Weird Morning and Testing my work

June 29th 2009:

Work, Gurgel's Family, B-day, and a fancy date ;-)

Edit* I've been asked to provide full screen and higher quality with my video so I have added links to HQ full screen vids. Also I created a channel with older vids HERE.

Work:
I'm going to start doing weekly posts because normally when I have internet I'm working and blogging at work is not the best thing to do when you're trying to represent your school and department.

This week however has been a great deal of fun. Both because of the 10-14 hour work days and enjoying dinner with friends and side families. I must say it's really a great environment the one I work in. All of the master and PHD students are really motivated and passionate about their work. It makes me more into mine and a lot more energized about working long days to challenge myself on learning things. We have a very funny poster in our lab that describes just this.

Its called "academic life" goes as following:

1. New Topic

2. Confusion

3. Confusion

4. Frustration

5. Loss of hope

6. Epiphany

7. Development

8. Realization

9. Repeat

But every new topic brings a bounty of new ideas and applications.

As for what progress I've been doing. For the rocket program I finished my part of the work, Gogino and I just need to do the final testing and we can put that project behind us. I also started working on the Prosthetic. I'm really glad I did work with Free RTOS at the UW because I'm working with a Real Time OS called Xenomia. My job is to first begin with getting the tele-metrics of the prosthetic to the computer I'm using and then begin what I described on my earlier post.

Also this week Dr. Lourdes came to the lab and talked to me about a few administrative topics. Firstly, we agreed that I will splitting my weeks work between UnB and UnB Gamma. I'll be working at both schools. Using what I've learned at both the UW and UnB to help in research. I was given two choices however, and I'm still pondering what to decide.

My main reason for coming here was a project related to power conversion for rural areas. However, to me energy is more of a hobby than something I may want to consider long term. My real interests is in controls and robotics, especially in intelligent prosthetics. For that reason I've been working with Dr. Geovany. Now I have a choice. Should I work on the energy problem or on Lourdes offer of a foot prosthetic. It would correlate well with UnB's leg prosthetic and help a lot with my research work at the UW. Both projects now have teams and are about to start. The power one could lead into going to the Amazon which would be great but the prosthetics one would have me learning some PHD level topics like Fuzzy Logic. Currently, with my research to process signals and turn them into fine movements I have been using a statistical method. It was the only approach I new at the time and has worked well. Fuzzy Logic + Kalman Filters (PHD and masters level type work) I believe would be the missing link needed to get the research I've been doing at the UW with the prosthetic arm fully completed. These two topics could be used to greatly increase the accuracy, finesse, and fluidity of a prosthetic.

Its a tough choice; fun in the jungle or possibly find the last piece of the puzzle I've been working on at the UW.

Along with those projects I'm also going to be taking a class at the UnB Gamma at 8 am in the morning, Mondays and Wednesdays. Dr. Lourdes teaches a class and she wanted me to attend. I'm really enjoying how they are keeping me busy, teaching me new things, and continually asking me to apply what I know. Overall its been a very rewarding experience :)

Along with this post I'm also putting a video of our lab and some projects we are working on. This includes the projects that I was suppose to blog about but did not have enough time to get to.

HQ Full Screen Part: 1 2 3

Gurgels Family:

Well I was invited to dinner at Laras house for dinner once more :)

Good to hear I didn't scare them off after my first visit. It was a great meal with a lot of military professionals. I don't quite remember all their names but it was good food and times. Oh and they had Guava Juice, tasty :). Its always great being with the Gurgels and Silvas because they always treat me like family.

B-Day:

This same week was Lara's Dads Birth day, we went to a Tapioca place. This is nothing like we think tapioca is. Instead it's a flat white tortilla thing that they put meat, cheese, syrup, bananas, really anything (even chocolate). It was quite delicious but for the meat and cheese variety, mexican corn tortillas still are the best. Also got into a debate on toothpick use. It was great times and lots of laughs.

Tata's family was also there, and it was all you can eat YUM!

Fancy Date:

So my labmates decided to take me out on a fancy date to a place called Mangai(sorry to disappoint if you excepted a saucy date with a brazilian girl). This place was really nice. Right next to water front and the view of the bridge as a background.

