Brazil: Waiting

Hi everyone!


Well I made it safely to the Sao Palo airport. It is currently hour 28 of traveling and I still have 11.5 hours until I land in Fortaleza.


I have been sitting/sleeping/walking in the Sao Palo airport for six hours and still have a little over four hours until departure. I cannot tell you how much simple math I have been calculating approximately every seven minutes since waking up in the airplane headed for Sao Palo about three hours before landing. It was quite a disappointment. I had fallen asleep on the plane while watching Hangover 2 and thought I had slept for hours. It turns out that the Portegese speaking pilot was not advising us to prepare for landing, but to prepare for turbulence. I can't tell you how long it took for me to figure out we weren't landing anytime soon, nor can I tell you how often I anxiously stared at the little light picture of a seatbelt above our heads with anticipation.


My mom and I were discussing the wonders of walking on the drive to LAX. We talked about how walking can prevent Alzheimer's and maintain healthy circulation, and how having the ability to walk is another way God orchastrated us  to function in health. I thought of this conversation as I pushed my well-stacked luggage cart back and forth, two and frow, and every circle-which-way I could trek through the Sao Palo airport during this ten hour layover. I avoided telling my mom that I would have to spend the night in a South American airport on the way to Fortaleza. And I suppose now would also be the time to disclose that I'll be spending the night in Rio on my way back to the states in December. I suppose I witheld this information because I didn't want my mom to worry, but now I realize that it may have just been because I didn't want to hear her worry while I was on the verge of being overwhelmed with everything else I was dealing with, sorry mom.


Another thing she may not like is the fact that I spent a bit of time in the Sao Palo airport bathrooms--no, not to use the toilet facilities, but to rest my eyes. I don't feel comfotable leaving my baggage unattended, and given that I am traveling alone, if I were to sleep my luggage would therefore be unattended. So, in seeking rest, I went into the single unit--clean--handicapped bathroom for women with all my lugagge, cleared the cart of all except the "Big Kona" (that's what I call the giant Hawaiian styled suitcase I have with me), and I curled up on top. It wasn't perfect, but it served me well. I was able to rest my eyes in peace for about thirty minutes without touching the floor or worrying about my belongings.


My first choice would haved been the kids restroom area. They had a separtate room with a large granite countertop that looked great to cuddle up on with my travel pillow and blanket. The cleaning lady had stopped me before I could go in though, motioning that the room I wanted to enter was for either kids or midgets below the height of her waiving arm. Nonetheless, I ended up finding a separate kids restroom after getting a weird look from the cleaning lady after my thirty minute use of the handicapped restroom and then later taking a stroll once more through the airport. This time I felt like Will Smith and his son in the movie Persuit of Happyness when they spent the night in a subway station restroom. Although I felt like it would have been appropriate to imagine a world of dinosaurs filling my presence, as in the film, I layed there on that clean hard granite with my tiny black pilllow and "borrowed" Delta Airlines blanket in peace as I listened to Carla Bruni--note that the restroom was much cleaner and friendly than that of Will Smith and his son; where they had graffiti and slanderous language, I had tiled flowers and a very short mirror.


As of now it is almost three in the morning where I am, however, whoever reads this may notice the delay in time it will take me to post/e-mail this. This is because there is no free wifi at this airport as there is in US airports. I have to sit here, virtually alone. I cannot even e-mail my mama to tell her that I'm safe, but nonetheless, I will push onward. Whether it be in the form of physically pushing my luggage cart onward, or figuratively pushing myself further in self-motivation and entertainment.


It is 2:42 AM in the Sao Palo Airport.
It is 10:42 PM in my La Quinta, CA home.
1 hour and 18 minutes until I check in for my flight.
2 hour and 52 minutes until my flight boards.
3 hours and 23 minutes until departure.


P.S. When the plane landed in Sao Palo they wheeled a staircase up to the plane and we exited on the runway road area. In my head as I reached the top of the staircase I threw my hands out shook my hair and shouted "Hello, Sao Palo!"