São Paulo day 1

Day 1 in São Paulo actually started when we landed at 10:30pm Brazil time. We were all tired and hungry and lost in a world that none of us had any idea on where to go or what to do. Luckily, after passing through customs in Brazil, we meet a man named Eduardo. This man was not only our ride to the Hotel we are staying at, but it turns out he is our own personal tour guide. We all ended up staying up late that night because we were all so hungry we ordered room service because it was the only thing open in our area.

 When we woke up, we were gifted with a traditional Brazilian breakfast and prepared ourselves for traveling into the down town district of São Paulo. When Eduardo showed up, we were all eager to jump into the bus and explore the city. We made our first stop at a museum dedicated to the Brazilian independence from Portugal. The name of the museum was Paulista Museum and is modeled after the Palace of Versailles in France. This is because there is a beautiful garden in the front and in the back of this enormous house. The front of the garden is a large statue that we were able to snap many of the first pictures of the trip. Walking up the garden you begin to get a sense of how large this house really is. As we entered the house we learned about life in Brazil in the 1800's, and many artifacts from that time era. This was a perfect first stop for us for many reasons. The most important one was that it set the stage for our adventure to the downtown part of the city. Secondly, it gave us a chance to really bond with each other.

Our next stop of the day would be a trip to a market place in downtown São Paulo. This market place reminded us of Grand Central Station if it was filled with different stands selling everything and anything you could possibly want. We spent some time walking around this market in awe because it was our first real experience in the life of many São Paulo citizens. We decided to eat some lunch in a restaurant that overlooked this market and gave us some extra time to talk with Eduardo. We were able to learn so much from that man about the daily life of many people there. The poverty that these people live in is extreme, and scary.

After lunch we were all anxious to shop in the stores surrounding the market, but we were advised by Eduardo to not go for our safety. If I said we weren’t upset about this, I would be lying, but we were able to go to the large mall only two blocks away from our hotel. The mall was massive and had lots of high end stores that were amazing for some great window shopping. A few of the girls were able to come away with some hidden treasures still. At the mall, we were able to get some needed waters and chips for our rooms.

As the day light became darkness, we decided to go to Outback Steak House located at the mall we went to earlier in the day. Yes, we went to a chain restaurant abroad, but we had the most amazing time of our lives. Let me start by saying, we didn’t know how good we had it when Eduardo was with us. It was not until this point we realized the major language barrier here. it was interesting trying to get a table but with a little bit of a wait we got seated. We had not one but two waiters working our table and the manager working with us too. After the headache of trying to get our orders right, we had some time to speak with the manager. He told us that we were dinning in the third most successful Outback Steak House in the WORLD. This was due to the intense marketing campaign the company does in Brazil. We also asked the man how frequently they get a group of English speaking people dinning at the restaurant. this was because it seemed like a big ordeal to cross the language barrier and until then it was never such a big deal. The manager informed us that they get one table a week at the most. Surprising, or not, we defied all odds and our orders made it to the table successfully.

 We shared some great stories over dinner and had some amazing laughs. If every day during our time in Brazil is amazing and as knowledgeable as this day, then this may be the best trip of our lives.

Let’s end with the quote of the day, "One on the lips, Forever on the hips"

Joseph A.Parziale Jr