The worst trip of my life - part 1: There

I've lived here and back in Brazil quite a few times before moving for good. My family has visited me in many occasions and Chris has also made this trip more than the average person, I'm guessing. But no one can tell the stories I can. I dare you!

So this one particular journey started with me in my home city Recife, Pernambuco, heading to Anoka, Minnesota. I had a work visa and was set to spend 5 months between work and leisure.

I left Recife in the morning, at about 6am and landed in Rio de Janeiro about 2.5 hours later. So excited to start my trip, cross continents and see the man I love, I had a layover in Rio for 10 hours. 10 LONG hours. Without a whole lot of money to spare, I had a couple meals, did crosswords and listened to my whole iPod playlist a few times. I walked around, met strangers and napped in the most uncomfortable chairs ever seen in airports, considering you're always afraid someone might: a. slip something into your luggage and/or b. steal something from it (or the whole 'it'). Finally time to board, I did so without any problems just to find my seat at a packed corner between an overgrown teenager - the kid had the longest legs I've seen in humans - and an older gentleman who very much hated plane food (who likes that, anyway?) and who thought it was a good idea to have packed all his dinner, dessert and snack from home. We elbowed each other throughout the whole meal and then we each (at least I did) fell asleep as stiff as I can only imagine mummies would do. We arrived in Florida the next day, in the early morning.

No need to hurry, I went through customs and came out into a pretty cool airport, big, better chairs, nice bathrooms. I had another layover of 10 hours. Did I mention they're pretty long? Just go back in the previous paragraph and re-read the part about little money and meeting strangers... What was interesting was that in Florida I had a hard time communicating. People were either speaking Spanish or some Asian dialect - none of which I could improvise. Another nap later, I boarded to Chicago.

After 4 hours of layover, it was time to get in the last plane. I could hardly believe. I was honestly dead and forgot to lay down. The carry-on that seemed 'lightly packed' 30 hours ago, was weighing more than my whole past. From Chicago to Minneapolis is pretty quick. 1h30min. Just enough to get you excited and a little more awake for the remaining of the trip.

From there, it's all happiness. First I made it here safe and then I got to go home (after a 50min-1h commute) and sleep for the rest of eternity.

This text is part 1 of 2. Please read part 2 (& Back) here.