 year old girl who goes to the school next to mine, and later came a young boy and a girl at 16 and 17. Also there was a woman who spoke English, since she was an exchange student to Minnesota. I feel bad for cheating, but she turned into my translator.
The highlight of the day was me eating an octopus and my host dad asking if I like it. Well it wasn’t bad, but my brother’s explanation that is was like bubble gum was a bit unsettling.
All the adults went to take a nap while Leo and Paulo disappeared to the beach or something, leaving me with all these teen. It was an interesting and desperate conversation. Somehow despite their lack of English, they managed to ask me about George Bush.
Later we took a walk to the playground. And my host mom decided to go on this tire on a cord where you slide down. It was funny until the security guard told her to get off, then it was even more hilarious.
We came back and it was time to go. Leo fell asleep on me during the car ride, soooo cute! And now here I am typing three days worth of journals.
I hope my bag comes soon. I want my phrase book, real journal, and Bible. But I guess the fact that I got so far without my books is a feat in itself. Now, my next adventure is to figure out why this computer doesn’t like my digicam.
Well, até logo!
~ Shereesee
P.S. - Oh, and a cool thing, is that I just realized that my host mom used the itinerary that I translated instead of the orginal. Yay! I did it right, and she apparently understood, because I’m home! There’s hope in my Portuguese yet! Now to work on that tricky speaking part. I think I have writing it pretty good already, since I put my keyboard into Portuguese mode as soon as I found out my country so now I know where all the keys are with out looking. Já eu sei quando todos os acentos fica! ^`”纰ª§¹²³£¢¬
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