Brazil-Days 1 and 2

So begins the Thomason Travelogue: Brazil edition!

Warning: No pictures ahead, just LOTS of text!

Our flight was incredibly long but thankfully smooth. I've never taken an overnight flight before that lasted literally the entire night, and there is not a dosage of Tylenol PM in the world that will aid me in sleeping sitting up. Luckily, there were movies available for 5 in the morning when it was too light outside to go back to sleep. On another happy note, our bags arrived intact and getting a taxi from the airport to our apartments was easy (if not realllly expensive, especially when your life flashes before your eyes near every semi).

We are staying in a Church-owned apartment across the street from the Sao Paulo temple. Sao Paulo is called the "concrete jungle" in many of our travel books, and it's true. We are surrounded by high rises made of concrete, and I would not venture to call it beautiful. What is beautiful is the temple lit up at night, which gives the area a cleaner feel to it. During the day, we jaywalk across a crazy busy road full of cars and "motoboys" which are guys on small motorbikes that beep incessantly to let other cars know that they are whizzing by in between lanes. We are down the street from a mall, two grocery stores, one of them being...WALMART! Yes, Walmart is down the street, and much like the US, it is crazy busy and loud and crowded. Unlike the US, prices in Sao Paulo are expensive, but maybe its just for the things we like :) However, Todd was happy to get his hands on the liquid yogurt they eat here, and I was happy to find Activia :) You know, it's the small things! So far, we've used our credit card for every transaction, thank you Visa!

On Saturday, we arrived, unpacked, took a nap, and then did our shopping. Afterwards, we met one of the senior missionaries here, whose calling is to be the associate legal counsel here in Sao Paulo. He has been a great help to us, knowing how to get around and where to go, and what to do. 



(Side plumbing note: You can FLUSH PAPER here! It sounds silly to an American, but if you have traveled to other countries, you may find that flushing paper stops up your toilet, and then you are really in a jam! An embarassing jam at that. So, we know we are much more civilized here when we can flush. On another side plumbing note, the water pressure is terrible...which is a VERY South American thing. In order to get the hottest water, you have to turn the water down. Needless to say, I'm always thankful for the showers when we return to the States! Also, it's cold, and I don't have a blow dryer. Air drying isn't working out so well. I'm gonna have to do something about that!)

On Sunday, we headed to church at 9 am...which felt really early because I was still a little jet lagged and Sao Paulo is two hours ahead of us. On the way there, we met this very nice member who immediately welcomed us, had us sit near him, and introduced us to EVERYONE he saw, who would in turn introduce us to their families. It was really nice, and we met many people who spoke Portuguese and some who spoke English. Of course, the services were in Portuguese. Todd was in heaven, I was exhausted by the third hour from trying to catch bits and pieces that I could understand. However, it did further my resolve to learn some Portuguese while I am here. Oh, and the ward is HUGE. The ward is part of the first stake created in South America, pretty cool, right? It was packed with people, and Relief Society probably had 60+ women, so many they have to meet in the gym because all of the other rooms are too small!

Afterwards, the man, Paulo, who had "rescued" us earlier invited us over to dinner with their family. Many people in the ward live in our apartment complex, as do the 10 senior missionary couples. Paulo lives there too, and we enjoyed a really delicious dinner. Really, we couldn't believe how friendly everyone was (it did remind us of our Topeka ward). We stayed afterwards and talked for a while (Todd had to translate a lot for me), and then headed home for a quiet Sunday evening.

Our next door neighbors are senior missionaries, and our apartments are the only ones on our floor. We have two bedrooms and two bathrooms and a washer and dryer. However, we have to be careful not to run the stove, dryer, microwave, shower and anything else plugged in at the same time :) Honestly, the apartment is better than anything we could have expected!
We are currently in the office the general legal counsel, but I'll write about that later. To come is our tour of the church office building here and future plans.

Ciao!