I finally arrived in Sao Paulo yesterday (I say ¨finally¨ because it seems like I´ve been thinking/talking about this trip for over two years.). My flight out of Detroit was delayed two hours, which left me with less than 30 minutes to catch my plane in Atlanta. Talk about pressure. I did not want to spend the night in the airport. I made it on board with 10 minutes to spare.
The flight from Atlanta to Sao Paulo takes nine hours - that´s about three times longer than I´ve ever spent on one plane. My long legs were not looking forward to it. I survived (that may be a theme for these first few weeks) a night of awkward positions, however, and the plane touched down in Sao Paulo at 8:30 AM local time.
After an hour and a half wait to recieve my little slip of paper from the foreign police (It is a very important little slip of paper I guess.), I made it to baggage claim only to discover that my bags were not nearly as savvy at navigating an international airport on a tight deadline as I am. I wasn´t too surprised, but few things are as discouraging as the realization that you are in a foreign land without fresh underwear.
I met up with Paulo and Fabio around 11 AM (They had been waiting at the aiport since 7:30!), and we spent the next hour figuring out where we go to report lost luggage. Eventually, we found the proper hole in the wall. They said my bags would be delivered to me the next day. They better be.
From the airport we drove to the apartment I´ll be living in beginning in mid-January. For the first three weeks, I´m living in a different apartment. Paulo pointed out where my university was from the highway, but all I could see was the stone barricade. Still, it seems very close to the new apartment. The new place is located at the corner of Rua Natingui and Rua Vupabussu (try pronouncing that correctly) and has a really nice gym with a swimming pool, hot tub and even a racquetball court. I think I could get used to this.
Driving around Sao Paulo, I observed that stop lights are more like suggestions than anything else and the people on small motorcycles (called ¨motos¨) are crazy. They weave in and out of traffic, they drive in-between cars. Unbelievable.
The roads are in bad shape in some places, but overall pretty good. We stopped at an Etna´s last night to buy stuff for the new place. It was the largest furnishing store I´ve ever seen. Everyting seemed a little on the expensive side, but not extremely so. To estimate how much things cost in dollars I just divide the price by two. The exchange rate from reals to dollars is something like 2.14.
It is surprising to turn on the radio and hear the same freakin´ songs played in America - although Kelly Clarkson sounds great no matter where you are living. Even the Brazilian singers mix english into their songs.
I think I´ll be eating out quite a bit because Paulo and Fabio keep absolutely nothing in their refrigerator. Yesterday, we ate at a mall food court for lunch and a Chipotle-type place, Black Dog, for dinner - that is if Chipotle served hot dogs with corn, tomatoes, cheese and mashed potatoes on top instead of burritos. It was actually pretty good.
Our New Year´s plans have changed due to another outbreak of organized gang violence in Rio de Janeiro. I think we´ll be staying in Sao Paulo instead. So much for beautiful beaches and the Black-eyed Peas.
The clothes that I arrived in are just disgusting at this point, so I am eagerly awaiting my luggage. Right now if I look out my bedroom window, I see buildings and more buildings well into the horizon. I don´t see any favelas from here though.
On a final note, I have to share this one incident that took place yesterday morning while waiting in line for the foreign police.
I was standing behind this elderly couple from some place in Europe I think, and I offered the man some Dentyne Ice chewing gum. He accepted, but he struggled with puncturing the foil and extracting the piece. His two attempts ended with the white squares falling to the floor. I picked both of them up and offered to open the packaging myself and give him a fresh piece, but he insisted on taking one that had fallen on the floor. So I opened my palm saying, ¨OK, whatever.¨ and he took one and put it in his mouth.
Should I be disgusted because he just put something in his mouth that was lying on an airport floor? Or should I be grateful that he didn´t waste any more of my chewing gum? I´m sure I´ll be able to decide once I put on a fresh pair of underwear.
Post update: My luggage arrived the next night. (sigh of relief)
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