Travel for Love

It’s been a very busy month around here, and I have not had any time to sit down and write anything coherent and thoughtful worthy of a blog post. I do have some time to provide a little update and assure everyone I am still alive and blogging.

So here’s an update on the things that have been keeping my busy lately.

1. We finally got out K-1 visa appointment! It seems to have taken the Rio consulate forever to get around to penciling us in, but we will have our appointment October 5. Roberto and I have been super busy getting everything together for the interview and trying to work out travel arrangements (yes, I will be attending).

It also means this is crunch time for me. This is the time I must gather all the evidence and proof to support our request for a favorable discretionary decision. I won’t go in to too many details but let’s just say I’ve made more candid (embarrassing?) requests from people, faxed more documents, wrote more letters and dug up more records in the past two weeks than probably my whole life combined. It’s a little bit like finals week in college when I was taking 18 credits of 400 level engineering classes, but without the structure or guidance.

But I’m working on it. Sadly this is all about me and Roberto can’t really help, but he is doing his share in preparing for the interview and picking up most of the travel arrangements and logistics once we are in Rio. There are just a million little things to do!

Feel free to contact me for more information on that front. We have become quite the experts in immigration.

2. Sometime last week I finally started to feel like myself again after coming down with one of the worst illnesses I think I’ve ever had in my life! I was out of commission for almost a week (even missing several days of work – very unlike me!) with some sort of virus. I am suspicious that it was Dengue fever, due to the mosquito bites I let myself get in Punta Cana last month, as well as strange symptoms ranging from a crazy rash all over my body to unexplainable pain behind my eyes. My bloodwork most notably revealed a very low white blood count which thankfully seems to have corrected itself recently. Since the doctor did not do a blood test for the specific virus, I am without a diagnosis but have my suspicion it was Dengue.

After several weeks of feeling weak and lightheaded and just plain blah I began feeling better in early August, only to experience a week of daily headaches topped off by a somewhat severe migraine aura that knocked me on my ass again. Happily I am feeling much better now and focusing on de-stressing (ha!), my yoga practice, and trying to eat better. I even began a vitamin program.

Unfortunately blog posts fell off the priority list during this time, although I have tons of stuff I want to write about.

3. In more positive news… I found a roommate! It’s been stressful for me to be living alone in my house this past year for a number of reasons. One is financial – it makes NO sense for me to be living alone when I have three spare bedrooms and plenty of room, and paying the mortgage and utilities gets expensive. Plus, it will be nice to have someone around when I travel since I worry about leaving my house empty and always need to make arrangements for my cats. Finally, it gets old being by yourself all the time and lonely coming home to an empty house every day.

So my new roommate is moving in this weekend (and yes, I’ve been busy preparing for that). She is a nice girl right about my age who works in the same area I do and seems to have a complimentary situation to mine. One of the problems I’ve had in the roommate search is my neighborhood is not convenient for most young people unless you happen to work in the area. I don’t live in a trendy area or close to a college, and most of my friends are either single and living in the city or married and living with their husbands. So far it seems like this roommate situation will work out well, and while we are both independent I definitely think we could become close pals and hang out together sometimes.

So that’s a little update on my life these days. Things will calm down after the interview if all goes well. We can start to expect an answer within about 6 months after that. We are going to be working out how we are going to get through this home stretch in the near future and hopefully making some plans, so stay tuned!

I grew up in Pittsburgh. Here, the important sports are (American) football and, to a lesser extent, hockey. We do have a sorry excuse for a baseball team and some people pay attention to Pitt (University of Pittsburgh) basketball. My exposure to sports other than those, including soccer, was very limited. I never knew anyone who was a soccer fan growing up, and probably didn’t realize how popular it was in other countries until I was in college.

In 2006 the World Cup came and went, and I was rather indifferent. I do remember seeing the end of the final game between Italy and France after happening upon a crowd of people around the TVs in a mall food court. I stopped to watch the historic last few minutes of the game, surprised I barely even knew the World Cup was going on. I saw the end of the game, remember something about a head-butt, and continued with my shopping.

