Day 21 - Going Home

I'm going home today.  Hopefully we will get a chance to see the Christ the Redeemer statue.  I have to be out of the hotel by noon and our flight doesn't leave until 9 PM.  I'll be home tomorrow!  Can't wait.

Day 17 - Lutherans Don't Sit in the Front Row

Empty front row - very Lutheran.

I went to church today at a Brazilian Lutheran Church.  A few people spoke English, but the service was in Portuguese.  I was able to converse with a number of people.  It was mainly the older members who spoke English, which I thought was interesting.  It was a multi-national service, as we had people from Germany, the US (me) and all parts of Brazil.  And one thing I found out about Lutherans the world over - they don't like to sit in the first pew.

The church itself is small, we had about 15 last week, and maybe 30 this week.  I was told that it is one of two Lutheran churches in Niteroi, a city of 600,000 people.  The other Lutheran church is affiliated with the Missouri Synod.  This one is affiliated with the ELCA.  All the music was played by the pastor on her guitar.  Their hymnal is a tiny little book with thin pages that contains the entire Bible, the hymns, the settings and the catechism.  The hymns only had words - there were no notes.  That was ok though - I had a hard enough time reading Portuguese and trying to pronounce the words correctly.  Following the melody was easy in comparison.

The pastor at the pulpit.

Of course I didn't understand the sermon, so I didn't feel too bad about my mind wandering.  I got the gist of it, which was that God is our Father.  It was an appropriate topic since its Father's Day here in Brazil.  When we got to the Nicene creed, I followed along in English.  If you think remembering the new creed is hard, trying remembering it when everyone else is speaking a different language!  The Lord's Prayer was easier.  I have lots of practice saying the older one when people are using the newer one.  So I followed along, and the prayer had the same cadence in Portuguese, which was really cool.


It was a communion Sunday - which they once a month.  It was a very different experience.  This church is very progressive because they let children take communion.  It's a hot topic, one which was part of a talk we got last week after church.  There were slides and everything.  Anyway, in this church, everyone takes communion at the same time.  We went up to the alter and stood in a circle around it.  Then the bread gets passed around in a small bowl.  The person passing you the bowl says, "The body of Christ given for you."  (Though of course they say it in Portuguese.)  Then you take the bowl and a piece of bread (whole wheat) and pass it to the next person.  Then the pastor comes around with a common cup.  Or if you wanted grape juice, you could grab a double shot of that from the altar.  When we were done, we all held hands and prayed together before going back to our seats.  It was a much more intimate experience than what I'm used to, and definitely less of a personal one.  It was the kind of thing I would have expected at a youth retreat.

Communion. The woman in the wheelchair is receiving the host (bread) from the woman on her left holding the bowl of bread.  The girl to her right is holding grape juice.

After communion, the kids who had been in Sunday school until communion, told us what they had learned in Sunday school.  I was unsure if this was a common occurrence or not.  Since it was Father's Day, it may not have been.  Last week there were no kids because everyone was on winter break.  I was told that normally Sunday school is before church, but it was the end of winter break so no one got up early enough to do Sunday school before church.  Time is a very fluid thing here in Brazil.  The only part that I understood from their lesson was that they made their own grape juice.  You can't see it in the picture because the red headed boy is holding the cup with two hands.

After church it was time for coffee - and these cookies that are pure sugar.  I was told they're made like marshmallows.  The woman who made them was 82 years old.  She spoke English rather well and was telling me how she's struggling to learn the computer.  She said speaking German or English is easy because she's been doing it all her life, but learning how to use the computer is hard.  Everyone stood around drinking coffee and eating cookies.  The coffee in Brazil is very strong, and you drink it in tiny little teacups, like what you would see in a little girl's play tea set.  In fact my daughter has cups the right size for Brazilian coffee. :)  They also aren't ashamed to add sugar to it.  One of their sugar packets probably contains what would be in 2 or 3 of ours.

The guy taking pictures is a pastor from Germany who had been a pastor in the south of Brazil and he and his wife were in town visiting friends.   The lady in the green coat in the first picture was my translator.  She sat next to me during the service and kept up a running commentary on what was going on.  Last Sunday when we met she asked where I was from.  I told her Virginia.  She said, "Oh I'm going there in October to visit friends!"  I asked her where in Virginia, and she told me Charlottesville.  I told her, "That's where I work!"  It really is a small world.

