A little of what we’ve been up to, in photos…

Getting drinks at one of our fav spots, Salve Jorge

Is there such a thing as the "Jornal The New York Times"? Regardless, the quotation is amazing.

"Ladies Lunch" w/ 9 other expat ladies and some amazing Japanese food

yum

Grocery store fail: Accidentally buying beer with a completely removable top. Still can't figure out who is not satisfied with the speed at which they can consume beer with the regular top but apparently there is a demand out there for easier access.

Daniel & Fernanda's church -- very cool. Reminded us a lot of our church in San Francisco, only, I didn't understand much. Still really fun though.

Milkshakes at "The Fifties" - the diner is a big thing here, and the milkshakes are GOOD.

Dinner with long-time family friend Pancho Kinney who is working on a project here as a consultant. Our families became friends when I was 4 years old living in California and now we literally live a block away from each other in Sao Paulo. SMALL WORLD!

Out with Trent & Paige enjoying Brazil's #1 dessert - Brigadeiros, aka fudgey/brownie type batter served on a spoon with a side of sprinkles. Umm, yes please.

Sunset

The thing that I have found in Brazil, is that while much of the educated population speaks (some) English, most of the “everyday” folks do not.  Translation: people who Michael is interacting with on a day-to-day basis usually speak English (although he looks for every opportunity possible to speak Portuguese!), but, almost NO ONE who I interact with speaks ANY English.  It has taken me a while to get used to this because when I studied abroad in Spain, I would try to speak Spanish and people would default back to me in English.  Even if my Spanish was better than their English!  Well, that does NOT happen here.  Which, I know, is a GOOD thing for me.  And lately we have had a few fun experiences to practice.

1) Apartment Hunting!  Apartment hunting was great Portuguese practice for me.  Michael usually called to set up appointments because while Portuguese in person is one thing, Portuguese on the phone is completely different.  I need to be able to utilize sign language.  I need the person to see the confused, blank stare on my face for them to realize that they need to SLOW DOWN and E-NUN-CI-ATE.  This is quite difficult over the phone.  Anyway, Michael would call and set up appointments for me to look at apartments and I would usually meet a broker at the building or get the keys from the door-man.  This was all great practice, AND an interesting experience.  I will get into the differences in apartments here later, but suffice it to say it was interesting.

Michael was usually too busy with work to go see apartments, but one guy, Waldomiro (we like to call him Waldo for short) had a place very close to Michael’s office, so last Thursday he decided to go for a quick break and a little Portuguese practice.  Michael said that Waldo sounded super shady and the first apartment he showed him was pretty gross.  Then Waldo took him to a second place that was OK but not what we were looking for.  At this point Michael was ready to walk back to work but Waldo said he had one more to show him.  THANKFULLY Michael went.  And he loved it.  I met Waldo the next day to see it myself and I loved it too.  We went back together on Saturday and loved it even more.  It just felt friendly and open and right for us.  And it’s right next to a PARK.  Parque do Povo.  Which is BEAUTIFUL and SO friendly and happy, full of runners and dogs and kids and sunshine.  So… it was a little faster than we were anticipating, but we went for it!  Now we are in the process of going back and forth on the contract, so if all goes well, we will have the apartment by April.  Here is a sneak peak of the building:
2) Portuguese Bible Study!  My dear friend Fernanda and her husband Daniel attend a Baptist church here (Brazilian, Portuguese speaking).  They are involved in a “Community Group” of sorts with 6 couples who meet every Friday to study scripture or a book together, pray for each other, hang out, etc.  Being amazing as they are, Fernanda and Daniel invited us to attend last Friday’s meeting which they hosted at their home.  Everyone was so kind and welcoming to us, and it was over 4 straight hours of Portuguese practice.  I didn’t understand that much but it’s great practice and a unique opportunity to get to know other Brazilian couples.  And Michael was a good translator.

I am so thankful for Fernanda and continue to spend time with her each week.  I went over there Tuesday and got this picture with her precious kids that I had to share.  They are pretty good Portuguese tutors too.

Aline, me and Lucas. Seriously they are ADORABLE.

So, while I still have a LOOOONG way to go, I am definitely seeing progress.  And that’s about all I can ask for right now.

So, this may not really be an authentic “Better Know Brazil” post, but I HAD to share the craziness that is all around us in Sao Paulo as the city prepares for Easter.

OCEANS of Chocolate Eggs that I believe are filled with toys.  Think Kinder Eggs on steroids.  Hanging from the ceilings in EVERY supermarket.  Placed in prominent displays at every turn.  Entire STORES of chocolate eggs.  You can’t escape them!!!!

I SWEAR, a week ago this place was a SALON. Michael and I FREAKED OUT when we saw it had been converted to 100% Chocolate Eggs!!!

More of the new egg store.

