Adventure Begins..

Ok...so finally, an official post to tell you about how I have been! I left Edmonton last Wed morning at 7:00am from the airport, sad to leave, and tired because it was early, but on my way! I arrived in Toronto about 3 hours later and spent the majority of the day there, sitting in the airport, mostly online, and somewhat on the phone, waiting, waiting, waiting. Finally, I left for my flight to Sao Paulo, I was tired, but not overly and expected to sleep most of the 9.5 hour flight. However, my feet could not touch the ground properly in the chair, making the flight very uncomfortable and my sleep very difficult, I think I might have slept about 3 hours in total. When I arrived in Sao Paulo I had to switch to a smaller, local airport. Oh no! Lol. But it turned out ok because there was a lovely lady who sat beside me on the plane who could speak both English and Portuguese, she helped me to catch the bus (the bus ride was about 50 minutes) but unfortunately she had left something behind on the plane and wanted to go back and check for it. So I arrived at the airport and found where I needed to check in, although it seemed nobody was speaking English, although a lot of people do know a little English it is not common at all. So I waited in line anxiously, hearing things called over the loud speakers, but not understanding anything, I could tell they were calling for flights and check-ins, but I didn't know how to ask in Portuguese and so I continued waiting in line. Luckily by the time they started calling my flight, the lady who had helped me before suddenly appeared behind me again! :-) She had made it back and helped get me to the front of the line to get my boarding passes, and then went with me to show me where the gate was...she was awesome!!! So I arrived at my gate just after the boarding was to have started, but I learned quickly that Brazilian time is also slow...they were still boarding the previous flight, we did not start boarding our flight until after it was supposed to have departed, but either way I had made it. I had lots of trouble staying awake on the flight from Sao Paulo to Brasilia, even though it was only about 1.5 hours, I was DEAD TIRED! So when I arrived I went to get my baggage and was very slow...but when I went through the exit I found my host family and about 4-5 AIESEC people waiting to greet me, with flowers and gifts :-) It was nice to know someone was there to take care of me, but all I wanted was a shower, and a bed! The family brought me to what is to be my new home and I took a fairly quick shower, as they wanted to go out and eat something. (See previous post) That night I slept well and didn't wake up until almost noon the next day. This house is great, the mom cooks meals, so everyday I get breakfast and lunch ;)

The first day I was here we went to the mall for a bit, and inquired about cellphones for me. Since I have been here I have gone out a couple of times. I went with Cris to meet a guy from AIESEC called Enzo for dinner one night at a resturant near the lake, he also brought a friend who spoke English well because he had studied in the US and his friend who is Canadian and works at the embassy here. It was nice to be around people who spoke English.





Then Cris and I went to a workmate of hers birthday party at a beautiful house. It was a low-key business type party, nothing too exciting, but very nice people.

On Sunday I woke up early with Cris and we went with a NGO she works with called Gente Nova (New Person) to visit and play with some children. The 'director' explained to us that in the area all the parents that lived there had HIV and some of the children did as well. We sang songs and colored and brought them candy, they were sooo sweet, I only wish I had been able to talk to them. Some of the older ones tried to speak to me, and Cris explained that I don't understand Portuguese, so then they wanted to learn things to say to me in English, it was very nice, they were quick learners!





When we got home we went out for lunch (the Dad, Patri, Nanda, Cris and I...the Mom wasn't feeling well) and then went to the mall to get my cellphone!!! Yeah!!! We also stopped to visit some friends of the girls, by the end of this day, I was very, very tired! And today was pretty slow. I woke up late because I had been so tired and started to work on the presentation I have to make about Canada. Later in the afternoon I went with the Mom for a walk to Politec (which is where I will work, and its very, very close by) and then around the City Park here, which is very HUGE and beautiful. This evening Patri and I went out to a fairly fancy place with some of her friends for dinner, it was one of their birthdays, nice dinner, very business like as well. And now I am here writing to all of you, hoping that everyone is well. I miss you all very much, I am having a good time in Brasilia so far, but stressed a lot about the language barrier and anxious to start work and see how that goes. I was told that I didn't need to know Portuguese to work at Politec, and I hope that is correct, otherwise this will be a very difficult barrier. Take care everyone, lots of love and please send me emails and leave me comments.....I miss you!!