Planning for Brazil

I hate planning things.

Right now I’m in the midst of getting shit together for the world trip, or as Mark calls it, “Around the world in ??? days.”  The ironic part is, our plan was to have as little of a plan as possible yet somehow we’re still pricing out flights and hotels, which I guess is still kind of necessity as I am traveling on a budget.  Plus getting a hotel in Rio for Carnival did need to be done substantially ahead of time as we didn’t want to get:

a) fucked on not having a place to stay

b) fucked in the ass on pricing

c) fucked in the ass literally by being in a bad neighborhood and getting our hotel/hostel broken into

As I started telling people discreetly that I was planning on quitting all 5 of my jobs (that’s not an exaggeration) and traveling the travel group expanded from Mark and myself, to add another girl (who cannot presently be named as none of us have told our bosses that we’re planning on leaving yet).  Then when people found out the first stop was Rio for Carnival the amount of people coming to Rio shot up to 10 crazy motherfuckers.  My friends really like to party globally.  So after extensive research via Vacation Rentals and Air Bnb I finally found a 10 person apartment, in a safe area, that despite having a minimum night stay, still worked out cheaper than booking a hotel (~$125/night as opposed to ~$300/night).  On a side note Air Bnb is the shit.

Now came the annoying part, after booking the apartment we found out we had to pay the whole damn thing in full to hold the room.  Am I the only person who thinks that that’s absolutely crazy?  Anywho, we paid it and I am now stuck with the task of recollecting the funds.  If only life was simple.   The hotel being paid in full, I sent out an email to everyone asking for money which is always every planners favorite game.

Let’s play, time to recover $8000!

• Four people answered immediately and sent me the money within 2 weeks.  To those four people, you are awesome and I love you.  One of those four people is me.
• One person emailed me back a week later that they couldn’t come but offered to give me the money and then try to find someone to take their place.  Fuck you…but at least that’s a problem with a proposed solution.  I rescind my fuck you, and replace it with a consoling hug that you can’t come.
• Another person emailed me back a week and a half later saying they didn’t have the money right now but would definitely be coming and would give me the money as soon as they could.  Also asked if their significant other could come.  High five.  You just solved one of our problems.
• Another person never answered me but sent me the money three weeks later.  Silent but efficient.  I’ll take it.  You get a pat on the back buddy.
• Five down, two sort of down, three to go.
• I sent a follow up email to the remaining three
• One asked about the price again, and said they’re coming but didn’t say anything about sending the money.  You get a weak handshake
• One person cancelled, but offered money for an inconvenience fee.  Anger slowly rising…
• One person, a month plus later still hasn’t not answered my emails or text messages

The Frosted Flakes mascot giving the “A-Ok!” sign which incidentally means either “you’re an asshole” or “up yours” in Brazil.  But don’t read between the lines here or anything.

Fortunately, we’ve had good luck in finding people who were pseudo-interested in coming now being able to commit to the trip so it looks like things will work out in the end.  If they don’t,  I’m gonna have to start looking for more cereal mascots to express my feelings.