This trip is going to be fun if it isn’t horrible. Sean declared my new Portuguese phrasebook depressing after he opened it at random to the “Emergency” section and saw the following text:

“Help! I’ve been…
…robbed
…attacked
…kidnapped
…raped

Please call the police!

Stop, thief! (because, surely, the thing you’ll do first when someone is running away with your purse is reach for your trusty phrasebook…)

I’m ill.

Please call a doctor.

Call an ambulance!

I’m lost…”

…and so on. But it’s all right. Earlier in the flight, I accidentally dropped my phrasebook between my seat and the wall of the plane, and as the people behind me speak no English and have no idea what I’m asking them about, there it shall remain until at least the end of the flight. And so peace of mind has been restored. I’mall the way through tired and into wired…I’ll sleep long and deep on that first Brazilian night.