ive been workin...like a dog.

So IHP days are so jam packed that it is amazing i even get on this blog sometimes. So on Monday, our first day of school here in Sao Paulo we had neighborhood day. My neighborhood happened to be Berrini, which isnt even on the map they all gave us. By the way, Sao Paulo is the biggest city you could possibly ever imagine. Maps do no justice and they have no idea how many people live here but estimates are about 11 million. And public transportation is very poorly set up so to get to my off-the-map neighborhood, we had to take about 3 buses and a metro...which took about 2 hours. The neighborhood is the new financial district so we walked along the main road which is all tall, modern buildings housing corporations like Nestle and At&t. But behind these buildings are the fevelas that used to occupy the area (fevelas are slums, shantytowns) but those were mostly destroyed to make room for the corporations and the ones that are left are "hidden" by the buildings. Public transportation in this particular neighborhood is almost nonexistent since business people either use cars or helicopters (no joke, helicopter is a legit way to get around the city). We walked for miles in the hot sun taking pictures for our presentation and at the other end of the road (maybe...5 miles?) we took a train, then a bus, and then about 4 metro lines to get home. Geez!

Today we had to do our neighborhood presentations and watch other peoples´. Then we had two guest speakers who talked about transportation in Sao Paulo. Everyone drives here which is a problem since the roads arent getting bigger but people are buying no cars. Hours are wasted driving to work and such and the metro/buses are illogical and almost impractical since they barely even cover the main part of Sao Paulo. Then we were divided into groups and given random addresses on Paulista Avenue to go to and report on what we saw there. We were also required to talk to 5 people about what they were doing on Paulista at that time, where they live, etc. So my group went out and we first ended up at a cultural center that has a theater and a gallery and on top is corporate offices. Then we ended up at MAST, a renowned musuem. Well actually, half the group went inside and half of us talked to the people hanging out outide the museum since that seems to be where artists and general vagabonds hang out. We talked to a guy selling his poetry and then we talked to some crazy hippie traveling across Brazil selling jewelry who offered us a joint. Not today man! I dont even know how we talked to him since he spoke no english and we speak pretty much no portuguese. Then things were getting late and we had to go to our random meeting place (these were all just addresses we were blindly given). The building was a kind of cultural center and the elevators sucked so some of us took the stairs....all the way to the 15th floor! Woo, work out for the day. The 15th floor was the roof and there was a cafe and tables and japanese style sitting and stuff. What a freakin relief. So we talked about our experiences on Paulista. Then chaos ensued as everyone realized that we were all together and could potentially go out together...but it was only 6 and some people had to go home for dinner and some people wanted to go to bars and...bleh. My roommate was hungry though and we only have one key so we went home...which is where I am now.

Oh yeah, sorry for lack of pictures. Its actually kind of dangerous to walk around Sao Paulo with a camera, let alone a really nice digital one. So I dont take it out that much. And it takes a while to upload pictures so...