The trip over here was very, very long. However, in Miami I had the good fortune to run into an Admirals Club attendant who told me I could also go downstairs in Concourse E to the Flagship Lounge. It appears that Executive Platinum customers flying internationally in any class of service can visit this very different kind of Admirals Lounge...
How different? Check out the pic! If you know me you have probably heard my stories with comparisons of international airline clubs with US airline clubs. The former are usually equipped with open bars (yes, FREE booze, you choose, you pour!), tons of free food and snacks, etc. The Flagship Lounge is the American Airlines equivalent of the international lounges. The pic is of only a small portion of the self-service area of the Lounge. Yeeeha! :)The flight from Miami to São Paulo was uneventful, but I had a lot of work to finish before I arrived, work that had piled up before I left, and I made the mistake of taking care of it during the flight rather than getting some sleep. The great food and free drinks didn't help. Before I knew it, it was 4:30am São Paulo time, the crew was serving breakfast and I was totally blown out, but couldn't rest. At least I had finished the work.
On top of that, it took me a whopping hour and a half to get through immigration and customs. As it turns out, early in the morning is when most international airlines pile up their arrivals, and the result is pandemonium. The baggage area is not setup for so many people and the lines were winding all over the place. Lesson learned, do not pick a flight into São Paulo that arrives early in the morning.
When I exited the baggage area there were a zillion private drivers, but thankfully my driver had the good sense to not only spell my name correctly, but also print it out in something bigger than 12-point Verdana. Let me tell you, spending half an hour with a private driver and not being able to have any sort of an intelligent conversation reminds me of 1970's New York cabbies. And yes, it took at least that long to make it to the building where I am staying.
Ok, so I was told the apartment belongs to a Brazilian hairstylist. Needless to say, I was... well... concerned. As it turn out, she is a very nice lady who lives with her daughter, a lovable hairball of a dog (Lhasa Apso?), an older cat and a really, really cute and very tiny kitten that's just a month old and behaves like someone wound him up just a bit too tight, knowwhatImean?
My room is like a private little (emphases on the size) apartment behind her apartment. It has an elevator behind the building that takes me all the way up (it's a 20-floor building and I'm on the 20th floor!). It's got a tiny bed, as you can see, and a tiny bathroom, and a big refrigerator. Go figure.
Soon afterwards I took a shower and a nap, but then it was time to meet my friend Peter Schmitt, who opened an office of his company in São Paulo some years ago. He brought his entire office staff (assistant, his 16-year-old daughter and her mom, all three generations) and we headed to a great little restaurant by a lake whose sole purpose in life is to give people the windsurfing experience in a landlocked setting. (Are you paying attention, John Stewart???)The food was great, the two caipirinhas were even better but they contributed squat to my condition. If anything, they made it worse. We headed back to his office, where I found he needed a computer fixed (of course!) and then back to the hotel. Thank goodness he had a few Diet Coke's and lots of caffeine. It was a good idea after all, because it kept me awake until 10pm and that reset my body clock nicely.
Tomorrow I will update you on the school, Fast Forward Language Institute, and I will explain why the mass confusion, because just about now my mind feels like the inside of a food processor after five minutes with a ginsu knife attachment. And I have homework to do! LOL!
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