It's lookin clowdy today, not much of park weather but we're going anyway. After breakfast at the hostel.
This is the Parque Ibirapuera, one of the biggest and famous in the country I think.
They have a lake and here's Lena wanting a picture with that big fake christmas tree in the background
If you look carefully there I am with an umbrella. I felt like i was in the secret garden
This is also pretty iconic of sampa this building with this big red tongue sticking out.
I thought the grass looked really cool. it's flatt and wide it reminded me of ribbons
Hairy trees.
Then we saw this special Le Petit Prince/ the little prince show in part of this park. Yeah they have several museums in this park, bike rental, fields, play grounds, a little forest, a science dome, multicultural center etc etc.
There is a lot of French in Brazilian history and for a while Brasilians were quite the Francophone because they looked to them for intellectual and art matters, and I guess there are just a few remnants of that. But Brasil and the America's in general are all cannibalistic pastichers. Okay unless you were in my culture class, you might not understand what I mean. But i mean metaphorically what Amercicans (of all America yes the 2 continents) did was eat up all this stuff native, imperialist etc, and digested and came up with something different-ish.
There was also some architectural thingy but they charged money so we just walked in the free part. And walked onto the free museum of modern art.
There were a lot of cook things there. very interesting, I can't really describe what things were like but I could definitely see a pattern to this modern art. It was kind of like ironic, or exaggerated, etc.
Sombreros anyone? They also had some tortilla thing.
Man I was so hungry! We were really far away too, we walked for like 40 minutes from the hostel down hill to the park, i'm so surprised we found it, but then we were willing to take a bus back up to Avenida Paulista, our (0,0). Really that's how I mapped out Sampa, it was my X axis.
And I had heard good stuff about this vegetarian Indian restaurant and I really wanted to go, but guess what? It was closed! :( so I just cried a little--inside, and we looked for another place.
We found this little lanchonete-type place super cheap and provided the essentials and we were good.
We ate out on the street, and I got some frango (chicken) and brocolis, palmito, cenoura salad. You need to guess what that is it's pretty easy. Paulmito is the part that's probably unfamiliar to you.
Lena got a side of rice and fries though. We both got fresh orange juice and a side of beans. I don't think I was able to finish everything really it was filling and only like US$5.oo. Good Deal
then I really wanted to go to the Os Gêmeos exhibition. Again the twins, here are some videos of them explaining. And it's good so you get to hear the Sampa accent , see if you notice any differences.
they are world renown and have their street art all over the place in the big cities like Berlin, Manhattan, SF, Sampa, Rio, Los Angeles, I don't know where else but they go all over.
But we like ran over there we realized we were running late because I thought they closed at 5PM and it was like 4:45 and we weren't there yet. We got there and there was a huge line outside this building, and we asked the couple in front of us if it was for the Gemeos exposition and they're like I think so, I assume so I haven't asked, and then we just started talking (in Portuguese) I have to say it feels really good when people are like "NO way you've just been studying it for 4 months" or whatever. But then i just kind of think it sucks that they don't have as good of language programs in other countries. Like my cousin in Mexico at a PRIVATE school said that in her English class they spend a whole YEAR on the verb "TO BE" and it's just ridiculous. I feel like either the teachers aren't well-trained or their just being lazy. But I'm really glad I've had the opportunity to have really good language programs available, and also really good professors but I mean I also try really hard and practice when I can and really DESIRE to learn languages. Oh and I speak Spanish so all of that helps.
Anyway they were asking us about Bahia and what we're studying there, about the university in California etc. They were really nice people. Again I've had a really good experience with Paulistas (it's what you call people who live in Sao Paulo, like "Baiana/o" for people from Bahia like a "New Yorker" "Californian" "Texan" etc.) But really I have had ZERO sexual harassment in all these days which is quite a record because back in Bahia...man it's like if you go down the street for 20 minutes without hearing something that's a record. And we have been walking EVERYWHERE here in Sampa and alone as women.
Finally we were in! They let in whoever is in line and then they close it.
This is inside the building but they didn't let us take pictures. So here are some places that they have pictures. It was really cool, because usually they have the limits (or the resources) of the street but here they were able to have installations and use film and music, and tangible experiences. the only thing missing was taste.
IT was amazing. There was this one place where depending on how you clap or how many times you clap the color of lights changed, then there were these two boxes stacked up and you could go and stick your head into the hole at the bottom of the top head and you were surrounded by mirrors and a purple light at the top with some awesome music like bossa nova playing and it really felt like another world.
