i loved this marlin busting out of this brick wall. what a cool idea.
i also love the brazilian flag. isn't it beautiful?
i enjoyed this street called itu--a word in indonesian too!
i went to a very cool brazilian arts and crafts store and bought several items and then made my way back to my hotel. that evening, i met up with alex and fabio, my clients/guides to são paulo.
we went to a book store and walked around avenida paulista some and then made our way to this restaurant for dinner. we had to wait awhile to get in as big-city life is different than small-city life. places don't open up for dinner until later in the big city!
my meal was delicious and so typical there that it was called "segunda," meaning monday. it's monday's typical dish--because as alex said it is a strong meal that gives you energy to start the new week. this was my first taste of farofa--and the most interesting. it was the worst farofa i had on my whole trip (alex compared it to sand, which was apt), but i discovered that farofa could be flavorful and less gritty and sand-like than this farofa.
here's fabio and alex.
the next day i went into the office to meet up with alex and fabio. they gave me a tour of their office, which included trying this new fruit.
they weren't sure of the name, but it was tasty.
for lunch that day, we went out and had feijoada--perhaps the most traditional brazilian dish there is. 
feijoada is a black bean with lots of pork meat stew. you eat it over white rice and put farofa on top. it's really tasty.
it was on the verge of becoming spring in são paulo--so there were lots of trees blooming. 
alex said this is a favorite tree in brazil. (note the sidewalk too--their sidewalks often had interesting patterns on them.)
that night, alex and i went to a roof-top bar at a hotel shaped like a ship (yes, a ship). here are some views from the city.
interestingly, the edge of the roof was landscaped with all sorts of cactuses. it made me feel very much at home.
as we left, the place was really hopping. they had a live dj.
and we used the bathroom, which to our amusement helped you know which one to go into by framing underwears on the door.
this was mine.
the next day, i went into the office and liked this small bit of graffiti, which says "Olympics why?"
a beautiful rock inside someone's gate.
for lunch that day, we went to a vegetarian place. i had vegetarian feijoada, which was much better than i expected. and i tried this avocado pudding. although it was too natural for me--it wasn't sweet.
alex and fabio explained to me that in brazil it's common for your employer to give you money to buy lunch each day. so everyday alex and fabio (and thousands/millions of other paulistas) go out for lunch. i think i would put on a lot of weight if i lived in são paulo!
i loved this flag painted on to the sidewalk. this is now my phone's screen backdrop.
i liked this plant.
this looked just like my rhododendrons back in oregon. 
i liked fabio's star wars shirt so had to take a picture.
that night, i took the subway back to my hotel and went out on my own. i was interested to see this guy on my way to the subway station.
he had burning sticks in his hands that he was throwing around.
riding the subway in são paulo was super easy. the first morning i took it into alex and fabio's office i had a minor problem--one of the lines was delayed and the train was super (super) packed. but i waited for the next one, and it was much less crowded. other than that, riding the subway was no problem.
that night, i went to the nearby mall to look for oleh-oleh to bring back for w and s. i was also on the look-out for dinner, but was striking out on both fronts. i saw this mexican place, but wanted to have brazilian food for dinner. nothing was speaking to me.
i thought this cupcake shop was funny. (i had a funny conversation with alex while i was there about cupcakes. he and brian have very similar feelings about cupcakes!)
the huge clock on top of a building right by my hotel.
avenida paulista gets very busy at night.
the huge flag near my hotel too. 
a don quixote statue that reminded me of b.
this isn't very clear. but i liked the bright colors around their payphones. and it's interesting that they still have such prominent payphones.
so in my wandering around avenida paulista, i saw a church. and the church just happened to be hosting a bazar! i looked around the bazar and bought some fun things (including some dulce de leite), and then i bought a smattering of food to take back with me to my hotel to have for dinner.
the best food i bought was the mousse marcuja--passion fruit mousse. oh my, oh my. it was so good.
i liked bob marley and pele hugging.
i loved this. it's a book vending machine at a subway station.
some of the desserts we ate one day during lunch.
alex and fabio told me about how there are these little desserts--candies--that are served at every birthday party. and there's a hierarchy to them--where everyone knows which one is #1, #2, #3, and #4. the #1 is the chocolate brigadero, the #2 is the white "kiss" (the portuguese word for little kiss), the #3 is the pink one, and then the #4 one is so bad this store didn't even sell it. at every birthday party, the brigadero and little kiss get all eaten up--so it's only the pink one and the odious #4 that are left.
