Brazil: Day One

I am writing from the office of Lu's parent's apartment in Belo Horizonte, a city of 3 million that's a 45-minute flight inland from Rio.  It is winter here and the sky over the city is cloudless, crisp and irrationally blue.  From this height you might think you were in some quarter of San Francisco because of the way the city rises and falls with the surrounding topography before giving way to mountains in the east. Below, on street level, all similarities with the landmass to the north end.  The roads are narrow and traffic rushes like water down an amusement park water slide.  The cars are all tiny compacts.  They look like toys, really fast toys driven by children with A.D.D.  I keep waiting for one of them to flip off the track and go flying through a shop window. There's a spirit here that if such a thing did happen people would just push the guy back out and set him on his way again.  Even crazier are the motorcyclists.  They dart in and out of traffic with a suicidal mania reminiscent of flies around a sweaty cow's backside.  The bikers are so loud, reckless and annoying that you have to remind yourself that it's an actual human being driving the thing and that you don't really want one of them to get taken out.

Lu's father came over this morning to gather some papers he needed.  Eduardo was very apologetic for the intrusion but said his doctor changed his appointment to today because of the Brazil/Holland World Cup game tomorrow.  A doctor Lu was supposed to see had just called and done the same thing.  No one expected Brazil to make it this far.  There is a funny attitude here of intense pride and hope for the team alongside the expectation that because it's Brazil they will undoubtedly blow it.  Apparently, when they won the other day, an impromptu parade broke out that shut down one of the major streets for several hours.

Yesterday, Lu’s parents Eduardo and Ligia (Lee-dg-ea) met us at the airport and brought us home to drop our bags.  Lu’s sister, Mariana, and her five-year old son, Xande (Tion-gee), arrived and we all walked to a restaurant around the corner for lunch.  Back at the apartment I sunk into the couch with a book.  After traveling for eighteen hours (7 hour layover in Miami plus a five and then eight hour flight) it felt really good to sit down.  "We’re here," I said to Lu.  "Not yet," she shot back.  Maybe she was referring to the jet-lag and the time it would take to feel rested.  No.  Ten minutes later the manicurist arrived.  Lu hugged and kissed her in the doorway then turned to me and said, "Now, I am home!"