First days in Salvador

It´s been an interesting day and a half so far in Salvador. Here are the highlights:

My Arrival

My flight got into Salvador at 6am. I slept on the plane, my bags arrived safely and I thought things were going great until I got to customs... I had packed lab supplies that are essential to my project in two separate bags. A box of heparin tubes was well hidden in my suitcase but the other container was a cooler with antigen that apparently wasn't well hidden in a duffel bag. Customs found the cooler with the antigen! I thought I´d be fine since I had a letter from Dr. Riley explaining that they were a donation for a lab in Brazil. Turns out the antigen needs its own visa! This was tricky to understand since no one spoke English and all of the customs agents were wearing masks because of H1N1... Fortunately Sergio, the doctor who runs that lab I´ll be working in, came to pick me up from the airport and found me in the Ministry of Health office try to get my antigen. Even though I had an official person from Fiocruz with me, customs still wouldn't hand over the antigen...I did, however, get a lovely flier on H1N1. Sergio has been trying to get the antigen from customs ever since...he´s at the airport right now, hopefully with a box of ice-cold antigen. Fingers crossed.

Here's a picture of the H1N1 flier I got when arriving in Salvador (also pictured is my TB giant microbe courtesy of Rachel)

My Apartment

Since I don´t know anyone else in Brazil, I´m renting a one bedroom apt for the summer. A friend of a friend in Brazil was nice enough to find me the apartment and set things up with the landlord! I´ll post pictures soon (when I get internet in my apt), but here are some fun facts: I´m on the 8th floor of a big high rise, less than a block from the beach. The apartment is great but the kitchen is very small and has a big tank of propane attached to the stove...I haven't tried to use it because I'm scared I'll blow up the building...

My living room
The little kitchen (propane tank not pictured)
My bedroom
The view from my living room window
My ocean views! (Seen when I stick my head out the window and look right)

People

I was pretty sure before I left for Brazil that I'd struggle understanding spoken Portuguese...turns out I was right! I've said the phrases "what?" "I don´t know" and "I´m learning" about a million times so far. Not too many people speak English... In the long run this will be a good thing but it'll be an interesting first couple of weeks. Everyone has been really nice and patient. I went out to lunch today with two girls from the lab. They've invited me to go out bowling with them this weekend. It took a while for me to realize they were talking about bowling. Someone had to describe it to me first before I had any idea what they were asking me to do on Saturday! Iukary (one of the girls from the lab) said she´d call to pick me up...2 problems, one I am a mess when I try to talk on the phone in Portuguese and two she needs directions to my building and I only know the name of my street...I´ll have to work on both of those things!

Sergio is the head of the lab I'll be working with at Fiocruz. He's been ridiculously great! He's done everything from work on freeing my anitgen to drive me to and from Fiocruz to taking me to get a SIM card for my phone!

Aside from my antigen/customs problems, life in Salvador is going great! Hope life in the US is treating everyone well! Tchau!