But my indifference towards soccer has changed. Perhaps being in a relationship with a Brazilian who has the expected level of fanatic-ness has something to do with it. I must say, Roberto’s passion for soccer has rubbed off on me quite a bit. Whenever Brazil plays it becomes a group social event with BBQ, drinks, cheering frenzies and friendly wagers. I have a blast attending these kinds of functions and, with my patient teacher, have learned quite a bit about the sport, players and history.

As a traveler, I’ve also learned to appreciate soccer in a different way. Even if the US is slow to catch on, soccer is truly the world’s sport. As I learn while traveling with Roberto, soccer is somewhat of a common ground between its fans from all walks of life. So many people from around the world share this common passion that it’s hard not to be intrigued. Soccer tends to creep in to the travel experience when we don’t plan for it, such as watching Real Madrid vs. Barcelona while in Madrid last April, watching little boys kick the ball around barefoot in Cairo, and seeing the remnants of celebrations (and cars painted) in the streets of Istanbul after their Fenerbahçe got really far in the Champion’s League.

So I am enjoying this year’s World Cup, especially now since I know about many of the players (and certain infamous coaches who shall remain nameless) and have a good understanding of how the tournament works. I am SUPER excited to see Brazil play this week!

So, Americans, give the sport a chance this World Cup. Enjoy the games!

(footballfancast.com)

This time last year, actually one year ago today, I was on the plane on my way to Brazil for the first time. There were so many thoughts and emotions about finally seeing Roberto again, anticipating actually being there in Brazil, and seeing his hometown that they all just blended together into a surreal nervous anticipation.

I landed in Sao Paulo after an overnight flight on May 28, 2009. It was so foggy (smoggy?) that morning that I saw nothing of the city, and the captain announced that our 777 would be landing on auto-pilot. At that point I had to exit security and check back in on a different airline to fly to Floripa. It was tough for me to figure out where I needed to go and I was surprised to realize NO ONE spoke English! I had a pretty long layover, including waiting outside security until they opened the check-in for my flight and paying an overweight baggage fee.

Finally I landed in Floripa, which was gorgeous. Roberto was there waiting for me and, just like that, it was as if we’d never been apart. I’m happy to say it’s been that way every time we meet each other after several months apart; we just fall back in place together like normal. I think that’s because we talk so much every day but who knows. We spent one night there in Floripa in a cute little pousada before heading down to Criciuma the next afternoon.

When we finally got of BR-101 close Roberto’s parents’ house it was already dark. Their house is up on a hill, and the whole place was lit up when Roberto pointed it out to me as we approached. My first impression of Brazil was fairly inconclusive and I really didn’t know what to expect at this point. I was nervous!

Throughout the time Roberto was here I kept telling him I wanted to meet his family and see where he came from before we got really serious or decided to get married or something. He’d told me all about them, I’d seen pictures, and even talked to his mom on the phone, but I still had a need to see it all for myself. I had to make sure it was all not so completely different from where I came from. I needed to know if, if I had to, I could live there.

Maybe I expected all this to be crystal clear as soon as I showed up and that’s why I was so nervous. Like, if the house was clean enough, big enough, new enough I would suddenly be ok. Or if it was terribly disappointing then this whole trip would be ruined. It really was a lot of self-inflicted pressure for no reason!

We pulled up to the lit-up house and all sorts of extended family was there to greet me warmly and fuss over me. I walked in to a loud, fun Brazilian BBQ party. As I went in to the house surrounded by the warm welcome of a group of strangers who took me in as family, I felt silly for all the pressure I had put on this visit. For what? It was all so simple and natural – the common bond of people from all over the world was bigger than some quick assessment I could make of a place. How could I be nervous about that? Then again, part of me didn’t feel silly about the pressure because it was all ok. I knew.

Warning – boyfriend gushing below!

Roberto and I have taken lots of trips together over the past 2 years. We traveled all over the US when he was still here, traveled around Brazil a lot, and visited Europe, the Caribbean, Hawaii, and Argentina. We have settled in to a nice comfortable travel style where we compliment each other’s strengths and weaknesses: he drives and I navigate (ALWAYS!), he carries the heavy stuff and I hold onto the important stuff (netbook, ipods, passports, reservations), and when we buy drinks we put them in each other’s backpack pockets for easy access. We make most decisions together and we both have a go-with-the-flow attitude when visiting places, often making spur of the moment decisions.

