The beginning

I knew I was going to like Brasil about ten minutes into the TAM flight.
Chocolately mints! Then came a dinner to rival the sub's garden tortellini. And breakfast too. If they eat as much in Brasil as they do on their planes I will be a happy camper.

Heading across central Brasil towards the east at 4:30 am (quite literally the crack of dawn) could not have been timed more perfectly. We were heading toward the coast as the sun was coming up over the horizon, going fast enough that we watched it turn from a little red line to a glowing blob. The lines it created in the sky gave me weird flashbacks to spectroscopy and physics.

And finally, I decided that although having everything that is essential to my life in one bag is mildly frightening (especially when trusting strangers to move that bag across international borders) it is also very freeing. I need absolutely nothing more than I can carry on my back to live and learn and explore this country. That is ceratinly a kind of liberation I don't feel when moving boxes and blankets and who knows what else onto campus after the summer. Neat!