McDonald's and Diversity in Brazil

Kind of sad that my 2nd post on this travelogue is about McDonalds but oh, well!

We've been in the country about 9 days now and I'm horrified to say that we've been to McDonald's about 6 times now.  Our kids are pretty picky eaters in the States and it's been a challenge to find things that Safari Girl, in particular, will eat.  Plus, they are giving out Super Mario toys in the Happy Meals (McLaunche Feliz) and it's been fun for them to collect the toys and actually have something to play with here.  So here are some things about McDonald's in Brazil.

• When we order a cheeseburger, apparently they have no word in Portuguese for it.  For a lot of other things they just use the English word, albeit with a Portuguese accent (DVD, iPad, pickles) but in this case they don't.  We have to order "bread and meat with cheese" (pao e carne com queijo).  That's a cheeseburger.  
• But chicken nuggets are simply called nuggets.
• Their shakes are really good.  They put little round chocolate sprinkles in them that actually taste better, I think, than the chocolate sprinkles in the States. 
• They serve grape juice and Guarana in addition to orange juice.  We haven't asked about other sodas.
• I tried a "Cheddar" burger (it's Cheddar written in English here) thinking that was a cheeseburger but it most definitely is NOT the same kind of cheese burger.  They piped on enough cheese whiz that it could have been frosting on a store bought cupcake in the States.  I couldn't even stand to look at it, let alone eat it!  I posted the picture Facebook.  I will NOT be getting that again.

• The workers have to dress from head to toe in a McDonald's uniform.  Literally.  They have a hat, a shirt, jeans have have the Golden Arches embroidered near the back pocket and even their shoes have the Golden Arches on them!  I have to laugh every time at that little Golden Arch embroidered near their back pants pocket. 

 

Make sure to zoom in so you can see that embroidered Golden Arches!

 

We are quite the attraction when we go.  The teen workers all oogle us and families watch us and tell their children that we are speaking English.  It's a weird sensation to be the center of so much attention.  There are a lot more people of European descent in Southern Brazil where we are, and there's more diversity in general (Chinese, Japanese, etc) but I still haven't seen that many really blonde people the way our kids are blonde.  Also, I catch people staring at my blue eyes.  In Northern Brazil where I served a mission my blue eyes were even more of a rarity and they called my dark brown hair blonde!  Either way, there's something about us that screams foreigners to the Brazilians even when we aren't speaking English.  We've had to work with a plumber this week and he wanted to know if I was Argentinian based on my accent in Portuguese.  I take that as a compliment!  Also, he mentioned that Papai and I speak Portuguese better than the owner of our apartment, who he thought was Chinese.  Then we talked to a lady below us and she said he couldn't be Chinese or Japanese because those people are nice but this guy wasn't.  He must be Korean, she said.  That's another thing about Brazilians.  They tell it like it is.  If you have zits or are fat or bald or have unwanted hair on your face, it's all game for comment!  I think those who are a little more educated or have lived a  abroad (Brazilians love to travel!) are less likely to comment than others but it's pretty common. 

Anyway, there you have it--McDonald's and a few comments on the diversity in Brazil.

Welcome to Our Travelogue

When we first started telling everyone about our short stay in Brazil, everyone requested that we keep them updated on Facebook.  I will try to do that but I just can't scratch the surface of what we are experiencing in a couple of lines each day on Facebook.  So I thought I'd start a blog for our travels.  Some of it will be more personal but I'll try to describe Brazil and our experiences here.  Also, I'll try to keep the posts fairly short.  That's quite a challenge for me!  I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to get pictures to my blog yet but that will come.

Our Travel to Brazil

We took a shuttle for $70 to the airport at about 2:30 on Monday, November 17th.  We checked five suitcases and paid some extra for a little extra weight.  I think the two heaviest bags were 58 pounds.  All in all, I thought we did pretty well for moving for 3 months! 

Our first flight was a couple hours and took us to LA.  This was the Boss's first flight and Safari Girl's first that she can remember.  The last time she flew she was only two.  Both kids did very well.  Safari Girl was a little nervous but the iPad with some headphones distracted her.  We arrived in LA around dinner time.  We were able to take a little shortcut through the airport to the international terminal so we didn't have to go through security again.  While we waited at the terminal I was able to shoot off a few texts and call a few people.  Dan had a $25 Visa Debit card we were able to use to buy some snacks and a $15 (!!!!) burger meal for dinner.  Then it was time to board!

We flew American Airlines and in the coach section the plane had rows of two seats on the sides and 5 seats in the middle.  The flight wasn't very crowded so people were able to spread out pretty well.  We had four seats in a row and a person moved from the 5th seat so we got to spread out on that one as well.  The seats had a touch screen on the back with a remote in the arm and we had movie, TV show and game options.  They must have been pretty old and they didn't work great but the kids loved them.  They were totally entertained playing with those until dinner arrived. 