While I am grateful for such a good travel companion in general, I also get to enjoy some benefits and unique aspects of traveling with a Brazilian. These things would likely not be the case if I were traveling with another American.

Note that while many of these topics are characteristic of Brazilian culture I’m not trying to generalize or stereotype – really I’m just talking about traveling with MY Brazilian, and can’t speak for the rest of them!

The Language Thing

Of course, I rely on Roberto like crazy when I travel to Brazil. Sadly, I am not coming along as far as I’d like with learning Portuguese partly because he’s just so darn good at translating everything for me. I would truly be lost traveling in Brazil without his help!

But he’s even super useful outside Brazil! His Spanish is also very good, so I can thoroughly depend on him in Spanish-speaking countries too. This really helps when we run into people who don’t speak any English, or quickly exhaust somebody’s English phrases. This has the added benefit that Roberto can have more in depth conversations with locals, get better travel advice, and really just warm people up by speaking their native language.

I usually sit back and listen during these conversations, understanding maybe half of what’s being said in Spanish and not much more in Portuguese.

Of course, being fluent in a couple romance languages doesn’t help much outside Europe and the Americas. We’ll both be equally lost when we travel to other places like Africa and Asia.

Conversing with the locals…

Brazilians are Everywhere!

We’ve run into Brazilians in the most random of places. There was that family from Sao Paulo we met on an airboat in the Everglades, the group of Capoeira dancers in front of Sacre-Coeur in Paris, and the group of Brazilian women sitting behind us on the motorboat in the Bruges canals.

This is fun because, they are always delighted to find other Brazilians and start sharing life stories. Usually they’ll talk to us both in Portuguese and I’ll follow along as best I can nodding and smiling until Roberto gets around to telling them I’m American. Then typically one of them will address me in English and tell me about their sister/uncle/friend/primo who lives in Miami/NYC/Boston.

It’s nice to feel a sense of community among Brazilians who meet out in the world. It’s a bit different from meeting Americans because I don’t think we have the same kind of pride in our culture as Brazilians do. Not to say we aren’t patriotic – it’s just different with American cultural influence being so far reaching. Brazilians don’t have a familiar churrascaria in every major city the way we have McDonald’s, so they seem to find much more joy out of meeting people from back home.

The Common Thread – Soccer

Since the rest of the world loves soccer for reasons us Americans can’t seem to understand, traveling with a bona fide member of the soccer-loving community has its perks. For every region we’ve traveled to, Roberto seems to know enough soccer facts to engage the locals in an in depth conversation about their popular teams’ rivalries and recent matches, best players and coaching woes, and that country’s performance in the most recent world cup and their predictions for 2010.

Bonding over a soccer match in the DR.

What this means to me? Well, Roberto’s bonding with folks over their passion for soccer is a great way to meet people and make friends. He’s broken the ice through soccer with just about every cab driver we’ve ever had, often then moving into some great tidbits on what to do in the area and what to avoid. We’ve had tons of fun getting to know waiters and bartenders through soccer which usually leads to free drinks and chef “experiments” not to mention great advice on local nightlife.

I think some of the waiters in the touristy areas enjoy us (Roberto) making an effort to get to know them, and talk about something meaningful to them rather than which tourist sites we should see next.

In General

In general we’ve found that foreigners (this was true in the US too) are often super intrigued by Brazilian culture and want to learn more. They have ideas of a beautiful and exotic land with gorgeous people and a fun loving culture (well that sounds about right!). Brazil isn’t often in the forefront of international news so these assumptions live on. This is an interesting contrast to American culture, which most other countries are exposed to plenty. There’s no mystery to being American.

It’s been a great experience for me to travel with Roberto and begin to understand global perceptions of Brazil, the US, and international relationships from various perspectives. I like to think of it as an unexpected perk of having a multicultural relationship!

