The First Day

I arrived here in Recife today, Friday June 17th after a very long plane trip consisting of three different flights (Salt Lake to Atlanta, Atlanta to Rio de Janeiro, and Rio to Recife). The only bump in the road on the way here was in Rio de Janeiro. When I showed the woman my passport and Visa to enter into the country, she was surprised that I spoke Portuguese. I in fact liked this quite a bit, the fact that she was caught off guard that I spoke so well. I enjoyed speaking to some Brazilians in the airport in Atlanta as well in Portuguese. They were all surprised when I told them that I was an American, they for certain thought that I was a native Brazilian returning home to somewhere in the South (which would explain the accent that they did notice). This in itself is an evidence of the American/Brazilian culture. It is quite common to find Brazilians who speak English, however you will have much more difficulty finding Americans that go to the time to speak their native language (perhaps due to the fact that it is quite possible to get by in Brazil speaking English). Anyways, let’s get back to the journey at hand and the aforementioned ‘bump in the road’ at the border in Rio. The woman working at the counter took my Visa and told me to wait there for a few minutes. After waiting about five minutes and after seeing multiple other Americans get to their counters and pass through, I began to get a little worried. After ten minutes I saw the woman from across the room and she waived me down to come over. I did so, even more worried this time. When I arrived at the room, there was a man with my passport in his hand typing something in on the computer. No questions were asked of me, which I assumed was a good thing, and the woman worker escorted me back over to the original kiosk that I had met her the first time. I asked her if there had been any problems, and she simply said that they needed to change my Visa to a tourist Visa from the kind of Visa that it was the first time I had been in Brazil. It was a huge relief for me that there weren’t any further problems. After a couple hours waiting in the Rio de Janeiro airport, I caught my flight to Recife.

Once I arrived, we relaxed for a bit at our host family's home. The first night we got here we got to eat a Brazilian feast! Our host family Raphael and Fernanda took us to a legit Brazilian Rodizio Grill. Now for you peeps back in Utah, this is a step or two (or seven) above the similar yet incomparable look-a-likes such as Tucano's or Rodizio Grill. The meat shown in the picture is a steak covered in cheese, it was my favorite of the evening. By the end of the night I was stuffed to the rafters to say the least, but very satisfied.