My first vacation outside the country, and what better a place to go than Brazil! "Why Brazil?" you might ask. I went to visit a girl I met on the internet during the summer of 2001. Her name is Tati, short for Tatiana. Considering the fact that I was traveling alone to a foreign land, not quite sure of what to expect on my arrival, it was quite an adventure.

Fortunately, everything went according to plan. Tati picked me up from the airport at 9:30am and we went back to her apartment to drop off my luggage. Meeting each other in person for the first time after many chats and phone calls was very rewarding. It was worth the trip just to see the look on her face when we first saw each other.

Her sister, Vanessa, picked us up to go out for lunch with many of their co-workers from Voith Siemens. It was at a great little restaurant where you fix your own plate of food and they charge you by its weight. There were many choices, so I tried a little bit of everything... including dessert. This was my first introduction to farofa, a popular ingredient in Brazilian foods. It is basically a flour, toasted in butter or oil, and is very good on beans and rice.

After lunch, one of Tati's co-workers, Alessandro, gave me a tour of Voith Siemens. He showed me the many processes in the construction of massive hydro-electric generators like those found in power-generating dams. Later, Tati and I took a taxi back to her apartment and did some catching up. We had already scheduled a short vacation to an island called Ilha Grande, so at 11pm we got on the bus to take us there. The bus drove all night, and by morning, we were loading onto the boat to take us to the island. We stayed in a very simple hotel, with only about 15 rooms. It had an open-air courtyard in the middle and forest all around. We changed into swimwear and got back on the boat, which took us to many different beaches and lagoons around the island. The sites were breathtaking... water as clear and blue as a swimming pool... clean beaches, rolling forests, and mountainous landscapes made this a living paradise. After snorkeling and exploring all day, we returned to the hotel for dinner and a little luau. Well, many of us were exhausted, so we turned in early.

The next day consisted of much the same routine, and we visited other beautiful beaches... even played a little game of volleyball. Our main guide, also named Tatiana, described many of the sites we visited, but she spoke in portuguese, so sometimes I had Tati translate for me. The guides provided us with outstanding service all around. Most notable was that the food far exceeded expectations. The hotel was also very cool.. very natural. After a boat ride back to the mainland, we picked out a few souvenirs, then loaded up on the bus back to the city.

Monday afternoon we had lunch at a traditional Brazilian restaurant called Bovinu's Churrascaria. Churrascaria (pronounced shu-hah-scah-dia) translates to "barbeque pit" in english. It was a very nice restaurant. They had a huge buffet and they brought freshly grilled meat of different sorts to the table. It was all-you-can-eat, so we stuffed ourselves pretty good, but then we decided dessert was in order as well! And there, when you ask for a piece of pie, oh, you get about one-fourth of the whole pie! Believe me, it was massive, but do not underestimate my eating abilities, I finished it anyway! haha and I even helped Tati finish hers!

So, later that evening it was time for me to go back to the airport to catch my flight. The past five days had been so much more than I could have asked for -- some of the best times of my life, as you might be able to tell by the pictures. Saying goodbye at the airport was very difficult. We have known for a long time that we are a perfect match for each other, but the distance between us was always thought to be too large of an obstacle. Regardless, we'll try to overcome that obstacle, so we decided we will keep a relationship and visit as often as possible.

What about this adorable face, huh?