Almost time to do online checkin...

Can't do that until less than 24 hours before boarding, so have to wait a few hours. We are packed. Still getting details together like cleaning the house (although how to do that with 2 children bent on playing with all their toys everywhere in the house, ARGH)

Will leaves tomorrow - down to 3 days away

We are packed and mostly ready to go. I can't believe it is almost time!
Will leaves tomorrow and then we have Monday all day and until Tuesday at 2. I have a ton to do here at the house, cleaning, etc, to get it ready for us to leave. I should be in good shape and ready to relax and wait for traveling.

I'm pretty relaxed about the trip, although extremely excited. It is going to turn out just beautifully, I know.

I'll try to post pictures to the blog if I can access an internet cafe and download pics somehow. Otherwise, I guess y'all will have to wait!

OH MY GODDESS!

We are down to 10 days away from traveling. Folks have been asking me if I am excited and I haven't been. Until now. WOW! I get to do this, and very soon. Have been packing away. Once I give away all the goodies I am taking as gifts, my suitcases will be extremely empty. Found out that the nano ipod i bought for my uncle is incompatible with the recorder system making it a very expensive, not terribly useful gift. might rethink that and get something else and return all the ipod accessories and etc.

gotta get dinner!
.5

Have Brazilian passports, have started packing...

So just with stuff that doesn't even include clothes, i have one carryon rolly thing full and a medium almost full. This is because I am taking a tupperware set, a pan, two large jars of Peanut butter(as gifts), two small jars of peanut butter (for K who won't eat much else), other rand0m toys and crap!

I spoke with a friend who took her almost three year old at the time with her to the same place we are going. She used the ergo to carry daughter, one wheelie carryon, one suitcase, and even took the carseat. No stroller. So that made me rethink taking the stroller and all. I had given up on carseats at all... now I think I'll take one for K. That will make me so much happier.

Change of plans...

Am feeling much more peaceful since I decided to avoid travelling anywhere but where I have family. I am not going to make it back 'home' to Olinda, Recife or the Northeast. I am choosing to have sanity instead. My children are not travellers. They must have inherited this from someone else. I tried to go letterboxing with them and barely made it 200 yards before both were whining about being hungry and tired and blah blah blah. This while I was carrying K on my back. ARGHH. It made me realize that if I am trying to have a month-long adventure, I'd better have backup. Cuz otherwise I will just go to the looney bin.

New plans are fun. My uncle Ted and his wife Dede' will pick us up at the airport in Sao Paulo. We'll drive to his house about 4 hours away. Spend a week there, then drive with Dede' and Ted all the way to my aunt Becky and uncle Ricardy's house (supposedly 12 hours). We will spend about three weeks there. Then we will bus it overnite to Sao Paulo to catch our flight back home. A lot less traveling and much more peace for me.

Have Brazilian Birth Certificates...

for the girls and will receive their passports this week in the mail! YAY! Had to take a whirlwind trip to Chicago, got wet (what is it with me and wet Chicago weather), lost, and then found.

All while Will and the girls were on the Dunes enduring wet weather in the tent. Bummer...

But it is solved. Now if I can just buy my tickets!

Next things on the list:

tickets
ipod for my friend Romerio to use in his work (he's an ethnomusicologist working with Indians in Pernambuco recording oral histories and songs, if you'd like to contribute $$ to his ipod, let me know!)
rain jackets for girls and I for our trip!

Off today to mom's once I get my car back from Lafayette. It broke down on our way home last night. Had to rent a car today, ai ai ai.

Panic attack!

After an afternoon of panic because I was told that the Brazilian Embassy didn't receive any documents from us, it was cleared up that everything looks good. I still need to go to Chicago to sign my daughters in as Brazilian and then we'll be all set.

Can't buy the tickets in country cuz it's not working. I'm going to try calling Brazil and ordering over the phone since the website doesn't like me. My family down there is without a phone right now and the travel agent they hooked me up with doesn't answer her emails. ARGGGGJHHH!

The prices are going up again, which doesn't make me happy. But if I try and purchase tickets here through travel agency in the states, I end up with prices that are as much as triple the price and as little as twice as much! YIKES...

