It was Easter last week so I taught very few classes…instead having a staff party and travelling to Sao Paulo for four days. I absolutely love this city! Definitely not somewhere I could see myself living forever, it is very busy (and I saw it on a bank holiday weekend when over a million cars had left the city!) dirty and smoggy BUT has the most incredible parks, architecture and general vibe! After an 11 hour drive through the state of Parana we arrived at Gabi’s brother Arthur’s flat right in the centre of this huge maze of a cidade. The next three days were spent shopping, exploring and trying to take in all the cultural sites. I am glad I will be revisiting here with Roger next month as I definitely didn’t manage to see everything I wanted to, but my host family certainly tried to take me everything I wanted to see which made me very happy. My favourite two places were the MASP museum where there was a beautiful exhibition called “six billion others” that you guys should google if you have a chance….just my cup of tea! About different cultures, different peoples stories and the idea of worldwide identity.. Beautiful. Ibirapuera Park was ano
ther of my favourite places to while away the beautiful Easter weekend weather we were having (38 degrees!). A stunning park, perfect for people watching.
A photo to show the perfect sunset I watched over Sao Paulo....
Unfortunately towards the end of the trip I became ill, but nothing serious and I was able to (sort of!) talk to a doctor in Portuguese so everything was quickly sorted out and now I feel a MILLION times better!
This week I was feeling very British for the Royal Wedding and it was all anybody here could talk about to me, including a random man in the pharmacy who was like WHY ARENT YOU AT THE WEDDING!!! Woke up early at 5am with Monica and Carlos to watch the ceremony…so beautiful! Used some of the footage and a certain photo of a certain Miss Humphries in my lesson later that day to explain how patriotic the British can be!!! First time I have missed Britain as a place rather than specific people, was odd and I am excited to be back there this summer and especially to go up to St Andrews in September….which is now a FAR easier place to describe to Brazilians who all seem to think I should marry Harry…oh go on then! Haha.
This weekend I also travelled (spent a LOT of time of buses recently!) to the city of Porto Alegre in the southernmost state of Brazil, Rio Grande de Sol. Here I stayed with Gabi at one of her friend’s houses. Was an absolutely AMAZING weekend and definitely one of my favourites I have had here. We arrived late Friday night and Murilo took us out for some delicious caipirinhas at a cool little bar in the city and we stayed up almost all night talking J After just a few hours sleep we were off to Uruguay (another county I can tick off my list!) to do some shopping and generally hang out, although the drive was long Murilo and his flatmate Felipe were really cool people and it felt like we had all been friends for years!! Great day and managed to pick up some cheap wine and vodka so we were set for an amazing night in that night with pizza and a viewing of The Godfather as well. Another early start awaited us on Sunday when we travelled to the town of Gramado. It was a really strange town and one different to everything else I had seen so far in Brazil. Because the settlers there were mostly German it has been designed as a German village with houses out of wood and even the landscape seemed European in so many ways (I think it was the reason the rich German immigrants chose the area). Was a beautiful city and had the best hot chocolate I think I have ever tasted….so this place gets a huge thumbs up from me! As well as that the company was incredible, I don’t think I have laughed so much for a VERY VERY long time!
Well done for reading this far! You have almost reached the end! Just want to talk about some of the other amazing people I have met...Like on the bus back from Porto Alegre met an American guy (rather embarrassingly Gabi and I assumed no-one could understand us prattling on about nothing in English when he got out his American passport…whoops!). He had been travelling South America for over a year and was going on to Colombia to work with a human rights organization there…made me realize how much more travelling there is to do and how much I want to come back to this continent after University.
Anyways like I said at the beginning totally LOVING life right now. Only 4 weeks left teaching, has gone far too fast for my liking, but making the most of every second here :D unfortunately is starting to get pretty cold…like I wore a coat today…craziness I know!!! So my tan will probably have faded by the time I get back damn it! OMG also this week received a package from Murray which was probably the most perfect thing ever, big thumbs up from me…I am a very lucky girl.
Big love to everyone. Missing you as always.
x
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