Bom Dia, Brazil!

Ahhh Sao Paulo. Its reputation precedes it, but a reputation is just that. People tak a lot of shit. As soon as you walk out the doors of the airport you instantly feel like you´re in a massive, cosmopolitan city. Mexico City is weird in that, despite being one of the hugest cities in the world, it doesn´t feel that way at all until you´re sitting in traffic.. which was always. But here you get a great feeling. For as big of a city as it is, it is very clean and pretty. And the plants and trees everywhere are gorgeous. And the 85 degree weather! This is a great second stop.

I talked to the girl at the tourist desk at the airport for about a half hour so she could tell me things. She kept laughing at me because she thought I was stupid. Then I got on a bus which let me off on the Avenida Paulista, I guess it´s like a combination of Park and 5th Avenues. Beautiful. Then I walked to the hostel. It was a verrrry long walk. I started to hate myself but didn´t want to spend money on a cab. I was embarrassed because I was sweating profusely (people here don´t sweat) but then it started to downpour. Only on those summer days in Georgia when the rain makes the pavement sizzle have I ever been more glad for a storm. But now I´m here and it´s a really nice hostel. I couldn´t get in for a minute because no one was there to buzz me in, but then this other guy came who was also trying to get in and we talked and he was really nice... we had a decent conversation in Spanish. That´s going to be my saving grace because I don´t understand shit of Portuguese but I´ve been able to pass through with Spanish. In New York, I considered myself quite accomplished with Spanglish, then Mexico helped, and now I´m about to create my version of Spaniguese... or whatever gets me by.

The hostel is insanely nice. Clean, new, artsy, the owner is one guy and he told me everything I need to know. Luck is on my side so far. The neighborhood is really nice, and there´s a great square around the corner that has a market Saturday and he told me the best places to go out every night of the week. All I need now is some friends. It´s a hostel for my people, which I didn´t know when I booked, but how about that luck? I need a shower desperately because we didn´t have hot water yesterday in Mexico so I had to use a bucket, so I don´t feel sufficiently bathed. That plus theovernight flight, plus all the sweat it took to get me here, I´m a pig. The rain helped a little but now I smell like I used to smell after working at Nani and Papa´s warehouse.

So that´s that, I love Brazil. Everyone has been so nice so far, and everyone is good looking... or maybe I should say there aren´t a lot of ugly people here. However you cut it, it´s great. Awesome first impression, I know I´m going to love this city. Now I start the countdown to Carnaval and meeting with Natasha.