The Tao of Me

What a hectic two days.  More realistically, what an insanely hectic week or two.  Between buying everything I needed to bring, packing for 3 people, plus gifts, arranging rides to and from the airport, checking and double checking paperwork, passports, tickets and lists, worrying about forgetting something, the overwhelming impatience and excitement of seeing him again, and oh yeah, that 50 hour a week job, I got a little worked up.

The day we left, somebody should have slapped me for scheduling such a day.

5am, pick up Mom at the Houston airport, take her home and threaten to eat the kids if they don’t let her sleep. 6:30 go to work and prepare everything for my absence. Every 20 minutes, tap feet and stare at clock, then panic because I have way too much to do and can. not. leave. late. 4pm, shut down and tear out of there at a half run. Don’t make eye contact or answer questions in case someone asks me to do something else.

4:30 start re-organizing suitcases (again) adding in the 265lbs of stuff my mom brought with her in two suitcases that needs to be consolidated into one. 5pm somehow wedge two full-sized teenagers, two full sized women, 3 big suitcases and 4 carry-ons into a pint sized Jeep Wrangler.  That right there was funny.  We must have looked like a circus clown car when we all poured out of it later. 5:15pm start driving and stop in the middle of the road because I’m convinced we forgot something.

Hmm.  Nope, can’t think of anything.  Keep driving.

6pm, park and get a shuttle to the airport and start getting really nervous because holycowIcan’tbelieveitsfinallyhere!

6:30 spend a half hour getting all checked in, passports swiped, visas verified, luggage checked, shoes bomb-sniffed, and finally waved through.

7pm dinner, and start hearing endless rounds of “what time is it?” from the Boy. 8:30 board the plane and finally, finally breathe. We’re here, on the plane, on the way, and finally off the ground.

Did I mention that I put the boy 8 rows in front of us? On purpose? He is a really good traveler, but he does. not. stop. talking. or moving. He was happy anyway because he had a window seat with an empty seat next to him.

I slept about half the flight. My girl told me in the morning that as we were flying over a small city in Mexico, she looked out the window and could see the lights of the little town in the distance, and the sky absolutely full of stars above it.  Beautiful.

The last 3 hours of the 12 hour flight are the worst. I’m so impatient, and now rested and antsy from sleeping in my seat all night. By the time we finally flew out of Sao Paulo I was chattering and excited and annoying the hell out of my sleepy daughter. She had stayed up most of the night and was now out cold.  I kept trying to wake her up to see our approach into Rio and she was having none of it.  I think that was as close as she has ever come to actually giving me a dirty look.

Rio is much cleaner this time.  It has rained lately and scrubbed the smog out a bit.  I could see the now familiar sights while I get my bearings.  Maracana, Pao d’Acucar, Copacabana, the Lagoa, the favelas, the bay.  Somehow I missed the Christo statue this time.  Still, with every sight my smile got bigger.  This time it felt like coming home, and all I could think of was “he’s there, right there, right now”.

Immigration, luggage, and customs was smooth.  I think my Mom and the kids were nervous about this part, but we had no problem and I was already starting to switch into Portuguese mode. Once we got our bags and were waved through the bag search area I handed my suitcase to the Boy, and my backpack to the girl.  I had better use for my arms waiting just around the corner from me.

And there he was.

I ran.

The rest of the afternoon is a blur. Packing ourselves and our luggage into the car, setting up the GPS, driving through the city and the tunnel, around the lagoa, throught the back streets of Copacabana. Playing bumper cars and chicken with the busses, old men in speedos, barefoot dirty kids, the hotel, the beach. All of that was overwhelming for my Mom and the kids, but background noise for me. I was just happy.

We got settled in the hotel and rested for a couple of hours before walking down the beach on the famous sidewalks. My Mom telling us over and over how she was pinching herself because she coudn’t believe she was actually there. The kids starting to realize nobody here, really nobody, is speaking English. On the way back we walked near the waves and let the Boy jump in. He battled the waves for an hour or so, working out all the wiggles and kinks from the flight. It was a cool moment for me to see him there, swimming in the same Atlantic he swam in New Jersey but 6000 miles south.

I was loving it. My kids with me, eyes opening to a new world. My Mom with me, so incredibly excited. My heart right next to me, holding my hand.

Dinner of picanha with farofa, calamari, and pizza with mustard made us all very happy and a little sleepy. When we got back to the hotel just at dusk, we were done.  We had safely spent our first day in Brazil. It was a good feeling to get in the room and relax, after spending the day on high emotion and high alert. I knew we were not in the safest part of the world, but with our eyes open and some passable Portuguese we were just fine.

Unfortunately, I got a reminder a few minutes later of just how dangerous it was there, and how close we could be to real trouble. While down in the lobby checking on internet service just after dark, an american guest in his 20’s came in yelling about an emergency, and police, and they couldn’t find their girlfriends.  He and a buddy and their two girls had been walking on the beach after dark (a very stupid idea) and were robbed. They told the girls to run, then they were attacked with a knife and their wallets and ID were taken. He had pretty serious cuts all over his right hand, with blood everywhere, and a deep scratch on his back. He and his friend were panicked because the girls had not come back to the hotel yet.

I saw them all the next morning, and everyone was safe and fine other than his bandaged hand. The ID and credit cards can be replaced with a bit of hassle, but they were OK.

You can bet my eyes were wide open after that.

Go take a look.