Pre-Departure

We’re supposed to blog about Brazil (or rather, about our thoughts and experiences connected to it), for later programatic analysis by industrial engineers. I’m going to do that here, I’m not going to start a new blog, and this can serve as a good marker for the first Brazilian post.

(Thought I’m not yet in Brazil. Reports of my departure have been greatly exaggerated).

It’s getting to that point close enough to departure where I actually have to actively consider what to pack. And more, to the point where I wake up at 6:30am and am unable to get back to sleep because my brain has gone into On mode and isn’t in the mood to switch off again. The português helps with that.

I feel a bit like a [Dragonlance] wizard, thinking and mumbling phrases as if in an effort to prepare them for future use. I remain... anxious about my eventual ability to have a decent conversation with someone about something.

I know that I will get to Rio and it will be great, and though I will miss my wife and miss the projects and groups back here in Pgh, it will be, all in all, a pretty great time. I am sufficiently possessed of the necessary attitudes towards travel for this to be true. At the moment, and for the last month, I’ve more often wanted to stay than go. It’s a combination of an expensive apartment and being away from projects just as an excellent semester is starting up. And knowing that even if I’m extremely proactive, I likely won’t have the connections to really shift anything down there (or even really educate folks, I would guess).

Also, you know, my wife is here.

It’ll be good - it always is, and there’s enough time on this trip (and some events I already know are happening) to engage a bit more. It’s just pre-departure recognition of strong connections to Here. And the AM blogging doesn’t help that (but it means that you, dear reader, get to read more angst :-P).