4 months in São Paulo

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Geo: -23.5475, -46.6361

On February 15, I left Buenos Aires very early (6 AM) to go via Santiago to Sao Paulo. It was very hard for me to leave BA : in the 10 days I was there I got to know and to love this beautiful sunny city as well as the people in the hostel who had become family.

At 3 PM at arrived at São Paulo where it was raining like hell... Great! I took a taxi to my hostel where I arrived very tired from not sleeping the night before and from a long flight. So I spent my first afternoon here at the hostel, reading and sleeping. The next morning, I was very happy to find my friend Clara whom I had met in BA and who would spent a few days in São Paulo with me. She's from Portugal and had studied the last semester in São Paulo, so she knew the city already and could show me some nice places.
The first day, Tuesday, we went to MASP, one of the most important museums. It was quite nice and a bit strange : in one room was an exhibition with religious paintings containing each one a scene of the Kama Sutra... Anyway, on the top floor the exhibition was quite nice, paintings on transparent supports with no walls in the room.
Afterwards we walked around Avenida Paulista - the most important street in this huge city, full of skyscrapers and antennas on their roofs - and Avenida Consolaçao before heading to Liberdade for lunch. This is the Japanese quarter of SP ; in SP exists the biggest community of Japanese immigrants in the world.
In the evening, we went to the cinema where it was freezing cold. It's funny actually, in Europe you go inside if you want to be hot and outside if you want to be cold and here in São Paulo it's just the opposite. :-)

The next day, we went to USP (Universidade de São Paulo) because Clara had to pick up some staff and so I could see my future university. It's actually bigger than my home town St.Vith. Well, I guess that's why they call it "University City" ; it's huge! The way there is quite far, first metro and then but. Some days it takes me more than 1h to get there, other days only 30 min.
We also went to the International Office of my faculty where I was told that I can't get a student card or a bus card or what ever as long as I have no student visa. Great...
Afterwards Clara went to meet a friend and I went back to the hostel because I was feeling really sick.
The next day, I went to the Belgian Consulate very early only to find out that they can't help me get the student visa or any documents necessary for this visa. Means : they are totally useless.... Anyway, no student visa but whatever.
That day, Clara and I went to the Tim Burton exposition but we couldn't get in because it was completely sold out (like every single day in the next few weeks! Then we went to the huge Ibirapuera parc where we walked around for some time.
Walking all day had made me realize how much pain I still had in my foot, so I decided to go to an hospital that afternoon. Clara joined me, which
was very nice of her! It took some time but finally it was my turn and I
must say I was a bit disappointed, the doctor wasn't really good and
couldn't help me much. Anyway, that evening we went out to Rua Augusta to have dinner and had a very nice last evening together.
On Friday, we only had a few hours until Clara had to leave. So we decided to go to Republica to get on some skyscraper to have a panoramic view over São Paulo, we saw an exhibition of Mondrian and we visited the beautiful cathedral.
I was still quite sick that day and hadn't eaten anything but hard bread in the last days and since I didn't trust the doctor I had seen the day before about my foot, I went to another hospital which is supposedly the best one in São Paulo. And indeed, they had a much better service and very much nicer. The doctor was nice as well and prescribed me quite some stuff (antibiotics and other things for my stomach and anti-pain injection for my foot) and he prescribed me 10 physiotherapy sessions for my foot.

The whole weekend I stayed in the hostel and rested my foot and my stomach, eating only hard bread and rice. It was ok but I didn't like the hostel very much from the beginning (very small and hot common area, no internet in the rooms and the terrace, unfriendly people) and so I was very happy when it was Monday and I could finally leave this hostel and move to the Hostel Paulista. This one was amazing, I loved it almost as much as the one in Buenos Aires ! About the hostel, they had a nice reception with very friendly and helpful staff, a big kitchen with much space to hang out, the rooms vere ok and the bathrooms as well and they had a nice bar.
I met there some very nice people, Julie from Paris, Mike from South Africa,
Dwayne from London, Chateria and Patrick from the US, José Antonio from
Honduras and Seth from Australia. We spent a lot of time together and it
was much fun. We went to the Batman-Wall together to see the graffitis, we had some beers together, we went to MASP and other places together. I really liked them, but unfortunately Julie, Chateria, Patrick and Seth left a few days later already.

