Week 1

I am blessed.

I got here just before a fun holiday, São João! Which meant Pedro had a lot of time off to hang out with me.

Maybe you saw my Facebook post about it, if not, here is a snippet of Pedro driving me around the neighborhood to check out the fires in the streets.

It's a lot of dancing and dressing up.

I was excited about the dress up, but Pedro said just the kids do that. Bummer. He was right only the kids were really dressed up in the street, I would have looked a little silly... but I still would have done it if I had the stuff!

We ate some food. I don't remember what this is called, but Pedro seemed to like it!

There are a lot of foods made from corn during this festival. My favorite was munguzá. I wanted to find you cool recipe so you could try it at home. The best I could find in English was the following blog: (click the picture and scroll down to the recipe)

BTW, It looks super fancy in this picture but I ate it out of a plastic cup served out of an old rustic giant pot.

You should really try it. It's good!

Traveling

Well,
I was pleasantly surprised! I was really really dreading this whole fly half-way across the world thing... I assumed it was going to be a nightmare. I haven't been a huge fan of flying ever since my flight home from Brazil in November. I had to muster up some courage before I could face the three legs of flying I was about to endure. Two of them were overnight. WOW. I really didn't get that much sleep yet I still arrived energetic.

Saving grace number one: My aunt Marilyn and her husband Matt.

I happened to have a 14 hour layover after my first overnight flight. Luckily it was in Atlanta so my Aunt could entertain me! She was also kind enough to let me sleep a lot.

Here is a list of my activities:

1. I had a yummy smoothie
2. I took a nap
3. We went to the Art museum!
4. We ate at Chick-fil-a (We enjoyed delicious peach milkshakes)
5. I took another good nap
6. We checked out a great bar/grill, where I met asparagus fries, which I think about frequently ever since...
All along I enjoyed the beautiful scenery of Atlanta, GA. It really is a beautiful and interesting city.

Saving grace number two: Empty plane

Just before my second flight I bought one of those fancy neck pillows to see if it would help me sleep.

Turns out I didn't need it. No one was assigned to sit in the seat next to me. I was sad that the entertainment system wasn't working, (there were some interesting films listed on there) but I didn't complain because being able to lay over the seat next to me made it totally forgettable. It still wasn't perfect. I had to scrunch up to fit. I woke up frequently. Nonetheless the experience was wildly different than my last multi-day trip.

Saving grace number three: A few extra Zs

The last leg was glorious. I didn't like to have to collect my bags and wait through lines, but I was just so excited to be so close to Recife that nothing could bring me down. I slept just a little more on my wee little 2 hour flight. (I had to make use of that fancy neck pillow)

I arrived there and walked through the doors to see Pedro waiting. That was a well-needed "like home" feeling to finish off my traveling.