In just under fourteen hours, I will be boarding US Airways flight 1580 to a place many of you have likely only heard stories about, and that you have never even dreamed of going to – Charlotte, North Carolina. It is there I will sit for two hours, waiting to be delivered from the land of once respectable college basketball to the other side of the equator – where toilets flush clockwise and New Year's Eve is in the middle of the summer.
According to 90% of the people I have spoken to regarding Brazil (Rio de Janeiro, specifically), it is an extremely dangerous place with beautiful women – and we are pretty sure they speak Portuguese there (Brazilian and Spanish are close seconds). Unfortunately, I have also been told that the danger and the women are mutually exclusive so the ideal scenario of being robbed by a beautiful woman will fail to come to fruition.
However, despite this information coming from the most reliable of sources (the American public and cable news networks), I still have my reservations. Rest assured that the record will be set straight and you, the reader, will one day in the near(ish) future, be able to carry on a well-informed conversation about the River of January and its surrounding areas.
It is difficult for me to say goodbye to all the most important things in my life: democracy, Disneyland, pedestrian right-of-way, peanut butter, but I can hope that I will discover equally awesome things in my new home. I invite you all (well, most of you), to join me on this epic adventure.
May the force be with us.
I’m admittedly pretty late to this party, but I’m most interested in a tour of the Stabbin’ Cabin. Given the theme, I bet it’s all unicorns, rainbows and butterflies. I bet my daughter would love it!!!