comments

I just noticed some comments on "getting to know Sao Paulo." One of them was asking about the new construction in Sao Paulo. It's mostly strangely colorful and looks like the 80's version of the future. I'll take a couple pictures when I get back next week!

I know I've promised Dan pictures of Liberdade, and Dad wants pictures with me in them (but that'll ruin the shot!). Anything else anyone wants to see in particular? The subway? Parks? More graffiti?

mercados and museus

We're going to Parati this weekend, leaving tomorrow at 8AM and not coming back until Sunday evening. Apparently some of the best scuba diving in Brazil is there, so I hope to have a pretty good time.

Today is Sao Paulo's birthday! There are all kind of cultural events going on. The museums are open late and accessible for free. There is also something really confusing with local bakeries and cake that my host mom tried to explain to me. I plan to go out today to find some pants and painting supplies. We'll see how far I actually get. I had the same goal yesterday and came back with nothing but a belt made of old map print fabric.

Tuesday we went to the Portuguese Language Museum, which was one of the coolest places I've ever been, and Sao Paulo State's art museum, the Pinacoteca. Here are some pictures.

Here's the outside of the Museu da Lingua Portuguesa:


And here's the entrance area:


We went to the third floor and watched a short movie on the history of Brazilian Portuguese. After that the movie screen lifted and rotated so we could duck underneath it to a huge almost barn-like room beyond. It was very dark and the floor was some kind of polished black stuff with bits and pieces of poetry and prose illuminated from below. We watched another presentation on Brazilian poetry and music, with graphics and words and all kinds of crazy stuff flying around on the ceiling and walls, thanks to at least four projectors poking out of the walls. It was insane, and way better than any presentation I've ever seen in an American museum. Then we went to the second floor, and the museum got better.

The second floor's whole ceiling was dripping with fabric "pages," taken I think from an old book written by one of the guys who explored Brazil. The pages had all been "edited" to make sense in modern Portuguese. You could pull the strips sewed to the bottom of the pages to bring them down and read them, which would make the cans and bags of sand fly up. So the whole time the entire ceiling was moving and shifting as people looked at different parts of the story.


The floor was covered in bits of rubble, brick, and odd, colorful symbols. I didn't hear very well, but apparently the symbols relate to different characters in the book, and if you follow them around and read what they lead you to, you kind of walk the path of the character in the book. Everything had words painted on it.




There were also these crazy barrels filled with water and lit up words that you had to read using a mirror. The guy is John. He's nice.


Here's Graham and Brandon standing in the middle of my shot of the Pinacoteca building:


Unfortunately, the Pinacoteca didn't allow pictures. It also had only one painting by Tarsila and nothing by Maria, so I was a little skeptical about the claim that it's the best museum of Brazilian art in Brazil. They did have some really gorgeous contemporary stuff, though. I'm having trouble finding names of artists I liked, so I'll go back again and take notes.

Afterward, Graham, Brandon and I went wandering on the Rua 25 de Marco, which is the crazy discount street. There were more people on that one street than I have ever seen in my life. I'm going back today and taking pictures, if I feel like I can do it without getting my camera stolen. I got some graffiti outside the Metro station before the crowd got really insane:


Eventually we wandered into the Mercado Municipal. It's a giant indoor market with seemingly more fruit than the world could really realistically eat. There are also tons of restaurants and things of that nature. It reminded me a lot of the market in London, Canada. There was even a crepe seller!



We went up to the second floor and had some really awesome sushi. Here's Brandon and Graham sitting "in" the restaurant with the Mercado in the background:


To the right of us:


Brandon bought some pretty impressive shoes for $15 (US):


That'll be it for now and probably until Monday!

getting to know Sao Paulo

I'm back with more news and, more importantly, more pictures!
Last weekend was pretty eventful. On Saturday the group divided into groups of 15 and explored the city. We each had a different cultural attraction to visit, and we had to use our maps and bus schedules to figure out how to get there. After, we were slated to visit one of the Sao Paulo samba schools to see them rehearse their parade routine. I unfortunately had gotten lost with two of the other guys on the program the day before.

