domingo, 22 de março de 2009

Crescendo, aprendendo e final de lua-de-mel

Over the past couple weeks I've become nearly-completely familiar with Arujá, and in doing so have realized a lot of what I came to Brazil to see or do lie beyond this town. So I've been numerous little jaunts into São Paulo proper, Mogi or Guarolhos - usually without any sort of plan or motive, but simply to explore. Luckily, Brazilians are gregarious and meeting people and making friends isn't too hard.

I've recently made visits to Liberdade (pronounced: lee-bur-dadge) São Paulo's huge Japanese immigrant burrough, Avenida Paulista - the city's vibrant cosmopolitan main avenue and historic home street to the city's original coffee barons, and Vinte Cinco de Março - the crazy-loud open street market, swamped with skeevy vendors and go-go-rush-rush Paulistas.

Liberdade is a lot like the two or three East Asian districts of other large cities I've had the chance to see: half-tourist oriented, half-immigrant oriented, distinct culture from the rest of the city, countless good restaurants and in keeping with the positive stereotype, a relatively calm and orderly atmosphere. A lot of the students from the nearby university like to congregate after classes in the late afternoon on the steps just outside the entrance to Liberdade's subway station. At about 5pm the area is buzzing with lots of young people, street vendors elderly Japanese folks and the buzz of people a thousand or so people happy to be relaxing in a the area of one city block--Liberdade is the neighborhood where I've so far got the most pleasant vibe in São Paulo.

However, Liberdade is the only place in São Paulo where I've seen any sort of violence. In short, a young street kid was caught stealing by a vendor. The vendor grabbed the kid - about ten - by the collar, swung and shook him hard to loosen him and his struggle, and once the kid was limp, while still holding the kid's collar with his left hand, the vendor socked him in the face three times with his right, then threw him on his butt on the sidewalk. The kid, got up cursed, spat, threw a piece of trash, which hit the vendor, then turned and ran. I saw his eyes were already swelling when he ran past me, but he was absolutely not crying, just angry at having been punched in the face and probaly becase he got caught instead of making off with the candy or whatever. Those are some tough, sad young kids.

Avenida Paulista is a whole 'nother animal. It's wide, clean and penned in by high-rises on both sides. The sidewalks are abour 15meters wide, the major financial institutions of Brazil have their headquarters there, young people walk fast in suits with briefcases and eat standing up. São Paulo is rightly considered the most international of Brazilian cities and whether or not that makes it less traditionally Brazilian is possible, but almost all of the justification for this consideration can be found on Avenida Paulista--you can hear English, Spanish, German and Chinese on a 15 minute walk from the Brigadeiro metro station to the Cultural Library. Avenida Paulista is interesting in the way the busiest parts of New York, London and Frankfurt probably are: the fast pace of life in every economic center of globalizing nations and how aggressive and unreal it seems to those of us who aren't a part of it.

Vinte cinco de Março is loud, cramped, dirty, smoky, pushy and, even though loaded with crowd control cops in big boots with clubs, one of the worst places in São Paulo for theft. Most of the stuff laid out on the black velvet covered tables is the sort of cheaply made in China tack you'd expect: neon yellow and pink toys that stick to walls, electric fly swatters, chrome painted plastic jewelry, knock offs and pirated dvds. In truth, I don't care much for Vinte Cinco de Março, but I do have to get through it to make it to Mercado Municipal. Mercado Municipal is a very high-ceilinged warehous that has been converted to a food market. It's booth style like Pike Place Market in Seattle, but more cramped, and laid out like a winding grid as opposed to a single line. The are huge greasy Mortadella sandwich stands, salted Baccalhau fish, every kind of Portuguese sausage and wine, cooked and seasoned nuts, fruits that look like props from science fiction movies and all sorts of handmade cheese. As a foody, it is one of the best places to spend a long time browsing, looking at the way Brazilian ingredients have come together with the cuisines of various immigrant populations.

I also had the chance to visit Uberlândia in Minas Gerais in order to sort out my visa with the federal police. For being a city with about 500,000 people, Uberlândia is very calm clean and free of traffic. Especially compared with the folks of São Paulo, the people of Uberlândia seemed quite laid-back. The city also boasts a pretty park with some capivara. It was a nice day that was unfortunately bookended with 8 hour bus rides.

4 comentários:

  1. I was just starting to wonder when you might post another update. It sounds like you're having a great time, makes me wish I was traveling right now!

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  2. Kris,

    On behalf of all who have gone through first-year Spanish... thank you. If you remember the "animals" section of Sr. Marsh's textbook, it went something like this:

    "Perro" = "Dog"
    "Gato" = "Cat"
    "Tigre" = "Tiger"
    "Cocodrilo" = "Crocodile"
    "Capybara" = "Capybara"

    You can imagine the hysteria of that last entry. You might even remember it. So again, thank you - thank you for clearing the air. And also, thank you for providing a photo that not only shows what a Capybara is, but also how they dive.

    P.S. For future posts, Antje requests more personal stories, anecdotes, and innuendo

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  3. Hi Kris, thanks for all the awesome photos of the places and things you have seen. Living vicariously through you from the front desk--

    -D

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