So here I am. São Paulo. I have been planning to come here since my freshmen year in college after I spent my gap year in Barcelona, Spain. Its funny when you think about doing something for so long and then once you do it its like... hmm... okay, here I am, now what? Sometimes I try to look out the window from my apartment and pretend I am in New York City or Barcelona but the truth is São Paulo has that Southern Hemisphere flavor that westerners just never seemed to capture. There is just not quite the same hustle and bustle cloud that lingers over everyone like you see back home.
I got here exactly one week and two days ago after spending three weeks with my family in Argentina and Uruguay. We had a really special time together and even though I was sad to say goodbye to them until July, I was ready to start this Brazilian adventure. So what was the first thing that stuck out to me on my drive into the city from the airport besides the infinite skyscrapers? Prostitutes. Tons. And every kind too: Women, men, transvestites, cross dressers. Some were clothed, some were half or basically naked. Any combination of sexuality/atire you can think of, I guarantee you, the streets of São Paulo have it. I was blown away. Sure, through my travels I have seen them scattered here and there. But never to the extent that I have here. From my apartment window, at night, I see them waiting in groups of three or four on the street corners. Cars stop by, the prostitutes come and go. And I don't live in the ghetto either. No sir. In fact, my address, Rua Marques de Itu, 181, is in the most expensive and historic neighborhood São Paulo has: Higienópolis. But anyways, enough about the prostitutes and on to more administrative matters.
I live here in an apartment with a Brazilian girl Dominique and a Swiss exchange student Josephine. Domi, 25, studied fashion at the FAAP University (Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado), where I will be studying, as well and Jo, 23, studied law. They are both super nice girls and the three of us get along really well.
Thus far my typical day consists of my intensive Portuguese class at the FAAP from 1:30-5:30 Monday through Friday. Wednesday is a cultural class where all the different Portuguese classes come together to do some kind of activity pertaining to Brazilian culture. Yesterday we went to the Futebol (soccer) museum located inside a soccer stadium. It was built in 2009 so it is super modern with virtual soccer fields, soccer balls and cleats dating back to the turn of the century and endless archives of goals scored by famous soccer players from all around the world. Soccer here is a religion. And I don't mean a casual religion where maybe you go to church ever now and again. This is a Southern Christian Baptist, Evangelical, Right Wing kind of religion. Our tour guide, Bruno, was not only a Futebol encyclopedia, but had so much passion when telling us about the Brazilian soccer culture. Instead of listing off dates and names he told us about all the times he cried after this guy scored this goal and after this team won this championship. Besides being entertaining, the whole experience was super interesting. I could go on and on but we have other things to cover.
Like I said I am currently taking my Portuguese classes at the FAAP and then starting after Carnival (mid February) I will begin taking regular university courses mostly to do with International Economics and International Relations. However, word on the street is that the FAAP is super famous for their fashion program so I am going to be adventurous and take one or maybe even two fashion courses. Who knows maybe ill be discovered.
As far as speaking the language goes I am impressed with how much I can already say and understand. Knowing Spanish really gives you a leg up when learning Portuguese. That being said I am still speaking what people here call Portuñol, a combination of Spanish and Portuguese (Portuguese and Español). The good news is I hardly ever speak English. I have made friends with a lot of Spanish Speakers from Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela so needless to say we speak a lot of Spanish.
To be honest I was a little naive to the fact that São Paulo is the 3rd largest city in the world. It is HUGE. Immense. Gigantic. And also, very difficult to figure out. NYC has its perfect grid system that makes getting around pretty doable. São Paulo is filled with winding streets that end or change names. Some areas are okay to walk in and some are a death wish. It will all take time. Little by little I will get my bearings. Also, another little fun fact to leave you with before I sign out: São Paulo is the city that has the most personal helicopters. Instead of cars (or maybe in addition to) people have a helicopter, that they use to get around the city. Bad traffic? Just take your helicopter! Probably per day, I see 10-12 of them. Absolutely crazy. They have shopping malls here that you can only go to BY HELICOPTER. As I am writing this, what is flying over me? A helicopter.
So there it is folks: my first official blog entry. I could go on writing forever describing every one of my senses experiences thus far in this big metropolis but you have probably procrastinated enough by reading this and now should really get back to work :) So stay tuned. I will be updating the blog at least every week if not more. I will also be posting videos of me or something cool, pictures, articles?, all that good stuff. If you have a question about something shoot me an email or comment on this. Can you comment? I am new to this whole blog experience.
Ps: I know I have not written anything about food which, as you all know, is weird because I am what you would call a Foodie. I live and dream food. I plan to give a food update next. But I just need some more material. Student budget here folks.
I wanted to leave you all with some pictures but am having some technological difficulties. So stay tuned for pictures.
Até logo!
No comments:
Post a Comment