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James On Gap!!
25th-26th August (sorry about poor grammar and spelling mistakes!) 9 45 flight. Got to Heathrow Terminal 4 (lovin it, Ray) at 4ish. Said goodbye to mum and dad and Ash (bit teary!) and started pottering around the airport with my massive bag. Met girl Alex and sat down with her and her parents for a coffee. Had to keep moving my bag so people could get by. Was like moving my car....haha crashed mine the night before I left. Classic James!! Although I didn't try to bail James Bond stylie this time. After what seemed like aaaages in check-in queue, the rest of the crew showed up. Belle, Jen, Beth and boy Alex. Boy Alex actually went through to customs before us because he was on a transfer flight from Dublin, but the rest joined me and girl Alex in the queue (thanks largely to the queue-wangling skills of Belle's mum). Checked bags in. Mine was by far the lightest - typical! Went through customs (longitude) and met up with boy Alex. He was a happy chappy, although he kept insisting that the inept Dublin baggage handlers would lose his stuff. I made nothing of it, reassuring him with words that probably amounted to "Allow, pal." I can be one articulate fella sometimes. Wandered around duty free with Belle for a bit. Bought some English tea to give to my host family in Fortaleza. Guess it will be a nicer representatio of English culture than Football Factory on DVD (insert Simon quote here). Then picked up a sandwich from Pret (keepin it real with smoked salmon) and TREKKED over to Gate 24. Turned out our flight was reaaaaly delayed, so we only got going at 10 45ish. There was a lot of amusement to be had in the meantime though, what with the presence of the World's Campest Air Hostess Bloke TM. I think my favourite line was "The catering tonight will be presided over by Maud Jones, who has in fact qualified from the Mary Poppins School of Air Service. She's practically perfect in every way." There may have been talk of Steps and Brighton in other PA announcements, but I can't remember right now. It was an 11 hour flight but it didn't seem that long. Amused myself with iPod, Top Gear (the on with Clarkson in land rover vs. a tank) and Dodgeball (x2). Also did lots of fidgety sleeping and chatted to Belle about her plans for after Brazil. We landed in Sao Paulo at 5 45 local time and went to get our bags. Was shattered but sooo excited at the same time. What was crappy was that the inept Dublin baggage handlers DID lose Alex's stuff, so he was (and still is) without clothes and that. He'll sort it though. Allow, pal. After getting our bags (I'm pretty sure mine was last on the carousel) we met with Flavia, our GAP representative, and got into 2 cabs going to the hotel. Seeing Sao Paulo City through the smog was, in a way, exactly how I had expected it to be, but my jaw dropped anyway. To the left of the freeway were hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of skyscrapers, seemingly piled on top of one and another, all blurry in the seriously intense pollution. It was an incredible sight - the first real metropolis I've seen like that - and surely it will be one of the enduring images of my time here. Hopefully photos will follow. After checking into the hotel we all had a nap for a bit (by 'all' I mean our room - me, Belle and boy Alex) and then we went out for a bit of lunch and exploring. I felt so small it was unreal, and everyone kept giving us looks, but it was probably due to the truly scary tan lines on my arms. It's 18 32 here now and after we've watched some more shoddy American soaps with Portuguese subtitles, we'll be out for a night on the town. The adventure begins!!! Miss and love you all, J x P.S. Simon: how was Reading? Ash: how was Creamfields?
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