I arrived in Sao Paulo yesterday night at 7 pm Chicago time, 9 pm Brazil time. I was very tired... I woke up at 2 am yesterday morning, and my flight left Midway at 6. I arrived in Georgia alittle later than planned because of all the air traffic, but I still had about 40 minutes to catch my flight. I grabbed some McDonalds (a number 11 on the breakfast menu to be exact haha, the breakfast burritos) and hopped on the plane. The flight from Atlanta to Sao Paulo was long.... They played the movies 21 and Fool`s Gold. 21 wasn`t bad. I tried to get some sleep, I got a little. It`s always hard to sleep on the plane. The food wasn`t good... I had pasta and a small salad. They didn`t feed us again until like 6 hours later, so my stomach was upset. Then I had a sandwhich...which was yucky haha. But there were pepperage farm cookies. Yummm.

I got off the plane and went to get my bags. They didn`t have any signs of which planes baggage was where, so you kinda had to guess. Until a man who was on my plane asked a security guy, and we had to go to the other side of the room. So I followed him and there my bags were! They were kinda beat up. Deoh said they aren`t very gentle with them. Then I had to wait in this huge line for customs, since I had my medicine and some granola bars I didn`t want to get introuble by not claiming anything. But it was kind of pointless, they didn`t even do anything. No one cared at any of the airports that I had an insulin pump or any of my diabetic supplies, for once.

As soon as I walked out, I saw Deoh behind a huge crowd of people. He looks the same...just alittle chubbier and with shorter hair. His mom, dad, aunt, uncle, little brother and little cousin were all there to greet me. Everyone was very nice and gave me a hug and the women gave me air kisses, hehe. The only adult that really knows English is his uncle, who`s also Japanese. They have a lot of Japanese in this part of Brazil...and I mean a lot.

The car ride was 6 hours from his uncles house. Ugh. We drove in their truck, mom and dad in the front and me, deoh and his brother in the back. It was a tight ride. I tried to sleep a little. My knees were getting achy. His dad got lost a few times, but we made it back. The gas here is really cheap.... I think to convert it it`d be like $1.50 a gallon. And there`s always someone else to fill up your gas for you and wash your car, they don`t do it themselves.

We stopped at like 3 in the morning at this bus stop/grocery store so his dad could get some coffee. Everyone was staring at me...its kinda fun to be the outsider. :) I got a chocolate ball (we don`t have them in America, but i`m going to try to learn how to make them) and drank some of Deoh`s mango/orange something juice.

When we finally got to his house, I called my house and left a message. Today we haven`t done much, but that`s a good thing, I prefer to lounge. All the houses are SO clean...NOTHING on the floor. Probably because the maid cleans it up. She comes every day execpt for the weekends. She has to be in her middle 20s...and she doesn`t really talk. But yeah... I feel really unorganized compared to them. His aunt showed me her sons closet... every single toy he owned was in a specific spot in the closet. You can tell she has a lot of time on her hands haha.

We drove around and saw his town, and went in his little town museum. I saw his English school and we got some ice cream.

They have a lot of stray dogs and cats just running around. It kind looks like I had imagined Mexico looks, but just on the outside. When we were leaving Sao Paulo I saw some really poor parts, and that was an eye opener. I won`t go out by myself, but at the same time I don`t feel threatened or anything. Bastos is unique, that`s the word that bests describes it. Deoh owns a motorcycle and he says we will take it later... i`m not going to lie, i`m a scaredy cat. That freaks me out because i`ve never really been on one. But im up for the adventure! :)

Tomorrow night/evening- a long drive to Paraugy. Wednesday will be Iguaça falls, the picture up there. :)