Originally Posted by
Applejack
The one enduring memory I have of my post-mission sojourn with my parents is sitting in an opulent, Portuguese-built opera house listening to a Philip Glass piece as a muggy, Amazonian rain fell on the building's fading glory. After the concert, as everyone huddled in the grand foyer waiting for a break in the rain, I thought to myself, "I have toiled for two years in this majestic, dying part of the world and nothing captured that experience better than what I just heard."