Sao Paolo

Comparing Sao Paolo to Ouro Preto is like comparing tropical fish to an Orca. Both beautiful, both wild, but absolutely different. As we arrived over the city of Sao Paolo, I could see blocks and blocks of high rises interspersed with lower colorful houses and apartments and greenery. And it never seemed to stop. Sao Paolo is said to be the third largest city in the world according to population statistics. I may be wrong. But for such a highly dense city, its traffic and wide avenues are grandly civilized.

We drove for about thirty to forty minutes to reach our Hotel Fortune in the Jardims section of the city where the fashion district lies. It reminded me a little of Rodeo Drive with a twist or the Champs d'Elysse in Paris. It has prices to match. We had a short city tour in the Japanese section of the city along with a walk through Liberdade and the square filled with proselytizing and rabid evangelicals, Brazil's latest religious movement screaming against gays and sex and the devil. They weren't speaking in tongues but Pentecostals in Brazil are known to do so - it's their less than attractive equivalent to Candomble, which, by the way is alive and well here with women telling fortunes just outside the Catholic church that we visited on our walk.

We heard about the Brazilian education system yesterday at the University of Sao Paolo. Not a place where WCU can have an exchange of Brazilian students as the education system at least for the Federal system doesn't currently accept equivalencies of foreign courses for credit. Hmmmm. But that may change someday. And all classes are in Brazilian Portuguese except for an English language class. I wish I had time to visit the Art department. Again, this is more of a reconnaisance trip, hitting just the tip of the enormous Brazilian iceberg.

A popular buy here are Brazilian flip flops called havaillanos that come in all designs, glow in the dark, tropical colors, etc, I'll have to check it out before I leave Sao Paolo. And I heard from a fellow Fulbrighter, that the music scene is incredible as is the night life that doesn't really start until past midnight and goes until the early hours bordering on sunrise.

Will write more later as we have a multi-part city tour. I'm hoping to get more shots of mural art which is a typical Brazilian art form, not legal but tolerated just the same as part of their culture of expression.