Did you enjoy your flight?

Tuesday April 27, 2010
The adventure begins.
We started off at Rochester International Airport at about 10:15 in the morning. That would be plenty of time for our 11:30 flight to JFK Airport in New York. But of course as luck would have it, our flight was delayed. Delayed? Delayed indefinitely. It never fails. Our flight was delayed without any guidance, due to weather and traffic at JFK. As you can imagine my nerves were already on edge. Elaine of course was mildly aggravated and expected these little set backs.
As I am such a figity person, and endured enough delay without guidance I chose to walk over to posting board to see if there was an update. On my way I encountered a special friend to Elaine and I. It was Lesley. Lesley is actually the person that brought Elaine and I together. Lesley set up the meetup group Rochester Learns to Cook. And of course as you all know it was at Leslie's place that Elaine and I first worked together as partners in the kitchen.
It was great having someone like Leslie at the airport to talk with. We passed the hour and a half delay so quickly talking to Leslie. And yes, as you can imagine and know that talking with me can be (to say the least) an experience. We shared many stories since our first encounter:)
At any rate it was such a bizarre experience to encounter Leslie at the airport and fly with her to New York City.
We got into JFK at some point near 3:00 pm. Just in time to check in with the immigration department for international travel. This would be the next step where my nerves would be set on edge. To me it felt like I just stepped out of the country. The language changes and the signs are all in Portuguese. I felt intimidated just by the looks of some of the people traveling with us. I am so grateful that the person that assisted us in our check-in was so kind. He spoke both English and Portuguese fluently and readily joked with Elaine and I in both languages as he eased our tension. We passed swiftly through the check-in. I won't say so much for the security check point that was run by the U.S. Security.
We approached the security check point and anticipated the procedures we were to follow. There was a security guard belting out instructions to the travelers as if we were part of his platoon. The platoon leader belted out "Remove all types of footware. There should be nothing on your feet. If there is something on your feet then it is probably still alive and will kill you...." Bela looked at me and asked if he was joking. I was in no mood at the time for someone joking with me. To me his timing was poor. To Elaine he was just a man tired of droning out the same phrase every day all day long and was just looking to liven up the atmosphere.
We finally left JFK Airport around 7:30 pm. This would suggest that we were going to arrive in Rio De Janeiro after our connecting flight left. Go figure.
Our seats were at the back of the bus (airplane) or as Elaine said, "in the kitchen." Sitting in the tail of an Airbus A330 is not the most comfortable place to be. On take off, the tail of the airplane wobbles like a 'duck's ass." It feels like the plane is falling apart. The tail of the plane has the kitchen as well as the restrooms. All night long you get to hear the nonstop activity in both areas.
I will say that the airplanes are cool as they have free audio and video entertainment for our personal viewing and listening pleasure. I wanted so much to (as Elaine would say) immerse myself in the culture. We both watched a documentary put together by Marissa Monte about the origins of Samba. The documentary gave me a completely different perspective of what Samba music was all about. I think we always picture beautiful dancers parading in the street during Carnival with lively upbeat music. The documentary gave me the impression that the songs written for Samba music schools tell a story. And quite often the story is a sad story of love and a hard life.
As for the rest of the night on our trip. I thought I would be wise and taking a sleeping pill. At that point we had eight hours to go. This wonderous little pill keeps me flat for at least 6 hours. Oh did I say flat? LOL. When it comes to flying there is nothing flat about it. And because I was not flat, I did not sleep through the insane flight. I think the only time I felt really comfortable was when Bela let me rest my legs on her lap. Beyond that it was a bone crushing experience.
Much to my surprise though, I did sleep some. I woke up at about 4:00 am and turned on the cool map video feed of our flight position on my personal console. We made up lost time and were going to arrive one hour before our connecting flight would leave for Victoria.
Oh I failed to mention that they fed us dinner and breakfast on this flight. I had something that resembled chicken breast and rice for dinner. The chicken reminded me of chicken I have had in the past where dinner wasn't so important and quite often left in the oven near to the point it could have passed off as a jerky treat for the dog. I also had a glass of red wine with my dinner. Yes it was red wine. It's funny too as I remember asking for my glass of whine. The flight attendants spoke Portuguese to all of the passengers around me. I keep trying to practice my Portuguese. I keep my phrases brief and clear. I said "vinho por favor." The attendant quickly responded with a word I took to mean white wine. My poor communication skill was a dead giveaway as I confusingly looked to Bela and she quickly spoke up and clarified to the attendant in plain English "red."
Never mind the breakfast they fed us on the flight. At the moment I can't remember what it was.
Did I mention we both caught a cold last week. Both of us are congested to this day. The congestion doesn't help either on long flights. I have trouble with high altitude flights and narrow passages in my ear canals. I lose my hearing and the pain is excruciating. I love to travel but I wish I could keep the flights at 10,000 feet not 39,000 feet above sea level.
Well we did get to Rio De Janeiro at about 6:00 am. Our next flight was leaving at 6:30. We had to go through customs again. The line for non-citizens in Rio is very short. The line for citizens is obviously very long. And of course everyone is tired and the attendants don't want any crap from anyone. I had no idea what was going on and was very afraid to be anywhere without Elaine. We stood together for a few minutes in the resident line. Of course then she suggested to me to talk to the head attendant and ask for special treatment as I am a visitor about to miss my connecting flight. Oh yeah that went over like a lead balloon. But it was a good idea. So I stepped out of the line and prepared my sob story as I walked down the long corridor as if I was Dorothy in "The Wizard of OZ" as she was going to see the wizard for the first time. I got half way to the window and the "Wizard" was too far away to quietly ask him for his assistance. It was time for me to practice Portuguese again. Oh yeah and how do I do this without drawing attention to myself in a way that doesn't land me face down on the floor with a gun to my head. ( Don't worry, the security in Rio isn't that scarey.) So all I could think of was which word do I use? Desculpe or com licensa? I think I chose desculpe and then in a non-threatening way (so I believe) I waved to the man with the radio. He quickly approached. I began with "I am a visitor here with my fiance." I quickly showed him my ticket with a flight that was boarding in ten minutes. He got on the radio and spoke with someone. Looking at me he then said "You cannot make this flight, I am transferring you to...." I got real nervous now. It sounded like the attendant just changed my flight plans. I had to repeat how important it was for me to have my fiance by my side. The radio attendant looked to the head attendant and waved him over. He slowly approached and only nodded his head to me to acknowledge that he was prepared to hear my pathetic story. He looked at me with disapproving eyes. I found myself moving to the next mode of desperation and told him I was very nervous and needed to keep my fiance by my side to explain what we needed. I pointed far off in the crowded line of people and suggested that she was too far away to speak with. At that point he spoke (in words that I could not understand) to the man with the radio. They exchanged some words and then looked at me and just nodded with approval. I got permission to get Elaine to the front of the line with me. By the way, being at the front of the line and a visitor doesn't mean a thing. When I started there were two lines for non-residents. As we approached the window, the head attendant closed one of them to non-residents and began to use it as the window for residents only. He quickly stopped the Japanese lady as she approached the window and sent her back to the line that at this point only had Elaine and I in it.
By the time we got through customs, the plane we were supposed to take was already loaded. Our baggage wasn't even in the terminal yet. At this point I found myself being the one relaxed and Elaine was the one stressing out. It was a nice change of pace. I was at the mercy of all who were around me. There was nothing I could do to change my situation. I was beginning to have fun. Elaine had to do all of the speaking. I just smiled.

I will continue with the saga...

But that's all for now.