Sunday March 14th 2010

You might wonder where I have been for the past couple of weeks. After all, in this day and age there is no excuse not to be wireless, enabled, and portable anywhere in the world. The simple answer is that I was having so much fun that there weren’t enough hours in the day to sit down and write. Apologies also to anyone that is awaiting a response to emails.

Two weeks ago, Steve and I went back to the United States. He was on a four day conference with work colleagues but the main reason was so that we could go and get our visas from the Brazilian Consulate in New York. I had to come as well, so it made sense to travel with him, rather than sit here alone and come later.

We arrived early Sunday morning and had been warned that it was freezing with snow still on the ground. Of course all my winter coats are no-where to be seen so I borrowed a coat from someone I have met a total of four times. This is one of the things that I love about the spirit of living away from home. She has also just arrived in Sao Paulo and like me is living without most of her possessions, but saw my need and immediately came to my rescue. She also threw in a pair of seriously good boots and the sort of socks that you absolutely have to have when the temperatures are below freezing. Thank you D.

So we were set for the frozen temperatures of New Jersey. We landed at 5 in the morning, got to the hotel, had breakfast, two hours of sleep, and were ready to face a serious day of retail therapy. As all good American consumers do, I went and downloaded my discount coupons for the stores I knew I would shop in and full armed and primed with credit cards at the ready, proceeded to single handedly rescue the ailing US retail sector of the economy.

Replete with shopping, I spent the next few days catching up with friends, slotting back into life in Princeton and most importantly playing bridge. Not having played since I left in January, I managed to have seven games. Now, here is another interesting observation on life which may seem like stating the obvious but is worth saying anyway. It is comfortable to slot into a routine of life – I know because that is exactly how I was in the United States. Bridge on Mondays and Thursdays, sometimes Wednesdays, discussion groups, book clubs and such like. Intersperse that with the school run, dog walks, shopping, cooking etc., and you get the picture.

All of a sudden I am deprived of that routine whilst I build new contacts and routines in Sao Paulo. It is coming and I won’t deny that I am enjoying all the new encounters with lovely people, but it will take time. So thank you everyone in Princeton for welcoming me back with open arms, girly gossip and too many lunches that now need some serious work to get rid of the aftereffects. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing each and every one of you – multiple times.

But the serious business of trip was to collect our visas. This meant a trip to New York and then another trip a week later to collect the passports with the all important newly minted stamps inside.
We also had to do fingerprints for Uncle Sam, to make sure that the people leaving the United States are really the same people that arrived five and a half years ago. Tedious but necessary.

So now we are legally here in Brazil. In the coming week we will have to present ourselves at some office or another to be officially given our tax id numbers. I thought I would never hear myself say this but I am happy to report that we are officially eligible to pay tax in Brazil.

More importantly, we are now able to open bank accounts and finally get our furniture moved from the warehouse somewhere in New York State and onto a ship headed south.