Brazil, I'm here

At the airport I meet my partner in crime, Amber, and the other interns Kristy, Theresa, and Veronica (but we’ll just call her Vilma not to confuse anyone). For the next 6 months, Kristy and Theresa will be working in Manaus, Brazil while Vilma will continue on to Argentina. I had spent the last 2 weeks training with them at Niagara College and now we are off to our assigned posts.

We would be flying from Toronto to Detroit, Detroit to Sao Paulo. During the 10hr flight, they played Jane Eyre and Life As We Know It (Juntos Pelo Acaso)...in Portuguese. While I slept through the first movie, I stayed up watching the second movie. I found the Portuguese dubs to be hilariously amusing. Despite my lack of knowledge of the Portuguese language, I was still able to follow and pick up on random expressions they would repeat: "tudo bom, querida, ta bom!" Watching Portuguese shows every day will help to better improve my knowledge of the language...I can’t wait to watch Brazil’s world famous Telenovelas!

In Sao Paulo's Guarulhos airport, our group of five split-up and went our separate ways. Now it’s just me and Amber on the last leg of our journey. Assuming I would enjoy the last 4 hours in the air sleeping, about 30mins after take-off I was awoken by the plane’s tires rolling against the ground. We have landed, but not in Fortaleza. We have returned to Guarulhos airport. Since their intercom announcements have been in Portuguese, which I plan on learning, Amber and I are left confused over what has happened. From what I can gather from the girl sitting beside me, a little girl got sick and was being escorted off the plane. We are already 2 hours delayed from take off.

...Correction: We are now 4hrs late for take-off >_>...

What was supposed to be a 3.5hr flight turned into 7.5hrs of sitting in the same plane, that wasn’t even in the air for most of the time. However, I did try to be productive with my extended time spent on the plane. Sitting beside me was Beatrice from Sau Paulo (I remember her name because it’s what I named my first car, oh how I miss that car). This 16 year old paulistanos became our Portuguese teacher. With her broken English, she taught us phrases that would come in handy and slang. I’m sure she’ll go back to school and talk about the funny Canadian girls she met on the plane.

Useful Portuguese phrases

After 24hrs of traveling, we finally land at the airport in Fortaleza around 5pm. Exhausted and hungry, our host, Sarah, warmly welcomes us and drives us to our hotel. Finally, a bed, a nice warm bed. Brazil, I’m here...