Welcome to my blog...

Hello from Campinas, Brazil! I got here safely yesterday morning, and right now I feel like I look in the picture at right, just trying to take in what I see, hear, taste, feel, and interact with.

Some first impressions that I wrote down in my journal:
As I sat drinking an espresso and eating a pão de queijo in the airport after arriving, the music playing on the São Paulo airport sound system was a collection of Rod Stewart´s jazz hits (hits?!).
On the bus ride over from São Paulo to Campinas, skyscrapers, smog, small cars...
Incredibly warm people--they embrace you when you meet them as if you were their daughter, their best friend, or a long-lost relative. Generosity, incredible generosity.
It is 70 degrees farenheit here, and everyone keeps saying how hot it is. I think this means that the heat will probably not get anywhere near looking like a Kansas summer (yuck!).

After staying a night and a day with Pedro Pontes´(my Brazilian co-researcher in arms, who is currently in Kansas) family, Pedro´s mom and dad took me to get settled in the pensionato I will be staying in for the next few months. Concecião, the owner, then took me in her car the three blocks to the grocery store! Like I said, generosity. So now I am settled in and looking forward to getting settled into work next week at UNICAMP.