That wednesday, I met my teacher Mário who brought me my package - finally! - with my computer and other precious stuff. Then we went to the university and he showed me around. The library is quite nice and I can work there. Just one curious thing, you can't take water in the library... there are water dispensers but you have to get up every time to drink something. Strange and annoying for a person like me who drinks very much...
I also met Mário's collegues which are very friendly and nice. At their meeting I didn't get a lot, my portuguese was really bad - like nonexistent - at that time.
Having my computer back, I finally could start working on my thesis again. It was just on time because I learned that the next day I had to finish the application to continue my PhD-scholarship and I hadn't even started that application yet... So I spent that night working until 2 AM. Fortunately other people were up very late as well and so we had pizza at around 1 AM and it was actually quite nice. :-)

The next days I spent mostly working and going to the physiotherapy. I had found a nice physiotherapy center on Av. Paulista, close to my hostel and to my future apartment. Oh yes, that's also thanks to having back my computer : I could finally search actively for an and found a place 2 blocks from my hostel and from Av. Paulista. It's a private room in a shared apartment (20 girls) and perfect for me.

So, on Tuesday 1st of March, I moved into my new room in Alameda Campinas and it didn't take me long to make friends with the girls there. They are all very nice, but I get along especially well with Regiane, Juliana, Bia (Beatice), Fernanda and Camilla. We go out at least once a week and always have a good time. It's a bit surprising in an apartment with only girls, but it works very well. :-)

The same week, on February 29th, I started going to a portuguese course at the Aprenda 2 language school at Santa Cruz. Fortunately, we are only 2 girls in our group and Héloïse and I have become very good friends. Our teachers are great as well, they learn us important and interesting things. The course is 4 days a week 3h per day and this during 5 weeks. It's quite intense but I can see every day how my portuguese gets better. With my flatmates and with my nice physiotherapist I only speak portuguese, which is helping as well. I still speak mostly portoñol, but it's getting better. :-)

On Saturday 5th of March, I went to a meeting of JCI São Paulo where I met the local president, Agustin, the ex-president Erlan and 3 candidates : David, Demostenes and Lut. They are very nice and spoke only english with me. It was a nice day and I remembered why I love JCI so much! :-D
That evening, I went out with the girls of my apartment for the first time and it was a great night!

In my first month here, I have learned quite some thing about Brazil. Like that they have a big economic crisis which was caused by their president Dilma Rousseff. That's why most of the people hate her and want here gone. Today, on Sunday 13 of March, there was a huge manifestation on Av. Paulista where 2-3 million people where on the street protesting against her government hoping to change things in this country.
There is also this big problem of social inequality here : there are lots of very poor people and lots of rich people, but no one in between. The situation could definitely be better here...

There is also a big difference between the North and the South of the country : in the South there have been mostly immigrants from Germany, Italy, Portugal, etc. who brought a lot of money whereas in the North there is a huge African population. Also, in the North it's much hotter than here in the South, it never rains there so their economy is less good than here. I guess there are more points, but this is all I know until now. Anyway, this creates quite some tension between people from the South and from the North.

Another thing I learned here, is that Brazilian people don't consider themselves as part of Latin America, because they speak a different language and have a different culture. They consider themselves as Brazilians, nothing more, nothing less, and they are very proud of their country. So, my advise : never say to a Brazilian that he's a Latino, he will be very angry with you! ;-)

I also want to add that I didn't like São Paulo at all in the beginning : the city is too big, the people are more stressed and a bit less friendly than in Argentina and Chile and it rains all the time. Like seriously, it has rained every day since I've arrived here!
Anyway, now, 4 weeks later, I really like this city and I like it more every day. Nothing of what I just mentioned above is wrong, but the better you get to know the city and the people, the more you have to like it. My friend Héloïse feels just the same as me. It's not like Buenos Aires which was amazing from the first moment, São Paulo only gets beautiful when you start finding the nice places and the nice people but then it grows on you and I already know that I will miss this place very much when I have to leave again.

