Travelling Sept. 13 and 14

Travelling:

The past two days have been a blur of airports, unsatisfying food, and most recently, an everlasting game of charades. Starting out from Spokane yesterday, a 5:20 wake up was early enough for me. A 2 and a half hour flight brought me to Phoenix, which until I looked it up on Google maps, I didn’t even know where it was. My neigh(boring) passenger also explained to me that it is the 5^th largest city in the States and in her opinion the best city on earth. Boarding another plane, I flew to Charlotte; a 4 hour flight. The lack of entertainment systems on the US airways planes was a little disappointing. So I settled for reading some magazines, books and watching some Glee. Again in Charlotte, my US geography failed me, and I realized that Charlotte is not on the coast, contrary to my beliefs.

After wandering around in Charlotte for an hour or so, I came upon another exchange student who was also travelling to Brazil. Henry and I chatted for a while, and appreciated the wireless internet, while charging our laptops. For anyone who ever decides to visit the Charlotte airport, I would highly recommend dinner at the Bagel shop, no idea what it’s real name is, but it had a very satisfyingly delicious bagel menu, so much that I could hardly believe that I was still in an airport. After a couple more hours of layover, Henry and I boarded the plane to Rio. I was seated at the back, with a window seat and an empty seat beside me, which I thought perfect for sleeping. However, Henry came to sit with me, and it was nice to have company.

A subpar meal of pasta and salad and a rock hard bun later, I fell asleep and got a good 6 hours of quality airplane rest. Again, a lack of onboard entertainment bored me slightly. Breakfast of a semi cemented croissant and a cookie filled me up, and then the plane started to descend into Rio.

Landing in Rio was slightly less eventful as one may have hoped. I saw a lot of houses, some of the more shanty town variety, and many with red roofs. I also saw a church and some of the coast, but none of the famous beaches. Thick grey smog smothered everything anyways, so my first impression of Rio de Janeiro wasn’t exactly of its profound beauty.

Flying into Rio

Customs in Rio went smoothly, although explaining to the person what syrup is proved to be a little difficult. Eventually, after telling him its liquid sugar from Canada, he gave up and just let me pass. After checking in our bags once again, Henry and I proceeded back through security in Rio, which I was surprised at the leniency of it. Apparently in Brazil, there are no regulations on liquids and gels, and my laptop didn’t even have to come out of its bag.

Once we got through security, we realized that there was very little to do once past security, and somewhat regretted hurrying back into the confines of an airport. There was a bookstore, a souvenir shop, and a café, and we had 6 hours to spend there.

After trying for about half an hour, I finally got onto wireless, and chatted with my mom for a while. But the internet didn’t work for very long, and then Henry and I resolved to watching some French animated movie that he had on his laptop. It was interesting… but helped to pass time. We tried some `guaranas`, which is some fruit flavoured soda, not sure which fruit it is though…

Henry and I

Finally, it was time to board the flight to Sao Paulo, where I met my host parents. The airline for that flight was much nicer than US airways. Once the plane took off, it kind of hit me that I was headed for a world where I wouldn’t understand anything. Landing in Sao Paulo was similar to Rio, a huge spread of houses and slums covered in a layer of grey smog.

When I got off the plane in Sao Paulo, I hurried to the baggage claim to get my luggage, and meet my family. Renata and Vinicius were waiting right outside with a sign and my name. After a somewhat awkward meeting, they phoned Bia, my host sister, and she translated for me what Renata wanted to say to me. We grabbed a bottle of water (which we sat down, poured into glasses, and drank) and then headed out of the airport. As much as I had hoped that I would magically understand and be able to communicate in Portuguese, it didn’t happen. I can understand more than I can talk for sure, and I can read better than I understand when people are talking. I’m not sure if my French is going to help me much here, because all it has done so far is confused me. I find myself translating everything to French, and then to Portuguese. Also, I start to speak in French, with the few Portuguese words that I know thrown into the mix, and this doesn’t get me very far, or help anyone to understand me.

We went outside and found the car, and ‘tetris’ed my 2 suitcases into the back, and headed out of the city. Traffic in Brazil doesn’t seem to follow the same rules as in Canada, but at least they drive on the same side of the road as us. As we sped along the highways, motorcycles use the space between cars on the 4 lane road as passing lanes, honking as they go along to warn people they are coming. You’d have to be a little reckless to drive like that, but apparently, many people are. It took about 2 hours of driving at 120km/h or more until the city started to fade away into more countryside kind of area.

We stopped at a rest stop kind of area for some dinner around 7:30pm (I think…). Renata ordered a sandwich thing for us to share. I think it had cheese and chicken on it, and a few other things. Back in the car, we continued on the ‘Autoban’ as I think it’s called. The speed limit is 120km/h most of the way, so we were driving at 140 usually. About each 50 or 100 km there were toll booths, where the toll was from 3 reals to 11 reals. Adding it up, I imagine it would get expensive to make a long trip along the autoban.

I slept most of the 7 hour drive to Votuporanga, but when Vinicius said ‘chegamos’ (we are arriving) I was very happy. He parked the car in the underground parking of the apartment, and we took the elevator up to the 7^th floor. It was about 1:00 in the morning.

I tried for a while to connect to their wireless internet, but I ended up having to use their computer (with a different keyboard) to tell my parents that I arrived safely. After a well needed shower, I crashed in my room and lay down savouring the feeling of a bed to sleep in. From my room, I could hear traffic, someone snoring, as well as some roosters crowing somewhere. I’m not sure where they are, but I was definitely surprised to hear such sounds in the middle of a city. It was really hot even at night in the apartment, I didn’t even use any blankets.