The travel to Brazil was long and tested my patience, of which I have little.
When we arrived in Rio, we expected to take a connecting flight to Florianopolis, then a bus from Floripa (as locals call it) to Praia do Rosa. Well, we arrive in Rio and are informed by Gol airlines that our flight has been cancelled due to mechanical difficulties. BULLSHIT. The next flight out would be hours later and hours longer. We were also informed that the cat who had to go in with the cargo needed a hard carrier (not the soft like I have). I asked why their website didn~t specify and they said the soft carrier doesn~t exist in Brazil. Apparently nor do hours of business or speed. They called the pet shops and of course they were closed because guess what? It~s their labor day. Banks were also closed. It was Friday so we are stranded in Rio until Monday with little cash.
We ended up, after 3 hours of negotiating, cancelling the flight they automatically booked us and got a confirmation number for a refund, and decided to stay in Rio for the night and leave the next day on a bus.
The bext day, we went online and were not able to find any info on ticket reservations. We took a cab to the bus station with all our suitcases, bags, and cat, hoping to find a red eye. Well, after standing in line watching the attendants flirt with each other, I got to the front of the line and was told the only bus to Floripa left 2 mintues ago. TWO MINUTES!! So we cabbed it back to the same small hotel where we were laughed at. We spent another night in Rio and ended up in Floripa the next day after 18 hours on a bus.
After Floripa, we took a bus to a small town and transfered to another bus to get to Prais do Rosa. Then we were picked up in a car by our lovely landlord~s neighbor, Verona.
Finally, a real person with smiles!!!
and that is wher our time in Prais do Rosa begins.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Getting to Brazil
photos to come, yes yes. Ir takes a long time here to upload them.
Anyway, Something cosmic happened on my last trip out the door in SF. I was dragging a standing closet down the stairwell of my apartment and as I tipped it toward me, a small photo flew off the top and onto the ground. It was a photo of me as a baby, on the lap of the woman who cared for me before I was adopted. I cried my eyes out, wondering where it had come from, since I hadn~t seen it in years, and conincidentally, at the most appropriate time, upon my move to Brazil, showed up out of nowhere. That was a good omen.
On the flight from SFO to Houston, I sat next to a Puerto Rican woman who had a blackhead on her nose and I couldn~t stop looking at it! . . . that, and her mustache growing out, and the cloudy eyes that old people get around the iris.... But beyond that, she was one of the most earnest and genuinely amiable people I have met. I had conversations with her and at the end of the flight, she was inspired to live the life she always wanted to..since her son was now a 24 yr old adult.
I turned my phone off for good, which was a milestone since I have lived with and relied on my phone for 2 years for both work and social agendas.
18 hrs of sleepless travel and I am about to arrive in Sao Paulo, only to continue on to Rio, then take a connecting flight to Florianopolist, then a 1.5 hr busride to my final destination, Praia do Rosa.
Christine is sleeping and my cat has been very quiet up to this point. Now, she is pissed and wants out of her pet voyage.
I wonder what Christine~s first impressions of Brazil will be. I am watching a wild show on the plane about lions and it is on silent. They^re killing wild boar, zebras and gizelles. He takes down a baby zebra by grabbing the back end with his claws, then imobilizing it with a quick clamp down on the neck.
The patterns on the ground seen from the sky are spectacular. Above the US, I saw circles, nested in squares, divided into quadrants with ripples of higher ground, sand and salt deposits, snowy mountains, and patches of green, red and yellow rectangles dividing farming properties . As the sun rises in Brazil, flying over the interior, there are green patches and reflective rivers and lakes dividing areas of natural growth and man made fields.
I am anticipating a nice light continental breakfast since I avoided eating all of my beef and pototo airplane dinner. It tasted like dogfood.
Flying into San Paulo is like nothing else. Tall white apartment buildings are stacked like legos, rows of colored boxes with a million windows stretch for miles. We~re still sailing to our final decent and there is no vanishing point for this extra-terrestrial metropolis.
Anyway, Something cosmic happened on my last trip out the door in SF. I was dragging a standing closet down the stairwell of my apartment and as I tipped it toward me, a small photo flew off the top and onto the ground. It was a photo of me as a baby, on the lap of the woman who cared for me before I was adopted. I cried my eyes out, wondering where it had come from, since I hadn~t seen it in years, and conincidentally, at the most appropriate time, upon my move to Brazil, showed up out of nowhere. That was a good omen.
