You Must be An Expat Mom in Rio When...

Just another day in the life, people, another day in the life...

- Your child get completely traumatized by a kid in a (very realistic looking, I'll admit) spiderman costume at the park. Yet, said child wasn't fazed by the gunfire you could hear in the distance a few minutes earlier. Yes, that would be my Canadoca, this morning.

- It takes a quarter of the useful life of a passport to get an appointment to renew said passport.(Canadoca's first Brazilian passport was only good for one year; our appointment to submit our documents to renew it is almost THREE MONTHS away). Don't ask, just be sure to make your renewal appointment early. Around the time you receive the child's passport in the first place is probably best. ;) Currently they are not even accepting bookings at two of the four locations in the city, they are so backed up. Lovely.

- Child receives ELITE status card in the mail from airline, along with several tickets for alcoholic beverages on board. They must figure momma will need a drink (or that we might need to make some friends at some point on the long flight)... either that or they figure if she has some wine, she'll sleep better on the flight?

Comments

[Rachel]

You may, BIG MAY, be able to travel with the US/Canadian passport and Brazilian birth certificate. I'm going to double check this... well, I thought I was on my trip to Argentina but I don't know if I'm going anymore. We can't get an appointment for our kids' passports and we leave Dec 8! I think we may be one of the ones who stand in line from 5am on, until we are seen. Of course, we have to bring the kids since it's their passport... that's going to be fun ;)

[Tiago Chaves]

Interesting blog, funny too... I'm from Rio de Janeiro, lived in Boston for 12 years and recently moved back with my family. It's funny to see your reactions, with good sense of humor, to what we are used to in Rio the same way we reacted to cultural diferences when we arrived at US...

[Jean]

Just to clarify point #2, are you referring to renewing a Brazilian passport, or any passport for any country? Thx

[Daily Rio Life]

Rachel - I traveled with the Canadoca on just her Canadian passport last summer, to Canada & the states. It was fine, but some sort of rule had just changed. Last time I went to Canada the same woman at Continental who had given me the third degree about traveling WITHOUT a Brazilian passport gave me the third degree about why Canadoca HAD a Brazilian passport...and said she doesn't need one... seriously wtf? Oh the difference a year makes. We're traveling at Christmastime too so it better work...

Tiago - Thank you!

Jean - yes I am referring to a Brazilian passport.