A Trip to the Capital

by Lucas Rocha (Brazil)

A leap into the unknown Brazil

Last year I was invited to present one of my college papers in another state - in the capital of Brazil - with all expenses paid. The excitement took over and I was ready for the time of my life, going to a place I had never been before, taking a plane for the very first time in my life and getting to stay in a luxurious hotel that was way over my budget. Of course I accepted it, got the details and waited for the time to come. I had watched several videos about the place I was going, my luggage was packed for at least 3 weeks and I carefully picked a window seat on the plane so everything was set and it was time for me to go. Even though I had done the online check-in 48 hours before the actual flight and the only thing I had to do was board, I still headed to the airport 6 hours early, because in my mind why not? It happened that for some reason I got there way too soon, so I had to relieve the stress by watching all the planes come and go… it gets excruciatingly boring a couple of planes in. Lots of take offs and landings later I was able to get through security, through the gates and finally into the airplane with not a single problem, not until finding out that this particular girl decided that she wouldn’t read her ticket so she would pick my seat on the window, that one seat that I carefully chose beforehand. She was determined to fight for it, and despite being already dead inside by the time so was I. After 15 seconds I won by showing her the sign right above our heads and my ticket saying that I would sit on the window seat. Deep inside she already knew it, but for the rest of the flight I could feel her anger in the way she was looking at me repeatedly from her aisle seat. I couldn’t care less, just listened carefully to the security instructions, took some pictures of the clouds, had a cookie from the on-board service and slept for a little bit. After 2 hours I finally got to the capital, called an Uber from the airport, got silently judged by a taxi driver and headed to the hotel, I needed a shower and a decent meal because I could still feel the dry cookie I ate sticking in my gums. Later that night I went to the shopping mall by the other side of the street and bought a beautiful set of pocketknives that I’d keep and give to my loved ones. Got them, stashed them deep in my backpack and went back to the hotel to sleep. My presentation was far away from the hotel, but by the time I was already familiarized with the place since I did detailed research on Street View by Google. I chose the Capital Campus location and called an Uber, nothing could go wrong. Well, as we were approaching the destination, I noticed that something went definitely wrong, I was getting more and more worried about the fact that it didn’t really look like the place I saw in Google Maps, I had chosen the wrong Campus! Being driven back to the right place I had my presentation done. A couple of minutes late but reasonably justified it was a wonderful and memorable experience with a lot of growth and good learning. I had the rest of the week to enjoy the city and finally fly back home. This time I was smarter and went to the airport only 2 hours early expecting that nothing would go wrong, so I followed the same steps as before: waited, watched planes come and go, but when I tried to go through security the alarm buzzed, something was up. I was called apart and told that for security measures I wouldn’t be allowed to board with that beautiful set of pocketknives I had stashed inside of my backpack…