On the flight from SFO to Houston, I sat next to a Puerto Rican woman who had a blackhead on her nose and I couldn~t stop looking at it! . . . that, and her mustache growing out, and the cloudy eyes that old people get around the iris.... But beyond that, she was one of the most earnest and genuinely amiable people I have met. I had conversations with her and at the end of the flight, she was inspired to live the life she always wanted to..since her son was now a 24 yr old adult.
I turned my phone off for good, which was a milestone since I have lived with and relied on my phone for 2 years for both work and social agendas.
18 hrs of sleepless travel and I am about to arrive in Sao Paulo, only to continue on to Rio, then take a connecting flight to Florianopolist, then a 1.5 hr busride to my final destination, Praia do Rosa.
Christine is sleeping and my cat has been very quiet up to this point. Now, she is pissed and wants out of her pet voyage.
I wonder what Christine~s first impressions of Brazil will be. I am watching a wild show on the plane about lions and it is on silent. They^re killing wild boar, zebras and gizelles. He takes down a baby zebra by grabbing the back end with his claws, then imobilizing it with a quick clamp down on the neck.
The patterns on the ground seen from the sky are spectacular. Above the US, I saw circles, nested in squares, divided into quadrants with ripples of higher ground, sand and salt deposits, snowy mountains, and patches of green, red and yellow rectangles dividing farming properties . As the sun rises in Brazil, flying over the interior, there are green patches and reflective rivers and lakes dividing areas of natural growth and man made fields.
I am anticipating a nice light continental breakfast since I avoided eating all of my beef and pototo airplane dinner. It tasted like dogfood.
Flying into San Paulo is like nothing else. Tall white apartment buildings are stacked like legos, rows of colored boxes with a million windows stretch for miles. We~re still sailing to our final decent and there is no vanishing point for this extra-terrestrial metropolis.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Ahh packing.
I have put it off for long enough. I finally found out how much shit I really have. Going through all my cabinets and drawers, cubbies, closets and bench storage, I am thinking it's going to take longer to pack and dispose than I imagined.
But there's nothing like finding that random piece of paper that gives me a reminder of what I was doing a year ago. A goal sheet. One week, one month, three months, six months, one year. Have my library card $10 fee paid off. Pay the DMV. Save money for a trip back to St. Louis. Have an art website built. All these things were in my plans a year ago, and I never imagined I would be here, where everything is different. Imagine your life a year ago. Did you know you would be where you are? Doing what you're doing?
I found, as a bookmark, a photo of my ex husband and I...an engagement photo where we were kissing. I cried. I found, in my Dahli Lama autobiography (how fitting, since he just visited California), a "to do" list with everything I thought was important two months ago. I came across two ENTIRE BAGS of total trash. Papers galore. Where does this come from and how did I not notice it before? I have way too many clothes and shoes for someone who wears the same outfit for a week if I can get away with it.
So what do I learn from all this? That when I am stagnant, I accumulate. I lose that natural instinct to be free of possessions, free to move about without baggage. Now that I am ready to move on again, (and the song Gypsy by Fleetwood Mac ALWAYS appears in these times), I feel fulfilled in packing all my things into bags, giving them away, relinquishing comfort, convenience, and making a fresh start in a new place that I can call home. Brazil, here I come.
But there's nothing like finding that random piece of paper that gives me a reminder of what I was doing a year ago. A goal sheet. One week, one month, three months, six months, one year. Have my library card $10 fee paid off. Pay the DMV. Save money for a trip back to St. Louis. Have an art website built. All these things were in my plans a year ago, and I never imagined I would be here, where everything is different. Imagine your life a year ago. Did you know you would be where you are? Doing what you're doing?
I found, as a bookmark, a photo of my ex husband and I...an engagement photo where we were kissing. I cried. I found, in my Dahli Lama autobiography (how fitting, since he just visited California), a "to do" list with everything I thought was important two months ago. I came across two ENTIRE BAGS of total trash. Papers galore. Where does this come from and how did I not notice it before? I have way too many clothes and shoes for someone who wears the same outfit for a week if I can get away with it.
