First off, my trip was an experience that I needed, and will never forget. There aren't enough words, photos, drawings, or clichés to explain how good this was for me, and what it meant. I reaffirmed part of my identity, reconnected with part of my family, experienced my culture in all its wonder and its misery, saw some incredible places, people, events, and had an extraordinary time!
While I compile my thoughts and images, and try to organize how to best relate this experience, I'll start off with the obligatory complaints and stories about airports, airplanes, and flights; these are most fresh in my mind, I spent a lot of my time in Brasil up in the air, and it wouldn't be my blog with a bit of bitching thrown in...
I'm still waiting for one of my bags to be brought to my apartment. One of them did arrive, but that one was filled mostly with my Carnaval parade costume; funny how things work out. I don't fully comprehend how they could have just one of my bags, but the fact that it was the American side of the deal that screwed things up begins to fall in place with a lot of what I saw and heard in Brasil.
To wit, it was an idiot at the check-in at La Guardia who told me my bags were going directly to my final destination on my first leg of the trip, when I really had to pick them up at customs in São Paulo, then check them back in to Curitiba. Of course, I should have remembered that obvious exercise I had participated in through so many international flights, but in my excitement about going back home I followed the idiot's advice. Surely, there were plenty of incompetent people at the airport in São Paulo, and it was horribly signalized, but there were a few people who helped me with all their will. The woman at the airline luggage department immediately called a dispatcher to pick up my luggage and carry it through customs, and he even apologized for taking too long after coming through. I don't think I could find many people who take that kind of pride in their jobs in airports here. This gratitude for having a job, and willingness to work hard no matter the circumstances are qualities that are definitely a bit lost on me nowadays, but I do take immense pride in the work I do, one way or another. Is this a cultural difference, is it brought on by financial comfort, or what? I guess I have other thoughts and cases where some of these causes come into play, but I felt more comfortable and taken care of in Brazilian than in American airplanes and airports.
The Brazilian airlines always gave a little snack on the plane, no matter how short the flight; they explained exactly what was happening during delays (maybe even too much; I don't need to know which wire on the cooling mechanism of the galley is being fixed...), and were very helpful upon arrival at the airport. Compare that to the silence during delays, the lack of knowledge of airport officials, and the emphasis on security over everything else (including timeliness, comfort, service, and information) of their counterparts in the US, and I begin to confuse which country is so-called first-world. But that gap is narrowing, rest assured, and probably not for the better. I'll touch on that later as well.
And so I still wait, after having to run to catch my connecting flight so I could wait two hours before takeoff and another 45 minutes before landing for no apparent reason... ...only to have my costume but not my clothes... ...I guess I could recreate Carnaval in Washington Heights, but I need a bateria section.
And maybe a bit more warmth, from the weather and the people.
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