I'm in Brazil

So I arrived in Brazil today.

....Ho-ly SHIT!

In French they have a word called "dépaysant" which means literally "de-country-ifying." Something that is dépaysant makes you feel like a fish out of water.. Brazil is dépaysant like a motherfucker.

The flight itself was uneventful -- everything went smooth as silk. We got to the airport with lots of time to spare, the airplane was half full, and the airline (Continental) took very good care of me. After going through customs and getting my baggage, I was greeted by 4 enthusiastic AIESECers. I really didn't know what to make of that. They made me take pictures and I wasn't really feeling that. Still, they were very nice and silly and whatnot so I warmed up to them pretty quickly. They led me to the parking lot to take me back in the one kid's car. Walking to the car it was pretty hot, 'round 85 degrees. They warned me that we were about to drive through the "ugliest part of São Paulo."

All I could think when we started driving was, "Man, Brazil is LUSH." Everything was green. The place seemed to be overbrimming with life thanks to the warm and very humid climate. The buildings were also extremely colorful, favoring loud bright colors. The mishmash of colors and the intense greenery made the landscape supremely beautiful and very exotic looking. I don't think I'd ever felt so strongly the feeling of being "elsewhere" except possibly Morocco, but Brazil was dépaysant in a totally different way. I was not in Kansas anymore.

We passed some slums which were still brightly colored despite their poverty. We also went through an area with a stinky river that they apologized profusely for. There was some weird white foamy stuff floating on top of the water and after a minute or two of explanation in English and in Portuguese I gathered that it was some kind of industrial soap to clean the pollution in the river. Further on down the road there were giant colorful plastic bottles about 30 feet long and 10 feet wide placed on the banks of the river to remind would-be polluters to think twice before throwing littering.

The rest of the ride was devoted mostly to Portuguese: regional accents, curse words, and the like. I'm sure I steered the conversation in that direction. We also discussed partying and the city of Campinas and tried to figure out what they were supposed to do with me next.

When we arrived in Campinas, they took me to my house (one of the Brazilian girls had been on the phone with a higher up AIESEC person who told them to take me there; my head was still spinning at this point). I got shown around the place by Leo (the only roommate I'd talked to prior to leaving for Brazil), dropped my stuff off, brushed my teeth, put in my contacts and we were off again.

Let me tell you, the house owns. It's a beautiful villa housing for college students. There's a big handsome dark green iron wrought gate outside. There is a lawn with plants growing in the front yard. The house itself is brick painted a soft clay color. There is a big living room with a TV, many computers, a fish tank, and lots of open space. The living room floor is gray slate and the rest of the house has wood flooring. There are three blue tinted windows that look out onto the lawn and let a breeze in. There are two bathrooms and 4(?) bedrooms, and they are nice. The house is so, so sweet.

The AIESEC people then took me around to eat and go to the supermarket. Carolina Dorte was driving and Renan had joined us. Only one of the original AIESECers had stuck around (the cute one), so we were 4. After the food run they dropped me back off and told me they were picking me up at 7:15 am tomorrow to take me to work (I think; much of what was said today was at least semi-confusing since it was in Portuguese or English broken to some degree).

I will definitely take pictures and post them -- this place begs for it. My neighborhood is just as beautiful as the house. It's incredible. I would take some now but the daily afternoon rainshower just rolled through and it's overcast, not quite as pretty as it was earlier. Apparently that's how the weather is this season: hot and sticky during the day with a late afternoon shower that whisks the heat away.

I am positive that I'm forgetting to write about tons of things that I saw/learned/found interesting, but I at least wanted to get something down given the magnitude of this day. I really did get the royal treatment, but it was overwhelming to say the least. I could either roll out a perfectly acceptable statement or I'd just stand there with my mouth agape whenever I tried to speak Portuguese. Forget about understanding people when they spoke at me, that wasn't happening today. Tomorrow I will speak Portuguese.

Até amanhã