Day 13 - Rain, rain go away.

Woke up.  Still raining.  I haven't seen the sun in three days.  Jesse fixed the TV.  Apparently the cable box only turns on if you use the remote.  They have four channels here called TeleCine.  They show movies all day long.  They are titled, Premium, Action, Light, Pipoca and Cult.  I've watched a lot of movies in the last week.  Transformers 2, The Transporter 2, Wild Child, some movie with John Candy as a con man, some movie with Reese Witherspoon as a Victorian nanny, Bloodsport, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, some movie about four black kids who become crack dealers in Boston, and a bunch of other random stuff.

Today though I spent the day figuring out how much longer we needed to be here so we could reschedule our tickets.  We're going to be leaving on the 12th of August.  I knew it was a possibility, and I thought I had grown accustomed to the idea, but I'm really bummed.  Everyone is going to be going to the Watermelon Festival and I'm going to miss it.  I'm also going to miss going to Sarah's play with Kristin.  This new job is kind of tearing all my personal plans to shreds.  It's a quite a downer.

I keep telling myself I'm in Brazil, but I could be in a hotel room anywhere in the world where I can't talk to anyone, the service sucks and the food is worse.

I found out at the end of the day that everything I've done for the past two days needs to be redone because my equipment was broken.  I can't tell you how excited I am about that.

I'm going to watch The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift on TeleCine Action.  I don't expect it to be good - just to get me out of here for two hours.

Day 12 - I'll trade you Internet for TV

Got up. Showered. Went back to sleep. Got up. Ate breakfast.  They had Pau De Queijo at breakfast.  Cheesy bread puffs.  Delicious.  Went back upstairs.  Started working.

Jesse came and asked if I'd checked my email this morning.  I hadn't.  I tried.  Internet was working!  I checked my mail.  Internet stopped working.  Called my boss to reply to email.  Spent the next 6 hours creating a report for the customer so they would hopefully allow us to purchase the last 20 phones we need so that we can come home!  Had to write the report on the bed, plugged into the wall because that was the only way to do the research I needed.  At least the Internet was working.

Computer ran out of power as I was finishing the report.  Came back into the living room to finish it.  Plugged the router back into the wall and went into the setup menu to try and re-configure it.  Changed the timezone to Brazil.  Suddenly it started working.  It was slow, but functional.  Yay!

Took a break when the maid came.  Made a ham sandwich and ate part of an avacado the size of my forearm.  Discovered that arugula is not my favorite lettuce replacement.  Tested a few more phones.  Tools that have been broken for days miraculously started working - but I have no idea why.

Went to dinner in the hotel dining room.  My sister called.  Talked to her for a few minutes.  That was nice.  We got a fried shrimp appetizer that cost $17.  Would've been better if we'd gotten it at Red Lobster.  I decided to try an Italian dish tonight.  Chicken, ham and peas in noddles with a "cream" sauce.  I was sadly disappointed, but not surprised.  I don't imagine there was any actual cream or even milk in that sauce.  Chef Boyardee could have done a better job.  I hate this hotel.

Came back from dinner.  Fixed some more stuff.  Worked some more.  When Jesse left at 8:30, decided to watch some TV while I worked.  Cable box was off, which was weird.  Had to fiddle with the jury-rigged power outlet to get it back on.  Nothing.  TV is now dead.  I'd try the one in my room, but the Wireless router is plugged into the power outlet reserved for the TV.  After a week with no Internet up here I'm not screwing with that router.

It drizzled all day.  First day it's been cold here.

Day 11 - It was a good day.

Woke up. Took a shower. Forgot to shave. Got a call from the Boys & Girls Club of Waynesboro. My kids are off the waiting list! It will cost me $20 per kid for after school care for the entire school year! I may not go bankrupt this year. Only problem: They need the admission forms filled ASAP. I won't be back until the 7th or possibly the 15th of August. My mom won't be back until the 22nd. I start calling people to see if someone can fill the forms out for me. Finally I get a hold of my neighbor. She does it for me. Best thing that's happened to me since before I left.

