It's been a little while since my last post where I blogged about my trip to Florianopolis, Brazil. Since then I've become much more accustomed to living in Brazil and have started to form some initial opinions of both São Paulo and Brazil in general.
The best way I can describe São Paulo is a 24 hour living city. While I've had a chance to spend a little time in major US cities like Los Angeles and New York, and even spent some time in Europe, I have never experienced the feel of a 24 hour city like São Paulo, or most of the places I've been in Brazil for that matter. São Paulo is kind of unique in Brazil, in that it is the financial and economic center of Brazil, and in many ways like the NY of Brazil.
It's where people go to work hard and create a career for themselves. At the same time, São Paulo is like many other Latin American cities in that at 11pm, when most people in the US would be going to bed, the city seems like it is just waking up. On almost any day of the week you can find lots of people out walking around, having conversations at bars and restraunts, or at clubs until the sun comes up. I've never personally been much of a night owl, but I find that in Brazil, its hard not to be.
One of the things I find amazing about Brazil is how organic it feels in many ways. While Brazil doesn't always appear as structured as I feel things are in the US, it definitely has its own unique feel and culture that I've become accustomed to.
One of the things that I can't leave out of this post is how amazing the people of Brazil have been. In almost every case they've been warm, patient, and happy people. While I'm not fluent in Portuguese by any means, I have made an honest attempt to speak Portugues, and that seems to go very far when I'm looking for directions, buying something at the grocery store, or trying to order something off a menu. Brazilians seem happy to have an American gringo in their country and eager to share their culture and language.
My next trip will be to Montevideo, Uruguay and Buenos Aires, Argentina. I'm very excited about both trips and can hardly wait to share my experiences.
If there's something specific you'd like me to blog about, please let me know. I'd be happy to share and will try to post more regularly.