I am sitting in the Rio airport on my way home. I was going to work on my post about the food in Buenos Aires, but I don’t think I can write anything good about food after the girl in front of me on my Tam flight to here barfed all over the aisle. She had spaghetti for lunch. I was lucky I guess… it landed on two guys’ flip flopped feet as well. Can anyone tell me why the heck Tam does not put barf bags on their planes?

Anyway, I thought I would make some observations about immigration after going through Brazilian immigration 4 times on this trip. And how inconsistent it has been. Now, I know this is not just a Brazilian problem, but this is the country I have the most experience in as a foreigner so I have the most observations here.

Each time I enter Brazil, my visa is handled differently. I have a Brazilian business visa because when I was planning my first trip to Brazil I was also potentially going there for a business meeting. Since it doesn’t make sense to get two visas and you cannot do business on a tourist visa, I decided to just get the one. I confirmed with the Brazilian consulate that it would not be a problem to visit as a tourist on a business visa, and they advised me that this was the best approach. They even said having two visas would likely confuse the immigration officers and make things even more difficult.

So, the first time I visited Brazil it was actually for tourism. I indicated as much on my immigration card and when I entered Brazil, the officer lady looked it over, looked at my visa, and changed the check box to business on the card without asking any questions. I didn’t say anything either, and went about my “business.” The next time I entered, I put tourism again and nothing was even questioned, and no one changed the card. Finally, the last time, coming back from Argentina I did the same thing. And the immigration officer was NOT happy with me! She called over 3 other people, looked through my passport, and asked me if I have a tourist visa. I said no, just the business visa, and explained that the consulate had told me but they didn’t want to hear it. I had to fill out a new card and put business, and they told me next time I need to get a tourist visa to visit as a tourist. I think there was also some “imagine if we tried to do that in the US” snarkiness to go along with it.

So I kind of understand that there are specific types of visas for specific purposes, and you really should have the right kind. But come on, do people really get both kinds of visas? I think all the immigration officers are doing is making me want to lie about my trip’s purpose and put business every time to shut them up. I mean, they do the same thing so it must be ok for me to lie about it too, right? Seeing that it’s accepted to brush the issue under the rug by just making sure the forms match doesn’t make me want to fork out another several hundred dollars for another visa. Next time I will just be putting business!

Another issue I had this time was with my the tourist card or whatever it is that you fill out and keep. Each of my trips, I was never actually told to hang onto it, and my first trip the immigration officer did not ask for it upon my departure. But, when I went to Argentina, the Gol lady asked me for it and it never even occurred to me to bring it. She said this might be a problem and I had to go downstairs and talk to the federal police (in charge of immigration). But, she gave me a boarding pass and checked my luggage. Roberto and I decided we didn’t want to sit in the little room and argue with the police, and we would take our chances with immigration on the way to the gate.

So when we went to immigration the officer asked me for the card. I explained that I had lost it, but he was able to look in my passport for the information he needed. We asked what that was, and he said it was to make sure I had not overstayed in Brazil. If I hadn’t had the stamp in my passport saying I had entered Brazil on that date, and since I didn’t have the paper card, I could have been fined for overstay. So, let me get this straight… I need the card just in case I do not have a stamp in my passport saying I entered Brazil legally, or in case I do not have my passport. I venture to guess not having the card would be the least of my worries if I did not have a stamp in my passport or did not have it at all! I don’t know why they made a big deal out of it. By they way, when I went through immigration to leave Rio, I gave the card to the lady who threw it away without looking at it.

So, those are my immigration inconsistencies. Another mildly amusing thing happened when I was checking in with US Airways earlier. The guy asked me if I had a ticket, and I said “no, aren’t I supposed to get my ticket here? He said yes but he needed a printout of my itinerary. I told him I did not have one (I’ve never heard of this before!) but I was going to Pittsburgh. He told me “well, we do usually require you to have a printout of your itinerary, but I trust you since you are American and all.” Trust me for what? Knowing what city I am going to without a printout? Not trying to do something shady or illegal? I found it funny that being American = able to be trusted with knowing which city I am to fly to. Would this story have ended differently had I not been American? I was amused by this, but I have definitely never heard of needing a printout. Hopefully I can continue to use the American excuse… I don’t know why immigration didn’t get the memo that they are supposed to trust me with my business visa since I’m American and all!