Let´s Talk About Sex Dental Hygiene Baby

If there is one thing I can say definitively about Brazilians after three weeks, it is that they love clean teeth. Most bathrooms are equiped with free floss despensers. I have not yet been to a restuarant that doesn´t have a bowl of toothpicks on the table or on the counter. I was quite shocked the first day when I was vigourously shaking the pepper shaker, awaiting some flavor, and instead had a toothpick pop out and land on my eggs. My surprise distracted me from my disappointment at the lack of pepper. We were told my some girls at the local university that all Brazilians love Halls because it´s such a faux paux to kiss someone with unfresh breath that they must always be ready. This information was also given as advice because when some one offers you a Halls it means they want you to have fresh breath for a reason.

Architecture in Sao Paulo

Sao Paulo is a weird city. I knew very little about it before I left but I assumed it would be an awesome city just because of how large it is. It's the largest city in Brazil and perhaps the second largest in North and South America (after Mexico city I believe). If I have to sum it up in one word I would say industrial. There are a lot of plain buildings but the ones that have more personality are the ones with a mix of european and portuguese architecture. The center of the city of stuffed with homeless and business people during the week and exclusively homeless people during the weekend. Both the rich and the poor parts of town are blanketed in a thick layer of graffiti- some works better than others.

Uma Cidade das Contradições

São Paulo is a city of contradictions. It's fast and slow, dangerous and safe, hideous and stunning, unbelievably wealthy and blatantly poor. The hardest part about these contradictions is that they exist, more often than not, side by side. An old person will be slowly hobbling across the street as cars zoom by to make a tight right turn. Twenty story buildings with no windows and nothing but a flat grey exterior neighbor rusty pink colored apartments with balconies covered with beautifully carved embellishments. Our program directors talk about the city like everyone is carrying a knife around looking to rob you and encourage us to never go out in groups smaller than three, refrain from pulling money out of ATMs after four pm, and demand that we take taxis after 10pm. At the same time, all the locals I talk to say that it is a deceptively safe city and that it requires no more precaution than any other big city. New apartment complexes abound, everywhere I look there's advertisements for up and coming high rises (read: palaces). It's illegal to paste signs up, so the companies pay people about $15 a day to stand and hold a sign promising paradise only 10km away! Yesterday I saw three homeless men wrapped in blankets cooking food on an open fire and then around the corner, there was a block lined with barbed wire fences. A prison, I questioned? No, just a row of brand new apartment complexes. What else would you expect?

And So

And so, I almost have no words. I have only been in São Paulo three days and it´s already seriously putting the moves on me. Everything is bright and exciting and new. Even the things that most Brazilians would consider dirty or dull, I find fascinating, just because I can´t believe I´m getting to experience them first hand.

I´m staying with a girl who I met in Canada and, despite the fact that I barely knew her, she´s welcomed me into her home as if I were the ruler of some far off land. She´s a flight attendant and had to take off only hours after I had arrived. So,I had to fend for myself (which means eating all of the food she made for me and watching her cable tv). I spent my alone time allowing SpongeBob (Bobby-Esponge) to teach me Portuguese and wandering around the neighborhood trying to round up a few last minute items that I´d forgotten to bring. On my way home from my exploration, I saw a nearly dead, black and yellow catipilliar, with an orange head and green guts trailing behind it. I stopped and stared at it for minute, trying to take in its awesomness. I can safely say it is the coolest catipillar I´ve ever seen up close.

Today, Mariana returned around three and promptly saw to it that I had something to eat and something to drink (despite the fact that I told her I´d just eaten)! She decided that three days alone with SpongeBob had done me well and that from now on we would only speak Portuguese. She is absolutly tickled everytime I use the proper verb in the proper tense. Fala Portuguese! She speaks Portuguese! She tells everyone. It is far from the truth, but I´m flattered nonetheless. I have to say though, even as I write now, the English words swirl around the page and seem more foriegn than they did a few days ago.

After making sure I´d had plenty to eat, Mariana and her boyfriend Thomas, took to me a street fair where they preceeded to feed me more. We tried what I can only describe as oversized empanadas, vino quente aka hot wine which is reminiscent of hot cider, and a boiled nut that looks like a clove of garlic. When you bite it properly,the nut pops out, you salt it and enjoy it. We also ate Gnocci, which I thought would be old news, but it was served looking more like a french fry than anything. Being at the street fair was the best part so far because it´s winter time and so everyone is wearing winter jackets, pants, gloves and hats and it´s 60 degrees out. Mariana kept yelling about how cold it is and talking about how she almost froze to death when she was in Florida. She says that Brazilians don´t leave the house when it drops below 50 degress. I just laugh and she laughs at the fact that I don´t feel cold.