i thought that was so funny that i bought several of each of these to bring home. (although i will say, i didn't think that even the #1 brigadero was all that great.)
poinsettas.
on thursday evening, i took a taxi to the other side of the city to go to the thomson reuters office. i was meeting up with a few of my colleagues for dinner.
there are so many vw buses like this all over sao paulo.
some pictures from the office. for some reason there were big floating heads handing down from the ceiling. this floating head reminded me of one my colleagues (who i often accidentally email when i mean to email alex in brazil and vice versa--because both of their names are alex).
a view from the 8th floor office suite.
i never work in a tr office--so it was interesting to see my company's name all over the place.
that night, we went out with edneia and isabelle. the place we went to and hung out at for a few hours was super packed by the time we left. it's interesting how sao paulo is known as the non-party city, and rio as the party city. rio must be pretty rip-roaring because i feel like the paulistas know how to get out and have a good time.
for dinner that night, i had the reddest steak of my life. i asked for medium well, but i guess something got lost in translation.
thursday night, i stayed up until about 1am getting ready for my presentation the next day. i got about 5 hours of sleep!
the next morning, alex and fabio met me at my hotel and we road the subway/then got a taxi to the site of the conference.
some views from the conference site--it was situated up higher in the city. so you could see pretty far out.
some shots from the conference. i gave a 1+ hour presentation on reports that alex translated into portuguese. the conference was a huge success, and it all went very smoothly. it was perfect cherry on top of a highly successful work week with alex and fabio.
guess whose phone this is?
that night, alex, fabio, edneia, and i went out for pizza. it was amazing how much stamina alex had. he had talked during the entire day-long conference and still had energy to go out!
sao paulo is apparently famous for its pizza--so we had some good sao paulo pizza. alex and fabio told me later that this wasn't great sao paulo pizza (the best is in a neighborhood far away from edneia and my hotels). maybe next time i go, i'll get some great pizza. but, i certainly thought it was great. i had two pieces, and the first one was heavenly.
it was this kind. it it a cheese pizza with catupery cheese on it (alex told a funny story of a friend of his who came to brazil--from some of other country--and forgot the name of this cheese but remembered it sounded like katy perry cheese). oh man, this pizza was good.
you ordered a slice and then they headed it up in an oven. before it was heated up, the cheese looked like frosting on top, but once heated, i was a little disappointed to see that it looked like normal cheese.
the four of us had a great time talking and hanging out. it turned out that my colleague is very into reading someone's cards, and it just so happened that fabio had a set of (un-scary) tarrot cards in his backpack. so we each had our "current situations" read--these were cards that don't really tell your future, but tell you how you are currently. to me, it was just a fun parlor-game type thing, but for my colleague, it was very meaningful.
the main thing i liked about mine was my top card was "adventurous." and we all agreed that that seemed like the perfect last card for me on my last night in sao paulo.
as we left the restaurant, we saw this man about to cook some meat on a grill. guess which country this reminded me of?! happily i took a picture of him and thought fondly of my indonesia.
crossing the busy avenida paulista.
saturday morning, i met up with alex and fabio, and they graciously showed me around their wonderful city. and, interestingly, alex and i ran into some missionaries on paulista. they offered alex a book of mormon, and he accepted one. you certainly never know what will happen in the big city.
below are just lots of pictures of our ramblings through the city. i loved sao paulo!
the tallest building here is an iconic landmark of the city.
interesting side-building art.
the city hall with a cool roof-top garden on it.
a really nice place--architecturally speaking--that had tons of graffiti on it.
the city's main theater. 
sadly, a lot of buildings in this downtown area are completely empty and in disrepair.
another cool building graffiti-painting. those are human figures. 
a guy riding a bike around advertising for a political candidate. apparently, this is illegal, but lots of people still do it.
alex and fabio told me that brazil has tons of political parties--dozens--as opposed to our main two.
the busy city streets around the outdoor market.
i had been hoping to try acai while in brazil, and we finally found someone who was selling it. i got a bowl full with granola on top. 