On Friday, Graham, Brandon and I went to Vila Mariana to try to find a theatre Brandon knew of that had wacky art films, but we had trouble getting there and once we did, we were informed that they had no shows until the 18th. They recommended we try the Museu Lasar Segall. When they said it, I couldn't understand what the part after "museu" was, and neither of the others understood the word, either. So when we finally got there after getting lost for another hour, I was very pleasantly surprised. Lasar Segall was one of Brazil's early modernists who I've studied a bit. The museum didn't have any more shows for the night, but the exhibits were free so we wandered though. It was great. The museum was built in his house, and they had all kinds of his paints and equipment and his library on display. They had a great variety of his work, including a bunch of plans and designs for decorative exhibits he had done for various museums for Carnaval. They were really interesting. I liked them a lot. I had no idea he did more decorative work, or that he sculpted as much as he apparently did. I learned a lot and had a great time. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera.

Anyway, after at least four hours of wandering around lost, my legs weren't really interested in functioning correctly. I ducked out of Saturday's activities after visiting the Casa das Rosas, an old colonial style house with fantastic gardens and cultural exhibits. I took the Metro home and, after getting off at the right stop, went through the wrong exit and had no idea where I was. I knew vaguely where my neighborhood was in relation to the downtown area--or thought I did. After I got home, I pulled out my map and found out I was wrong. I tried walk in the right direction in relation to the street signs pointing to the central area. Eventually I ended up on a street called Bela Cintra, which had signs pointing to various neighborhoods including Higienopolis. So I walked and walked and walked and eventually figured out where I was by going past a shopping mall a good 15 blocks or so from my house. I got back ok and slept for a year.

Sunday we went on more cultural excursions. We had a tour of the historic downtown area of Sao Paulo. We all met at the church of Sao Bento, which is right off the metro. It's giant and has authentic Gregorian chant every Sunday mass at 10. The interior of the church is incredible. There's no tacky-beautiful Retablo, but there's more than enough gold and marble and impressive sculpture all over everything else. I want to go back and take pictures of the inside when it's not so crowded.


We visited the first building built in Sao Paulo, a Jesuit church/school I believe. The architecture down there is all very old or done in an old style, with some really amazing ironwork and sculpture around the windows and doors. I took a ton of pictures.


A big spike covered in sculpture that marks the place Sao Paulo was founded. It's in a big open square right in front of the first building in Sao Paulo. I didn't take a picture because I thought the building was kind of boring and I was crabby and hot. I took a picture of this because I thought at first that the bird was part of the sculpture. Apparently not. The sculptures show the various interactions between the Jesuit missionaries and the indigenous people of Brazil. I don't think there's anyone getting eaten, which is really too bad.


Here's the spectacular view from the courtyard behind the first building. I keep taking all these pictures trying to show how big Sao Paulo is and it just never seems to work right. This place is overwhelming.




This was a giant peach building on the street next to the first building. I don't know why it fascinated me so much. Probably a combination of the lions, the ironwork, and the odd color.


This is a window on the corner of a building right across from the monument above. The windows all had crazy heads like this, it was great.


A shot of the alley behind the peach building. I thought it was very Brazil. Majestic old buildings starting to decay, lots of ironwork, graffiti, and the urban poor hiding from the sun under tarps. Things to be proud of, things to tolerate, and things to pretend we don't see.

Next we went to a stock exchange or something, I have no idea. After that we went to a building called the Torre Banespa, which is modeled after the Empire State Building. We went all the way to the top and took pictures. I tried a movie to again attempt to show how huge this place is.


I kept taking pictures of interesting ironwork or architecture instead of the stuff we were there to see. This is a cool building right across from the Torre Banespa.



After our tour, they took us to eat in Liberdade, the Japanese neighborhood. We went to a comida por kilo buffet (just what it sounds like; you pay a certain price per kilo of food you take) which was fantastic. There's amazing graffiti everywhere, but the stuff in and near Liberdade is particularly bizarre. Here's two shots.



