Leaving Brazil

Today, movers came to start packing up our things. Most of our larger furniture has been deconstructed and wrapped in cardboard and is waiting to be loaded onto a truck. It feels a little like a ghost town as I walk around and look into rooms that are now nearly empty or else crowded with stacks of boxes. Tomorrow, the movers will come to finish the packing and take away our things. Sunday is our going away party. Monday night we are on a plane to New York.

My time in Brazil has been filled with a wide rage of emotions. In the beginning I was not as happy as I thought I would be, and the transition was a rougher one than I had anticipated. But, once my Portuguese could be understood by others and I started to form friendships, I did truly begin to think of São Paulo as home. I will be sad to leave behind those with whom I have become close, but I know I will see them again, either in New York or on visits we will surely make back to Brazil (I have to return once every two years if I want to keep up my permanent visa).

Another thing I will really miss is the fruit. Fresh juice is readily (and cheaply) available everywhere you go, and now that I have been spoiled by bananas that are sweet yet still firm, and watermelon that is redder and juicier than anything you find back home, I find it difficult to palate either fruit when I am back in the US. I think Kuma agrees with me…