Just the Beginning

This morning I received word from the travel agency about my flight plan. I'll be flying out on the morning of the 15th at 11:25 from PDX to Atlanta, GA. I'll be arriving there at 7:15, next flight is at 8:20 from there to Sao Paulo, arriving 6:55 the next morning. Then I'll have a 5 hour layover and I'll be flying out at 12:10, arriving in Belo Horizonte at 1:15. I'm meeting up with a few Rotary friends in Sao Paulo during the layover. That's the plan. Oh, and as per request, I uploaded a map detailing my journey. As you can see, I'll be living in the town of Abaetè, population 30,000. It's in the state of Minas Gerais, the capital of which is Belo Horizonte. It was a German settlement, the name of the state means General Mines, Belo Horizonte means Beautiful Horizons. Due to the German influence it has a lot of Baroque architecture. A lot of really nice churches, especially in the city of Ouro Preto, which translates Black Gold. I'm gonna be just South West of Rio Paraopeba, which I don't think shows up on this map but it's that big river in the middle of Minas. I thought it was a lake the first couple times I looked at it. Minas is best known for its food, which is supposedly really good. Brazilian cuisine focuses on a lot of beans, rice and beef. I'm only repeating stuff that I've read here, I'll keep you updated when I've found out first hand. And here's the link to my friend Madisyn's blog (http://www.diasbrasilieros.blogspot.com/). She's from Eugene and she's going to Salvador. She has a better map than mine. As my friend Junior Nardaccione pointed out, my cities are slightly off by like...800 kilometers or so.