All of the above and the suspicion that I have that I have bronchitis or pneumonia, and I am not such a happy camper.

Crazy life taking over...

We listed our house on May 1st by owner. Gave up on that endeavor and have it with a realtor since May 14. Last week was tree camp and now I have a monster cold (so do many others...)

Still no word about the passports for the girls. I'm getting anxious. Have more gear for our trip. Still trying to buy a camera since I accidentally bought one that had no zoom (didn't even know they had such things anymore!!)

Will has to buy his ticket tonight!

It is exciting that he feels comfortable doing this AND moving to a new house, possibly before fall! :)

Docs for Brazil...

So we spent part of the morning getting notarized signatures then getting those signatures certified on about a dozen pages. Now that I have everything organized I think I can go get some Money orders and send the docs to the Brazilian Consulate tomorrow. If I haven't forgotten everything and all is in order, the girls will have Brazilian passports, permission to travel with me (without their father) and be set up for Brazilian birth certificates. Insane the hoops to jump through but no more insane than actually being able to do such a thing for two children born in the US to a mother who was also born in the US...

Still haven't bought the tickets for in-country but am glad we waited, cuz they are cheaper now than when I looked before. Weird that.

Will should buy his tickets next week after he is comfortable being back at work. Have no idea what that will cost.

Brazilian girls...how?

Now that this trip seems to be a go, I have to figure out the parameters for making G & K Brazilian... Talking to a live person at the Consulate might prove impossible, so I might just have to chance it and show up with cash, pictures, birth certificates and passports and hope for the best. The trip to Chicago could happen next week.

Not much else goin' on...

A week later...

And not much progress on any of it. I guess a lot has been happening in my mind. I'm thinking of several articles I can try to write and get published, geared toward teens and children for different magazines. Gotta plan some more on that. If I can get some articles published, it will make getting a book published easier, supposedly. So I have many ideas. We'll see if I can make them happen.

I have had my eyes opened to two things. I have a tendency to be lazy and a tendency to be selfish. So both of those are working against me right now since I need to get my butt in gear to make things happen. My selfishness isn't helping cuz I'm not getting much sleep (toddler sleep, nightweaning issues) and am a bear when I don't get enough rest.

Anyway. Gotta call my aunt, although not the way I did last time! The 5 minute call cost $19.55!!!!!! YIKES! crazy phone bill.

Updating...

Haven't done much lately on here. THere is so much to do in real life, let alone update this blog!

For the trip, I have done a few things lately.

I started and mostly completed a 'book' more like a portfolio of what our trip is going to be like. This is for G who has a very difficult time with change. It was fun to do and I just need to make a final page, I think, to tie it together. It has already helped with good discussions between us and other family members too!

I have a large plastic tote already filled with things I cannot forget to take! I went to Kroger the other day and just looked for small toys, travel things, first aid components, etc. that were on sale. Then I did the same at Kmart. I have a lot started for our entertainment kits and also first aid. This way I can slowly accumulate things when they are on sale and it won't cost so much in one lump sum!

I have yet to purchase our in-country tickets. My aunt hasn't gotten back to me yet about whether she can get a better deal than I can. She has friends who are travel agents and might get good discounts. I"m getting nervous that I need to get this squared away quickly...

I just printed up all the stuff for getting travel documents for the girls. I found out that I can register them as Brazilian and then get them Brazilian passports. Which might make sense instead of having to buy them visas to get into Brazil. So I have to figure that out. Then, Brazil also requires travel documents signed by both parents when children are travelling with only one parent, so we have to figure that out. Might require a trip to Chicago by the whole family. We might Megabus it and make a 2 day trip out of it!

I'm drilling the girls on Portuguese phrases. They are such mimics. Their accents are near-perfect. Especially Katya's!

Our camera has died, or the batteries, not sure. So I need to find out what we can do about that!
We were thinking we'd need to buy another camera anyway since Will wants one in Spain as well. But having to buy 2 cameras sounds excessive. Will's dad offered his camera, so we can borrow that one. I just want to fix the one we have so that if something happens to it, I won't feel terrible. It's worth about $25 now since is only 3.1 megapixels and close to 4 years old. Crazy, since we spent almost $300 on the thing when we bought it!