Went down to breakfast. It was the first time in over a week since I've been able to even eat breakfast. They took my plates away before I finished eating. I chugged some yogurt juice to finish it off. Jesse and I worked in the hotel room. One of our 6 test phones ran out of minutes. We checked the rest and they were all down to a couple of bucks left.

We went back to the mall. We ate at a fast food restaurant. I got a smoothie and a hamburger which turned out to be grade E flank steak covered in Russian salad dressing on a bun. Cost about $10. Luckily the smoothie was amazing.

Went to get the phones recharged at the same place as before. After we typed the phone numbers for all 6 phones (10 digits each) into a credit card keypad, they ran Jesse's credit card. It didn't work. So we had to re-enter all 6 numbers and we tried his card again. It still didn't work. So we entered them all again and tried my card. Surprise! It worked! Oh wait, no it didn't. :( So then we had to do each purchase separately.

While the cashier and Jesse are ringing up each purchase, I call VISA to see if this is a problem on their end. Nope. In fact, the purchase went through every time we tried. Three $170 purchases have registered on our cards. We request they deny those charges. Good thing I called.

We go to a nearby grocery store. I buy food because it's cheaper than using the crappy snacks in the hotel - and the fancy hotel restaurant is like eating at a cheap crappy diner that tries to look fancy and overcharges for your meals. The most expensive cut of steak I could find was $3.50 a pound. I do not have high hopes for it. I think the USA keeps all the good cuts of meat and these guys only get the leftovers. My credit card doesn't work again when we get to the register. The total? About $60. I pay cash. The guy doesn't give me my change. When I point this out, he sheepishly tries to get the register open, can't, and hands it to me. I realize he was trying to pocket it hoping I wouldn't notice. I'm not surprised - hardly anyone here ever gives you change.

Back to the hotel to work. Things go well. One of my tools stops working. I need an authorization code. Multiple trips down to the wireless router in the lobby (I'm on the top floor - 8), I have the information I need. I'm now sitting here downloading the files I need very slowly. I decide to write this.

Time to go do more work - then maybe cook something for dinner if I'm up for it. On the bright side I haven't been able to eat much lately. Hopefully I'm losing weight.

Day 2 - Planes, trains and airport shuttles. Nothing went right.

I woke up about 5:45, hopped in the shower and was out the door at 6.  As I was halfway down the hall, I heard a phone ringing.  I realized it was probably the front desk calling to ask where I was.  I had signed up to leave on the shuttle at 6 am.  Our new flight boarded at 8:30 and I wanted to get there early.  I ran like crazy down the hall , down the stairs and into the lobby.  Sure enough, they were calling me.

I hopped into the shuttle next to Eric and another guy I had rode in with last night.  When we got to the airport, they had to check their bags.  I told them I would meet them inside and headed for the security checkpoint.  I never saw them again.

The line was short and I was able to go right into the scanner.  I emptied everything into the bins in what would become a routine I was very familiar with by the end of the day.  Pockets, money belt, shoes, two laptops.  I walked through the scanner without issue.  Then something came up in my bag.  "Sir, do you have any knives or other sharp objects?"

"No.  I have some computer cables, but everything came through fine before."

"Sir, do I have permission to search your bag?"

"Sure."

They pulled out my fudge.  Turns out because I got the peanut butter fudge, I couldn't take it with me.  I had to exit and eat it - not the breakfast I was craving - or throw it in the trash.  I threw it away.  What a waste.

I made it to the terminal without issue a few minutes later.  I was apparently very early, because no one else was at the gate, so I got a bagel with the airline-supplied meal voucher and sat down to read and wait.  Next to me a few people were talking.  Apparently their flight was canceled.  They then started talking about how they had spent all night in the terminal.  I began to get a sinking get a sinking feeling.  "Were you on the flight to Rio?"  I asked.  Indeed they were.  Later I found out that US Airlines had flown another plane in overnight, but they couldn't find a crew to fly it.  So they canceled our flight for the second time.

We spent 5 hours in this line.

