Sao Paulo, the city that never sleeps, or does it?

What happens when Katie heads to Sao Paulo for Carnaval break? 17 million of the 18 million people who live there leave town. Okay, maybe that number is a wee bit of an exaggeration but it sure did feel like it. Kathy and I headed out to SP on Monday to see the city, shop, and eat. When we arrived we noticed it was um, dead. It turns out that SP pretty much is closed till Wednesday morning. Luckily, we made the most of it and enjoyed the city.

On Tuesday, Kathy and I went walking on Oscar Friere, which is the equivalent of the Brazilian Rodeo Drive. Some of the shops were open but we mainly window shopped. It was also litered with tiny coffee shops that were adorable. We then met up with Kathy's friend Carol, who works at Graded. We tried the most amazing restaurant called KAA. It was my favorite meal of the trip. And the inside was gorgeous to boot.

You can see it was hopping! :)

This art gallery had a very cool entrance.

They had a Tennessee sandwich. However, if you look carefully, it looks like someone from Tennessee spelled it. :)

KAA restaurant, or as we say in Brazil Hesthauntay.

On Wednesday we knew everything would be up and open for business so we made the most of it. So much so, when we came back to the hotel to change for dinner we fell asleep. Oops. :) We started the day at the Sao Paulo museum of art. I love museums so this was a must on my list. They had an exhibit on Rome. It was amazing. To look at each piece and see that it was dated at 1AD was just astonishing. They also had their collection upstairs where there were paintings from Van Gogh, Degas, and Monet. After our experience at the museum we headed to Parque de Ibirapuera, Ice Cream, some shopping, lunch, and then back to the hotel.

Sao Paulo Museum of Art.

Parque de Ibirapuera. I love the city scape in the background.

Beautiful trees in a huge city.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ICE CREAM!!

Dinner performance.

On Thursday we had a couple of hours before we had to get back to Brasilia. But, before we did anything we did the important stuff, had breakfast at STARBUCKS!!!! OMG, my frapp was delish! So, after got our coffee fix, we headed to the city center to the Mercado Municipal. I am not sure the history of the building, it looked like an old train station, but it was beautiful. It had gorgeous stain glass.

beautiful stainglass.

Mercado Municipal

What this place is known for, Mordatella sandwich. Anthony Bordain even did an episode of his show, No Reservations, here.

fruits and veggies galore

Another beautiful stain glass, but this one was taken just for Colonel. :) I thought he would love the cows.

All in all my trip was great and I loved Sao Paulo. Just like NYC, it has an energy about it that can't be recreated. Even if 17 million people were out of town.

"Oh my God, they're Gringoes!!!!"

It is Sunday night at 10 pm here in Brasilia and as I type this I am listening to the parade out my window. It has been going on for about 2 hours, and I have a sneaking suspension that there is another 2 hours to go. Why on a Sunday night though, cause it's Carnaval baby! Starting Friday night and until Wednesday of this week all of Brazil is on full out party mode!

I think it is safe to say that Brasilia is not known for being the epicenter of Carnaval like Rio and Salvador are but there have been a couple of parades here and there. Last night, we went downtown where one of the parades was and enjoyed the costumes that people were wearing. Kids as their favorite Disney characters, Men dressed as women, and anything you could really

imagine were front and center. When we first were heading downtown I kind of wished I had a mask. However, we quickly realized that we were like our own 4 woman, 1 man, freak-show parade. We were asked on several occasions if we were gringoes. One guy even passed us and could be heard screaming to his buddy, "Oh my God, they're Gringoes!!" We came to the conclusion that people thought we were vacationing here for Carnaval. They were probably thinking those poor schmucks thought they were coming to Brazil for Carnaval but they came to the wrong city! haha!

According to my friend, Marcelo, this lady is dressed like a woman who said she was pregnant with 4 babies however, it turned out she was pregnant with none. It is evidently a popluar Carnaval costume.

No words!

Carnaval 2012

And just for your viewing pleasure. I was able to get a little video footage for you too.


I leave tomorrow for Sao Paulo and can't wait to see what it has to offer!! See you in a couple of days!

The Brazilian Cultural Center

Debra invited Marky Mark and myself to head on down to the CCBB(Cultural Center Banco de Brasil) a few Saturdays ago. I didn't really know what to expect but it was very cool. We walked to downtown where we happily took advantage of the free bus service they provide. When we arrived we had an awesome lunch and went to see the current exhibit, which was all about video games of the past and future. Seeing as I'm not really a "gamer" I didn't know much about it. But, seeing the old Sega, Nintendos as well as games like Pac Man was really cool. We were also able to take a tour of the grounds and see some really cool sculptures and the JK bridge. There was a popular exhibit that allowed people to play video games that will come out in the next few years. But, the line to get in was a mile line and we decided to not wait. It was a really cool place to visit and if you are ever in the "hood" you should definitely check it out.

Debra and Mark on our way.