Then there was a dark shack with old furniture falling apart, a leaky faucet, smoke coming in, and some green light waves it was weird. But in front of the couch, an old TV set that was playing images of several homeless people. One woman trying to put a red bottle cap on her nose. Another one was a hidden camera capturing the police unnecessarily harassing a homeless person. All he was doing was waving his shirt around on a somewhat deserted road and no one else was around so he wasn't really bothering anyone but the police still got all worked up and took advantage that this person was probably mentally ill, and I don't know it seems like people think homeless people don't have rights.
But there was an instrument there that they invented it was really really cool. Then this ostrich looking animal with two different videos of eyes looking off in different directions at different paces so looking straight at it felt weird.
There were just lots of cool things there, and on all the walls spilling with their artwork that really made me feel like I was in a different world. It was like Alice in Wonderland meets Dr. Seuss with a political slant and with more adult content.
This has by far been my favorite part of São Paulo! We stayed there till they kicked us out :)
Then we decided to go to Spain for a little bit.
We saw this pastry/ dessert shop as we were coming out and it just hit the spot. Well we hit the spot but ...
And I was just amazed as I walked in, because things looked gorgeously delicious but they weren't that expensive. I asked this guy working there if I could take pictures and he said "you should ask the owner and he pointed over to the butcher section across the place and there he was wrapping up some meat for someone. I fell in love--with the store. It was local and there was the owner working, I went over and asked him if I could take pictures in his store just for my own pleasure and he gave me permission. I was so happy. So you should thank him for it because now you are able to see the wonders of these freshly made cakes and candies etc.
I got one of these:and it was like 1.50! But it was good, quality stuff right there. I had been craving chocolate so it was fantastic timing.
Chocolates and little homemade peeps, and traditional desserts
I wonder if this Marzipan stuff on the right is anything like the Mexican Mazapan
But really this place was just.. top drawer.
Then we sat at the top of this side walk on a step to eat our goods.
I also got this strawberry, at the bottom it had a little shorty cut pastry.
Another funky architecture shot.
Graffiti.
While we were Avenida Paulista again, we saw this window lined with feathered apparel. And we realized it was a display of the different kind of artwork from different indigenous peoples of the Amazon! Oh my gosh I swear this is a miracle day how things work out like this, i've pretty much forgot all about the Indian restaurant. And all this stuff was not even planned.
And I've actually learned a bit about Amazonian peoples in my "Indigenous struggles in the Americas" class and I learned about the Kayapó, Candoshi, Yagua, Yaminagua, Tupí , Tupinamba, Guaraní etc.
It was amazing too! did not dissapoint obviously. it is just amazingly beautiful but also
the fact that they used all of the animal, like this bird hanging off of this head band.
They have boxes for feathers
necklaces
Afterwards we went into the shopping mall because I really wanted to buy some books. Mainly on Brazilian folklore but also children's book. I learned something today!
while I was at the book storeI was trying to ask for like books on "Legends", and I was asking about legendas, and legendas, and the woman looked it up on the computer but looked a little confused and said "I'm not really sure where you can find that" And then I'm like or something on folklore like mythology (folklórico, de mitos) and then she's like "oohhhh, lendas!" and then I remembered oh yeah lendas. So Lendas is legends, and Legendas is subtitles!!!!
remember that. if you ever happen to ask for subtitles or legends I guess.
Then we walked home, we waited for the rain to calm down a little as we went back to the couches in that indegenous thing (I don't know what that was called, an exhibition? But I call everything an exhibition oh well. we'll just go with that)
But we rested there a bit used their bathroom.
Then we went down and I was hungry again but I didn't feel like paying a lot for anything and so I got a little salgado at a deli. Like a little empanadita with meat in it.
And then we went back to the hostel.
NOTE: there are all these pizza places open at night, pizza seems to be a big Paulista thing too, and mostly young people are sitting at these places with tables flowing out into the street, drinking beer and haning out with friends.
Then I went to enjoy my little muffin-type thing...in bed. One of the guys here at the hostel asked me if I wanted to watch a movie with him in his room but I politely declined. you never know. he seems like a nice guy but...either way it's like midnight! so i just want to go to sleep so I can fully enjoy our last day here in Sampa, the plane leaves at 7:35.
Gostoso né?
oh Sampa...
We have pretty much explored almost every street by foot I swear! There's nothing like seeing everything street level, slowly. And everything today (minus the food), the park, the museums, the os gêmeos the indigenous art thing was freeeee freee beeannn free 99!
freee
