I’ve been home from Brazil for a week now and am really enjoying the calm, routine and spending time with my honey and our animals.

I head back down there in two weeks, but until then will continue to enjoy a beautiful spring in Salt Lake City.

I keep obsessing over this “Former Mission President’s 80th Birthday & Mission Reunion” in Campinas on Saturday.

I signed up via Facebook to go — and have spent countless hours trying to figure out how to get there:

• I reserved a rental car and then cancelled the reservation because I really don’t want to drive in São Paulo traffic
• I checked flight schedules and no one flies between the two points
• I thought about buying a cheap ticket anywhere on Azul airlines because they have a “free” bus that runs from the Congonhas airport near where I work to the Campinas airport every hour or so — nah, too expensive and a waste of a good ticket
• I thought about the car service that picks me up when I arrive in Brazil, but figured since I would be footing the bill, I’d forego that luxury

I finally reverted mentally back 35 years and decided to head to the rodoviária early Saturday  morning and take a bus. That should bring back plenty of memories, as that was the only way we traveled between cities “back in the day” for conferences, transfers and visa renewals.

in addition to seeing old mission companions, former missionaries and my dear — now old — first mission president — not to mention dealing with the the religious throwback (or will it be blowback?) — I expect this to be a fairly stressful day.

But I am still looking forward to it.

We started packing tonight for our trip back home tomorrow morning. It’s been a great week with my honey as we explored this beautiful old city together. With all of my travels to Brazil and as much as I enjoy seeing new things, it’s just not as much fun as when I can share in real time.

The weather has been extremely cold, with wind chills down to -15 C, and we have felt every degree, but wouldn’t trade this trip (even though we have mentioned things we probably would have done were it warmer).

Praha (Prague) was founded in the 900s and many of the oldest, still-standing buildings have foundations dating back to the 1300s. In the US we consider 100 years as old, but we pale in comparison. The city is well-kept, clean and easy to navigate, in spite of twisting and narrow streets and alleys.

I suspect that this city will be added to our list of places to visit again.

Three weeks is a long time away from my honey and our life together.

I will return to Brazil only in April and aside from a week-long pleasure trip to Prague and Vienna to celebrate our 25th anniversary, have the pleasure of spending the next month em casa.

Spring is in air and this is my favorite season.

Good timing.

Just back from Brazil to the worst inversion I’ve ever seen in Salt Lake Valley. The air is bitter and I haven sneezed several times. It is dusky even at mid-day and there is no hint of the sun even behind the low-lying clouds.

As we entered the soup to ready for landing, we circled over Antelope Island, which looked like something from the Arctic — totally snow-covered and surrounded by snow-covered ice sheets on the Great Salt Lake.

This morning, it was so foggy when I went outside to get the newspaper, that I couldn’t see half a block away. The fog has continued throughout the day so far.

I can’t wait for this to end — or to get back to the clean air of São Paulo — whichever comes first.

My honey and I begin planning our 25th anniversary celebration(s) last night and I ended up booking us first class tickets on United Airlines in late March to Prague. Neither of us had ever  been there and for some reason as I looked through the world destinations available to me as a Premier 1K with lots of miles, that city caught my eye.

Within hours of posting about it on Facebook, dozens of friends and family commented affirmatively on the decision — many of them having previously experienced this old European city. I guess I feared more “You may want to rethink that”s or “We hated Prague” comments, but was please to see none.

This year also marks my honey’s 50th birthday and we are thinking of planning a “50/25″ party similar to the one we did for my 50th and our 20th anniversary in 2008. I suspect we may do that in July to avoid weather-related travel for those of our loved ones who chose to traverse I-80.

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On another note, the US Supreme Court has determined to hear two key cases revolving around marriage equality on March 26th and 27th. Wouldn’t this be a good year to be able to actually legalize and legitimize our relationship?

I’m still in São Paulo and more than ready to head home, but my flight is not until 11:35 p.m. and the logistics of having to check out of the hotel and to kill time for many hours while schlepping a bag around is tiring.