So there you are. It felt good to get that all down in writing and out of my brain storage!

paz
rachae;

Solo travel with children - bad idea?

I've traveled outside the U.S. approximately 5,229 hours in my life. Of these hours, about half were solo, without parents or partners. Even the travel I have done with my partner has been as the leader, the one in charge.

In all my experience of traveling by myself in Latin America, I've had two guidielines for my safety: 1. Be as inconspicuous as possible. 2. Don't carry anything obviously valuable with you. These two rules have helped ensure my safety traveling alone in Brazil and Colombia.

The first rule must be understood in context. I have pale, freckled skin, blue eyes, straight long blonde hair, a combination that is guaranteed to stand out in countries where the majority has brown skin, brown eyes and brown hair. Even so, I blend as much as possible with the other young, single female backpack travellers and am often able to convince Brazilians and Colombians(due to a near-native accent)that I am Brazilian.

Following the second guideline is really a no-brainer. I don't wear jewelry or watches, carry a small point and shoot camera that fits in my small purse slung diagonally across my chest, and my hand is on said purse at all times. When going alone to the beach, I don't even carry a purse, just a towel to sit on or sometimes nothing at all. The one time I have had something stolen was when I broke this rule and wore a necklace that looked like gold (but wasn't) and was reading the newspaper while walking down a crowded street. The necklace must have looked valuable so some guy ripped it off my neck as I was walking in broad daylight in Bogota. Enh, said with a shrug, I should have known better was my attitude when it happened.

I write all this to say that I'm a pretty confident traveller. I'm not easily frightened of trying new things or making new trips. If I had had unlimited funds as a teen and young adult (am I really past this label already??), I would have travelled the world over by now, I'm sure.

However, now I am scared. In July I will be embarking on a journey which inherently flaunts both of my safety guidelines. I will be solo adult traveling to Brazil with the two most precious people in my life, my two daughters, ages five and two. As any mother knows, my children are indescribably valuable to me which breaks rule number two. And just to be truthful, it is difficult to be inconspicuous with my little girls in the U.S. where blond and light-eyed children are commonly seen, I can't imagine even attempting inconspicuous in Brazil.

to be continued...

Getting back to this...

I have a blue folder I can take everywhere with me and jot stuff down. It is getting much more use than this blog. But I have lists for everything in there! Gear list, questions to ask, things to do, etc.

I just decided tonight how to plan the trip and when to go where. We are throwing down the extra cash to get from my aunt's (who lives in Anapolis, not Goiania, jeez I can't believe I made that mistake!) to Recife where I grew up.

The plan is to go straight to Recife once we get in the country, spend two weeks (a little less) there and then go to my aunt's to spend the remainder of our time. I have scheduled it so I get two Sundays in Recife, that way I can meet up with the most possible people who I used to go to church with! I am so excited, I can barely function.

I wonder how easy it will be to update this blog while I'm there? HMMM...

This evening I am writing an essay on how I feel about travelling with the two most precious things in my life, my girls... Never done that before!

Well, just lost my first post to this blog.

Here's a map. Our tickets take us to Sao Paulo. My aunt who we are visiting lives just southwest of Brasilia. We are bussing it to my aunt's in Goiania from Sao Paulo.

The question is, how do we get to Recife? Recife is home, where I grew up, northeast coast. Do I spend $1,200 more dollars to buy plane tickets up there? Or do I spend considerably less money but much more sanity bussing it (3 days or so) up to Recife from Goiania then plane to Sao Paulo before we leave?

HMMM. Gotta work on that...

Here is my beginning post for my travel blog. Please ignore the maternity clothes below...

So I have the tickets. They have been purchased. YIKES! Over $2,000 gone gone gone. But not used up yet. :) I feel this will be well worth it. I just have to convince myself how I am going to travel with and parent two little kids solo for a month without completely losing my mind.

So this will be rambling about that...when I get the time.