Heading Home

Its finally time for me to go home. Today I fly down to São Paulo and then on to Heathrow.

I'll be arriving in London at about 7am (GMT) tomorrow. See you on the other side! (of the world)

Aracaju Weeks Three and Four: The Home Straight

The last two weeks of my Brazilian adventure began much like the previous two - work, work and more work, with the additional strain of trying to organise a trip out to the field. It seemed everything was against me - in order to get out there I needed one professor, one technician and transport. However, the professor was on holiday, the technicians were on strike and the university refused to rent a car to me. In the end, it only took 1 full day, 2 native English speakers, 1 Brazilian student who speaks English and two Brazilian professors, to resolve the situation to everyone's satisfaction. The only slight problem, for me at least, was that we had agreed to meet at the university at 7am. Given the previous reliability of the buses (or lack thereof) this meant I had to wake up at 4.30am to be certain I would arrive on time.

So, before the sun had even begun to rise, I dragged myself out of bed, forced myself into the cold shower I hoped might wake me up, had some breakfast and got my things together. About 5 minutes before I was going to leave, in predictable Brazilian disagreeableness, it began to rain. And when it rains in the tropics, it pours. I decided to wait a few minutes, in the desperate hope in might subside, but no such luck. So, I found my rain coat and headed out. Fifteen miserable minutes later, I was at the bus stop. Thankfully, the buses ran smoothly and I actually arrived at University half an hour early, which gave me a chance to do a few bits of work before leaving. I made sure I was finished with all this promptly, and sat and waited. But 7am came and went, and there was no sign of the professor who was supposed to help me. I told myself he was working on Brazil time (usually a minimum of 15 minutes late) and waited patiently. By 8am I was just sending him a rather concerned and slightly irate email, when he arrived.