Rendezvous…

I had been flying for over 10 hours from Chicago and now I was waiting in line at the customs . I eagerly approached the first available agent when it was my turn. I greeted her in Portuguese and she spoke to me back in her native language. I was pleasantly surprised how much I understood after being away from the language for over a month. It seemed as the time had served to be a mental break and my mind had in fact rebooted its hard drive and was ready to go. To me it seemed as if I actually understood more now than when I had left, despite the fact I had not spoken a word in Portuguese and heard almost nothing since early July.

My bags were both intact, and I easily checked them to Natal and made my way to my gate. I was pleased to see that they had increased their airport security since my last trip, and they even asked me to take my laptop out of its case, which I could tell was a new procedure due to the evident disorganization. I waited at the gate alone, allowing my laptop to charge. Paul and Patty met up with me, and the six of us soon learned that our gate had been moved. We relocated from gate 1 to gate 7, which really doesn’t make a difference because every gate leads to the hallway of ports where you can get on any plane you want regardless of the final destination depicted on your ticket.

After boarding the nearly empty flight we each found our own row and stretched out. Paul gave me a tutorial on his iphone which greatly impressed me. I am not one to be overwhelmingly impressed by anything technological. While I may think that something is cool, but I just figure that technology is only supposed to get better. The ease and compatibility of this device had me thinking of purchasing one of my own when my upgrade time came after August 31st. The plane left on time, a rare accomplishment in Brazil, and we were on our way to Natal. One again TAM proved to be a “care less” airline because they didn’t seem to mind that our seat belts weren’t on, some tray tables were down, we were playing with electronic devices and our seat backs were in fact not in their full and upright position. We all survived the take-off solidifying the concept in my head that Ipods, cameras, Gameboys and laptops do not interfere with any signals between the cockpit and the control tower.

The flight wore on. Amy, their youngest daughter, anxiously awaited the sandwich that it had just been announced we would all be receiving. The wait would be long due to turbulence that caused the flight attendant to sit back down after serving practically every row. When the turkey and cheese sandwich arrived, Amy was too tired to eat. The six of us stretched out on our individual rows and fell asleep. Woken only by occasional turbulence, the final hour of the flight went by rather quickly. We left the plane and our luggage was waiting for us when we reached the bottom of the escalator As we pushed our carts piled high with bags across the shiny floor, the automatic sliding door in front of us opened, and we were greeted by the smiling faces of Uncle Mark, Aunt Lori, Caroline, William and Luciano who were there to bring us from the airport to the house on Lobster Road…


NOTE: I apologize for the recent blog blitz, but I am planning on posting on a daily basis starting tomorrow, and I wanted everyone to be up to date. Stay tuned!