Monday was my 25th birthday.  I understand that this is still very young, but it was weird to realize that I’m a quarter of a CENTURY old.  I feel pretty good about the past 25 years though.  Pretty THANKFUL for the work that God has done in my life.  For bringing me into the world into a fabulous, loving family (my mom almost cried on the phone with me as she remembered back to “that special day”), for opening the eyes of my heart and bringing me into a relationship with Him, for bringing so many special people and experiences into my life, and for bringing me the most amazing man on earth to call my husband.

Speaking of the husband, he did a pretty awesome job making sure I felt celebrated on my birthday.  Michael started the morning by surprising me with breakfast and presents in bed.  It was a very happy sight to wake up to.  And he bought me a sweet, 25-year birthday card…that we later realized was a 25 year ANNIVERSARY card.  But it’s OK.  I know that on my birthday Michael likes to reminisce about the years of memories that we have shared…

          
A friend of his from Phoenix is actually in Sao Paulo this week and brought down a suitcase full of presents from Michael and his family in the states.  (My mama sent a package by mail last week so this will be a great experiment of Brazil’s postal system!)  It was all a total surprise and then after opening the “real presents,” Michael told me to open the suitcase and let me tell you, I almost lost my mind — it was filled with grits, mac & cheese, fruit snacks, peanut butter, girl scout cookies…and all kinds of amazingness that we can’t get here!!  wooohooo!

He also surprised me with these beautiful flowers.

Michael planned a lunch date for us at one of the best coxinha spots in the city since one of the only things I asked for on my birthday was to be able to eat coxinhas all day long without any judgement.  🙂  And these coxhinas were AMAZING.
Later in the afternoon Michael called and sent me on a little scavenger hunt in our apartment to find another gift that he had hidden for me — a beautiful JCrew blouse below!  (Good job picking it out!)  For dinner we went out for sushi and it was incredible.
After dinner, I got to talk to Brad, Suzanne and sweet little Augusta Clare on Skype and seeing them all was another wonderful birthday gift!!
  
And a birthday is never complete without a little dessert at the end of the night, right?
Thanks to everyone for all of the sweet messages, emails, surprise phone calls, and gifts.  I was truly overwhelmed by the blessing of being surrounded by such love.

It’s been another great week in São Paulo!  Michael has been staying very busy with work and I am staying busy with fun.  🙂  This week I went to lunch with 8 other ex-pat ladies — a couple of whom I had met before and some new friends too.  We tried out a new spot, D’olivino which is participating in SP’s Restaurant Week and I think I was literally there for almost 4 hours, doing lunch the Brazilian way and enjoying getting to know new friends.

I also had another fun day with my Brazilian friend, Fernanda, and her kids.  We drove out to São Bernardo do Campo, where she and her husband used to live, to go furniture shopping, but stopped first to drop the kids off at her in-law’s home.  Her mother in-law made us a great lunch of feijoada, rice, beans, chicken and salad.  It was so fun getting to see their home and have a meal together.  Then Fernanda and I hit the stores in search of a guarda-roupa (wardrobe).  After some serious shopping, Fernanda found the right one, and then she showed me around some other parts of the town.  We went into one store that was particularly overwhelming – it had EVERYTHING from toys & games, to pots & pans, to craft supplies & toiletries – but it was all crammed into a small space.  The photo below doesn’t do it justice, but suffice it to say that I got a little claustrophobic.  But, the prices are cheaper there so…

Just a glimpse

This weekend, Michael and I went to our first movie here at the Kinoplex in our neighborhood.  We saw Drive, which Michael was pretty fired up about (and I can watch just about anything with Ryan Gosling in it).  Somehow we got tickets for R $13 each (about USD $7.50) which is SUPER cheap here.  We had to choose between “Meia” tickets (which means, “Half”) and “Inteira” (which means, “Entire”) and the only difference we could detect was the price.  Meia tickets were half the price of Inteira.  We walked in and I was completely convinced that we were going to get kicked out half-way through the movie.  Shockingly, this didn’t happen, and we got the inteira movie for meia the price.  Still a total mystery, but we’re fine with how it turned out.  (If anyone has any insight into this, by all means, please share the wisdom.  We thought it may have to do with seat selection since you select your seats in advance, but our seats were completely normal so I don’t think that was it…)

Drinks after the movie. Big fan of the Original (Brazilian Beer).

Today we checked out our fifth church here.  Their morning service is traditional and in English and then they have an evening, contemporary service in Portuguese.  We went this morning and really enjoyed it.  Then we met up with friends after to check out the markets in Bixiga – a cool little Italian neighborhood that has a great antique, flea market every Sunday.

Bixiga

Stands at the market

Coco water from the coco!

We also had lunch in Bixiga and experienced the LARGEST filet parmesan EVER.  It easily fed our table of 6.  And please notice how the meats come with rice & fries.  We tried desperately to substitue fries for veggies but…it didn’t really translate.  For some reason rice & fries are the normal sides.

Largest filet parm EVER. Seriously -- that thing is all ONE piece of meat.

All in all it was a great week, and each day, slowly but surely, we are feeling more and more comfortable here.  More and more at home.

View from our balcony.