WW Tour 2009, Days 3-5

Despite the fact that I slept like a baby on the Korean Air flight to Brazil, I somehow managed to sleep through my alarm on my first morning in Brazil. For those that didn’t spend years trying to wake me up for Seminary, hungry kids, or school, let me just say that I love to sleep. Knowing that my body has at times betrayed me, I long ago stopped closing the blackout shades on business trips. I find that my love of sleep can’t overcome the sun and its persistent reminder that the day as begun. This habit worked to my benefit on Tuesday when I awoke late for breakfast, but on time for my meetings after a quick shower.

I was thrilled to walk to the office in the fall weather, Brazil can be hot with oppressive humidity but the weather while I was in São Paulo was perfect. The days were sunny, mid-to high seventies and the nights were refreshing. I was amazed to learn that while I had left behind similar weather in Utah, spring in Utah isn’t nearly as predictable as one would hope. To all of you who dealt with the snow and cold, I’m sorry. If it makes you feel any better, I looked at the weather in Delhi before I left for the airport today and found that the weather (according to weather.com) was 82 degrees with “widespread dust” at 2 in the morning local time. Admittedly, I had never seen widespread dust on a weather report before, I guess I’ll find out what that means exactly.

In my previous post, I said that I was off to work, work, and more work. More accurately I should have written that I was off to sit in meetings, sit in meetings, and sit in meetings. I’m afraid my rear end may not recover from all of the sitting that I’m planning on subjecting it to over the next couple of weeks. Some people have said that all the travel must be exciting. I admit there are definitely cool aspects to it, but sitting in meetings for 12 hours a day and then on planes for 9 hours straight don’t make the cool list. Honestly though, the only thing that feels more numb than my backside after that many hours of meetings is my brain.

I may be showing my unsophisticated side, but people eat dinner late in São Paulo, we didn’t even start dinner until 9pm the couple of times we went out to eat. How there aren’t a bunch of obese Paulistas either is a miracle or debunks the eating late is bad for you stuff. Anyway, one night the guys I was traveling with said that they wanted a simpler meal, something more similar to what our hosts would eat on a normal night after work. We went out for pizza not far from the office. I have to admit that a whole new world of pizza was opened to me, Portuguese pizza. It can best be described as the ultimate “brinner” pizza, a mix of ham, eggs, cheese, herbs, and a tangy tomato sauce. I may not be skilled enough in the pizza area but this is definitely worth experimenting with for you creative ones out there.

Lastly, and on a much sadder note, I must write of my grandfather, Jay. He passed away today after living to the ripe age of 86. I feel extremely lucky that I was able to be in California last week to visit with and say goodbye to him. I realize that death a natural part of life, but adjusting to life without the Jay part of “B and Jay” seems utterly unnatural to me. My fractured heart goes out to my dear grandmother, my mom, and her siblings. Rather than sit here on the plane and cry/type, I’ll assume those of you that knew him have your own fond memories that you can pause and remember at this point rather than reading mine. Although I will say that there wasn’t anything funnier as a kid than making his chair “lumpy,” nothing more frustrating for him than having his “damned” grandkids out-fish him, and nothing that meant more to me last week than hearing him say last week that he had always been proud of me.

From somewhere 31,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean and approximately 2427 miles from São Paulo and 3678 miles from Frankfurt, good night.