What a trip! It´s always hard leaving my hubby and come to Brazil by myself with Ethan. The addition of Isabeli made it all even worse. I am glad we get to reunite here in Brazil in a few weeks and he can get to enjoy some well deserved vacation.
Being by myself with the kids was not as bad as I antecipated. I have some amazing kids I tell you! After all we went through to get home I cannot believe how easy they were about it. Isabeli pretty much slept the whole time (well...the very first flight from LA to Dallas sucked! She cried almost non stop!!) When we got to Dallas we had to walk so much to get to the international area...man! Ethan was the best helper...he pushed the stroller while I carried the luggages. We had a very delicious dinner at TGI FRIDAY´S and then headed to our gate. Our flight left ontime. We arrived in Sao Paulo at 8 am local time (4 am in california). The lady who helped us at the LAX set us up with EXECUTIVE CLASS SEATS!!! I was so happy when I saw them! lol She told me she had put us in good seats...but I never thought she would upgrade us.. lol :) Not only that, she gave us 3 seats instead of the 2 ones we had purchased. SWEEEEET! The kids slept the whole way to sao paulo... :)
We met up with my sister in the VIP ROOM we have access to at the airport. There we rested a bit and headed to our hotel since our flight would not leave until 10:40 that night... or so we thought! We came back to the airport around 8:30 pm and the lines were just surreal! It would go around and around and around... so so crazy! Since we had the kids we were able to get to the special line and were helped much faster. We were told to head straight to the gate because we were going to board immediately. LOL yah right! We sat there and waited for almost 10 hours to hear that our flight was CANCELED! Man...my poor kids! Ethan was asleep across the seat and isabeli going from my arms to my sisters so we could take turns resting. People were angry, yelling, crying... there were old people, babies, pregnant ladies, you name it... a total of 16 flight were canceled that night. The reason to this nonsense was air traffic controllers who went on a strike to protest about their working conditions. There was no information given to us about what was going on. The airline workers were pretty much hidding scared of someone hurting them. I filmed it all and talked to some people. I will get a tape sent to Globo and some local news. My luggage was ripped, my computer is broken and I am so disapointed. My country is corrupt, I know, not more or less than any other country though ( maybe a little more open about it)... But people used to be warm and caring. What happened there was the epitomy of disrespect and public humiliation. It´s time for a revolution...it´s time for a change. We need leaders who will put their people before themselves. Who will make sure our rights and needs are met. I want a better world for my kids!
After a whole 10 hours in the boarding area we went back to the check-in area and demanded that the airline representative to get us a hotel. A fair request you would think! But, not them! They said it was not their fault flights got canceled so they were not required to provide us any assistance. My sister has a very (very) short temper and to sum things up... not only did she get us a hotel (one of the best available), she also got us a cab, food and executive class seats. We arrived at the hotel at almost 7 am, slept until 11:30 and realized we only had 30 min to get back to the airport and catch the 12:15 flight. We rushed through everything and got on the plane at 12:15 p.m. Still we waited 3 hours inside the plane before being able to take off...check out the picture of the line of airplanes waiting to take off.
We finally arrived here on Thursday at 6 pm.(we left USA at 12 pm on Tuesday). I am glad to be home! Miss everyone terribly...can´t hug and kiss them enough! The kids are having a blast.
Here are some pictures of us at the airport, later I will start posting some of us enjoying ourselves. :)
Pictures were taken with my sister´s point and shoot camera... better pics later. :)
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