São Paulo has now come and gone, and it seemed like a quick three days. Friday night a bunch of us went out for my (and two other girls´) last night in Salvador. First, Greg (USA), Salvador (USA), and I checked out the weekly Friday beach party down in Barra. Apparently, every Friday, around sunset, there´s live music on the beach. Definitely a relaxing end to the busy week. After that, we met up with Amy (UK) and Natasha (UK) and went out to dinner, where we also met up with Jamilly, Jamilly´s sister Amanda, and Tatiana. We then decided to hit up this nearby bar, where we ended up staying well into the early morning hours. By the time we all walked up the hill toward our respective homes and said our goodbyes, I didn´t end up making it home until about 3:15 or so. Normally, that would be fine, but in this case, what felt like 45 seconds of sleep was 45 minutes, since I had to wake up to catch my taxi to the airport. Since I was so tired, though, it was one of those days where I hit snooze without realizing and woke up on my own 5 minutes before taxi-time. Hence, no time for showering (drat!), I grabbed my stuff, said more goodbyes, and headed to the airport (where I surprised myself in my super tired state by talking the airport attendant into charging me only half of the cost of ´´excess baggage´´ for my luggage). Just my luck, though, that one of the Carnaval bands (Cheiro de Amor [Smell of Love]) would be on my flight and waiting to board right next to me. And hooray for me, I figured out who they were! (Admittedly, the T-shirts some of them were wearing with the band´s name on it did help some.) I ended up making it to São Paulo just fine, but very tired. Another reason for the tiredness could be because of the thoughtful women sitting next to me on the flight. There I was, peacefully sleeping through the flight and the announcement that a light breakfast was to be served (I was too tired to care). However, when someone taps you on your arm repeatedly until you wake up to tell you that you have to put your tray table down if you want to eat, all you want to do (ok, all *I* wanted to do) was tell this Brazilian woman where the exits are located on the aircraft. She also didn´t seem to understand when I put my ipod headphones on that I did not want to be talked at (yes, talked *at*), so I thanked my lucky stars I had an aisle seat instead of a middle seat and went back to sleep (until she told me, ´´you aren´t supposed to have that device on...oh no, that´s just cellular phones, never mind.´´... and the sleeping became a lost cause)....Welcome to São Paulo.
When I arrived in São Paulo and had to wait forever for my luggage, the only saving grace was that there were TVs attached to the baggage carousels showing soccer games. Why did I have to come all the way to Brazil to see that? Everyone should have that! And after I got my bags, I was on my way.
In São Paulo, I have been staying with the family of my friend Luciana, my Portuguese teacher from New York. When I arrived at the house on Saturday, I had to take a nap in order to recharge a bit, and after that, it was time to hit the town. I went out with Matildes and Luis (São Paulo host parents) for lunch in the middle of the afternoon to a place that I can only think to describe as an all-you-can-eat-buffet crossed with a dim-sum-like churrascaria. What does that mean, exactly? That means that, in the center of the room, there is a big round table that is self-service. All-you-can-eat. Then, when you are back at your table, people come around to your table, offering you different kinds of churrasco (Brazilian barbecue) and you can say yes or no to the various meats. There is this also this little gadget on the table that when you don´t want people to come to your table, you turn it so the red side is facing out (red light means stop! no more meat!), and when you do want visitors, you have the green side face out (bring it on, meat!). It was quite a tasty lunch. And then when it was time for dessert, that was a cart I couldn´t refuse. The woman said I could create my own plate of sample bites if I didn´t want want a big piece of x, y, or z cake, and eventually, I came up with the perfect dessert. I told her, ´´Ok, ok, I figured it out, but I don´t think it´s going to be possible.´´ I ended up asking her for a small piece of this flan-like dessert and this big white chocolate crumble that was on top of this other cake (the crumble looked a lot better than the cake). She said, ´´how can I do that, guilt-free?´´ Needless to say, I ended up with two pieces of cake, and my cake instincts were right -- flan, gooood. Crumble -- goood. Crumble cake -- uhhh...needed a little work.
After lunch, we drove all around the city, and Matildes and Luis showed me various tourist spots -- important praças, parks, a flower market, a pedestrian street, the Teatro Municipal, etc. We tried to catch the sunset at Praça Pôr-de-Sol but it was too cloudy. Oh well.
At night, I ended up going out with my friend Michelle, the girl I met in Chapada Diamantina who hails from São Paulo. I went out with her and a few of her friends (Ricardo, Rogerio, and Lillian) to this place that played live music -- forró , maracatu , etc. It ended up being really fun and we stayed there until 4:30am. Running on a total of about two hours of sleep, it only got confusing once I found out that after just having set my watch forward an hour when my plane landed, I would have to change it back in the middle of the night because of daylight savings. But, when in São Paulo...
Sunday was kind of a lazy day with a late start. I ended up spending the day with Luciana´s sister, Daniela, and her friends (Cristina, Priscilla, Fernando, Pedro, Renata, and Pe). We had lunch at home and then drove around the city to some places I hadn´t been to on Saturday, with our final destination being being an apparently famous sorveteria (ice cream place). I got yogurt/strawberry (that was one flavor) and cookies (that was another flavor). Yum! Then they showed me around town some more (I must say, I am very thankful to have local guides to show me around...especially ones who have cars!), and we ended up at a pizzeria for dinner. The way this pizzeria functions though is also like dim-sum. People come to your table with various kinds of pizza slices on a tray and tell you what they are, and you just pick what you want. Then when you are done eating the savory pizza slices, you tell them, and they clear your plate and bring you a new plate. That plate is your dessert plate, which you can fill with a slice of dessert pizza. For example: Coconut pizza with chocolate sauce (that was surprisingly delicious), brigadeiro pizza (not surprisingly delicious), etc. (It is important to note here, that for the dessert pizzas, they are not cheese pizzas with these ingredients on top; rather, they have the breaded consistency of pizza with the aforementioned ingredients on top. Thus, if you like the dessert itself, and you like a light serving of bread, there´s nothing not to like.) São Paulo, this could be beginning of a beautiful (and dangerous) friendship...
Monday (today), I hit the Mercadão, better known as the Mercado Municipal, with Matildes. It was a rainy day, so it was good to be inside for most of it. I had some açaí for the second time in Brazil (deeeelicious), and I ate it with strawberries, bananas, and granola. Then, for lunch there, Matildes and I ate pastel de bacalhau, kind of like a codfish empanada. It is typical of the market there, and it was good! After that, we walked around a bit before the rain came back and then we headed home. Matildes´ cousin was celebrating a birthday today so some of the family came over to the house for a bit and then eventually we went to their apartment in a different neighborhood. We stayed for dinner (homemade pizza), and then later on at night, I left to go meet up with some friends. I met up with Michelle, Ricardo, and Estevan (another friend of theirs) and hung out with them for my last night in São Paulo. Hard to believe that two weeks ago, I didn´t know any of these people.
Tomorrow, I leave Sampa in the early morning hours (aka in a few hours) for Foz do Iguaçu (Iguazu Falls). The falls have an Argentine side and a Brazilian side, and I have only 24 hours in the town itself (and even fewer hours to see the falls, since the last bus out of the park leaves in the early evening). So, who knows? Maybe I´ll go to Argentina for lunch and falls tomorrow. We shall see.
In the meantime, it´s time to catch some z´s. See you on whatever side.
missy
http://andsmilestogobeforeisleep.blogspot.com
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