alex got some too. fabio told me he didn't want any because it is super high in calories--it can make you fat if you're not careful.
oh well!
we went to a huge indoor traditional market (again, this reminded me of my indonesia). although this market did seem cleaner than a lot of traditional markets in indonesia.
i loved these cashew apples.
so many people fruits. i sampled a few.
srikoyo!
manggis (mangosteens)!
something that looked kind-of like a dragon fruit.
what i ate on the tree at the scielo office.
brigaderos and beijinhos--those top two most favorite brazilian candies.
there were two large fuzzy things walking around saying hello to everyone. i thought they were potatoes, but alex told me they were kiwis. this man doesn't seem to want to say hello to the kiwis.
i loved this place. it's a one-stop feijoada store. i wish they had something like this in the us. i want to make feijoada, but have a hard time understanding what meats i need to get, and where i would even get them.
i was delighted to see noni there.
we ate lunch at the market. fabio and i shared a super-huge sandwich. while we ate, the para olympics were on.
i have never, even eaten a sandwich with so much meat on it. i just went for it at first, but as i neared the end i started taking meat out. it was tasty though.
after lunch, we headed to the liberdaje neighborhood (famous for being a very japanese part of the city).
on our way there, we stopped and looked at the beautiful sao paulo cathedral.
i always love looking inside cathedrals. this one was relatively new (it was built in around the 1930s).
the stained glass was amazing.
i actually love this picture. she looks so enraptured.
this was an interesting touch--having jesus entombed like this.
it was at this point--as we were leaving the cathedral--that it finally dawned on me that sao paulo means st. paul. sometimes it takes me awhile!
here we are in liberdaje--note the lanterns.
we stopped at a japanese book store. alex and fabio really enjoy japanese comic books translated into portuguese. 
the characters always look so pretty.
there was an outdoor market (a lot less crowded than the first one we walked through). 
this is like what we bought b's parents in berlin.
these were beautifully scary to me. sad to see so many lovely butterflies encased in glass.
all of that is butterfly wings.
a woman weaving. i'm not sure she enjoyed having me take a picture of her, but i have always loved weaving. if only she knew how much i loved what she was doing.
alex had me get a sugarcane drink at the market. he said it would be good, and he was right. it was really tasty and hit the spot on a warm day.
here's the outside of the train station. for some reason i didn't get any pictures of the inside. but the inside was gorgeous--it reminded me very much of manet's paintings of the paris train station (here's one http://www.hiddeneurope.co.uk/a-station-in-the-shadows). it was very old-fashioned and lovely.
we walked from the train station to a nearby museum. on the way, we got to hear a band warming up.
pop art-building art.
we went to the pinacoteca musuem. if you can imagine, it was even free.
it is in a really cool building with art in interesting places--some expected places and some unexpected places.
i liked these spanish word pieces.
and i loved these mushrooms.
wouldn't i love to have this in my home!
this was a really cool group piece. they are all bird's eye view photos of large parking lots.
from a distance, they begin to look like abstract art. here's one up close. i thought our friends ann and jamin would like these.
i thought this was an interesting portrait.
here are some paintings done by brazilian artists.
we all three liked this one until we realized it had images of barbie all over it. then we all three thought it a bit silly. but, thankfully, alex noticed some japanese animation figures on it, and then he liked it again!
srikoyo!
i liked this brazilian painting a lot.
and this one. this is by a very famous female modernist. 
this one made me this on b's sister, emily. it's about a mining accident.
this was really cool. these glass balls hold water from each of the five main rivers in brazil. i thought that was a really cool idea (these were once in the royal mansion). and i loved how the water was different colors (see how the top one is amber colored).
this one is from the amazon.
here's that amber water.
a sad, sad painting. a man who killed himself for his lost love.
del taco!
after the museum, we took the subway back to my hotel stop and all agreed that we should do this again. scielo has this conference every year, and wouldn't it be great if i could come again to present at it and work with fabio and alex prior to the conference. we all loved that idea. hopefully, that will work out!
my taxi ride to the airport.
and my last shot--red lobster in the sao paulo airport. i've never seen this restaurant outside the us--so it seemed interesting to me.
oh, i loved, loved my time in brazil. sao paulo is such an interesting and fun city. i really hope i can go back--and fingers crossed--take b with me next time!
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