Most of the week has been spent sulking because I don't get along with most of the kids here and moodily nursing my awful sunburn. Thursday I went exploring Liberdade by myself and met some really nice Brazilians my age in a book store. Last night I went out with a friend, Zach, who's going to be staying in Curitiba. He introduced me to some of his Brazilian friends here in Sao Paulo. We went to two really interesting bars. On the way, we drove through a less savory area and I saw my first prostitutes. It was surreal and really scary, not just shocking; for some reason I was reminded of watching Erin and Mike play Silent Hill. I don't know what it was.
One bar was in Liberdade and looked like Quentin Tarantino decorated it. They had a lot of Japanese-style seating and gaudy bizarre decorations hanging from the ceiling. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a table. We drove to another that was around 50 years old. They had meats, cheeses, and bottles of wine and brandy and stuff hanging from the ceiling, and really old antique-looking cabinets with more brown bottles behind the bar. Caio, one of the Brazilians, said that the decorations have been there as long as the bar has been. It was a really neat place. I didn't have my camera, unfortunately.
We're going out again tonight. I can't wait to see what kind of bizarre place Caio comes up with next.

Here are some more miscellaneous pictures!


A giant mural in the Se Metro station.



The courtyard inside the Predio Velho, or Old Building, on the PUC campus. The Predio Velho is the giant pink thing you see on the PUC site or when you google it.


The second floor of White Rabbit, an internet cafe close to PUC that all the CIEE students use. The guy in the foreground is Graham.


White Rabbit again, second floor but a different room. Every internet cafe has something like this.
Zeny plz. Itens plz. D:

news from last week

I've got internet at my host family's house now. It was a huge pain in the ass for her, but we finally got it done. I'm going to pay for it and buy her a present or something. Here are some entries that I wrote earlier.



9/1/07
Moving in with my host mom went well. Even though I could barely move with all my luggage, once I unpacked I realized how little I have. Dona Francisca even commented that I didn't bring much. I told her I don't really own much except books, and I only brought 7. Which I remember Dad saying was too many. This begs the classic question of where the hell all my paychecks go if I'm always broke but I never buy anything except (used) books. Eating out chews up a lot of it, I think. After sorting though all my stuff at home and trashing half of it, I'd also have to guess aborted sewing projects.

Senhora Silva's place is really, really nice. My room is small, but I don't need much space. Pictures:


Pretty plain for now.

The rest of the apartment is heavily decorated with lots of paintings and classical art prints. It's a lovely apartment in a building with heavy security. I feel safe here and everywhere I've been so far, to be honest. After I unpacked, Senhora Silva walked me all over Higienopolis and halfway to Perdizes, where PUC is. We didn't get all the way to PUC, but I feel like I walk there on my own. Tomorrow and the next two days Senhora Silva is going to take me to school via electric bus.

Sao Paulo is beautiful, but completely overwhelming. Just about everyone except for the ungodly filthy rich live in giant high-rise apartment buildings. The slightly less ungodly filthy rich have obscene white towers with fancy black ironwork on the balconies, matching tall, black iron gates with sharp gold and silver fleur de lis at the top (and sometimes barbed wire or what looks like electric fences), and men in black suits stationed outside. They keep pools and benches and entire parks behind those gates. Kids play on the lawns while their mothers stand behind, looking on nervously as if the gates, multiple locks, dozens of cameras, and troops of frowny official men with radios in their ears weren't enough. Maybe they're not.

The biggest city I've ever been to is Chicago. Downtown Chicago is big, but even there at some point the skyscrapers stop and smaller buildings take over. There's a core of huge stuff that gets smaller at the edges. I assume that's true for Sao Paulo as well, but I've yet to see it. The skyscrapers just stretch on and on, eventually disappearing into the perpetual fog.