The next 5 hours were a nightmare of standing in line with two hours of sleep hoping to get tickets to Rio when all the flights were already full for the next week.  We ended up calling the airline 5 times between the two of us while we were in line.  By 10:30 we had a flight that left at 11:00 for JFK, but we couldn't check our bags so that was canceled.  By 11:00 we had a flight that left at 1:30 for Newark.  But we still had to wait in line for a hotel voucher, meal vouchers and travel vouchers.  By noon we had everything.  We would fly to Newark, take a shuttle to JFK, and they were putting us up in the JFK Plaza Hotel!  Things were looking up.

We went to Chili's for lunch.

Planes,

We boarded the plane for Newark.  When we got there we had to take a shuttle to JFK.  The shuttle driver offered to drop us off at the hotel, so we called the hotel to make sure the driver knew where they were.  The hotel did not have our reservation.  We would have to pay $200 each for rooms.  We had them drop us off at the US airways terminal.

We went inside to get things sorted out.  The US Airways terminal was closing.  We managed to catch a couple of employees who were chatting.  We told them the problem with the hotel room cost.  One of them changed the amount on the voucher to cover the rooms, and they sent us on to the hotel.

and Automobiles

Trains,

We hopped onto the train at the airport and took it to Federal Circle.  We looked for the hotel shuttle we were assured would be there.  Logos for many hotels were painted on the sides of buses and vans.  Nothing for the Plaza Hotel however.  We asked around, and someone pointed it out to us.  It was a run-down passenger van.  Someone had printed out "Plaza Hotel" on computer paper, and they had taped it to the passenger window.  Oh crap.

When we got there the lobby was amazing.  Then we turned the corner.  The wall behind the counter was drywall painted like something out of a home decoration show.  You could still see the screws in the wall.  We got in line at the desk, hoping they would have rooms for us.  There were three people at the desk and three people in line in front of us.  We waited for half an hour.  While we did, people came downstairs and complained about their rooms being dirty when they checked in, their air conditioning not working, and there being no towels in their rooms.

We went with a faux-wood finish for the wall, but decided to go with white trash craptastic for the door.

I reached the desk with dread in my heart.  If they didn't have rooms, no amount of yelling or cajoling would move these people.  We were so screwed.  We gave them our voucher.  We weren't on the list.  Before we could say anything, another girl at the counter said, "US Airways?"  We responded in the affirmative.  "We have rooms for you."

We went to our rooms.  Jesse saw a maid's cart and stole two towels from it.  It was a good thing, because neither of our rooms had towels.  Mine also didn't have any lights.  They were all burnt out with the exception of the entry light.  At this point it was 9pm.  We didn't care.

The entrance to the Plaza dining room.

We went down to the Plaza restaurant for dinner and were overcharged for poor quality food.  Our drinks came in cans.  We both called friends in New York, but they were busy.  So we ended up chatting with the waitress and a little boy with his grandmother - the only other people in the restaurant.  The waitress was from Russia.  She had been in New York for two weeks.  She informed us that the hotel we were in was an overflow hotel.  All its guests were people who had canceled flights.

$6 for a soggy piece of inedible frozen apple pie.

Time for bed.  I should have been in Rio this morning.  Maybe tomorrow.

Day 1 - It started out as a good day...

The day started out great.  I got to Richmond early and browsed in the Borders for half an hour.  I found a book that I haven't been able to find for about six months, along with an omnibus version of the two preceding books with new material!  When I purchased them I received a $5 gift certificate, so I bought another book.  Had a great lunch with a friend, and then dropped off a graduation present.

Went to Kristin's house to drop off my car.  We hung out for a bit and then headed to the Richmond airport.  Check-in was a breeze.  I swiped my passport, got my boarding pass and checked my luggage.  Then I got to security.  I was carrying two laptops, so I had to take those out of the bag I was carrying.  I then had to empty both of my jeans pockets, remove my belt and camera, and take the stuff out of my breast pocket.  One of the security guards kept droning, "Remove all metal objects or you will be subject to a pat down."

It was at this point that I realized I was wearing a money belt under my clothes that had zippers on it.  I had to untuck my shirts and pull off the money belt.  Then I realized I was still wearing my shoes.  I now had five tubs filled with my crap.  I felt very obviously like an inexperienced traveler.

