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Yeah, that's about all I need right ?
I have just spent 6 awesome weeks with my brother Ludo in his house in San Diego. But now it's time to leave...
I have butterflies in my stomach. I have this very sane fear in my head and in my guts that's going to get me going as soon as I arrive in Brazil.
I have a very clear objective : find (at least) a job, settle down somewhere (basically where I'll find my first job !) in this awesome country and ... live !
I have a couple of friends there, some friends of friends, some contacts, my resume is ready... I also have a place to stay for the first couple of days so it's already a bit of a relief.
Now it's 5:00 am in San Diego, I am at the airport and my journey is starting... not that good actually !
Still half asleep, when I got in the car, my brother asked me what company I was flying with : I replied United. Wrong answer, it was Delta therefore I queued a bit for nothing and had to walk to the other terminal carrying my horribly heavy backpack. I was sweating when I got there. But I got there.
Check-in was fun. The lovely lady asks me whether I have a return ticket which I don't. Then she gets all nervous telling me I have to buy a return ticket or Brazilian authorities won't let me in. I haven't read that anywhere since I'll get a three months visa when I get there, which gives me plenty of time to go wherever I please including outside of Brazil and to catch a plane back home or wherever I please too ! Anyway, she tells me I cannot check-in here and have to go to the "special services" lane... Sigh. There, another lovely lady checks everything and actually tells me that I don't HAVE TO buy a return ticket but that Brazilian authorities MAY refuse my entrance in the country. Yeah yeah. Gimme the damn boarding passes. I was mumbling when it got done. But it got done.
She hands me three boarding passes (see pictures). This is odd. You see my plane ticket (see picture) is from San Diego to Minneapolis and then from Minneapolis to Sao Paulo. If I count well, that's two flights. Yet I get three boarding passes. Mmmhhh, look like there's a stopover in Detroit. Anyway. I have no time to spare as there's a ton of people at security and I've got to get going.
Of course, I end up in the slowest queue. For some reason I ignore, the man in this queue is overzealous, checks the passenger's passport/ID once thoroughly, checks the boarding pass thoroughly, re-checks the passport/ID, goes again through the boarding pass, takes his pen, does all sorts of stuff with it on the boarding pass, checks what he just did, re-re-checks the passport/ID, and one last check on the boarding pass, without forgetting a very suspicious look at you, in case you're from Al Qaeda or something. So it takes him five times (at least) longer than the others to let us through. I was fuming when I was through (I got an extra extra check of my passport, with him going to his manager with it, I'm French you see !). But I got through.
Luggage security check. I'm almost there ! I can see the Starbucks on the other side of those gates ! I'm lurking at it like a man in the desert seeing an oasis. And right before my nose, while I'm about to put my stuff in those little plastic boxes to have my stuff through X-ray, a whole crew passes in front of me. Pilot, co-pilot, stewardesses, stewards, you name it ! And without even looking at me, not even saying "sorry !", they just pass in front of me like I'm invisible. I was hysterical when I got to that X-ray gate. But I got there.
I go through this gate, all smiles as I'd be damned if this thing beeps since I don't have one piece of metal on me. Indeed, it doesn't. It just beeps immediately after and the woman says : "m'am, you have been randomly selected for a drug check". You should have seen my face when she said that (see picture). I was close to become that Al Qaeda terrorist when they finished. But they finished.
Of course, by the time I reached that Starbucks, I heard : "last call for Minneapolis"... Bye bye coffee !
Well, that's the start of a beautiful trip, wouldn't you say ? :)
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