So what do I learn from all this? That when I am stagnant, I accumulate. I lose that natural instinct to be free of possessions, free to move about without baggage. Now that I am ready to move on again, (and the song Gypsy by Fleetwood Mac ALWAYS appears in these times), I feel fulfilled in packing all my things into bags, giving them away, relinquishing comfort, convenience, and making a fresh start in a new place that I can call home. Brazil, here I come.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
time is winning this race
...and i need to catch up. yes, i have enough time to write this blog but in 45 minutes another last minute client will be at my house for a color and cut. people are coming here since i stopped working at the salon. i don't know how much more of myself i can give away to individuals. being totally grateful for how many friends i have, i am still wondering how i am going to have time to see and say farewell to every one before i leave.
on a more positive note, what i said in my facebook status is true and just around the corner: all i have to worry about is how fast my ice cubes are melting in my drink.
so after a flight from sfo to rio, i take a connecting flight from rio to florianopolis, an island near my small town. from there, i have to take a 1.5 hr busride to praia do rosa, where i will live. but there are no animals allowed on buses in brazil due to the poaching of animals from the amazon. so, i will either have to hop on the bus and be sneaky with the pet voyage, or i will rent a car. i have a reservation but dread the idea of driving in brazil's busier areas, let alone taking the bumpy roads on the outskirts of town. having nightmares about being pulled over and taken to jail for not having the right paperwork (despite thrifty car rental's "legal driver" requirements), i am skeptical about getting into the death machine. at least it's a vw golf. could i ask for a better rental car?
leaving in a week exactly. looking forward to not paying at $90 phone bill. looking forward to brazilian food. even looking forward to spending an entire month with a friend with whom i've never traveled. not looking forward to a 20 hour plane flight with the cat in the pet voyage. i am going to drug her out of her little kitty mind, and she should be ok. and so should i.
wrapping up....i fly out at noon on thursday. i have narrowed my belongings down to two suitcases, and i am storing two boxes. other than that, i have no possessions, no memories and no plans.
on a more positive note, what i said in my facebook status is true and just around the corner: all i have to worry about is how fast my ice cubes are melting in my drink.
so after a flight from sfo to rio, i take a connecting flight from rio to florianopolis, an island near my small town. from there, i have to take a 1.5 hr busride to praia do rosa, where i will live. but there are no animals allowed on buses in brazil due to the poaching of animals from the amazon. so, i will either have to hop on the bus and be sneaky with the pet voyage, or i will rent a car. i have a reservation but dread the idea of driving in brazil's busier areas, let alone taking the bumpy roads on the outskirts of town. having nightmares about being pulled over and taken to jail for not having the right paperwork (despite thrifty car rental's "legal driver" requirements), i am skeptical about getting into the death machine. at least it's a vw golf. could i ask for a better rental car?
leaving in a week exactly. looking forward to not paying at $90 phone bill. looking forward to brazilian food. even looking forward to spending an entire month with a friend with whom i've never traveled. not looking forward to a 20 hour plane flight with the cat in the pet voyage. i am going to drug her out of her little kitty mind, and she should be ok. and so should i.
wrapping up....i fly out at noon on thursday. i have narrowed my belongings down to two suitcases, and i am storing two boxes. other than that, i have no possessions, no memories and no plans.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
this is what i will be leaving behind in san francisco
the view from my balcony this morning as the sun kisses the sky
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Unmatched socks, please watch over my art
There are reasons things are left in the wind, but I'm not sure what they are. Years ago, hours before my Brazilian grandmother died, I sat at her bedside and drew her. I thought, what a better way to honor her in her passing; to sketch her in her last moments. I believed these were some of the most hautingly beautiful sketches I had ever done, believed that some other force was working through me as an instrument. I sent these sketches to some Brazilian friends and they never received them. Poof. Nowhere to be found. This meant that she was immortalized and I sent her soul to Brazil. At least that's what I thought.
A couple of years ago, I collaborated with a brilliant artist at Webster University and on the day of our show, he decided to kick his heroin addication. He was unable to make it. I borrowed his car, and when the show was over, loaded all of our art into the car and returned it to his house to be dealt with the next day. I never heard from him again. Poof. All art gone.
A few months ago, I left a DVD case full of all my movies at a friend's house. We were seeing each other and although he denies any possibility of it, I believe his jealous ex-girlfriend stole the case. In this case was the one and only master copy of art videos I made while in art school. My entire Woody Allen and Wes Anderson collections gone. Nowhere to be found. Poof.
I have to believe that art exists to be set free. If it is not owned, it can be immortalized. It either dies in a storage unit or it lives on someone's wall, in a memory, or it lives in an imaginary place where socks also go.
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