Dinner was actually pretty good-we had a choice of pasta or chicken and it came with a yummy salad, a roll, and crackers.  It was already pretty late by the time we finished eating--maybe 10pm our time but the kids wanted to watch Frozen and the showing on the tablets at the back of seats was starting pretty soon so we let them.  When the show froze and quit working about 15 minutes into the movie we weren't too sad.  The kids were much more willing to sleep.  The airline gave us each a small pillow and a blanket (a nicer one than Papai said they gave on Delta) and Jason was able to fall asleep pretty quickly.  I think I have something like Restless Leg Syndrome.  I haven't been diagnosed officially but sometimes at night my legs drive me crazy so I can't sleep well and they were kicking in big time in my cramped sitting position.  I didn't have the air on either since it dries out my contacts and so little by little I was more and more miserable.   watched a couple of shows and then I was able to sleep a couple of hours at least but by the time the six hour mark hit I thought, this has got to be the equivalent of a torture chamber!!!  I was trying so hard not to detest the people sitting in the rows of two seats on the sides of the plane who had the whole row to themselves.  One lady was curled up sleeping in the fetal position across the two chairs and the two people in the two rows behind her were leaning with their backs against the side of the airplane and their legs up on the second chair.  Oh, if only!!  I had been dreading having to use the bathroom on the plane but I found that I was so grateful to get up and move I thought I might just use it every hour to get through the rest of the flight!  At that six hour mark, I saw that Papai was still awake and he said Safari Girl hadn't really slept yet either.  We agreed we were insufferably hot and Papai finally turned on the air for all us.  That helped me a TON!  Also, I found a (actually not so relaxing rock) music station to listen to and strangely enough I was finally able to sleep after that.  The rest of the flight went quickly.  Jason woke up and shortly after everyone else on the plane started waking.  We were served a really yummy parfait breakfast with a cranberry orange muffin and then it was only a half hour until we landed.  Safari Girl and Papai never did fall sleep.  They just played iPad and watched TV the whole time.  I think Safari Girl did some work in her workbook as well. 

In Sao Paulo we all had to use the bathrooms which were really nice.  Sao Paulo has a whole section of the airport that is new and nice.  After that we had to go get our luggage.  My mission companion, Flavia told me not to bring much so that we wouldn't take long getting out but we did and we took awhile. 

Wwe came out of the international terminal, Flavia was there waiting for us.  We hugged and laughed and she gave me a little present.  It has been over 12 years since I've seen her.  She still looks the same except maybe taller than I remember her.  Have I shrunk?  She's definitely learned some patience as well but she is definitely still the super fun, teasing clown I remember.  She can always make me laugh.  We had to check our baggage again and since we were over the limit we had to go somewhere to pay a fee and then come back to show the checked baggage people the receipt.  Thank goodness we had Flavia with us.  She's not shy at all and she was so helpful to get us to the various places we had to go in the airport.  She was great with my kids and it was just so nice to have a familiar face since we were exhausted by this time and the Boss hurt his foot and didn't want to walk.  We were trying to lug all our luggage, plus our carry-ons, plus a hurt kid all over the airport trying to find the places they were sending us and all in a foreign language.  Flavia had to leave us at the entrance to the domestic terminal, but we have plans to see each other again before we leave Brazil.

We made it to our gate and Papai went to buy us some drinks and snacks.  It took us so long to run the errands the baggage people sent us on that Papai had us really hustling to make our flight in time.  I thought it was weird when we arrived at our gate that there was no sign of anyone even starting to board the plane.  While Papai was busy with the drinks, I heard an announcement about the flight to Joinville a couple of times.  Since we were at the right gate and the announcements were in Portuguese I didn't really pay attention.  But when we had waited awhile and we still weren't boarding and there was no real movement at our gate and they made the announcement about the flight to Joinville a 3rd time, I sat up and paid attention.  It's been awhile since I've used my Portuguese skills but I was pretty sure they announced a gate that was different than the one we were told it was at.  I alerted Papai who ran to check it out, and sure it enough the announcement was a last call for our flight leaving from a different gate.  We ran down to the right gate, checked in, and then they loaded us onto a bus and drove us straight up to our plane.  We boarded from the ground, walking up a set of stairs and were the last people on the plane.  Whew!  Thank goodness I paid attention at the end there!

The flight to Joinville was quick.  We barely had time for drinks and then we were landing.  The kids did great again.  My first impression on flying into the city was, "This is beautiful," --so beautiful I think I teared up a bit!  It was love at first sight!  Everything was really, really green and there were hills after hills of green vegetation. We got our luggage and looked for Rodrigo, Papai's co-worker, who was there waiting for us.  To my surprise a woman greeted me with , "Voce e Mamai?"  I said  yes and gave her the tradition kiss in the air over her shoulder with checks touching thinking she must be Rodrigos wife or girlfriend or something.  But when she introduced herself, it turned out that she is my mission companion, Dani's niece who lives in Joinville.  She was so welcoming and nice and I could actually understand a lot of her Portuguese so that was nice!  It was a good confidence booster in many ways.  She wanted to ride with us to see where we were going to live but Rodrigo's car barely even fit us!  Our luggage took up his trunk, and two of the back seats.  I sat in the back with Jason in my lap and Katelyn sat on Danny's lap in the front seat.  Luckily, Rodrigo had the address with him so he was able to give it to Karla so that she could let Dani, my mission companion know where we lived.  She planned on visiting us on Sunday night.

At the baggage carousel looking out the window at the Joinville airport

We still had a long night ahead of us.  We dropped our luggage off at our apartment, ate some dinner at McDonald's, and shopped for some basics-pillows, towels, water, some food, and some dishes.  When we finally made it to bed Katelyn was out very quickly and slept for a long time.

The thing I will remember most about this day is how awesome it was to have people greet us and help us every step of the way.  To have three Brazilians help us out, meet us at the airport, and make sure that we were taken care of--well, that is just the Brazilian way and it's one of the things I LOVE about these people!  I felt so grateful and indebted to Rodrigo, who picked us up and drove us around everywhere all day long.  Plus, he spoke English, which was a nice break for us!  And for Karla to meet us at the airport for my companion was just so sweet.  If you ever have to live in a foreign country for 3 months--Brazil is definitely the place to come!!!