It was only minutes before landing in São Paulo for the second time in nine days that I realized I could barely remember the first three days we spent there when we came from Canada.

Wait, did I get a haircut on the second day? Yep, my hair is definitely shorter and manageable. Did I find my favourite bakery right away? I think so, I vaguely remember biting into their delicious pão de queijo… but the empada was too crumbly. Did we shop, eat, walked around and everything? We must have. I have pictures, I wrote about it.

Well, clearly, I was faking it and I can’t even blame it on the jet lag because there’s only a three-hour difference between Ottawa and São Paulo.

I mean, I was there, I remember everything—it just feels like it was the “other me” who spends three days wandering around São Paulo as if I was going there every weekend.

It all went too fast. We boarded a plane, slept a bit, landed and stepped into a different world, just like that.

I didn’t have the chance to digest these first few days in Brazil. It takes time to adapt and adjust.

Note to self—slow down.

We flew back from Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo for New Year because there were no affordable hotel options in Rio—the réveillon (yes, the same word as in French!) seems to be as popular as Carnival and we didn’t feel like spending hundreds of dollars for the privilege of celebrating the first few minutes of 2019 on Copacabana.

São Paulo was the second-best choice.

I think we’ve adjusted now, I should remember this stay.