It's the greenest city I've ever been. One of my guidebooks said that Sao Paulo was very urban and often criticized for lack of green space. That is complete crap. There are a bunch of big parks, and the streets are all lined with trees. When I say trees, I mean trees. A man's man's tree, not the weak sort of tree we have in Wisconsin. I mean three, four, five story high monster trees, trees so big their trunk is the size of the building they were built around, trees more massive than I've ever seen, dripping with vines bigger than my wrists and hairy fruits the size of throw pillows. There are also tons of palm trees, or at least trees shaped the same way. They're oddly alien. I feel like I'm walking through a postcard whenever I see a group. Trees. “Urban jungle” is kind of a silly phrase but it applies here in a very literal way.

Weirdly enough, the pigeons look exactly the same.

Here's the view from a couple of the apartment's windows. There are a couple trees, but not what I'm talking about.


View from the living room, the front of the building.


View from the kitchen, the back of the building and interior of the complex it's in.



10/9/07
Today was the first day of classes. It went all right. As advertised, we don't have any books for our classes. They're too expensive and hard to get in large quantities. So instead, we use photocopied packets, handouts, and lots of lecture and class discussion. I wonder what training is like for teachers here.

The buildings of PUC themselves are pretty old and kind of falling apart on the outside. The inside of the “Edificio Novo” (new building) has some really pretty graffiti. The classrooms are very open and airy, just like most rooms and restaurants here. No one has air conditioning. My first choice for fancy American luxury appliances here would be a dehumidifier.

I slept through my alarm and missed the bus this morning. I took it back with Senhora Silva this afternoon, though. It's very fast and completely terrifying, like most Brazilian motor traffic. I'm sure I'll get used to it. Tomorrow I'll get up on time and see if I can find my way back to PUC.

I'm pretty sure Senhora Silva is trying to feed me to death. She keeps insisting I eat giant lunches and inviting me to whatever I want from the fridge. Today she brought home some of the weird fruit I saw hanging from the trees yesterday. For a fruit that massive, the part you eat is pretty small. It's just a little layer of pale yellow fruit around a massive brown seed about the size of the top joint of my thumb. It's very sweet. I think it tastes like fake banana flavoring.

The following three pictures are the skyline from the, uh...North side of PUC, fourth floor. I think. They form kind of a panorama if you look at them all next to each other in the order they're presented.




And here's what you see if you look down instead of out:



Here's what must be the West side if the above is the North:


This isn't my school, it's a much more modern one for the arts (I think?) called FAAP. It's on my bus route. When I took this picture, my back was to a giant new white building with pseudoclassical architecture. Inside the building are galleries and reproductions of O Alejadinho's giant portals in Ouro Preto.





I'm going to go get something to eat and then update for today.

the first few days: not so much culture shock as culture panic

One of the things I've always heard people say about studying abroad is that the first couple months were the worst in their lives, but the last couple were easily the best. I was pretty skeptical about that until now. I was way overconfident when I first got here and I was terrified by the airport and taxi when I realized how little I could say, and worse, how little I understood. I immediately felt a hell of a lot better when the rest of the CIEE group arrived. At about 2 on the 6th I was working myself into a fit of anxiety because my roommate hadn't showed up and no one had contacted me about how to meet the group. I ended up just going downstairs to the front desk to ask if anyone had checked in, and there was an entire horde of English speakers milling around in the lobby. I almost cried with relief.

The group is massive. CIEE has three Brazil programs; a semester in Bahia, a semester in Sao Paulo, and a five week intensive language program held in Sao Paulo that's mandatory for the semester kids. You can also enroll in the language course separately or as part of another program in, for example, Chile or Argentina. There are something like 30 kids for Bahia, 25 for Sao Paulo, and 3 just doing the ILCP. We're in the neighborhood of 60 loud American kids. Every time we go out to eat we absolutely mob the restaurant.

