VERTICALIZAR | EXCHANGE EXPERIENCES

He's got a ticket to ride. In fact, he got more than thirteen tickets, not to ride but to make a tour. In the morning of June 21, I picked up my luggage and decided to go far away from home. This difficult decision took 7 months since I applied to the government program. Now, I'm here!

It was still dark when I left Pandora staring at me in my house frontyard. ― See you soon, little girl! ― We took a car and went to Confins International Airport. I slept. I woke up. I slept again. I woke up again. Finally, we got there and had to wait for about 2 hours. I saw Argentina rooters. They were there for the game later on. (They won and then... Ops! Sorry for your loss, hermanos!) Moving on, I promessed not to cry but they were all there, my whole family, and when I hugged my father, the first one, tears just went down naturally. I said ― I'm going, see y'all and I'll miss you! ― and the thing I'm not good, farewells. Next stop: São Paulo, SP.

Long wait. I seated on a bench and started seeing all of those walkers running from left to right and right to left. World Cup was here and you can imagine how many crossed my eyes during this time. Second by second, minute by minute. I was counting and by this time I haven't realized that I was going to live abroad yet. I took more time that I thought. Planes on the ground, everything is okay. I met Ana and Luciana and entered in line. Hey! Wait! What are all these Japanese people doing here? Almost a hundred of them. They were going home. All of them with something from Brazil, Fuleco keyrings, flags, Havaianas, boxes of Garoto chocolates... this one really amazed me! Later, in the same line, we knew that the flight was delayed. Okay, it happens. After two hours at least, we finally took off. During the flight, I slept, I ate strange things, I talked with a Japanese woman. She said sympathetically ― Você é brasileiro? Eu sou japonesa! Estou no Brasil pra Copa do Mundo! ― and we landed! June 22. Next stop: Newark, NJ.

Yes! ― We went out of the plane and walked one or two kilometers. It seems like we would never get where we were supposed to. Stamp passport, take luggage and wait for the next flight. But... the next flight was cancelled. ― Good! And now, what do we do? ― Luckly, they managed us to another flight. However, only five of eight took the flight. Three of us, including me, were going to take the next flight, eight hours later and to Dulles, VA. That's my ticket to ride! Precious one! They said this way we could get to Albany earlier, so, we accepted. By that time, we were supposed to be at Albany, checking in and meeting the others.But we were at the airport just trying to call home and say ― Hey, mom. It's me. Something got wrong and I'm going to wait here for a while. I will call you when I get there. ― and the peeny dropped! ― I'm here alone and I have to deal with it by myself. By the time to go on board, they said that Dulles-Albany flight was already cancelled but another flight would be available tomorrow morning. We embarked. Next stop: Washington Dulles, VA!

The plane was kind of different. Small one. It was almost 11 o'clock and we still had to ask the company for a hotel to stay the night. We got it. The next flight would be around 7 in the morning.So, we went to the hotel and took a shower. Unfortunately, we couldn't rest as much as we wanted but we rest. June 23. Last go back to the airport and... Delayed again! However, the flight was confirmed! After 3 more hours waiting, we headed to Albany. It's enough for our airport experience. Next stop: Albany, NY!

And now, everything seemed to be like all of the airports that we went through. Funny situation! We took our luggage that came with overbooked plane we couldn't take and called a taxi. Let's go to the University at Albany, no more delays, no more destination changes. I saw how big it is. Amazing! It looks like Brasília buildings, like something projected by Oscar Niemeyer. And there were people waiting for us. We encountered those we met at the airport, met Brazilian students that came early and headed to dorm. It's warm in there. No time for lunch, no time for rest, English classes right now!