Sao Paolo

After arriving last friday in Sao Paolo, the girl I met back in Buenos Aires came to pick me up from the busstation. We went to her house where I met her family and showed me my room. She was only in Sao Paolo for the weekend as during the week she happens to work somewhere outside of Sao Paolo. I refreshed myself and then we went out to a discobar somewhere in the city center. There I met her twinsister and a few more friends of hers.That night happened to be a reunion of all the brasiian friends of hers who they had met traveling in Australia last year. It was quite a coincedence I had been in Oz as well last year. Around 3 we went back home.

The next day started out easy. I woke up late, had a shower and checked my email. Then the twinsisters wanted me to show some of the city. We went to a big indoor fruit and fish market where we also had lunch. The problem with Sao Paolo is there happen to live too many people in this massive city. You need a lot of patience to live here. Everything takes loooooooooots of time. Traffic is a disaster, it takes ages to get ANYWHERE. Knowing this fact, you can imagine how long it took us to find a table to sit at before we were actually having lunch… After lunch they took me to a big park somewhere in the city. Lots of people go there to have a run or do some skating. Unfortunately the weather wasn´t too great… That night my friend had to go to a birthday of a friend of hers. I decided to join her. It was quite odd to be at a birthdayparty where you don´t happen to know anyone, but still eat their food and drink their beers… Later on we went out to a bar in the citycenter. As you would expect, it took about 30 minutes to even get into the bar, as there were big queues everywhere. Once in the bar we had a fun time. We stayed there until about 4AM.

The next day I wanted to meet up with 2 other friends from Sao Paolo who I also met in Buenos Aires. We gave them a call and they invited us to come over to their house. It happened to be on the other side of Sao Paolo, so it took more than an hour to get there. Once there their family was really kind and I felt really welcome. We went to a bar for some drinks. They invited me to come and stay at their apartment as the other girl was going back to her own town in the morning the next day. We went to pick up my bags and headed back to the apartment.

The next day was a tad boring, as everybody had to go to work and school. They left me on my own in their apartment, which I found really trustworthy considering they have only known me for a few days. I could eat, drink, use the computer and swim in the swimming pool which is located downstairs of the apartment. In the afternoon they came back and we had a typical brasilian lunch; rice, beans and chicken. Eventhough I am not fond of beans, it wasn´t too bad. That night we went to the cinema. They had chosen an english movie with portuguese subtitles, as my portuguese is not all that great.. *ahum*. Henry, the brother invited me to come to his university the next day, cause otherwise I would be bored like hell at home.

The next day we had to get up at 6AM. Due to traffic its nescessary for them to get up at that time. As this was the first week of the new study year, the classes were not very formal. I attended a class about business strategy, but obviously I didn´t understand much of it all. After a few hours we went to the citymall, as the new students ritually go in the streets to collect money for beers they were going to drink that afternoon. It was funny to see.and I met a lot of students. After they had been collecting the money, they went to a bar where all students were drinking beers. Beers were free obviously, as the new students had been collecting the money for it. You can imagine how many free beers I had been drinking.. I was quite popular among the students too, being from the other side of the world. Especially once I told them I wasn´t even a student at their university. Most found it quite funny. I also met a brasilian girl who happened to speak fluent dutch as she had been to high school in Goorsel for one year 2 years ago. It was impressive to hear her talk, especially once she started to sing ´lief klein konijntje´with the moves and everytihng… Quite funny I must say. That night Henry wanted to show me his university soccer team. I was quite tired, but decided to join him anyway. It was quite a hassle to get even into the complex, as only students were allowed in. And for some reason my name didn´t exist in their database. Henry convinced them I had only arrived today, and obviously didn´t exist in their database yet. Once there, it turned out Henry actually went there for soccer practice. I wasn´t amused as he kind of lied to me to get to his soccer training. After 2 hours of watching soccer practice we returned home at midnight.

The next day, today, I decided to stay at home and sleep. Once I woke up I had a shower and went to some local gym not too far from the apartment complex. It happened to be the cheapest gym I had ever been to, as the first lesson was totally free. I tried to explain them I was not going to get a subscription afterwards, but it was all good. After almost 2 hours of working out I went back to the apartment and had another shower. I did decide to head down to Florianopolis tonight as it feels like I am wasting precious time around here. It will be a nice 11 hour journey through the night, which isn´t too bad as I am getting quite used to these busses around here. I am looking quite forward to it, as every single person I´ve met so far truly loves Florianopolis. It´s supposed to be some kind of brasilian paradise with big long beaches. I read you can do some great surfing there too, so I´ll probably staying there for a week or so to do some surfing again too…

More news soon from Florianopolis!!