Everyone I've met has been really, really nice. Everyone's eager to introduce themselves and I've even come across a couple people who know people from Appleton. I was really worried everyone would know each other already. There are about eight hundred people from Georgetown. Turns out most of them don't know each other, or at least not well. There's a lot of room for socialization. The only thing is that most of them are from the coasts or the South, and go to either really well known state schools or private liberal arts schools. They've also all been to Europe sixty times. I'm ok with the Brazilian students, and I've made it through a series of cheek kisses with no serious mistakes. I think I was pretty well prepared for Brazil. Weirdly, my worst culture shock is coming from the other Americans.

I'm also the only Art History student in the program. There's a guy who goes to (where else?) Georgetown for Poli Sci and Art Semiotics, which is, from his description, something like a permutation of Visual Culture Studies. He told me he hates everything before 1850, so we're pals whether he likes it or not. No one knows a lot about Latin American art, which is actually really surprising because just about everybody is studying International Relations and Latin American Studies. You'd think they'd hear about the basics, at least in passing. Most people have been really curious when I tell them what I study, and I've had a lot of “Oh, we should definitely go to the museum!” comments. The Sao Paulo modern art museum is right across the street from the hotel, so I will be all over that. I'd like to go with the other students, too. They're kind of embarrassing in bars, (who isn't, I guess) but they're pretty open minded when it comes to art, and I really value that.

Although everyone is really friendly and really polite, I still felt very, very, very out of place today. I have a lot of trouble making friends sometimes. I'm quiet unless I'm talking about art, and I'm pretty shy at first. So I'd be sitting in groups of people and not saying anything and listening to them talk about hot clubs in Barcelona, and then go outside and find out I can't even order anything to eat without tripping all over my words and relying on another student to help me. I have more than enough vocabulary, but I get awfully nervous when I'm speaking to people. I start making mistakes, and I get more and more flustered and embarrassed after every one until I can't say anything at all.

The first turning point was when I went out alone today. Taboo, I know. I had kind of had it with trying to fit in with the other kids, so I went up to my room, wrote a long whiny e-mail to Fred, and then decided to go to the mall across the street. I wanted to find some note cards so I could start making flashcards and improving my Portuguese instead of just sitting around feeling alienated. So I went over and wandered around a bit, not realizing that the shops are all closed by 4ish on Sundays. There were a ton of booths set up with crafts and jewelry and other things for sale, mostly not bad by US standards.

Tangent: I've read Sao Paulo is about as expensive as say, New York or Chicago, or any big US city. I don't know about real estate or anything, but it seems to me that most prices are actually a little lower than Milwaukee standards, if not just about the same. There were a bunch of neat handmade jewelry boxes for about 40 Reais, so around $20. It's not a crazy obscene deal, but it's still a bit less than what you might expect in the US. The food prices are about the same, although the fast food is DEAD cheap. I got an entire pizza for 8,50 R ($4.25ish) at a Middle Eastern fast food place called Habib's. It was pretty decent, too. Although I think $4 is expensive for a drink, I'm used to paying 75 cents for a can of Coke, not going out and buying Martinis. The other kids say the drinks are dirt cheap, especially considering how strong they are. The cell phones are NUTS, though. I was warned they'd be expensive, but I didn't really understand until I got here. The cheapest phone is around $90, and mobile to mobile is around 75 cents/minute with mobile to land line even more pricey. You pay double if you leave the city.

So anyway, I ventured out on my own and explored the market (feira). I poked around a bit and then ran into two kids from the program. Not wanting to draw attention to myself, I tried to talk to them entirely in Portuguese, and mother of God I don't know why, but I succeeded for the most part. I explained what I was looking for and asked if they'd see anything and what they were looking for. It was pretty rudimentary, but it happened. Even though I made mistakes, I just kept talking. It felt really good to be by myself, not obsessively worry about other people judging me (which I thought I'd gotten rid of in middle school, but apparently not), and prove to myself that I am competent after all. I'm just kind of solitary sometimes, I guess.