The CCBB

"Game On" Games of the future

Cool sculptures

One of my favorite sights in Brasilia. :)

Sunday Night Lights

Living abroad, it is the little things that make you think you are missing out on stuff back home. Kevin and Heather throw great parties and their Super Bowl Party this year was no exception. We are three hours ahead of eastern time down here in BSB so we all stayed up to watch the big game. Since it wasn't airing on local TV or cable, they hooked up the computers to the TV and streamed the game live. We couldn't watch any of the commercials which was kind of a bummer but we played games as well. It was great! We all went home about halftime(11:30 our time) since we had to be at work at 7:30. Here are some pictures of our big partay!

Birthdays, Bowling, and Beer in Brasilia.

It has been a busy few weeks and just realized I hadn't updated the blog. February is a busy birthday month at EAB. We have had a wonderful time celebrating everyone's birthday and enjoying spending time outside of the EAB gates.

The first birthday of the month's was Erin, or as we call her, Hayes. For her brithday we all headed over to the local bowling alley, Striker. However, this bowling alley was tres chic. It had leather sofas, American music, and traditional bowling food. It is quite the popular to place to go. We left at 9pm on a Wendesday night and it was PACKED! Normally when I bowl, I use the kiddie bumpers cause when it comes to this "sport" I kind of...um...suck. However, tonight the bowling Gods were smiling on me. And although I did not get over 100, I had a strike, and the respectable score of 78.

On Valentine's we had three folks, Leah, Kristopher, and Pedro having birthdays(all in the picture to the left), so a joint get-together was held at a local german beer brewer. It was a very cool place and the best part, hands down, was that it was 80's/90's music night. We had a great time dancing and singing till very, very, very late at night.

Don't judge Leah, my American friends. This one piece outfit is actually very in style in Brazil. No, I'm not kidding.

I have no idea what was going on in this picture but I was obviously very excited about it. Thanks to Kevin and Heather for the picture.

Check out the lady on the left. We get looks like this a lot.

Got to love a good 80's cover band. Even if they sing in Portuguese.

Even though it was a great night, I will say it taught me two valuable lessons:

1. fog machines should not be allowed to go off every 2 minutes.

2. I am obviously not in college any more and getting in at 2 am is really something I cannot make a habit. Getting old kind of sucks. :(

Home-maintanence is just different here.

Oh how I took my electric stove for granted... I think I mentioned in my video blog about my apartment that ovens in Brasilia are hooked up to propane tanks. As soon as I realized where my stoves gas was coming from, I was intimidated that I would have to change the tank. Actually, just the fact that the tank is so close to my stove intimidates me, if we are being honest. I mean the last thing I want is to be heating something up and possibly be blown away.

Can you see my oven thermometer? Stoves here don't tell you the temp, so you have to bring an oven thermometer to know what temperature your oven is at.

So, last week, the inevitable happened. My tank ran out of gas...bum, bum, bum!!!! Of course, as most tanks do, it ran out right as I was cooking, so, I called it a day and went down to our pizza joint, Palmadoro. The next day people told me how to change my gas source. It was much easier than I could have ever anticipated. All I had to do was unscrew it from one and re-screw it into my spare tank. I was worried about the gas leaking of course. I mean can't you see me dying because I didn't change it properly and the fumes killed me in the middle of the night. haha! So, I used put dawn around the top to see if it would make bubbles which would signal there was a leak. Success! Not an air bubble to be found. :) I still propped my kitchen windows open just to be safe though. Can we say paranoid?

The contraption you remove and then use on the new tank.

A typical Friday night in Brasilia.

Teachers are kind of notorious for being Friday night party poopers. When you get up all week at 6 (5:30 when I lived in the states) and deal with kids all day, by Friday night at 8 o'clock, you are spent. So, we as a profession, aren't hitting da club on Friday evening y'all. Most Friday nights back home I just went home but in Brasilia we usually seem to at least go out to eat and then call it an early night. Last night we went to Libanus, our local watering hole. I mean if Brasilia was Boston it would be Cheers. One of the waiters, who we call Bill Murray, even knows who we are. I mean we are the Norm to his Sam Malone. :) However, we do have a tendency to stick out from the crowd, so its not really a surprise that he remembers us. I mean there is a shoe store at Park Shopping where they remember us too. But, I digress. So last night we went out to celebrate the return of Marky-Mark. Last semester he was just a student teacher, but this semester he was hired by EAB to be a teacher for the spring semester. We are so happy he is back. He even is living in our quadra(aka neighborhood). So, I thought I would share some pictures of our A-typical Friday night, because I didn't get home till 10pm, way past my teacher bed time but oh so much fun as well. What can I say, we were rebels. :)

Mark on his first night back.

Libanus is known for their ice cold beer. They were even written about in a New York times article about what to do in Brasila.

Yum!!

Aren't they the cutest couple, I mean they even have matching sunglasses.

We actually bought DVD's from one of the street vendors that came by. Kamy got Sherlock Holmes(the one that is still in theaters) I got Red Riding Hood. All for $R5 or $2.50 USD. I mean in Brazil, who really needs Redbox.

And the best part of Friday nights is hanging with your friends.