Bridey's 2006 Page

BRIDEY'S SWEET PAGE

Brien, I will have boring font color because you didn't like my other font... are you satisfied?

Hot pink was SO much better...

March 5, 2006

Yes, I think I am the worst at updating my page and I am only doing it because some of my friends have been complaining to me about the lack of updates. Well, right now we are on our way to Trinidad from Tobago.

I’ll start with the Trip to Tobago. As you probably know from reading my parents pages, we were on the run from the Brazilian Navy, I will try to make the long story short. The inspector from the Navy who came to give us clearance to leave Brazil was very… um… into detail. He wanted us to have up to date charts, a life raft and strobes on our life vests, when asking the Navy guy where to get the charts for the island we wanted to visit, his response was, ‘On the island’. Eventually he dropped that argument, but still wanted the life raft and life vest, both of which my dad would willingly buy… if there was a place to buy them in Brazil. So the guy made Jorge promise to take us to Fortaleza, Brazil to get the proper safety equipment, but he was going to let us go. When we were in Foraleza (which, by the way, you cannot buy life rafts or vests there…) the owner of the boat yard’s parents flew down to tell us we had to leave Brazil ASAP because the inspector guy decided to put out a warrant with the Brazilian Navy for the arrest of the vessel Roam. Along with that we have been having some generator problems, so in Trinidad there will be a couple days worth of repairs on the generator and replacing the batteries that were ‘shot’ when the generator was broken (I guess that just means they will no longer hold a charge). If you would like more detail about the ‘excitement’ I advise you to read my parents page because I really don’t want to type it all up…

Yesterday we got to Tobago, my legs felt like rubber after 8 days at sea (haha, did I mention that Jorge was saying the weather was ‘highly unusual’ and it SUCKED for a good portion of those 8 days, but the wind was strong, so that part of it was good). But, as we were coming in, there were dolphins doing an acrobat show in front of the boat, it was definitely worth the bad weather. Back to my legs feeling like rubber… we got onto the dock and my legs were wobbling, and then when we started walking my knees and my hips hurt so bad from the lack of walking, but it felt good to be walking. Then we met some of Jorge’s friends, it was pretty random because he wasn’t expecting to see them until next week, but they were really really nice and they walked with us to customs. Then the customs guy sent us to immigration which was two blocks away. Then the immigration guy wasn’t there, and the walking back and forth continued for a while, but eventually it got done. In between our walking back and forth Jorge’s friends took us to this café and bought some ice cream for me, Lydia and Caitlin, and a beer for the rest of the crew. That ice cream really hit the spot, I had a list going while we were sailing because I was sick of pasta and rice and chicken, and ice cream was one of the top ones on the list. The top one was cookie dough, but I wasn’t holding out much hope for finding cookie dough in Tobago. After clearing customs Jorge’s friends took us to a bar. I went with coke, but I had a quarter of Caitlin’s rum and coke, for celebration purposes, but I have to say, regular coke is a lot better tasting. But we stayed at the bar and a few people walked over to a pizza place and got three large pizzas to go for everyone. All I can say is wow. That pizza was soooo good, I had 5 pieces. By the end of the night I think I had 6 cokes and I had the worst stomach ache when we got back to the boat, but it tasted so good that it was worth it, then I sat for about half an hour at the boat to wait for my stomach ache to go away, then I had some Oreos, those were also on my list. Haha, well I just re-read what I wrote, it is mostly centered around food, I think that is kinda sad, but oh well, that is all I was looking forward to about getting on land. Oh yeah, we got peanut butter at he store, AH it was so good, they don’t sell it in Brazil so I was really missing it. When we went to the store we got 4 boxes of Macaroni and Cheese, hot sauce, a loaf of bread, a bag of Oreos and peanut butter. The kicker is, it only cost us $8 for all of that. Then Ann (one of Jorge’s friends) said that Trinidad was even cheaper and it had pretty good shopping. That made the girls of the boat happy, it basically translates into- while the repairs are being made on the boat, we will just be shopping, YES!

Well, that is my update… there Kleeman and Lizzie, happy?

Feb. 10

It is now Friday, the 10th, I can now say I have a tan line. I only was laying outside by the pool for half an hour, but I got a tan line! The hotel is nice, but I really can't wait until we get on the boat. We are living out of our suitcases right now, so it will be very nice to be able to unpack everything and be at 'home'. Yesterday we walked to the mall of Salvador. I bought sunglasses because I forgot to pack mine... you would think I could remember, I mean we are going to be right by the equator (and even on it at one point), but I still forgot to pack them. We were just kind of walking around the mall, and I looked into an electronics store, an iPod shuffle cost 699 reals (which is about $350)! Well, that's all there is to say. We are planning on going to the historical part of Salvador today, and I still have a lot of homework to do, so I think I should be pretty busy today.

Well, I still haven’t posted the last one that I typed up in the Miami airport, but I’ll save it and put it on when I put this post up. It is Wednesday February 8, (without that calendar Peyton gave me I’d be lost, so thank you Peyton)… I am in my hotel in Salvador the balcony looks out over the ocean and it is about 85 degrees outside. I had forgotten how nice the sun feels on your back after being in Chicago for so long. I made my first purchase here in Brazil, I bought a thin cloth thing (I'm not sure what you call it), that has the flag of Brazil on it, when we get back to South Carolina, I am going to hang it up in my room. In a couple of days we are leaving this hotel and driving to Aracaju. I am a little nervous about that drive, I’m not sure how long it will take, and how we are even expecting to get there. All the street signs are in Portuguese and not many people speak English, my dad thinks he will be able to do it, all I know is that I could never do it, but I am also very bad with directions, he is pretty good at that. I miss you all! Peyton and Amy- I can’t wait for spring break, it is going to be awesome!

Feb. 6

OK, so this morning I woke up at 3:00 am, I took a shower, then we left for the airport at 4:00, we got there at 4:30. It took us a half hour to check all of our 9 bags, each weighing 50 pounds or more… We also each have one carry on duffel bag and one carry on backpack, of course mine are the heaviest because I have to bring textbooks for my ‘boat schooling’ through Indian University High School program. We boarded the plane in the Mt. Pleasant airport at 5:45 and we departed at 6:00. Then an hour later we were in Washington D.C. (yes, we flew north before we could fly south). The next flight boarded at 8:50 am and departed at 9:50, we then arrived in Miami at 11:50. Our next flight leaves at 8:00 tonight so we have been walking around the airport. First, we had some lunch, and then we came outside the airport and found some benches so we could get some fresh air. It is now 3:00 and we still have 5 hours to kill in the Miami airport, and I am not sure how much more sleeping I can get myself to do, I slept all the way through the first two flights of the morning and took a little nap on one of these benches outside of the airport. Well, my dad just pointed out (now that we can be wearing short sleeves) that I still have some floor burns from my last basketball game, but the bruises on my knees have faded away… I have forgotten what my knees looked like without bruises on them.