News from Brazil, where the nuts are from: Contrasts of Sao Paulo

A Day at the Races(Jockey Club, Sao Paulo)

So, life in Sao Paulo continues to go well. I've been touring different areas of the city and have even made it to the horse races:) However, even after a year and a half here, there are still several things that puzzle/amuse me about Brazil.

Here are my top 10:)

1) Why is there no tomato sauce on the pizza here????!!! Instead, people put ketchup on top of the pizza!The French would be seriously appalled!:) Plus, the toppings are so different - chicken, tuna and corn, for example! They have regular toppings too, but it's just not the same. I have been craving American pizza since I arrived!

2) Why are the only napkins in diner-style restaurants and take-out venues little plastic ones that have NO absorbtion? They are useless! You use about 20 each meal, but yet you are never really able to clean anything off your hands or the table!:)

3) Restaurant tables that put salt and toothpick shakers together, but have no pepper shaker. There is almost never pepper at restaurants here. Agg, I miss pepper!

4) Salads at self-service buffets that don't have dressing on them but have an option of adding olive oil or sometimes vinegar too from the bottle. It's impossible to have a good mixed dressing when you are just dumping ingredients on top of the lettuce separately and not mixing them first.

5) Corn everything! Pudding, ice cream, corn in a leaf.... I don't dislike this; it's just strange. But, to be fair, we do the same kinds of things with pumpkin and consider this normal, so...

6) Walking on sidewalks that are under construction and have huge holes in the middle of the road with no signs or barriers to warn pedestrians! I know this would have driven my grandpa crazy:)

7) The fact that my ATM card (international VISA) is only accepted at 2 ATMs in all of Brazil (that I've found). The national bank of the country and all the banks along Paulista Ave (like 5th ave in NY) don't accept international cards! So frustrating when you just need to get some cash quickly!

8) Everything you need to pay must go through the bank - electric bills, conference registration fees, hotel reservations sometimes, have to be paid at the bank. The bank then gives you a "comprovante" which you have to fax or e-mail into the institution you are trying to send money towards. And with everyone paying SOMETHING at the bank, you can imagine the lines!!

9) Students/teachers in my teacher seminars who walk into class late, I'm already talking, and yet they proceed to greet all of their classmates with a kiss and speak to each of them. As if they haven't interrupted the class enough already, I am supposed to wait for them before continuing??! For me this is a lack of respect and awareness, but perhaps it's just that the greeting is seen as more important than class in Brazil, and I, as the "gringo" am the disrespectful one:)

10) People who not only kiss and hold hands in public, but actually make out completely in any public place with nobody seeing this as a problem. Not only are we talking about dark nightclubs or romantic settings, but on the street, in any restaurant, museum or park you go to. I'm happy that couples in Brazil are happy, but when people are all over each other next to my breakfast table in a crowded family diner, I really want to draw the line and tell them to get a room.

Bonus: Halls throat lozenges are not only for sore throats, but are like candy here. Instead of other hard candies in grocery checkout lines, you nearly always see rows and rows of different flavored HALLS, which people seem to devour:)

Otherwise, October has started out well. I've been enjoying more of Sao Paulo. The city is such a city of contrasts. You walk through the Jardins area and Oscar Freire Ave (super chic), where one blouse in the window can go for $900, and then walk a few blocks from there and it looks like a flea market with kiosks in the streets and people buying trinkets and junk of all kinds. I walked around the Pinheiros neighborhood last weekend and I would be walking down a block that had unfinished construction and sketchy people hanging out on the corners (the kind of place you want to get out of as quickly as possible because you don't feel that you belong there). And then the next block would have a wonderful community center with cultural dance and photography exhibitions (SESC Pinheiros). It didn't seem possible that these two places could be located so close together. Then I walked down just about 8 blocks on Avenida Faria Lima and I was at one of the most expensive and exclusive shopping centers in all of Sao Paulo, Shopping Iguatemi. The name brand stores and clientele here couldn't be more different than the Largo de Pinheiros where I had gotten off the bus and walked through the construction area just a few blocks away. Incredible. Unfortunately, I didn't take a lot of pictures in this neighborhood, but here are a couple for you to have an idea.

This isn't a picture of the street I was on, you have to picture a much more crowded street with lots of creepy characters hanging about. This one is pretty normal, but just so you can imagine the kind of street it was with crafts sold on the street.

Chic Shopping Iguatemi with its water clock - one of only a few in the world

I also went to the Jockey Club (Horse races) here one Sunday and it was great! I felt like I was in an old Marx Brothers or Bob Hope movie:) Almost everyone there was an older man who had probably been coming to the races every weekend for 50 years!! I ended up losing R$19, but that wasn't too bad. It was fun to bet, and they had great restaurants outside where you could watch the races up close. I definitely want to go back! And win, of course:)

This past weekend was a holiday for Notre Senhora da Aparecida (Saint of Brazil) and I went to some friends' country home in Minas Gerais - absolutely gorgeous! Their house is about 3-4 hours outside of Sao Paulo and very isolated. It looked like a combination of Germany and England - very green and hilly with beautiful waterfalls.
Below are a few pictures.

Friends' house in the Serra da Montiqueira (the Switzerland of Brazil)