There are many more things to say and to know about this country, but for now, that's all I got. I'll write again as soon as I know more.

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Since I last wrote about my life in SP, it's been 3 1/2 months and a lot has changed in that time and I've learned a lot about Brazil.

In these last months, the girls in our house changed a lot, every month there were new people, but always with the same problems. At the beginning I thought, everybody's nice, quite clean and respectful. Actually, the opposite is the case. The girls I lived with are incredibly dirty : shower always dirty, water everywhere, hair everywhere and toilet never flushed ; the kitchen is disgusting if I don't clean it every few hours, etc. There have been clothes stolen too and these girls have just no respect. Everyone knows that the walls are made of paper and if you talk loud in the kitchen, no one in the rooms around will be able to sleep. They don't care at all, some people cook until midnight and talk loudly as if they were here alone. It's really really bad to live here! The apartment on itself isn't great but ok ; it's very cold in winter and very hot in summer and when it rains a lot, the kitchen is full of water, but hey, not THAT bad right ?
The only good thing in this apartment are my friends Regiane and Juliana. We have a great time together, go out a lot - not for long, just for a beer or something -, watch movies together, go to parcs, etc. Camilla turned out to be completely crazy and Beatriz as well. Beatriz moved out after a few months, fortunately. She was sooo respectless, talking loudly in the kitchen all night, waking up all the girls in her room all the time, etc. Camilla was away for a few weeks and when she came back she had lost her job, she's drinking and smoking weed a lot and behaving like a crazy person. Everything she does is just to get attention, very annoying.
We had some other completely crazy people and some really unfriendly girls here as well.
I must say, I have never lived in a worse place and that means a lot coming from me...

My work at USP was very nice at the beginning, I liked the University City very much, very green and spacious. There were only 2 bad things : the air-conditioning in the library was cold as a freezer and my faculty (FFLCH) went on a strike in the beginning of May and never stopped it until now (2 months later)... So no way for me to work there anymore or access the books which kind of sucks if you're here to benefit from the books you don't have in your home university... Well, I managed to finish my work anyway fortunately.

About Brazil, I learned that all administration and bureaucracy is awful and everything is complicated here. After coming back from a short trip from Uruguay, I learned that europeans don't get another 90 days the second time they come into the country and at the federal police they told me it's impossible to get another 90 days as a european tourist which is strange because there they had told my friend Héloise 1 month earlier that it's no problem at all...
Now I suddenly needed a visa to stay and fortunately I was still doing physiotherapy here and so I could get a "health-visa". Sounds easy, but quite a procedure to get all papers ; all very annoying and time-consuming. This kind of took the charm of Brazil.

On the other hand, I learned that Brazilian people are just amazing, very open, friendly and good. I met a lot of nice people who helped me where they could, be it my friend and physiotherapist Mariely, my friends here in our house, Regiane and Juliana, my collegues at USP like Bruno and his sister Roberta or my friends at the dancing school SoulArte where I took dancing lessons (Tango, Forró, Salsa, Bachata, Zouk).
Besides, Brazil has some beautiful and amazing places to offer, like Chapada dos Veadeiros.
All of this makes up for the troubles I had here, but in the end I'm not sad to leave.
SP is for me just too big, too hectic and I swear time here passes double as fast as on other places in this world!
So my conclusion is that it's really worth to visit the country, to get to know the people here and enjoy their kindness, but that on the other hand one has to be prepared that everything concerning administration and bureaucracy is just difficult and annoying.

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