New York adeus!

Leaving the house at 2:30am is one of those awkward times where you are faced with the tough decision of whether to go to bed really early the night before, or skip out on bed entirely.  I made the decision to go to bed around 10pm and consider it a nap that would be continued later on during my fourteen hour flight to Sao Paulo.  Unfortunately, my poor father was forced to drive me and begin work before the sun came up at 4am.

My flight to Panama City went very well, which means I slept the majority of the time (despite waking for a delicious sausage and egg breakfast).  The layover was just an hour and before I knew it I was on my way to Sao Paulo.  Luckily, once again I managed to sleep and only wake up for my chicken raviolis and chicken wrap.

I arrived to Sao Paulo right on time (8:35pm) and made my way through customs and baggage check in a matter of ten minutes. I exited the airport where I was told that I would be met by a man holding a sign with my name. Yep, here I was in a country where I knew not a word of the language, waiting for a random man to come pick me up. I figured I was a bit early, so I wasn't too worried when it was 9:00pm and my name was nowhere in sight. Around 9:15pm the nerves must have kicked in and my sweat glands let loose. What if this was all a scam? I had no cell phone and wasn't sure what to do. I approached a man who seemed friendly and tried my best to communicate with him in the little Spanish that I knew, hoping that some of the words might be the same in Portuguese. "Tienes un telefono para mi?" I made my fingers into a telephone like shape and placed them up against my ears. He looked at me strangely. "Telefono," I repeated, and pointed at the number of the person I had been communicating with. He looked at the number and replied, "Muitos números," meaning "too many numbers." Shoot...

Just then I noticed a man briskly approaching me with a sign that read my name. Apparently my blonde hair, sweaty forehead and look of confusion in my eyes must have given me away. He walked me to a corner, pointed at a spot and mumbled something that ended with "aqui." I stood there for about five minutes as he ran off somewhere to do something and then came back to get me. "Falla Portuguese?" he said. "No, pero falo espanol un poco." That was the extent of our conversation. We got into the car and drove to a hotel to pick up Rachel, another American girl from California who was another native teacher that had arrived today. Rachel and I chatted most of the ride to Lins (at least until I passed out once again). Around 3am we arrived at our new home, unpacked some of our belongings and went to bed.