I am currently on my plane back to the US and I am feeling some very mixed emotions. Over these past few weeks, I have really gotten to bond to Juliana’s family so saying goodbye to them was not the most fun thing that I did today at all. Elaine was almost in tears when she told me to come back to my Brazilian home whenever I want to, and Paulo gave me such an amazing big hug that I had to get a second one before REALLY walking away! Hugging Juliana for the last time for awhile was weird because she is such a permanent part of my life that it feels strange to say good bye to her ever. When I got to my gate and sat down, I got a text from her saying “miss having you around me” which is Juliana-English for “I miss having you near me” which is a very very sweet message to get and I felt exactly the same way. Just sitting next to her, I feel such a connection. And with Juliana I never worry about the future because she is mine and I am in hers no matter what and for as long as possible. :)
Okay, okay, you probably want to hear about my last few days in Brazil and see some pictures. You are lucky that I am so dedicated because this flight happens to have lots of movies that I am actually interested in watching, soooo this kind of feels like homework but I will get through it and we will all be happy!
The past week was a mixture of lot of different types of calm days. Juliana and I were so tired when we got back from Rio! She took a five hour nap and I watched a movie with Victor and then we ate dinner and went to sleep hahah. I was still a little bit sick so we spent lots of time together drinking tea and talking about whatever, you know, like friends do.
On Sunday the whole family headed out to the country side to visit Juliana’s grandparents from her Mother’s side of the family. We had a big Brazilian BBQ and all the aunts and uncles and cousins came! It was a sunny day and they had a really pretty garden and pool. It wasn’t warm enough to swim, but it was warm enough to sit by the pool and drink some caipirinha and feel summery in the middle of winter! Juliana’s dad made us caipirinha because I needed to try it before I left, and it was pretty good! The food we ate for lunch was absolutely AMAZING. Seriously, the best chicken of my life. I don’t know what they did to make that chicken but it was so delicious hahah. We spent the afternoon there! I braided Juliana and her cousin’s hair and we played a little Pateca! When the day started winding down, Juliana and I made plans to go grocery shopping so that we could trade a bunch of recipes. That night, we went to the grocery store and got all sorts of things for the recipes, and also mango and guava because I hadn’t had enough of the inexpensive and delicious fruit that Brazil has to offer, and we had to change that.
On Monday morning, we spent quite a bit of time making different foods! I showed Juliana how to make the special oatmeal my mom and Sky always used to make (oats, chia seeds, plain yogurt, peanut butter, and apple, a banana, and some honey) and then I taught Juliana and her mom how to make some yummy “healthy” cookies that my mom always makes! In return, I was taught how to make brigadiero and that it is delicious when served with bananas hahah. Cooking with Juliana and her mom was very fun! Everything turned out different than it does at home, of course, but it was still pretty delicious! Elaine really wants to use the recipe to sell to all her cookie clients, and I think that is a great idea because they are sooo good! I think people will love them!
On Tuesday, Juliana and I got up early to have acai at the mall for breakfast before doing some souvenir shopping. It was the girliest day I have had in a very long time hahah. The breakfast was very nice, and the shopping was pretty funny because neither of us usually enjoy it very much. But we are Sally and Juliana, and we always find a way to have fun together! :) We even went and got our nails done hahaha. And afterwards, we had an amazing lunch and the restaurant gave us free dessert!
After all the mall stuff, Juliana and I took an uber to her other grandparents’ house (the Father’s side) to have coffee and do a little meeting and catching up. Both sets of grandparents were very nice, and I am glad I got a chance to meet them! The grandpa found out there is a certain Brazilian candy I really like (called Pacoca) and he brought out his secret stash and I thought that was very sweet hahah.
