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Day 0

It has arrived. In anticipation, the Dow Jones index fell 315 points; my company's trading window closed... Apparently this sabbatical from work is a big deal, and the economy is feeling it. (Note: Trading window closing was as scheduled, the stock market was just being itself.)

My last meal before leaving work today was from the Rickshaw Stop. It's mind blowing that I won't see them again until February. I know I'm going to miss both the korma as well as the kababs.

I didn't blog the actual planning, but we've spent close to three months planning everything out. Our 1 year old daughter is officially a dual citizen of the US and Brazil, and has passports for both countries. I now have my visa to enter Brazil. A funny observation: our 1 year old gets into and out of both the US and Brazil, whereas my wife and I have to deal with her Green Card, and my Visa when going between. Birthrights are a funny thing.

The Plan

  • Five days in São Paulo (Dec 14 - 19, 2014)
  • Four weeks in my wife's home town, Santa Cruz das Palmeiras (small town about three hours from São Paulo)
  • Ten days in Rio de Janeiro (Jan 13 - 23, 2015)
  • Total time in Brazil will be 6 weeks.
  • Spend 2 weeks back in the US, then return to work.

The Preparation

We started in August and booked flights and hotels over the course of 2 months. We started with the flights, and shopped around for hotels for a while before locking those up.

We canceled services with Sprint and switched to T-Mobile. Sprint were total jerks when my wife asked to enable an international plan. Sprint refused to increase or review her "Authorized Spending Limit" until she had been a customer 18 months. As a matter of fact, a representative tried to escalate this to the group who could increase the ASL, and the ASL group rejected even taking the escalation. At the time, she had been a customer for 13 months, with no missed payments or problems. So a customer in good standing wanted to stay and spend more money, and we were instructed to pay an ETF to potentially get an international unlock. The unlock was not even guarenteed. We had to pay the ETF and hope for the unlock fairy to look kindly on us. We wanted to stay in contract, but the ETF was our only option...

Other reasons to stay away from Sprint: Apple devices can only be unlocked internationally. You can't take your iPhone to another domestic provider, the unlock they provide will only work internationally. If you use a sim card from a domestic provider, it will not be seen as a valid sim card. The move to T-Mobile, including paying the early termination fee we paid Sprint, will pay for itself within the next year.

The Supplies

We didn't pick up much in the way of new stuff. Here are the more notable things:

  • A pair of Dropcam's for more home monitoring. The packaging was very similar to what you'd see with an Apple product! We have a bunch of Apple devices, and the iPad app is slick. You can have up to four cameras up and streaming at the sametime. The service runs us $15/mo for CVR. Notifications are configurable.
  • New 62 linear inch bag for travel. Travel to Brazil allows two of these big guys per passenger with a maximum weight of 70 pounts with no baggage fees. Travel anywhere else, expect to pay serious $$.
  • iPad Air 2 for baby entertainment purposes. It's surprisingly light.
  • We picked up a Mophie Powerstation XL, which can charge two USB devices at a time. I've only done a little testing at home, so far, very impressive results. No dead phones or tablets on this trip!
  • I installed a couple Honeywell Econoswitch's. You set the time, and your location, and then you can program when your lights come on. We've been very happy with these, and we've used them to automate our outdoor lights. So far, so good! I did have at least one shock per installation. Both were my own fault and had nothing to do with the unit itself.

Early fails

In my head, I thought I'd have the chance to undertake a few cram sessions to improve my terrible Portugese over the last two weeks. That in no way happened. Not once. Between work and baby, there was no time for language study.