Not just another travel blog...but it kind of is: Sao Paulo (And now that I'm looking at my pictures, way too much about food...)

I spent five days in Sao Paulo for an orientation with other Fulbrights coming here to Brazil. Though I was anxious to get to Curitiba, my time in Sao Paulo was wonderful. Aside from long, but informative and fun days in orientation sessions, I got to spend time with some great people.

Some highlights of Sao Paulo:

1. Samba club...which I unfortunately can't remember the name of (not a good start to a travel blog)

So, four American girls go to a samba bar on a Sunday? maybe Monday? night. Whatever night it was, it was one where we thought it would be dead at a bar. We walk into a PACKED bar. The first person we see is a guy running around with his shirt tied up so it looks like a belly shirt and balloons on his chest. Still not sure why he was doing that...Anyway, there was a live band and the music was great from the start, but we had to ease into the night. The first half hour we just stood in a line holding beers and feeling awkward. A lot of people were dancing, but two women in particular who were right next to the stage were AMAZING samba dancers...just amazing. Everyone else clearly knew how to dance samba, but they definitely weren't professionals, so we started feeling like it was ok for us to try dancing. As the night went on we slowly started talking to more people, dancing with more people, and just feeling more comfortable in general. What started as "we'll stay for an hour..." turned into "wow! It's been four hours and we don't want to leave yet!" I think we were all struck by how ridiculously nice everyone was. Even the girls, who we decided that in bars in the U.S. sometimes aren't particularly friendly to other girls, were welcoming and talkative with us. All in all, great night. Maybe my favorite in Sao Paulo.

2. Mercado Municipal de Sao Paulo

I'll let the pictures tell the story for why this was also one of my favorite places...

Fruit party!!!!!

Mortadela sandwich (what's left of it. This was a sandwich with about twice the amount of meat before this picture was taken...fatty, delicious meat)

Bolinho de bacalhau...fried ball of cod...and beer. Food really doesn't get any better.

3. The pizza incident

One night we went out for pizza. Totally normal, right? We order, get a tray with our individual pizzas on them, and start eating. About 2 minutes later the waiter comes to our table and starts pointing for us to look under our plates...? Under our plates? Why? Wait...what is this? Is this...it's a glove?! Why do we need...wow...it's a glove to wear while you eat pizza so your hand doesn't get greasy. I judged at first...but, what a great idea! All the deliciousness of pizza without the messiness. Here's the documentation...

4. Parque Trianon

This is a beautiful park that Chelsea and I stumbled upon on our first day in Sao Paulo. It looks like we're in a forest, but it was right in the middle of the city!

5. Museo da Lingua Portuguesa

A museum on the history of the Portuguese language. As it was my second day there, some of the information was lost on me, but a great place nonetheless.