Hard to believe that a year in India has come and gone, as have three months visiting with family and friends in the U.S. After much preparation, including, but not limited to, grant applications, courses, preliminary field work over two summers, networking with Brazilian scholars, I am finally in Brazil for my dissertation research!
As one of the grants that I was fortunate enough to get was the Fulbright, I was invited to participate in an orientation seminar in Sao Paulo. It was a truly great way to start out my year here in Brazil.
Sao Paulo itself is an absolutely mammoth city. Upon flying in, you are greeted or confronted, depending on your perspective, by skyscrapers as far as the eye can see. Literally.
It is a very fast paced city. And very expensive, even for someone coming from the US. In many of the nicer neighborhoods, it is actually more on par with what I remember of Italy in terms of cost of living.
As a group of about 30 Fulbrighters, we were in Sao Paulo (SP) for 4-5 days. Most days were spent with practical overviews, talks about safety, health, but also time for a variety of group networking opportunities. And like many things the world over, networking happens over drinks and dinner!
We also did a bit of site seeing, checking out the Pinacoteca museum. Going to art museum is one of my favorite things to do in a foreign city. I feel like I just get a great insight into what's going on in local art, and who are major domestic artists, that might not make it to US museums. Below are some things I liked:
Tocando, cantando no campo. This will be Jo and I pretty shortly...I just need to get a cool hat.
It took a while for us to figure out that this giant cardboard structure was part of the art work. Those artists, always trying to fool you.
Interesting sculpture with very Brazilian features.
We also checked out the central market, which was pretty amazing.
I don't think anyone was brave enough, but our tour guide on the bus told us that there would be a sandwich there that we might like. It was a roast beef sandwich. After he told us about it, one of our Fulbright folks stood up and clarified that this was a sandwich for someone that REALLY REALLY REALLY liked roast beef. He wasn't kidding, I have never, ever, ever, seen anything like this. I wish I had gotten a photo (actually I don't because it was disgusting), but I'm convinced one would need to have jaws like an Amazonian snake, i.e. detachable, in order to confront this feat.
Ok, after writing that, I realized I needed to find an image. With the search terms: sandwich, Sao Paulo, mercardo, Google Images came up with this:
Sorry. I just had to do it. Feel free to be sick now. Oh, and the sandwich is called a 'mortadella', which I will offer a joking translation of 'the death of her' (not quite, mixing Spanish and Portuguese, but that's what it should mean).
My attempt at being artsy: in the mercado there were two floors, one of which had thick opaque glass. It was quite a surprise when I looked up and saw these ethereal foot steps. The photo didn't quite come out how I envisioned it, but so it goes.
No artsy-ness here. Joke. Just a view of the building next door from my hotel room. A beautiful sunset to end the first steps in Sao Paulo.
As one of the grants that I was fortunate enough to get was the Fulbright, I was invited to participate in an orientation seminar in Sao Paulo. It was a truly great way to start out my year here in Brazil.
Sao Paulo itself is an absolutely mammoth city. Upon flying in, you are greeted or confronted, depending on your perspective, by skyscrapers as far as the eye can see. Literally.
It is a very fast paced city. And very expensive, even for someone coming from the US. In many of the nicer neighborhoods, it is actually more on par with what I remember of Italy in terms of cost of living.
As a group of about 30 Fulbrighters, we were in Sao Paulo (SP) for 4-5 days. Most days were spent with practical overviews, talks about safety, health, but also time for a variety of group networking opportunities. And like many things the world over, networking happens over drinks and dinner!
We also did a bit of site seeing, checking out the Pinacoteca museum. Going to art museum is one of my favorite things to do in a foreign city. I feel like I just get a great insight into what's going on in local art, and who are major domestic artists, that might not make it to US museums. Below are some things I liked:
Atlas shrugged
Tocando, cantando no campo. This will be Jo and I pretty shortly...I just need to get a cool hat.
It took a while for us to figure out that this giant cardboard structure was part of the art work. Those artists, always trying to fool you.
Interesting sculpture with very Brazilian features.
We also checked out the central market, which was pretty amazing.
Stained glass over market stalls
The market was just an absolute blur of activity with folks buying fruit, eating lunch, and just mingling
Purty stained glass closeup
I don't think anyone was brave enough, but our tour guide on the bus told us that there would be a sandwich there that we might like. It was a roast beef sandwich. After he told us about it, one of our Fulbright folks stood up and clarified that this was a sandwich for someone that REALLY REALLY REALLY liked roast beef. He wasn't kidding, I have never, ever, ever, seen anything like this. I wish I had gotten a photo (actually I don't because it was disgusting), but I'm convinced one would need to have jaws like an Amazonian snake, i.e. detachable, in order to confront this feat.
Ok, after writing that, I realized I needed to find an image. With the search terms: sandwich, Sao Paulo, mercardo, Google Images came up with this:
Sorry. I just had to do it. Feel free to be sick now. Oh, and the sandwich is called a 'mortadella', which I will offer a joking translation of 'the death of her' (not quite, mixing Spanish and Portuguese, but that's what it should mean).
My attempt at being artsy: in the mercado there were two floors, one of which had thick opaque glass. It was quite a surprise when I looked up and saw these ethereal foot steps. The photo didn't quite come out how I envisioned it, but so it goes.
No artsy-ness here. Joke. Just a view of the building next door from my hotel room. A beautiful sunset to end the first steps in Sao Paulo.
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