As we walked in we saw a lot of northeastern artisan work and real bananas hanging on the walls.

The food was, like Meredas, by the kilo. Only the variety was twice as large and the quality was much higher. I was instructed not to take photos of the food area, but believe me it was grand.

This place was so nice even the bathrooms were fancy. They seem innocent at first, just a slightly adorned door.

But don't be fooled. This place is so fancy you pee on ice. Fresh ice at that.

So fresh you can feel the coolness of the ice from the urinal. But wait it gets better, washing your hands also has to be fancy. Your hands must also feel the coolness of fresh ice, while warm water runs on your hands, all the while smelling a hint of cinnamon.

It's similar to when you drive with the heat on max(hitting a cinnamon air freshener) and the windows are down.

Well after Epic-ly using the bathroom, we all got some of the best food I've eaten in Brazil and began the feast!

At our lab we usually grab lunch early, which is a great thing because when we left the entire place was full and the line was nearly out the door.

Taking advantage of the view Gagino and I took a photo.

Saturday:

Today at the lab while I was blogging and Pi was working, we decided to get Acarajé. Traditional food of Bahia. But I'll let the video do the explaining.

High Quality Full Screen

Saturday Night:

Well after a long day of work(really want to get these projects done so I'm working weekends) little bearded guy and I were going to get some food. We went to a mall called Pier 21. I had heard that the Mc'Donalds in Brazil is quite good and as I saw the line and how busy it was at the mall I decided to give it a try(tastes about the same). Little bearded went to buy Subway, which is my usual choice if I were at the states.

Little Bearded guy however, ate subway the Brazilian style. He got a Subway melt with extra cheese and bacon with no veggies. Took the healthy out of Subway. I was making fun of it since when we choose food he said he wanted to eat something healthy so he is going to Subway. When I saw what he got I just laughed and told him it's the same thing as my burger only longer. Beef, cheese and bacon. But at least mine had a slice of lettuce.

We were about to head back to the lab when one of little bearded guy's(LBG) friends called him. She wanted to watch Ice Age 3 in 3-D. Seeing how we were already there we said yes. This was also my first 3-D movie.

(LBG, Marian and Marco <- Not sure if these names are correct will check)

This is when I learned about how much Brazilians love lines. Getting a ticket was a long line, getting in was a long line and all over the food court there was long lines. LBG told me that a Brazilian joke is that when a brazilian sees two people standing next to each other. The one seeing them will get in line behind them not knowing what the line is for. Or even if it's a line.

(standing in line Brazilian style)

After the movie which I only understood about half since it was in Portuguese and they spoke way to fast(still laughed the whole time :) great film). We decided to go to a restaurant and chat it up so we can all get to know each other(we also met with other friends so they joined us). We got some drinks, food and played a game were you play with toothpicks. Mainly Because in brazil tooth picks are not for chewing or picking your tooth(you would think toothpick(TP) would be self explanatory). Its thought of as rude to pick your teeth. They said it was for picking up food. I told them thats what forks are for. Forks are 4 times better than a tooth pick(since they have 4 prongs and a TP is a prong) and reusable.

Furthermore, I guess a fairly normal thing to do when hanging out is to smoke huuka. So they smoked huuka while we all talked and ate food.

Then Pi saw a play ground. LBG who we also call hijo, which means son in spanish, took some quality father son time and I pushed him on a swing and played on the seesaw.

(Doesn't my Hijo look so happy hahaha)

We all had a great time and called it a night.

Brazil Trip Day 10: The Epic Weekend

Its been awhile since my last post, usually I only have internet in my lab so and when I'm here I'm working, not blogging. I'll try to post something at least a few times a week but until I have a reliable internet connection it won't be daily.

Friday:

Well this was the first weekend here in Brazil with friends. I knew I would have a good time but never as epic as it turned out. Like Gurgel said, "We work hard and play hard".

Things began rather relaxed, we went out for lunch to a restaurant called Veredas. Decent food and you pay food per kilo. It's all you can eat as long as you can pay. Here's a vid of us going to Veredas. It introduces my colleagues and has a hint of humor.