I was able to talk the Renaissance Hotel into letting me camp out in the 23rd floor lounge and just had a nice nap in a chair, a light snack and am now taking advantage of the free wireless service to update the old blog.

I met an old mission companion for lunch today. We had previously lunched last month after communicating via Facebook for a year or so. Really nice guy. Never mentions the church in any form and that is actually quite nice. I suspect that he is not active, but am content to also not discuss the church.

He asked me to take an envelope of cash to his nephews in Utah. I would have thought either sending an electronic gift certificate or using PayPal would have been a better solution, but am happy to to haul the envelope to the U.S.

I start traveling back to Brazil in mid-January, after taking a couple of weeks of vacation and then working in SLC for a few days.

Today was Halloween and we had our usual costume party/chili cook-off at work, which was a lot of fun. To top it off, I received the information about my annual bonus (payable next week), which was happily larger than expected. Even after anticipated taxes and 401(k) withholding, I expect to be able to buy my choice of Apple products with impunity.

I’m leaving for Brazil on Friday, which makes my eleventh trip in eleven months. I’ve already booked a week in December, so will be 12/12 by years’ end. I’m not sure whether I will be expected to continue this travel after the new year, but am happy to do so, if asked/needed. I’m still not sure that I would want to live there for an extended period without my honey though.

The weather today was beautiful (mid-70s) and clear. Not so much for those affected by “superstorm” Sandy in the New York tri-state area (NY, NJ, CT). There has been nothing but 24-hour coverage of flooded streets and buildings, houses washed out to sea (or inland), cars destroyed and a tally of some 60+ deaths to-date. Definitely one for the record books.

I’ve been back in São Paulo all week and am feeling more and more like I live here. Instead of being able to just go to my hotel room and vegetate, friends invite me to dinner, lunch, to walk in the park, etc. This has subtly changed over the year and I think they are thinking more of me as just “one of the group” instead of “the foreigner visiting our country”.

While I actively participate in conversations when I have something to add, for the most part I listen and absorb new contextual words, slang, thoughts and a general sense of Brazilian cotidian life.

Yesterday three of us went to the Mercadão — an old and very large indoor market in the old downtown area. Not since I went to Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York in 1985 have I been in such a large, crowded group of people: Literally bumping elbows and shoulders and hips at every turn and at every step through the masses of people shopping, eating, playing and generally enjoying life.

While I can’t think that I was the only one in this crowd of thousands feeling claustrophobic, I suspect I may have been the only one showing it on my face!

Walking from place to place, we were able to taste different (and for me, exotic) fruits and to see huge swaths of color and feel the vibrancy and sound and ambiance.

I would love to have had my honey here, but suspect that he would have freaked out with the sheer numbers of people and inability to navigate quickly.

I woke up in São Paulo to a very foggy morning and even though it is now noon, the haze has not completely burned off.

I spent a couple of hours walking around Parque de Ibirapuera and taking photos. Many great shots incorporated the fog, so this set of photos is not just more of the same.

Yesterday I had a meeting at the HQ building for my company’s parent company and got to experience a different part of the greater city. The area was an older town with small, narrow streets and many corporations have built (and continue to build) large modern buildings there. It’s amazing to see the amount of construction going on in this city!

An old Brazilian mission buddy of mine has sent me a message saying that he will call me tonight after he gets off work. Elder Fóz was laid up in the mission office for several weeks in 1979 with knee surgery and we became friends at that time. I haven’t seen nor spoken to him since then, so it will be interesting to see where he is in his life.

Many old mission companions and friends are on Facebook and I see their incessant posts bragging about children on missions, temple marriages, their callings. etc. Reminds me of old friends who are still “dragging Grand” in Laramie — something they did in high school but without ever outgrowing those “glory years”. I feel like I have graduated and moved on. Many in Brazil have contacted me and want to talk, but I really have nothing to share with most of them and am not really ready to rehash the mission and “what happened to you since?” question.