Paulistano Weekend...

Jordan and I got to pretend we were Paulistanos for a quick weekend trip to Sao Paulo City, one of the largest cities in the world. We had a great time just soaking up the atmosphere, eating delicious food, visiting friends and of course, doing a little shopping!

While driving around, I found this sweet wall that I thought represented the inner city portions of Brasil. It can be sort of rough on the outside and in the streets, but when you look through its window, there´s a colorful culture and beautiful way of life waiting to be discovered.

But let's not get too deep here.... ;)

The morning we arrived, we went to a market that was in our friend, Flavio´s, old neighborhood.

Best little farmer´s market I´ve been to in my life!

We ate yummy pastels from this year´s top voted pastel stand. I thought it was funny that it was run by Asians. Dang they are good at almost everything they do!

Normally I wouldn´t note the ethnicities of people around me. But here, it´s a little different. For example, if you see another blondie you have to instantly assume that they are either Alemão (German) or don´t speak of lick of Portuguese and are just tourists...

BUT I have to admit that ever since we found out that we´re moving to China, we get all excited and can´t help but whisper "Asian!" to each other whenever we happen to see one. Rascists? Definately not. Excited? Heck yes!

Besides culturally diverse pastels, they had rows and rows of the most delicious fruit...

Bananas as far as the eye could see...

Papaya...




My personal Brazilian favorite, FRUTA DO CONDE!

Looks borderline monstrous on the outside, but once you get on the inside, it literally melts in your mouth like pure sugar....mmmmhmmmm...so good.



Carambola...which turned out to be the simpler answer to what I thought was a Brasilian friend´s hours of handywork cutting star shaped fruit for their salad.

And boy did I find out how good the fruit was there! I got free tastes and treats at all the stands where they were calling out "Loira, loira!"

Then, Jordan would come around and they would always stop giving samples.

Dang it. ;)

This guy was one of my favorites, as he wanted me to try the fruits we have in California and see if they were good there.

Does California have melancia? Yes.

Did I get a sample and is it wonderful in Brasil too? Yes and yes.

Aside from fruit, the market also had flowers, freshly caught fish and the occasional chicken feet bin like the one you see under the nice butcher man below.

Oh yes, and wee little piggie and cow feet too...

Now, I want to know if all of you Stouts raising pigs and cows out there are planning on using them that efficiently...

We also got to see the same group of velho men playing games on the little cement table on the street where we stayed. They were pretty dedicated, as I saw them playing there that morning, that afternoon and the next morning...

So, I decided to make friends.

But, I don´t think they were used to strange foreign girls playing...they kept laughing. I somehow think that that was related to me saying that I was an English teacher to the question that Jordan later informed me was "where are you from?" Oops.


The next day we went to Venti-sinco de Marco street, where we´ve heard rumors of shopping galore. I went fully expecting to spend all of the reals in my pocket, but ended up noticing that nearly everything was made in the country that we´re moving to in two months...so I only spent R$31 (the equivalent of about $16), as we figured we could wait and buy something that really represents where we've been living for the last 4 months. However, it wasn´t a total loss because I got to ride my first Brasilian subway (an experience in itself), see some beautiful scenery while on the ride and just enjoy being around a TON of awesome, cultural people and places....besides, I still can´t resist a good scarf and some cute hair doo-das reguardless of if I wanted them to be made in Brasil or not.

Because somebody else would be enjoying my camera now if I took it, this is the only pic of anything related to that shopping trip...

I´m naming it "Produzido na China."

The end.

So, I want to know... how was your weekend? Give me the details of your lives...we miss all of you so much!