After eating a huge meal(wish I would had photographed it, was to hungry I wasn't thinking) we went back to the lab and worked till about 8:30. I then went home to take care of a few things and meet up with Gurgel. Our Plan for the weekend was to meet up around 9:30-10, go out to get Turkey necks, go to a school social, and wake up the next day for an Electrical engineering BBQ. We went to a Restaurant/Bar near by called "Bar Da Codorna". We ordered Turkey necks, Brazilian fried chicken and a few drinks. You can see my Guarana in the corner(Brazil's best soft drink). After having some laughs waiting for the food, I took my first bite of turkey neck and it was...... Delicious! Very tender, the meat just fell off the bones. It tasted nothing like turkey or chicken, both strangely and tastefully it had the flavor of the beef stew my aunt makes in the US.

(Pi, Gogino, Glauco and I eating turkey necks)

So turkey necks are checked off the list. The next step was going to the school social. They told me it was going to be sort off a dance(Forró) with all the school departments there. When we got there I was really surprised. Imagine 300+ people, a live band surrounded by kiosks were you can buy drinks, food and halls(since you'll lose your voice trying to talk). According to Pi this happens about once every month. After meeting a few new friends (Moses and Miss Moses), getting a hat from another friend, getting a fake mustache and goatee, and lastly an intro on dancing Forró I decided to give the dance a try. I headed towards the nearest cute girl, lowered my hat in a gentleman like fashion and asked for a dance. After her approval and excitement I brought her close, arm on her back, hers on mine and I took my first dance step. This is when the magic began, that is, I took the first steps of failing to woo her with my dance skills. It was bad, really bad. My feet crossed, my beat was off and when I spun her she hit her head on my arm. It was great.

After many laughs with friends and dancing horribly all night we called it quits so we could get some rest for the electrical engineering social.

(Upper Left L->R: Gaucho, Mariana, Me, Moses and Pi)

(Upper RIght: Pi and I)

(Lower LeftL->R: Mrs. Moses (Moises in Portuguese), me, Glauco, PI, Pedro, Gaucho, Moses)

(Lower Right: Me, Pi and Glauco)

(Oh and I also met prize fighter Maguila)

Saturday: EE Social

So the social was from 3 pm till about 10 pm. I saw a poster for it earlier that week. Thought it was a good way to meet more people, especially in my department and hang out with the friends I’ve made so far. Nothing to crazy, something similar to the EE socials at our school. A whole bunch of guys, one girl and snacks. Everyone I talked to seemed so excited about it which I found quite odd, but hey maybe they have good snacks?

Boy was I wrong! I guess the EE BBQ’s here are one of the most popular parties at the UnB. Imagine 2500+ people from all of the private schools and the UnB, a band and free drinks for any one who wants some. About 65% girls and 35% guys(probably only 5% were actually engineers). Tickets sold for about 70 Reals (we got in for free because Glauco’s brother was the Organizer and King of the BBQ) and people were pouring in from the main door and boats. It was like nothing I had ever seen. We all hung out, met many new people, and had a great time. I was going to bring my camera and take pics but I was warned of pick pockets so I did not :(

Sunday:

I met up with Gurgel and Ana at around 1 p.m. And we went to visit some more of the Gurgel family. I met old time friends Lara, Tata and their respective families. We ate really good food and some really tasty pudding and headed out. They were all really great and treated me like family. Over all it was a great time and it was good to see past friends as well. Wish I would had taken photos but unfortunately I forgot :(

But alas the weekend is over. We are all back in the lab working like crazy. I’ll put another post as soon as I can Tchao!

Brazil Trip Day 8: TURKEY NECKS!

So updates are a little slow due to Internet connection(text is easy to upload but vids and pics are not) and how busy I´ve been. Dr. Geovany likes to challenge his students which I really enjoy. I was asked to do more work in one week than what I have been asked in classes at the UW to do in an entire quarter. Thankfully I am almost done with my part of the rocket program all that´s left is testing(which could ruin my current optimism) and setting up a serial connection to a computer from the board I´m working on.

I´m actualy about to go eat turkey necks with my labmates so I can´t make a long update. Suposedly turkey necks are a delicacy here in Brazil so I must try them out(will take a pic). We aslso went to a restaurant called Veridas today were you buy food buffet style per kilo(have a video will upload).

