A couple of pictures taken on my first day in Rio. The first is the huge quantity of tea I brought from US – something you can’t easily get in Brazil. The second is a box of pinha, aka fruta de conde – one of the Brazilian fruits that I missed most in US.

Perhaps the strangest thing about getting to Rio this time was it’s half-foreign feeling. I often go to places that feel like home or to those that feel entirely foreign. Here, I arrived to a place that is still so strange, yet strange in such a familiar way. After a lunch with my in-laws, I headed out on a “program” – got my cup of açaí and a pastel, gave a quick look at the beach, looked for a store to buy 3-pronged to 2-pronged adaptador (I new word for that day), comparison-shopped for SIM cards, then met with a friend for a beer. It all felt as if I was only gone from Brazil for a week rather than a full year. Yet at the same time it’s a foreign country which almost feels more foreign as the time goes by.