On my last day in Brazil, Juliana and I made oatmeal again, and then I showed her how to make banana bread. Juliana’s mom had made Brazilian pudim which is an extremely tasty dessert that is kind of like a flan, so I traded my banana bread for that recipe. In the afternoon, Juliana and I went to a supermarket so I could get some snacks for the plane and use the few Reais I had left to get some groceries I can’t buy in the States. I really wanted to take coconut on the plane with me, so we bought one but when we got home it was way to difficult to chop up! Juliana’s dad totally came to the rescue and spent at least 25 minutes working on the coconut but he totally suceeded and it was a miracle! We had to leave the house at 5:30, even though my flight woulnd’t leave until 11:30, because of all of the traffic going into Sao Paulo. I was skeptical about this, thinking we would arrive way too early, but I ended up being very wrong hahah because what should have been an hour drive took over three hours! I said goodbye to Juliana’s mom and brothers at the house because they had things they needed to do, and Juliana and her father and I took off to the airport. After awhle sitting in traffic, Juliana and I got pretty punch-drunk and began to sing and dance and laugh about everything. I was having so much fun with her and kept forgetting I was on my way to say goodbye, and everytime I remembered I just wanted to freeze time and not have to go anywhere. It occured to me on that car ride that I really should have tried harder to learn Portuguese. The biggest reason I didn’t try very hard was because I wanted to talk with Juliana as much as possible, and we are so much better at speaking English together! But I realized as Juliana and her dad talked in the car that I could understand almost all the words they were saying to each other, and that if I had made an effort, I could have managed to communicate with her parents more which would have meant a lot to them. My favorite part of the drive was when Juliana’s dad began to bargain with the guys selling food to the cars stopped in traffic. It was bumper-to-bumper for about three hours, so lots of young people were running around different snacks. Paulo decided to see how low he could make people go with the chocolate bars, and we ended up with five of them in the back seat hahaha. Juliana and I ate one right away because we were hungry and crazy in the back seat! It was pretty good chocolate haha and perfect for the long ride. When we were about 10 minutes from the airport, Paulo asked me which terminal to go to, and I had no idea so I decided to pull up the itenerary on my phone. I studied my phone screen for a few seconds, and then I saw something that made my heart actually skip a beat: the date. We thought we had gotten to the airport two hours early, but really we were 22 hours late. I had missed my flight! I don’t know what I said, but I began to panic. I told Juliana and her dad and they didn’t know what to say, but it only took them seconds to take on the task of calming me down. I was shocked and confused and embarrassed and worried about what would happen. A tiny part of me hoped people at the airport would understand, but it was such a big dumb mistake that in my heart I knew better. Juliana’s dad has knee problems and cannot walk very far, but he made a huge effort to come with us and talk to the airline about what to do next. The Latam employees apologized about not being able to help, but offered me another ticket for only 3000 American dollars which I gracefully declined hahah. We sat down and I got out my computer and found a flight online for 1000 and I bought it using some of the money I have been saving all year for when I go to a four year college. Spending that much felt pretty terrible because it was such a silly mistake, and I was pretty shaken up because I really wanted to go home right then and sleep in my bed and not be on vacation anymore, but I couldn’t! I felt very stuck in Brazil. Juliana’s father told me that everything happens for a reason, though, and that I must clearly still have something I need to do in Portuguese. This entire time, Juliana had been translating for me so I could talk to her parents, but in that moment I remembered how I had regretted not making an effort to speak with her family in their language, and put together a sloppy sentence saying that I was going to learn Portuguese within the next day! From then on, the entire car ride home, and even when I was just with Juliana, I spoke in Portuguese! It came pretty quickly because I had been hearing it for three weeks, and even though I can’t pronounce everything and I mess up most of the words, people understand me now! I was pretty excited about this when we got home. Juliana’s family was pretty surprised that I could say so much after an hour of practice with Juliana in the car hahah. We ate pizza for dinner that night and talked about what had happened. I realized how lucky I was to have soemthing like that happen in a place where I felt so safe and loved! I went to bed, feeling emotionally exhausted and nervous about travelling the next day, but lucky to be okay.
Today on my last day in Brazil, I got up early to make pancakes for Elaine and Paul before working on cookies all day with Elaine! The cookies are pretty tedious work, but it felt good to lessen her work load and I enjoyed talking to her all day! Juliana was at work until 3pm, but when she got home she joined in on the cookie making. I honestly felt pretty anxious for most of the day because of all the flight drama the night before. I just wanted know that everything would be okay with the new flight I had booked! The busy work helped with that quite a bit! In the afternoon, Juliana’s grandparents came over for some coffee and cake, so I got to see them one last time! Before I knew it, we were packing up and heading to the airport again. This time, the airport we had to go to was only twenty minutes away, and almost the whole family was able to come! I cuddled Juliana in the back seat the whole way to the airport, and now I am on the plane.
All of my clothes were packed up so I had to borrow some hahah.
I have been able to speak only in Portuguese with everyone in the airport and now with all the flight attendants on the plane! It’s crazy how much I picked up without realizing it. I even got a compliment from the lady who checked my bording pass!!
I am so sleepy hahaha. I started writing this at 11 when I got on the plane, and now its 1:09am and I am not even sure my sentences are making sense. I apologize for the low quality of this last blog post, but there is so much to write about and I don’t have all the energy I need. I feel like there are so many happy things I want to tell you about but I can’t remember all of them, and so many ideas that I wanted to share that I’ve forgotten. Maybe I will remember when my flight lands in Florida and I can fix this post hahaha. Okay, that is all for now. If Juliana is reading this, I jus want to say thank you again for being my favorite person and for making this wonderful tirp possible. I love you so much!
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