Let me tell you what a typical day is here on the weekdays atleast. 6 am eat b-fast, workout, shower eat another b-fast get to the lab at around 8-8:45 work till about lunch time and get lunch. Meet up with Dr.Gurgel or keep working till about 8-10 pm. Go home talk to some friends and get ready for the next day. When I was told they work hard and play hard I must agree that its quite true but I am learning alot and am enjoying the my stay here. I feel that when I get back to the states I will have become a much better engineer and much more competant in my work.

The next project I´m working on is going to be the prosthetic. I had no time to read the other projects so I chose this one, along with the fact that its something I already know I´m interested in and wanted to choose it from the begining.

This project will have me explorering master student level work such as Kalman filters, high level controls and automation. I´m very excited to begin this work and the deadline Dr. Geovany has me on requires me to publish my work in a few high level confrences before I leave. This is a very rare and great oppurtunity to have a paper published in a major confrence and journal.

The pace and challenge Geovany is presenting me with excedes even my own personal goals and for those of you who know me I have very steep goals. Everyday I feel more and more confident in my skills, what I can accomplish and knowledge in engineering.

With every new frustration comes new understanding. It feels like when you first learn algebra and you see 7+b =2 and you stare at it and it makes no sense. Its only until you learn to see the bigger picture and truly understand what going on infront of you that you realize how easy it is. This is how I feel everyday as I see a new challenge and after much frustration, it all connects and comes together like a symphony. Through all that your confidence increases and you look forward to larger and harder challenges. I guess what I´m trying to say is that its only been one week but the trip has already payed for its self for the amount I have learned and the amount of refinement of the skills I had.

Although there are alot of celebrations this weekend and a soccer game everyone wants to watch, everyone in our the department will still be coming in and working. We have alot to finish but since its the weekend we´ll take off earlier than normal and have a good time(and of course watch the game). My main goal for the weekend is to finish my part of the rocket program and finish the initial reading for the prosthetic project.

Well I´m off to eat turkey necks, hope they are good. Tchao!

Brazil Trip Day 7: The Move!

Well today was the big day that I moved to my own place. Although I will miss Carlos and Ana, I will still be seeing them for lunch and dinner(also miss the pets). Well currently, half my laptop is hanging out the railing of the second story balcony. The internet connections is so faint its the only ways I can get connection. I'n general the internet is slow in brazil but combine that with having bad signal it's nearly unbearable. Its the only thing that makes me want to go home(slow internet that is). I can't really make to large of a post since the connection is so sporadic but I'll try to load what I can. The apartment its self is very nice, it has a large living room with TV, DVD and fully furnished. Actually the entire apartment is fully furnished. It's really great. Also everyday a maid comes to clean the apartment, make your bed and every week or so change your sheets. If you give the maid your clothes they will wash them and give them back to you when they are done. We also have security 24/7 and a fresh water filter. This is were grad students and profs stay so its very nice. Carlos's and Ana's apartment also had this but their maid also cooks for them(she is a great cook). Also Carlos and Ana have been extremely nice and caring the entire time I have been here. They have treated me like a son and made me feel at home. They have encourage pantry and fridge raiding for food if I'm hungry, taken me out for food, and even stocked up my apartment with food so when I got here it was fully loaded with delicious treats. There hospitality has been great and they are really great people.

(Living room photo, Balcony photo night time, Another living room photo, Kitchen shot between the two fridges)

As I mentioned yesterday I will spend time talking about the projects I must choose. One per day. However, I will have to skip today because I did very little reading on the projects im choosing over. I had meets, computer problems(on there pc's, because APPLES and the best), and I was moving apartments.

I will get into what I saw Carlos doing today. We were meeting at 13:00 to get lunch and he was about 30 mins late so I went into his lab and I saw why he was so late. Turns out his grad students and him were working(more like playing because it was so cool) with a rocket drill. Its basically a rocket engine that they are trying to control with precision to make it into a drill for drilling rocks. And really rockets + blowing rocks apart = awesome*56

(student lighting the rocket engine, Carlos showing me the nozzle they will use to control the flame, Rocket drill in action!)

