Best First Brazil Post or Damn Yankees indeed.

Here's a question that Yahoo Answers couldn't answer for me: Is a consulate count as foreign soil like an embassy does? If so, I took my first trip to Brazil on Friday.

I had to slip out of work at 9:30 to get up to the consulate to turn in my visa application. The Yankees Victory Parade was to head up Broadway in front of my work, "How neat" I thought as I left my building, admiring the small crowd that had gathered.

Going to the consulate was just great, I loved it so much. I'm being serious. It was like going to the Brazilian DMV, I got yelled at in Portuguese, I was so happy, so glad to be there in the country I love with the people that I love from that country that I love.

When I got back downtown I was definitely in America again and Americans were definitely getting on my nerves.

These masses...they were everywhere, everyone desperate to catch the sight of a Yankee or two on a double decker bus or flatbed truck. It took me 20 minutes to walk the two blocks from the subway stop to my building...and that was with me being absolutely savage about getting through that crowd. I trampled the elderly, I toppled strollers, I shoved enthusiasts, I had to get to work.

Our plaza was mostly blocked off, but still more crowded than before. My favorite part of battling my way through the crowds was elbowing through everyone pressed against the Church street barricades and showing my ID to the security guards and being let through as knuckleheads in blue begged me to take them with me.

Up in the office we had a perfect view of the parade. Can you spot any hardcore Phillies fans?


See, perfect view of the parade without any parade.