The Trees of the Rich Woods of Spare 'Oom

Welcome to the Lara family abode in DungANnon (as opposed to DUNgannon), Northern Ireland. After a 24 hour trip via air that I'll never forget, I finally arrived last night at 21h00 (and there was still daylight o.O) and enjoyed a fine ride from Belfast to Dungannon, looking at the beautiful greens we passed by (although the girls are rather sick of it and everytime i shouted out, "omg, that's so beautiful!" they'd answer, "what? where?"

Anyway, after sleeping for about 11 hours, I finally have the state of mind to write here :) Today we went out and did some grocery shopping for Summer Madness. I obviously did the typical foreigner thing, staring at every single product in the aisle and asking what it was. I found a potatoe chip bag (called "crisps" here) that was literally the size of a dog food bag in Brazil (for those of you who don't know how big that is or who have forgotten, it's pretty darn big), but apparently it has a lotta little potatoe chip bags in it.

Alright, to start detailing the trip.

São Paulo - Frankfurt. 10 hours. I got on the flight in São Paulo at 6 something on the 23rd. Two brazilian girls sat next to me, both nearing 30 yrs of age, one was on her 6th trip back to Frankfurt (she does a doutorado there) and the other had recently come from Australia and was going with her bro and dad to help translate for their business trip. We commented quite a lot on the rather large jew sitting across our aisle, who had a beer then changed into his prayer clothes, prayed for 20 minutes, then unchanged. It was quite interesting to watch. I was supposed to sleep during this flight, but I couldn't manage because they were passing movies, and, as much as I tried, I could not keep my eyes shut tightly enough. So I spent the hours napping on and off (it hurts ur neck after a while). They had us close the windows early cuz dawn arrives swiftly when ur flying east. When I snapped awake after a strange long nap, I popped the window open a little to see if I could see the stars, and, instead, a rush of light came in. Obviously i took a pic. For fifteen minutes in the beginning, we had really violent turbulence, the kind that makes you panic even though you are not afraid of flying.


Frankfurt Airport. Anyway, I arrived at the Frankfurt airport (2nd largest in Europe) and immediately headed to find my gate (I'm an anxious lil' person and can't help it). I was 4 hours too early though, but instead of being interested and maybe touring a lil of the city, I sat down on the ground, facing the gate and waited for 4 hours. Yes, I'm an idiot, but I did buy a lil souvenir and I had a coke (almost tried the beer, just for the sake of trying, cuz I hate beer) for the sake of tasting german coke. I spent 4 hours bobbing my head in sleep (I was absolutely exhausted) and watching people of all races and cultures whoosh by. The airport is the best place to observe other people, methinks. Next to me sat two more jews, and I tried to take their picture without them seeing, but unfortunately my finger came out in it (YES, I KNOW!). Other than these two interesting fellows, I saw a german kid on a leash and a small 5 year old indian boy (from India) with an earring o.O The ladies, all dressed typically, were on cellphones and they put it on speaker for a second. All I could hear was insane child screaming from the other side, and then it went mute. The ladies looked crazed for a moment and then started chattering again.

Frankfurt - London. For all of you who are brazilian and listen to CBN in the morning, you will know who Erodoto Barbeiro is and what I'm gonna say here. A brazilian sat next to me out of the blue, and I only understood he was brazilian when he started talking in portuguese to the lady behind me. Brazilians in other countries are like brothers and sisters, so we spent the hour talking about germans, english, and life back in Brazil. He coworks at CBN with Erodoto, so, if anyone remembers that "CBN: a rádio que toca notícias" voice, it's his: Thiago. Dad, he told me that all those people's names we hear on the radio, including Monica Poker's, are real. Good to clear that lil' doubt, aye? Seeing London from above was amazing. I almost cried -- emotionally unstable at the moment, cuz I have always wanted to visit the UK.

London. Used my UK money for the first time to buy an iced latte, without sugar cuz I had sat down and could not get back up again to find sugar. I stared at the change coins for several seconds, just to appreciate the difference -- I must have looked odd there, and I tried to eat a blueberry muffin with a fork (cuz they gave it to me, so i figured that's what u do there, eat muffins with forks XD) which was a disaster. But it was SUCH a relief to hear english, even though it was BBC brit accent english :P

London - Belfast. The further I travel north, the less and less brazilians I see. Meaning that in this next trip, there were absolutely no brazilians, which was fine, cuz by that time, I was completely rotten and dazed and could not stay awake and sane. Thank God I had brought my toothbrush and at least had that sorted out, because the rest of me, including my hair, felt nasty and greasy. I should learn how to spend one day without a shower. The plane to Belfast had a strange smell and the people talked funny -- understand from my point of view, I was almost hallucinating by then and I could swear I was hearing portuguese all around. I think I fainted in that trip. I sat by the window with no one else in my row and I was smelling some disgusting perfume mixed with warm food smell. I almost had a small heartattack when the airplane dramatically lost speed middair, but nothing happened, so I suppose that's normal. Next thing I know I'm jerking away every three seconds and passing out again every three seconds. I must have gotten some rest during that, because when we were arriving, I felt all the energy I did not have suddenly come back to me in the most intense relief, because I finally saw an island, and, in the cloudy, sunny distance, I saw Ireland :D Like Mrs. Lara told me later on, they live at the end of the world, but to me, it seemed like the edge of the world, much like the Chronicles of Narnia, BBC version, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, when they arrive, after such a long trip, to the edge where the water is covered with lilies and there's a soft glow in the air.

I still cannot seem to realize I'm in Ireland. Maybe because I've never really really been anywhere else other than the USA and the Netherlands, so I automatically relate this to being in the States, but it's so much different!

Summer Madness starts tomorrow!! I'll be out until Tuesday, so no updates 'til I get back! It's a Christian camp, btw, with ppl from all over the UK. I'll let you all in on the details when I get back :D

Btw, I'm starting to pick up an accent. I don't know if it's the right one :P but we'll see.

I'm off!!