The scanner I walked through was very neat.  It was circular.  You stand inside it and it rotates a bar around you.  You cannot move and you must hold your hands above your head.  It's like being under pre-arrest.  I stepped out and then had to wait for someone to read my scan.  Luckily for me there were footprints painted on the floor.  Otherwise I might have stood in the wrong place.  I was cleared.

Then began the process of getting dressed again.  Shoes.  Money belt. Tucking in the shirts. Refilling the pockets.  Putting the laptops back in the bag.  As I was looking for the terminal, I got a phone call.  It was Jesse, the guy going with me.  He and his wife were lost in Richmond but on their way.  The plane left in about an hour.  He was sure he would be there, but I was a bit worried.  What would I do if he didn't get there?  I didn't speak a lick of Portuguese!  Could I continue on this flight if he didn't show up?  Should I wait?

After 45 minutes of worrying and praying, he made it.  We boarded our plane without incident and were on our way . . . to Charlotte, North Carolina.

On the plane it was announced that Miss North Carolina was on our plane!  She was heading to Las Vegas for something or other.  She was in seat 17.  That was the seat in front of me.   I listened to her and her seat-mate talk most of the way and read my book.  Jesse slept.  I decided that Miss North Carolina was not a very interesting person, or that her seat mate was an awfully boring conversationalist.  Either way I found the book more interesting.

Our plane got in fifteen minutes early, but then our spot was filled with another plane.  We were assured that if we were on the Las Vegas flight, they were trying to hold the plane.  When we finally got docked, Miss North Carolina made a beeline for the exit, but so did everyone else.  I hope she made it.

I stayed in my seat.  After all, I had five hours until my next plane and I was into my book.  When the plane cleared I exited.  Jesse and I went and ate dinner.  I would say it was ok, but it was faux-Mexican food trying to be Chili's.  Ironically Chili's had been our other dining option besides fast food but we had wanted to try something different.  We agreed to do Chili's next time - when we came back in two weeks.  Still, as a low for the day it wasn't that bad.

Chocolate Store in the Charlotte Airport

After dinner we found our terminal and did some window shopping.  We found a power outlet and plugged in my laptop, and then charged our phones.  We took turns exploring the stores.  I found a chocolate store.  After much deliberation I bought a little tub of peanut butter fudge for the trip.  I had a few bites but it was so rich I decided to save it for dessert on the plane to Rio.


An hour or so before our plane was to board, about 9 PM, we made our way to the gate.  9:45 rolled around, when we were supposed to start boarding the plane.  An announcement was made that there was a small problem and it would be about 10 more minutes.

Jesse asleep in the airport.

An hour of ten minute intervals later, I found out through listening to the crowd that something was wrong with the air conditioning and they weren't sure how long it was going to take.  A few minutes later we were told it was going to be another hour.  People started lying down to go to sleep.  Jesse curled up in a corner with his sweatshirt over his head.  I lay down as well, but the blazing lights of the room burned down through my closed eyelids.   I crawled under the seat I had been sitting on and slept for a good two hours.

Family I spent 5 hours with. They only spoke Portuguese.

The line for vouchers at 3am.

About half a dozen kids under the age of 6 were running around at one in the morning.  I felt sorry for their parents.  If might have felt sorrier for them if they hadn't all been 5 feet from me.  Still they were cute and I understood.  I would wake occasionally for reports - first in English, then in Portuguese.  I had limited dialogue with my neighbors - most of them only spoke Portuguese.  It was sitting there in the airport terminal all alone that I realized this was what my trip was going to be like.  I couldn't talk to anyone!



Three o'clock rolled around and then canceled the flight.  Apparently there was some rule that the flight crew could only work a certain number of hours.  Since we'd been delayed 5 hours, our flight was officially grounded.  We entered blobs to wait for vouchers for hotels and meals.  After waiting for about 15 minutes, Jesse and I were next.  We were given vouchers and asked where we wanted to sit on the next flight.

As we were making our way to call the hotel shuttles to come get us we found out that we were staying in different hotels.  We called our respective hotels and split up for the night.  I met a few other people waiting for the same shuttle.  One guy was named Erik.  He was from Canada.  He was going to Rio with a friend to keep him company for two weeks while his friend started a new job.

Plane in the ceiling.

We got into our rooms about 3:30.  I crashed.

I got two and a half hours of sleep that night.