Welcome Back

You know that Welcome Back song, once a show and now overdone on tv commercials. This song plays in my head a lot. I typically hear it two times when I travel – when I arrive in the US and when I’m leaving the US (usually ATL) to come back to Brazil.

When I arrive in the US it starts playing in my head at the first sniff of a Starbucks. Man, marketing is a powerful thing. I was never really a Starbucks addict when I lived in the US. I saved it for special occasions going about three times a month usually on a rainy day to cheer me up.

There is just something about that smell and that logo that reminds me that I’m home. I’m sure this makes the Starbucks people very happy. Although, they are probably disappointed to know that unfortunately my budget hasn’t increased so I will be continuing to enjoy the smell instead of making more purchases.

Associating this coffee giant with home probably just has a lot to do with the fact that there are so many in major airports. It’s easier for a coffee shop to feel like home than, say, a Hudson News shop.

Without fail, I heard my song playing in my head again as I left Atlanta last night.

I used to not care at all about my frequent flyer status until we moved to Brazil. Now, those little points are my only savior for not losing my mind in the Sao Paulo airport when the Delta line is 2 hours long.

I also love the fact that I get to board in zone 2 and can start reading my book while the other passengers are concentrating on getting all their suitcases, Gap bags, computer monitors and Nike Shox boxes in the overhead bins.

The only problem is that no one listens when boarding zones are called. Even though it was repeated in both English and Portuguese that they were now boarding ONLY zone 1, person after person was flocking to the Breezeway. Fortunately last night the flight attendant was turning people away if you weren’t in the right zone.

So I weaved through the line jumpers and stepped up when they called zone 2, waited in the short line and heard the agent tell the girl in front of me, “um, you’re in zone 7.” The agent gave a frustrated laugh, I laughed and all I could think was:

Wel-come back, welcome back, welcome back, welcome back….