Waiting for the shuttle

I also learned that we had been scheduled for the first flight out the next morning (8:30AM, just 9 hours away), and then spent the next two hours using my 3/3 in Portuguese trying to remember if I ever learned the words for "change the flight so we can get some sleep" or "34 pieces of luggage and 8 people" or "I don't need a taxi, I need an extra big shuttle to the hotel please" during our discussions of oil spills, economic crises and nuclear treaties during language training at the Foreign Service Institute. I am very grateful to the agents who looked after us, patiently listened to me mangle their language and managed to get us new flights, hotel rooms, a shuttle ride and move all of those bags through the airport. By the way, the shuttle drove past us twice trying to find a place to park near us.