hello all-

great news!!! I'm finally in Brazil!! If you'd like to get a hold of me... here's my new address and phone number (and of course you can still email me)....

Rua Alvarez de Azevedo, 345
Bairro Paraiso
CEP-16050-600
Araçatuba- Sao Paulo- BRAZIL
Phone #: 011-(18)-3624-7163


hello all!

and so it begins... with tear-stained good-byes.... and a few plane rides... and several prayers...an important prayer that I should mention is that my mom said to me that she would pray that an angel would sit next to me all the way... she then jokingly told me not to be rude to whoever sat by me in case they were the angel... I guess God had a different plan... I had an open seat next to me on EVERY SINGLE flight all the way to Araçatuba... I took that as a sign that my angel really was sitting next to me...I left my house at 5:30am Thursday (IN time) and arrived at my home in Araçatuba at 8:30pm (IN time) on Friday

1. Indy----Atlanta (about 1.5 hours)nothing to interesting here... except that the Atlanta airport is kind of a strange place... I went to the food court... and instead of being greeted with "what can I get you?".... I was greeted with "wassup?!"... kind-a funny...

2. Atlanta----nyc/jfk airport (about 2.5 hours) my plane was delayed about 45 min after we'd already boarded

3. NYC----Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo (about 9 hours)jfk airport was dirty and confusing... I had to cross the street to catch a train and take a buncha stairs to get to the international airport...anyways, I was NOT impressed...my plane was scheduled to board an hour earlier than my original ticket said... I RAN to make it... only to find everyone just sitting and talking... I ask a worker when we'd board the plane she said "I dunno 5:45pm.... 6:45pm.... whenever the crew feels like it" uh... what?? whenever the CREW FEELS LIKE IT?!?!... anyways... the plane left the ground THREE HOURS LATE!! and welcome friends to Brazil...

4. Sao Paulo airport------Congonhas airport in Sao Paulo (by bus--about 1 hour)nothing too excited here... just took me awhile to find it

5. Congonhas----Carretos (about 1 hour)I had a 6 hour lay-over that seemed to last an eternity here... there was nothing to do and I had no Brazilian money...and finally

6. Barretos------Araçatuba (by car--about 3 hours)I got off the airplane to... my family? no... to no one... no one was there for me... turns out there was some miscommunication and they were at the wrong airport... it took me and the airport staff (who DID NOT speak any English.... except for one guy who could kind of speak it, but couldn't understand me unless I spoke Spanish...) 2 hours to figure out they were at the wrong airport.... Brazilians are wonderful people... they are truly kind and helpful... the staff offered me food and water and one of the girls took me to her home to take a shower and get changed... then they called rotary in Barretos and Araçatuba until they could get through to my host-family... I'm not gonna lie... I cried... I'd been flying for 36 hours... I wanted to go home... and my family wasn't there... it really upset me... but it's okay, you know, stuff happens... anyways... I've been sleeping pretty much all day today... so that's the end of my story...

love you guys!

-Kati