Initial re-entry impressions / culture shock (written 6am at the Miami airport)

It started when I caught the ônibus executivo from the city center of Belo Horizonte to the airport…

Straight from the streets of the favela to a bus full of business men dressed in fancy suits talking and negotiating business deals on their cell phones… Brazilians, but not the kind I lived among the past 16 months. They looked quite accustomed to travelling for business, whereas most of the Brazilians I met and lived among had never flown on a plane, and many had never left the city or been on a vacation.

On the plane…

I remember always complaining about airplane food as a kid, but as I was served free dinner and breakfast on my flight, I was quite thankful, and thought the food was actually pretty good. After rice and beans and more rice and beans when you can’t eat beans, perhaps that explains it! ;) The coffee was awful though, my coffee taste has become more refined during my time in Brazil as nothing compares to properly brewed Três Corações…I will just have to quit drinking coffee again now that I am back.

Then I arrive in the Miami airport…

SPANISH. SPANISH. MORE SPANISH. Time to learn how to switch between Portuguese and Spanish, Stefanie. I still understand Spanish but I am afraid that as I start speaking it again more frequently I will mess up my Portuguese…which I had finally just almost dug all of my Spanish out of…after over a year!

Then I needed something to drink, so I bought an açaí-blueberry-pomegranate flavored vitamin water, because I already miss açaí. It cost over $3 – that’s like R$6, more than it costs for a 500mL crème de açaí at the best açaí place in Belo. And...it tastes like….BUBBLEGUM! Hmm…contains less than 1% juice, that must be why! Unfortunately, I did not come up with a way to smuggle fresh açaí back into the country…..

The Lighthouse really became my home. I already miss walking the streets of the favela and running into girls from my group, their families, or others I know. It’s amazing how you can totally plop yourself down in another world in less than 24 hours (provided that you have the necessary $$$ and visas/documents).

Esquecí uma coisa muito importante na Luzeiro! Quem sabe o que que é? Eu acho que pelo menos a Barbara sabe, se ela já achou meu blog! Até esquecí de despedir dela e seu companheiro barulento...tadinha!