Adapting

I had four kisses at the mall today.

Lately I have been feeling much more comfortable in, and fond of, Fortaleza. I'm learning and adapting to the way of life here, and my Portuguese gets a little better everyday. I just don't know if I'll ever get used to kissing strangers.

I met Norali and Zac at the movie theater there. I bought my ticket and waited while they purchased theirs. The two men next to me had heard my horrible accent and asked where

I'm from. I answered and the one man said that his brother is in Newark right now. The men then introduced themselves, which involved a handshake plus two kisses with each. And then we parted ways. Mmkay.

I have developed a $3/1500 calories-a-day chocolate habit. Today I tried the Chocosoy truffles! Oh god.

Before that, the whole group had a day trip to a fancy schmancy beach. I rode the dunebuggy but didn't bring my camera for that. Note: if you have self-esteem/body image issues, you should come to Brazil and hang out on the beach. All women wear skimpy bikinis, and all men wear tiny Speedos, regardless of size, shape, or age. And no, Brazilians aren't somehow more attractive than any other population. They are just more confident.

ChocoSoy!

Brazil, land of vegephobes and egg-filled grocery pasta has, at every random pharmacy, bakery, and who knows where else--wait for it... soy milk chocolate! What the spork? For real! And it's crazy-good! At first I saw just straight-up nondairy milk chocolate, which was delicious, but today I found the noms pictured at left--ChocoSoy Crispies! Aka Nestlé Crunch Bar! Aka something that made me very happy as a nooblet! Coming soon: reviews of vegan truffles that cost a little over a dollar per package. Swoon.

Sunday, June 21st, 2009

I arrived in Fortaleza, Brazil on Friday morning. The plane ride essentially was an epic dance party. First, I flew to L.A. from Phoenix. I checked my large duffel bag and planned to carry on everything else. I had my purse, my messenger bag, and a grocery bag that held about 1.5 lbs of pesto pasta. Whole wheat pasta, no less. We’re talking hundreds of grams of fiber. It was a dream bag—endless pesto on pasta, water, and a fuzzy sweatshirt for a long plane ride that seemed more Alaska than Atlanta.

Unfortunately, the massive container of pasta rendered my grocery bag unable to fit into any other bag, so technically I had 3. I had hauled all of that ridiculously heavy luggage at least a mile to ensure that I would have at least some supplies, should the airline lose my checked bag. On the flight from Phoenix to L.A., I put only my duffel bag in an overhead bin and everything else at my feet, so I had, for all intents and purposes, 2 bags. Angry Lady at LAX yelled at me when I was in the security line and told me I had to check another one. It made me feel naked.

Many aching muscles later, I was on the action-packed and completely comfortable flight to Atlanta. I learned there that “action-packed and completely comfortable” is Airlinese for “remarkably boring and your-nipples-are-going-to-fall-off-even-with-a-sweatshirt cold.” Then I got to Atlanta, took a train ride, and met up with almost everyone in the group. Lots of new people, and all seemed lovely! Yay! I wasn’t seated near any of them. I did, however, sit next to two Brazilian guys living in the US. One turned out to be a month younger than me, and the other (ridiculously attractive), a few months older. We entertained one another for just about the entire 9-hour flight, ‘cause sleep is for suckas! Sexy Guy fell asleep on me for maybe a few minutes. Their destination was Recife (the third connection point) so I got new seatmates for the last leg of the trip.

I'm still not positive if my rowmates were a couple or father and daughter; in any case, the dude talked to me the whole time. It made me feel badass to hold a conversation in Portuguese for an hour. I didn't have my dictionary on me, so, in order to ask if whether the beaches are unfortunately shiny and/or bouncy, I had to attempt to describe what a jellyfish is, which didn't go down very well. No matter--there are no jellyfish on the beaches here!