The Top Five Best Responses to the Brazil Trip

* the following post contains profanity

As you can imagine, when you first tell people that you are moving to Brazil for a year, they don’t really believe you at all. After they’re finally convinced that you’re possibly not lying, people usually get pretty excited about it, all for various reasons. I’ve gotten a lot of encouragement (and warnings) about living in Brazil, but these were, by far, the best five:

5)Why are you going to Brazil? Are you pregnant?

-random female co-worker

4)Brazil...isn’t that where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ran off to?

- my father

3)Brazil...you know they kidnap people like you in Brazil.

- my brother

2)Brazil... just think of all those hot Brazilian men!

- random male co-worker

1) You’re moving to Brazil? F@*#%n’ cool!
- husband of a friend


The last one, despite it’s profanity, or perhaps because of it, is by far my favorite. It was delivered with such sincerity, such aplomb and such quickness. The night that I got that response, I was worried about a million details everything from sunscreen to airplane tickets to storage units. Moving to another country is obviously not easy, and in the midst of all the stress and bustle, somewhere I had forgotten how very amazing it was to have this opportunity.

So when my apartment is the size of a shoebox, or it feels like 114 degrees outside, or I’m pissed because the concept of pasteurization is not an international one, I think back to that comment. You know what? I’m living in Brazil. And it’s f *#%@n’ cool.