Good music, good food

Tuesday was pretty quiet in the office. I had a whole list of things to do but couldn’t seem to get anything done. Just one of those days where you can’t focus. So I decided to go sit on the couch and read my portuguese book for a while. And I twisted my ankle. Haha. Ya, Tuesday was one of those days where nothing goes right, but lets not dwell on it. One good thing was I was going to the symphony that evening, and it was fantastic! It was a Sala Sao Paulo, which was built in 2004 from an abandoned train station. It’s gorgeous, with a mix of classic and modern architecture. In the main room they have these giant cubes on the ceiling which can be adjusted up to 10m. Because of this you can get almost perfect acoustics, and apparently Sala Sao Paulo has been studied by acoustic engineers worldwide. The music was performed by the Freiburger Kammerphilharmonie from Germany. The orchestra was great and they had 4 awesome singers and a full choir as well. They played a lot of songs I recognized… some Mozart, some songs from Carmen. There was a lot of opera music, but I really enjoyed it. We had seats in the third row, so it was great. The only downside was having to hobble around all evening. When it was time for the standing ovation at the end, Diogo said I could stayed seated :P

Today my ankle was MUCH better. It still hurt a little, but I had only a slight limp. Paulo, Iza’s brother, dropped be off right in behind FEA so I didn’t have to walk far. Today was pretty mellow as well. We need more action!!

I just finished dinner and it was a FEAST! Iza’s parent’s friend from Portugal was visiting, so they went all out with dinner, including fancy plates and cutlery. There was cheese bread and cheese and herb spread to start and then a Brazilian river fish from central brazil for dinner. Iza’s Dad cooked it, and apparently to make it tender you have to bake it with four pounds of salt on it. But it was VERY tender. Plus there was rice and vegetables and a kind of fish sauce. We also had some excellent white wine, and Iza’s Dad kept refilling my glass! For dessert there was a kind of cake pudding dish, and the chocolates I had bought in Campos do Jordao. Then came Brazilian coffee. It was the first time I tried it. I was told that every brazilian family has coffee after dinner, except Iza’s. But because tonight was special we had some. So now I am VERY full. However, I’m still not used to eating dinner so late. I always get hungry at 6:00 but dinner is never until 7:30 or 8:00. Today it was at 9:00. I have to make sure I eat big lunches or else I’m starving by the time dinner arrives.

Tomorrow I have some meetings and then I have to get ready to go to Curitiba on Friday. I think I know how to get to the airport, but I’m going to the domestic one this time instead of the international one I have been to before. There is a metro station nearby, and then I think I will take a taxi.

I’m starting to get to know the subway very well. I can recite the stations as they go by on my way home. Except I can’t spell the first one. I start at Anhngabau, on the Red line, then I transfer at Sé to the Blue line. Then I go from Sé to São Bento, then Luz, Tiradentes, Aremênia, Tiête, Carandiru, Santana and finally Jardim São Paulo, where I get off. Now I’m starting to learn why each of these stations are where they are. For example, Sala São Paulo, where the symphony was, is at Luz. Sé is the old cathedral downtown. Tiête is the bus station. Clinicas is the hospital (go figure) and there’s a whole bunch along Paulista (basically the whole green line). São Judas is the one closest to the airport, so that’s where I’ll be headed on Friday. There’s still a bunch more to learn, and I was thinking of asking the members to tell me about it in Portuguese but I haven’t tried yet. When they speak very very very slowly I can understand most of it, just like reading it. But most of the time it is much too fast. Though tonight at dinner I understood most of a conversation. They started talking about McDonalds, haha. But I understood when Tati said she only liked their icecream and her Mom said that the French fries were very good. Simple stuff, yes, but I was pretty happy. I told them that I understood and Tati’s Mom said she would have to start watching what she says! Haha, I don’t think she has to worry about that just yet ;)

Ok, this was really supposed to be a short post, so no more! tchau