4/14/08 10:30 am

A few notes:

• · I need to remember the name of the woman I’m staying with. It’s unusual, something like “Mihisa”, maybe it’s “Marisa” and the “r” as an “h” sound throws me off. (late note: it is “Mirza”).

• · The time zone here is the same as EDT right now. So we arrived at around 1 am. Our luggage never arrived. They had advance warning at the airport, already prepared to file a report on our luggage. It took a long time, but the people were friendly. When we finally left customs, it was 2 am. Our host families were waiting for us. There were almost no other people there, just one driver with a sign desperately looking for his designated passenger. It seemed that all were tired – there would be no party. But all were happy. All the rock stars wanted to get sleep. We need to warm up to this role.

• · I slept fitfully. I had a hard time sleeping, but it was all excitement, just as when I went to Rio with Marcia, Argentina with Dave and John, Europe and Australia on my own. My mind races with all I’ve seen on the trip, probably just to be able to write this. I awoke early – around 6 – and barely slept until getting up at 8:30, my brain awash in words and visions and people. They say dreams are your brain replaying experiences of the day before. If so, my dreams blend strongly with consciousness.

• · Our landing last night was dark. The plane lights lit up the jet engine out my window and the horizon was dark until only minutes before landing. I finally saw a patch of light way off on the horizon. And two minutes before landing, I saw the lights of Manaus with the abrupt edge indicating the river. As we landed, it looked a lot like any other small city, but something was different. Maybe it was less light or fewer big prominent roads. When we got low enough, I saw the small rolling hills of the town as silhouettes of trees rose and disappeared with our elevation.

• · My temporary house, my host family’s house is “simple” but nice. Tile floors, tall ceilings, “hard” but welcoming. My room has a TV and Mirza found a channel with financial news as I went to bed. It was in English. I switched to Animal Planet in Portuguese. Then I just tried to sleep.

• · At breakfast, I spoke Portuguese a lot. It is always hard for me. I explained that I tend to be shy because I don’t know how to say that I tend to prefer listening. Knowing that I want to speak better, I force myself to do so.