weekend in São Paulo

Well, I've been living in this city for almost 6 weeks so I figured it was about time I get out and see a little bit of it...



My girlfriend Brittany's aunt also happens to live here with her family. They were nice enough to offer to show me around some sights and take me to a soccer game. We went to a little artesan village called Embu das Artes where I bought some souvenirs, ate a "pastel" (which is kind of like a deep fried taco) and drank sugar cane juice, which was delicious! After that, we watched São Paulo beat Vitória 2-0 and tried not to get lost in the madhouse after the game. Then I got to relax, play some Smash Brothers and eat some good old home-cooked American food!





I was also finally able to meet up with some of my mission buddies who live in the area. One, Jonas Monte, was in the same group as me at the MTC, so we spent the whole two years working close by. The other, Marcus Torres was my companion for 3 months in a hell-ish place called Guabiraba. We had a great time meeting up at the temple and laughing for hours about mission stories. Good times!

Goo00OO00oollllll!!!

One of the things I really wanted to do while I was here was go to a soccer game. Brazil is obviously known for its futebol, so I had to see firsthand what the fuss is all about. The game itself, at least to me, doesn't seem any different from an RSL game. But what is completely different....the fans. They are CRAZY for soccer. They're loud and obnoxious, they'll sing when they do well and they'll turn on their own team and cuss out the players in unison if they start to suck it up. (Not to mention the often violent rivalries between cities...) Jazz fans have nothing on Brazilian soccer fans! haha

The first game I went to was between a small local team and one of the most followed teams in Brazil - Flamengo, a team from Rio. I went with some people from Azul since it was close to the office. The funny thing was there were literally no home fans - the entire stadium was filled with Flamengo jerseys. Sadly they all made the trip for nothing, 'cause they got embarassed 2-0.

The second game I went to was the extremely popular São Paulo Futebol Clube. They're the frontrunners in the Brazil Cup and were fighting to stay in 1st place. We arrived early, but so did the entire city it seemed. There were songs, chants, street vendors selling everything from flags to shirts, and there were even some riot police on hand in case things got ugly. I hadn't seen a crowd like that since the Inauguration! SPFC won 2-0.

Check out the video to see the cultural experience that is Brazilian soccer...

RECIFE! ~back to the mish~

I was supposed to work at a couple more events last weekend, but after they got canceled I took advantage of the time off and flew up to Recife for the weekend. It was actually kind of a strange feeling being back in my old stomping grounds, but it was a great experience. I stayed with some old friends, got to visit my favorite ward and see a few of the people that I served. I thought I had seen everything in Recife, but I even got to do and see some things I had never done in Recife before, including going to the beach!

Pictures of the "feira" - the flea market

Pictures of the Torreão Ward:

Pictures of the BEACH!:
(beware of sharks...duh nuh...duh nuh....)

Porto Alegre

The best part about this internship with Azul is that it's an awesome way to see the rest of Brazil - all without having to pay for airfare and hotels! Over the weekend, they sent me to Porto Alegre in Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil's southernmost state) to put up a booth at this big temporary outlet mall/flea market kinda thing. Despite not being on vacation and having to work over the weekend, I was pretty excited about going to Porto Alegre though for one reason - churrasco! This is the land of the gaúcho and the birthplace of churrasco (Rodizio Grill style food). So check out my the pics of me exploring the city, checking out the Temple, and watch my video of my traditional churrasco experience -all you can eat dinner AND a show for half the price of Rodizio!


                                         

Back to Rio

I got back from Maringá Monday afternoon, and the next day I was already on my way back to the airport for another flight, this time back to Rio. Azul was participating in a tourism convention there, and I tagged along to help set-up (aka-working for free to lift heavy boxes). I didn't get to check out much of the convention but what I did get to see was pretty cool, and got me excited to go travel around the rest of the country. Instead, I spent the week caravaning around the city on Azul's bus with Greg, another American working for Azul, and some girls they hired to dress up like stewardesses to help us do promos and hand out flyers at restaurants, malls, and, YES, the beach. It doesn't sound like hard work, but I am exhausted!