Here's a funny conversation Carlos and I had when driving away from his lab to get lunch.

Context: In his car, he got burned by the rocket motor and I'm asking if he is okay.

Ramses: Carlos hows your finger are you alright?

Carlos: Yes, no problem. I like to burn things. If its not over 1000 degrees(cellsius) it's for babies.

Ramses: How hot was the rocket motor?

Carlos: Over 2000 degrees. I'm not a baby.

Ramses: RICL(rolling in the car laughing)

I'd love to keep going on about the day as a lot happened. Met a few new profs, someone from the US embassy who is taking us out on his boat and ect ect ect. But alas this internet is so bad I can barely get the pictures up and the longer my post is the more it has to upload and the more it keeps failing. Tomorrow I will ask the building manager to fix the internet and hopefully I can get a good blog post up.

P.S. Ate Brasilian hot dogs: They consist of the sausage with tomato sauce, with a garlic sauce, corn and fried potatoes as toppings. Tasty but Very different.

Brazil Trip Day 6: Choice Numero Uno!

Like I mentioned in my last post I have four choices of lab projects I can work on independently while also working on the group rocket program. I thought I'd take a day this week for each project and fill you in on what they are about. I can only disclose what's already been made public but its still incredibly interesting.

I'll start off by talking about the lab. There are currently about 20 students in the lab. 10 I know because I've seen them and 6 I know because I work with them. I don't know them by name but I can tell you there nick names since that is what we use around the lab. They are all grad students except one.

1. "Gogino" means the stutterer, since he use to stutter

2. "Pi" like the the math pi i.e. 3.14.....

3. "Little Gas Station" not sure and afraid to ask

4. "Mariana" the only grad student girl in the lab. We call her by her name lol.

5. "Doo Doo" its suppose to be a nick name for people whoms names are Eduardo

6. "Freshman Beckam" They call him this because he is a freshman and speaks english really well like what they think David Beckam would sound like.

Our Proff is Geovany. He is a brilliant man, so brilliant that his PHD mentor in france told an audience at an international electrical engineering conference that he was the smartest and brightest student he has ever had in his entire career as a professor. Talk about an honor.

Any who here is the man himself:

Anyways for my first choice as an independent project I have a prosthetic foot. What's incredible about it is that fact that its the first prosthetic foot that takes into account ankle movement and foot position parallel to the ground. I'll spare you the technical mumbo jumbo as how its all done(Trust me I can drop some serious mumbo jumbo on this, since I read about it today for the past 9 hours).

So the idea behind it is that it has 3 motors and each controls a different section of the leg. The first motor is for the knee and enables the prosthetic to move the leg like you would when you are walking. Here's a vid on this motor in action:

So its has the typical knee motor, current prosthetics just use a spring to replicate this movement. Nice that it has a motor but no biggie. But what really sets it apart are the next two motors.

The next two motors are for the ankle movements. As of yet no other prosthetics research group has taken into consideration the importance of the ankle. Using infrared sensors they have programmed two motors to actuate and keep the foot parallel to the ground. This is great accomplishment because not only is it difficult to do but image the importance of this.

Example 1: You are walking and your trip

Old Prosthetic: You fall

New Prosthetic: the foot automatically rights its self while the sole aligns perfectly parallel to the ground. I.E. You keep walking

Example 2: Running

Old Prosthetic: You hobble uncontrollably more like fast walking than running, Lots of impact pressure.

New Prosthetic: Ankle muscles push off like normal and supports weight as you run forward like normal

Check this vid out on the foot moving to the ground location. Its both amazing and jaw dropping. It will give you a better Idea of what I mean.

My job in this project is to take the the leg you see here:

Which has large motors and many components and turn it into something as slim as this(minus the motor sticking out the side):

I would be accomplishing this by using smaller but similarly powerful motors and instead of multiple boards I'll be reprogramming one small board to accomplish what all 3 motors boards for the motors and the two extra boards do. Along with this I will also be expanding the project by connecting a sensor that go's on the users other leg(assuming it's not missing) so that as the user moves that leg the prosthetic can react and move the other depending on what the user is doing. For example if the user takes a step forward the prosthetic follows. If he pivots the prosthetic responds to the pivoting ect ect ect. I may also apply the sensors I've been working on at the UW for picking up nerve signals to allow for movement even if both legs are lost directly from the nerves. However, they have never been tested on legs and on bidirectional signals so It will be a great way to expand my research with this project as well.

