Back to Real Life

The flight back from Brazil didn't feel too bad. American handed out little packets with eye masks, ear plugs and even a mini tooth brush and tooth paste. The plugs do make a significant difference - way to go American! We watched Rat Race which turned out to be just as stupid as I expected it to be.

Arriving back was a bit of a downer. I missed all the Portuguese everywhere and the laid back chaos. I also got reminded how focused we are on ourselves and detached from far away places (and vice versa). Coming back and seeing red-white-blue ribbons on flight attendants, and soldiers with guns at the airport seemed like a different world. People in Brazil do not obsess on 9/11 (and I didn't think about it when I was there, either). When they actually played America the Beautiful (the short they seem to play before every movie at the theaters) before we started boarding our flight, I wondered what the people visiting the Olympic Games thought about all this.