Check out some pictures...and just to clarify, that's Greg (a former Hinckley intern who got hired on after his internship) handing the flyer to the chick in the bikini, not me. I'm innocent! :)

Maringá Country Festival

UPDATE - I ADDED A NEW VIDEO SO YOU CAN SEE/HEAR WHAT A BRAZILIAN COUNTRY MUSIC CONCERT IS LIKE!

Azul was sponsoring a country music festival in Maringá, Paraná and needed someone to go set up our material so they sent me. When I landed, I just chuckled to myself, laughing at the fact that I was in the middle of nowhere, by myself in Brazil…going to a country concert. I hate country music. Anyway, the festival organizers paid for my hotel this time. During the day, I was treated to a delicious traditional feijoada lunch and some acoustic performances from the bands. Then at night, I got to hangout backstage with the bands –unfortunately I had no idea who anyone was, or it would have been even better. We got free drinks, free dinner, and VIP front-row seats. I had never heard Brazilian country music before, and had no clue as to who these bands were, but I actually had a pretty good time!

An added bonus to the trip was that one of my good friends from the mission lived about an hour from there in a city called Londrina. So on Sunday I took a bus to his house, and ate a little churrasco with his family. He showed me around town, then we just went back to his house and reminisced about the mission and looked at all his pictures. It was great to see him again after 3 years, and to swap battle stories from the mission field. I always love being reminded of my mission, and it’s one of the main reasons why I wanted to come back to Brazil.



The bus ride back to Maringá turned out to be kind of an ordeal though, but that is starting to becoming sort of commonplace in my travels… It had rained so hard in Londrina that tons of tress had fallen all over the city, and the power had been knocked out. So when I got to the bus station, the whole place was completely dark. I had to wait until 8:00 at night to get the next bus, and it wasn’t even a direct bus. So because of the rain, and the indirect route, a 1 hour drive turned into a 4 hour bus ride. Blah! All I wanted to do was get back to the hotel, Skype with my family and girlfriend and get in the jacuzzi. But no! I didn’t get to Maringá until midnight. On top of that, I was stranded at the bus station because I had used all my cash to buy my bus ticket since there was no power for my debit card to work. I figured I would just be able to find an ATM to withdraw money to pay for a taxi back to the hotel. But since I was in the middle of freaking nowhere Brazil I couldn’t find an ATM that accepted my card. Luckily, I remembered that I had grabbed a card with the hotel’s number on it in case of emergencies, and they sent a cab for me. I made it back to the hotel at 1am. Did I mention I had to wake up at 4am for a 5:40 flight??? As bad as it sucked, I just had to laugh at the whole experience. Just one more story to tell!

I slept for about an hour and a half. I was pissed I had to wake up so dang early. Then as I ws flying back to Sao Paulo, I watched the sunrise over the cloud cover, and it was one of the prettiest things I have ever seen. Suddenly I forgot about how upset and tired I was, and was just glad to be alive. But, now I’m sitting in the Campinas airport, back to being pissed off again. I get off the plane only to find out that Azul’s bus back to Alphaville just left, and the next one isn’t until 9:30. Great, 3 hours in the tiny Campinas airport is exactly how I wanted to spend my morning after sleeping for an hour and a half….awesome.

MY FIRST BUSINESS TRIP

Three days before my trip, I saw on the news that some druglords in the slums of Rio shot down a police helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade. How crazy is that?! It's like something out of a movie...but it's real life. It freaked me out a little, but I was assured that I would be safe if I stayed near the beach.

Azul was sponsoring a surfing competition called the Rio Surf Pro Internatioanl, and I was asked to go help at the event. So basically I got a free trip to Rio de Janeiro for wearing an Azul baseball cap while watching people surf. It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it! The competition was on Praia do Arpoador which is right in between the famous Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, which was pretty sweet. Saturday it rained all day, and the beach was completely deserted. But on Sunday, the sun came out and so did the entire population of Rio. I have never seen such a crowded beach! Not to mention the massive amounts of gross, old men in speedos and women wearing bikinis way too small for their body type. Sick. Monday, before I flew home I went for a ride up Corcovado, where the famous Cristo Redentor statue is. That was very cool – easily one of the most dramatic and stunning views I’ve ever seen. The trip to Rio was worth it just for that!