Overall though this is very exciting work and a subject I am very interested in. However, there are 3 more choices and tomorrow I will spend my time reading on the other projects while programming a few micro-controllers for the rocket project.

Brazil Trip Day 5 Research Begins!

Well today was a busy day. It began at about 6:30 am when I woke up and ended around 8:30 pm when we all met up at Gurgels house for dinner.

The majority of the day consisted of meeting the facualty, most importantly Dr. Geovany who is an expert in controls and robotics(My undergrad ee degree is in controls) where he took me around his lab and introduced me to some of his projects. I must admit that this man is brilliant and his research is at a much higher level than most of the research I have ever seen. His research also extends in many directions. He has projects in autonomos robots, prosthetics, rocketry and hybrid control systems. Along with working on the rocketry project he asked me to choose one of the four projects he currently has no students on to work on for the next few months. Something I can continue even when I begin my work at the University of Brasilia Gamma campus in a few weeks with Lourdes on the energy conversion project I came to Brazil for.

I have a choice on a very unique intelligent prosthetic leg that the UnB is famous for, that uses myoelectronics for movement similar to the prosthetic hand I've been working on at the UW.

A cutting edge controls problem that currently has no solution, it's called a pendulum problem and the goal is to create a controls system that can take a two piece pendulum and control the motor that spins the pendulum to stop the pendulums perfectly upside down. (See photo)

A robot that can remember it's surroundings and react intelligently using what it knows about previous encounters with that enviorment.

Laslty, a pair of robots that work together to solve position and velocity of enviormental objects.

So for today my job was to read research journals and papers while getting up to date on the rocketry program so I can begin programing the microcontroller we are using. Overall I learned alot and read alot and tomorrow begins the programing work. We worked about 12 hours today but the good part was that our lunch was nice and long :)

Aside:

I'm trying to get use to the light breakfast and dinners because currently I probly look like a pig compared to how little people eat in Brazil for break fast and dinner.

There was one non-research related intersting thing today. There was once a car company called Gurgel and the owner was a distant relative of the Dr. Gurgel the guy im currently living with. Took some pics of the car. Unfortunatly, the car company does not exist anymore, they could not compete agaisnt volkswagon and the other car companies that came to Brazil.

I'll also try to get some pictures of the lab and my projects but I need to ask Dr. Geovany what I can take pics of because some of the projects may have sensitve information.

Brazil 4

Today was a very fun day, great way to end the weekend before getting to work tomorrow. Heres the run down:

After B-Fast: 0:00

The Place Im Staying At: 2:36

Winter In Brazil: 4:58

Churrascaria: 5:30 (Must See!!!!!)

Brasilia National Church: 7:33

Brazil Days 0-3

As some of you may know I was invited to the University of Brazil to do research for them this summer. I will be gone until September 26th and will be working in a multitude of labs. I finally made it to Brazil after alot of trouble both getting my visa and while trying to get to Brasilia. I will be maintaining a video blog of what's going on while I'm down here. This is the video I made but didn't get time to put up before I left for Brazil(last parts I used pictures from when I got here).

After Leaving things got really crazy, the plane I was on to Atlanta could not get clearance to land because the weather was so bad. So we circled the airport until we ran out of gas and had to make an emergency landing in a small airport in Alabama. We got lucky, another plane that ran out of gas had to e-land in Atlanta and one of the landing gears did not go down. I took pics of it when we finally made it to Atlanta but the plane was to far away to see the missing wing on the plane.

(Seatac Airport, Flying away from seattle)

(Pic of our plane from Plane's tv screen from a realtime gps system and conditions around plane)

(Rocky Mountains)

Anyways, I missed my connection to Brazil(since my plane from SEA->ATL was 2.5 hours late) and there was none flying that night so they put me in a hotel until the next day(also gave me a food ticket but it was so late nothing was open lol). Unfortunately, my destination Manaus is a small airport and the Delta partner TAM only flys to Brasilia every other day so I would have to stay in Manaus an extra day and delay me another day from what I needed to get done in Brasilia. Thanks to my uncle, burger king, and 4+ hours on hold with orbitz, international flight and Delta they managed to find me a plane that took me to Brasilia straight from Manaus next day using another carrier.

