It´s Friday night about 2 AM Brazil time, and 10 PM Minnesota time, so it seems appropriate to call it a day (or two)!  Because the plane was overbooked, it was packed, and I got almost no sleep.  I couldn´t even get enough space to open my carry-on, so I wore my contacts all night, and I didn´t change my clothes or clean up until I had safely checked in at Congonhas Airport.

It was actually a flawless trip though.  My luggage arrived on schedule, and I sailed right through Immigration and Customs.  Fortunately, my luggage didn´t get opened anywhere along the way - it would have been a major production to close it again!  It was interesting to see that only Americans have an extra line to get fingerprinted and photographed.  It´s reciprocity for what we do to citizens of other countries.

I walked out of the international area of the main airport at ground level, and took a right turn on the sidewalk in front of the airport.  It was a short walk to the airport shuttle buses and I was able to keep all my luggage on the free cart.  The shuttle buses leave every 15 minutes, and it costs 21 reais (about $7.00 US) for a one hour ride to the domestic airport.

I arrived at the domestic airport with 2 hours to spare, and the bus attendant even helped me load my luggage onto a new cart.  I found the check-in counter, got my boarding pass, checked my luggage, got cleaned up, and changed into fresh warm-weather clothes. 

I spent the rest of the time at my gat reading Kris Radish´s book, The Elegant Gathering of White Snows.  This was a selection of the Duluth area Girl Scout Troop 90 book club, but I´ve been waiting for this trip to read it.  The story of 8 Wisconsin women who decided to do a spur of the moment "walk-about" to reflect on their lives seems like a perfect start to this new stage in my life.

I´ve had a pretty decent experience communicating in Portuguese all day until I met Dante and his family.  They are all so fluent in English that it seems weird to speak Portuguese.  Dante´s going to Sao Paulo for a week starting on Monday, so that should give me a chance to get used to it.  I really don´t want to speak English here unless I´m helping someone else learn it.

My cultural experience for today was watching Dante participate in fabric acrobatics in an outdoor art center.  They have colorful silky fabrics attached high in trees, and the participants use knots and gymnastic moves to climb and move around on the fabric.  It´s strenous and beautiful at the same time.

Now we´re at the country house for the weekend, where I´m going to sleep late, eat great Brazilian food, and relax by the pool all day, although I may take a couple hours off to get a manicure, pedicure, and leg wax.  Retirement is tough, but somehow I think I´ll manage.