Brazil Day 1!

Day 1 in Brazil!
Howdy Family and Friends! We have finally landed in Rio de Janerio, Brazil! After spending 26 hours in airports and airplanes, we were met by Eduardo with an STS sign welcoming us to Brazil!
Our journey started off in all reality on November 1 at around 7 a.m. It was a day full of activities and then finally packing around 11 p.m. that night. Why so late? Well, that’s just how the day went. After spending over 5 ½ hours in the dentist office for me due to complications and adverse reactions to some of the procedures, it was 7:10 when I finally got home. Such fun!
At 3:00 a.m. we left our home to head to Grand Island to catch the first of three planes. A quick stop to Wal-Mart to buy batteries and run through at McDonalds, we arrived at the airport—before the employees!
We checked in our bags and began our journey. Our very small flight took off at 7 a.m. and we landed in Dallas, Texas at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport! But instead of taking us to Brazil, we again boarded a little bigger jet and headed to New York, La Guardia Airport. After arriving there, we had to collect our luggage and then make our way over to John F. Kennedy International Airport 12 miles away! A nightmare you say, we agree. The Foundation booked our tickets without reviewing them too closely. Oh well, new territory to discover and in a limo none the less!

After a nap in the airport next to our concourse during the nine hour layover, we finally boarded the plane. We watched Mr. Poppers Penguins and ate a delicious chicken and pasta dinner . Of course our eyelids were quite heavy, but sleeping on a plane is not necessarily the easiest! Luckily, Dave and I had 3 seats for the two of us and I could stretch out across them. The next thing we know, we were waking up to breakfast being served and trying to fill out customs forms written in Portuguese!
After disembarking the plane ,we were met in the airport by security guards who said, “Brazilian’s here. You foreigners, over there.” What a greeting to say the least.

We made our way through the line,got our passports stamped and retrieved our luggage.
We then boarded a bus with 4 other people and drove through the slums of Brazil and heavy traffic to our airport. I would love to tell you where we are, but I haven’t got a clue how we got to where we are. But I will tell you about the traffic we encountered! The taxis and buses like we were on move through traffic as though they own the streets. They have 4 lanes of traffic clearly marked but in all actuality, there are six lines of cars! The motorcycles drive the lines between the cars and honk as they pass you by. On certain streets when you are stuck in traffic, people work the streets with pop, fruit, candy and all sorts of snacks to sell you. We were told when you saw these people working the streets, the traffic was really jammed and plan on being there for a while!

After arriving at our hotel, we found our room (803) and tried to figure out how to turn lights on! Go ahead and laugh, but as you walk in the door you must insert your key into another scanner and that turns on everything electrical in your room! That took us about 5 minutes to figure that out. When we did, everything from the TV to the A/C turned on as well as every light in the room and bathroom! The only thing that didn’t turn on was the water!

At noon we met up with Thiago (our foreign exchange student from 2006-07) and his Aunt Amelia and we hopped in a taxi and headed to the Brazilian BBQ restaurant Porqui which translates to ‘Big Pig’! While Thiago lived with us he continually talked about his beloved Picanah—which would be similar to Prime Rib only much, MUCH better! At this restaurant, when seated, they give you a circle that is red on one side and green on the other. After going through a monster salad bar that had everything from fish to sushi, to heart of palms, cheese blocks, breads, pastries, rice…I could go on, it was simply amazing and colorful! I didn’t know a carrot could look like a flower!!!

Then the magic happened! We turned our circles over to the green side and 5 waiters circled our table and began to offer meat after meat after meat! Chicken, chicken hearts, leg of lamb, a pig—yes a pig that was cooked and then you picked out your cut right at your table, picanah, our favorite thanks to Thiago, filet minon, you name it, you had it! Then after stuffing yourself like a pig (maybe that’s why they call the restaurant what they do!) they came back and offered dessert! Not just one or two choices, but 10 choices! Simply amazing!
Our next item on the agenda was to tour with Thiago’s family. While we had great fun doing that, Dave and I were exhausted. We came back to our hotel around 4, and fell into bed waking up just in time to meet the other reps that are here and have appetizers and drinks with them on the top of our hotel! What a night to say the least. After this was over, Dave and I went for a short walk on the town and found ourselves at McDonalds for ice cream and then a 24 hour grocery store because we were told not to drink the water here. What an interesting day. From my Brazilian picture window to yours, have a great day!