(Out in the distance is the plane with the missing wing. Also a pic of one of Atlantas Fav eats!)

So the next day I took off from Atlanta to Manaus happy that things were finally ready to go and I would not be delayed in reaching Brasilia.

(Interesting hand dryer in Atlanta's Airport, supposedly the worlds fastest hand dryer)

( I put it to the Test!)

(Pic of our plane through planes TV screen using GPS, Guantanamo circled in Red)

When I got Manaus I grabbed my bag and even though I had a 4 hour layover until my flight to Brasilia(4 am flight) I decided to check in. Lucky that I did, because it turns out the plane I was suppose to take at 4 am was canceled and I would have to wait an extra day. So I talked to the airline people and told them I needed to get to Brasilia ASAP and if they could reroute me through another carrier it would be fine or even through another city as long as I got to Brasilia the next day.

(We got to Manaus at Mid night. Pic of the city as we are landing)

They had one flight that got me to Brasilia, First I would need to take a flight at 2 am to Rio and then another to Brasilia :/ but alas I'd be there on time.

All these travel issues were not to bad in the USA since I had cellphone and email access through my phone and tethered to my lappy however, in Brazil I had no connection. My pick up was going to be waiting for me at 7:45 am tomorrow and I would not be there until past noon. I had find a way to get the message to him. I tried the pay phones using collect calls and at first I got a phone that did not work. Then I tried another and once again no go. I got to the level of desperation were I started asking random people if I could use their cell phones to make a call to Brazil. They ask to where and I would say Brasilia and they would say "No!" :( since its long distance. I even asked this younger looking guy who wore a pink shirt if I could use his celly and he just stared at me blankly and shook his head.

Luckily, my confusion was noticed by a brazilian kid who was on the flight from Atlanta to Manaus with me and he approached me and let me use his cell phone. Much props to him.

So I left my ride a message hopped on the plane from Manaus to Rio and head to my seat. To my surprise my plane buddy was Mr. Pink Shirt himself. Holding back a smirk from the irony of the situation I said "olá!" and started chatting(not a grudge type person). Turns out he is an Electrical Engineer as well and studied at a Catholic College in Rio. He is going back to get a masters in Mechanical Engineering.

The rest of the trip went well, got to Rio had a 4 hour lay over and then took a plane to Brasilia. 2.5 days of traveling, and 1.5 days late but I made it :)

(First two is of the Rio Airport, Boarding and taking off to Brasilia)

(Second set is entering Brasilia and walking off the plane.)

Along with Dr. Carlos Gurgel (My pick up), there was Anna Paulo and Dr. Lourdes there to greet me :) they we all very nice, we all joked about the head ache of trying to figure out what plane I'd be in, and went to Carlo's and Anna's house for lunch. Food was great! Black beans, rice, chicken and a salad made in a Brazilian fashion by their maid along with these small sugar/egg desert treats. Yum :)

Aftwards, I met some other proffs, learned my schedule for the coming weeks, they showed me the place I would be staying in a few weeks (on campus, great apartment with balcony, meant for proffs), showed me a bit of Brazilia and then Carlos and Anna took me to go get some Acai (super good frozen banana and Acai puree) and some incredible brazilian Pizza for Dinner. They are great hosts, treated me like family and I feel at home already :)

Over all I'm tired from all the traveling but very content on being here and looking forward to tomorrow and Monday when I begin my research work :)

(first Pic is of Anna and Dr. Lourdes)

(Second is of Carlos and Anna, we drove by Brasilia's famous bridge and we stopped for a photo opp while on the way to Acai)

(Then the its the congress building we saw this when we left the airport)

(another Bridge Pic)

(Carlo's drawing of how Brasilia's city layout is like a plane. Followed by Anna's version of it)

(Anna and I taking a Photo Opp)

(urinal at the pizza place we ate at, Yowzers!)