I am in Sao Paulo on business (does anyone come here on vacation?) and we are staying in an area called Morumbi. That crazy yellow bridge thing is right outside our hotel. It seems to be a pretty nice area of town. I am surprised and not surprised by how much Sao Paolo reminds me of Buenos Aires. Here are some similarities:
1. The smell. It smells like BA. The second I stepped off the plane I was like wow. It got me thinking. Does America have a smell? Does it change by region?
2. They both want me to pee or crap my pants. As a missionary in BA, I was always trying to find a bathroom in time before I crapped myself, or I would have to pee in a field for need of a toilet. Yesterday I almost peed my pants in the ridiculous traffic from the airport to the hotel 2 1/2 hours to go 1/2 hours distance).
3. Grocery stores are exactly the same with the same crazy candies, sodas, yogurts, etc. The only difference is Brazil seems to have better fruits. Or at least a greater variety.
4. Slums right next to the rich. We in America like to segregate our poor from the rich by sticking our many middle class people in between them. But SP and BA, with a much smaller middle class, keeps the two groups close. Huge, beautiful high rise apartment buildings with a slum across the street.
Differences? Well, the language duh. Portuguese sounds a lot like a person speaking Spanish with a really annoying lisp. You can understand it, but you have to work harder cause they have that unfortunate lisp.
Okay, my iPad is dying so I must go. Oh yeah, both countries have that annoying change in plugs and I don't have a converter with me. Boo!
2 comments:
I forgot another similarity. Drivers suck here. Its like they all learned how to drive a the "Bumper Car Driver's Training School". We got hit three times in our drive from the airport to hotel. people just drive off. A common occurance in BA as well.
Wait... but isn't it beautiful? I want to go to there.
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