Safety-wise, I've gotten the impression that it's actually a lot like Milwaukee here. We're in the central commerce area, and most of us are living in pretty nice neighborhoods. It's perfectly safe to be out and about alone in the daytime as long as you're not broadcasting that you're a foreigner. A lot of students take night classes, so the buses are actually safe and crowded even at night. The thing is that they stop at 12, after which you have to take taxis. The taxis are pretty heavily regulated I guess, so they're also very safe, but very expensive. If you're walking you're fine, you just want to be in a group, not completely drunk, and not speaking in English. The worst that will happen around here is that you'll get robbed.

After that I was feeling pretty good but still a little weird. I went up to my room and tried to translate my host's CIEE application and letter to me. After an hour or so I went downstairs to meet her. Her name is Francisca Silva, and she's a retired social worker. She's divorced and has no children. When we met, she greeted me like I was her own daughter. She speaks Spanish passably well, so when I didn't know something in Portuguese I just said it in Spanish and she helped me translate. I immediately felt much more at ease. Once I could finally speak freely, I surprised myself with how much Portuguese I still remember.

I think the most calming thing about her is that she reminds me very strongly of my mom's friend and friend's mom Yvonne Bauer. She talked a lot tonight about the gatherings she likes to throw for her friends, how she likes to cook new things, and how much she loves the arts. She even dressed like the Brazilian version of Yvonne. So Mrs. Bauer, if you're reading this (first of all I hope you don't mind if I'm calling you Yvonne), you need to learn Portuguese and talk to this woman.

A final really great thing about Senhora Silva is that two of her best friends, the ones she has little parties with all the time, are also hosting students. One of them is an adorable Japanese-Brazilian woman (I think I heard them say Nip-Brasiliano; reminds me of Neal Stephenson) who's hosting my roommate. I hadn't talked to Patrice much until tonight. I knew she was neat and polite, but not much else. I got to know her a lot better tonight. I think we're going to get along very well. I also found out that Brandon, the Art Semiotics guy, is going to live about a block away from me.

Very long story short, I was miserable and absolutely hated Brazil this morning, but now that I'm typing this I feel at home and I'm extremely excited about the upcoming months. I anticipate more crazy mood swings, but now that I've proven to myself that I can beat the language barrier, I think the worst is over. Knock on wood.

Brazilian trivia time! All the toilet paper, kleenex, and other various paper products have the Kimberly-Clark logo stamped all over them. I was so shocked to see it my first day that I almost fell off the toilet. Also, I'm pretty sure that Paulistanos eat more cheese than Wisconsinites do. Every meal I've had has been served with some kind of cheese, and every salad I've ever seen here has had big chunks of different types of cheese in it. Some are thick and dry, some are more like brie. I have no idea what any of them are called, except Minas cheese. It's from Minas Gerais and it's white, kind of gooey, and very mild. The rest is “white cube with brown stuff” and “thin kind of floppy slice of bright orange” to me.

I made it!

The flight was a breeze and the airport in Sao Paulo was mostly deserted. I'm now in my hotel room. There's a problem with the check-in system, so none of the lights or phones in my room work. I don't know why the internet does, but I'll take it. My plans for the day include loafing around, tracking down food, and taking a shower once the lights come on and I can see in the bathroom. The hotel is actually super nice and very classy, so this light problem is weird. I'm right downtown on Paulista avenue, which is I guess the main street in the city. I don't know how something the size of Sao Paulo has a main street, but I won't question the nice cabbie who tried to show me around. My Portuguese is a lot worse than I thought, but most people in the airport and hotel speak a little English, so we get along fine.

The drive to the hotel was pretty cool. The most obvious thing is how rundown all the buildings are, even in the shopping areas and stuff. The whole place just looks a bit grungy. There's graffiti all over every available surface. Downtown most of it is artistic and pretty cool. We drove through a kind of industrial section to get here, and there the warehouses were tagged with these weird spiky sort of pseudo-rune looking symbols. If Mom were here she'd tell me they're gang signs. Some had little kitty faces drawn on them, though. I don't think Brazilian gangs are that whimsical, but who knows?

It's warm but mostly cloudy, with occasional drizzle. I'm not really hot, just damp. The humidity is insane.

I miss everyone, especially Fred. Off to loaf, I guess!