I´m here...finally...

Sweet Jesus, what a day! I´m just happy to be on solid ground again. All said and done, I flew for over 18 hours-- counting all the extra time, of which there was a great deal. First, we drive to Pittsburgh in sweltering heat. I arrive at the airport with a Tina Turner ´do thanks to the open windows and I´m quite soaked in sweat. That was the easiest part. Then, we get to the check-luggage desk and we get a woman on her FIRST DAY OF WORK!! Baaaad sign. We stood in line while she checked, double-checked and called her supervisor about 200 times. We´re sweating because time is ticking away and we still haven´t passed the first stage. Finally, we get our luggage tags. Then, she informs us that our next flight has been completely re-routed from Chicago to Washington, D.C. (Dulles Intntl). Surprise! Oh, AND that flight is delay 45 minutes. So, we board the tiniest freakin´ airplane I have ever seen. I was expecting to see newspaper shreds fly off when we started taxing. There were about a dozen of us and it was cramped. The take-off practically shook the brains out of my head. Arrival in D.C. is delayed 20 minutes because we were taxing around trying to get clearance for one of the gates. Again, we´re sweating because our ticket says that our connecting flight leaves in 20 minutes and we haven´t left the first plane. So, we finally get off, grab our carry-ons (which, by the way, were too big for the overhead in the Pitt plane---it was only about 6 inches high and deep) and RUN LIKE HELL across Dulles, which is about a mile in length--no kidding. Sweating (again) and out of breathe we arrive at the correct gate and approach the desk. The woman there says, ´Why the hurry? Your flight has been delayed 45 minutes.´ Just lovely...so, we sit and wait. We board the Dulles flight, which has given us totally crappy seats due to the re-route. I´m in the middle of a row of people thinking-- I´m gonna puke. Luckily, I didn´t; I took some meds beforehand so, I was just queasy for 9 hrs. Not to mention the fascinating array of characters that encompassed the flight. I won´t even go there because I would be typing all night. In any case, we went through Sao Paulo and on to Rio de Janeiro. The flight from Sao Paulo to Rio was the best--- there was hardly anyone there so, I had a window seat the whole way; though it was only a 30 minute flight :( Felipe and I snapped a bunch of photos from the plane which I will try to get online for everyone soon. Whew. So, now I´m here at his parent´s home which is quite lovely and his family has been extremely nice. I think I´ve learned about 50 words today just by conversing with them and watching Brazilian TV-- which I´m already addicted to. That´s all for now so, I´m going to bed. It has been a VERY long day...