Monday, July 30, 2012

Explore your city!

So after the last post, I need to get every updated on all the "things" we've been doing here in Sao Paulo!

1. Intensive Portuguese classes every morning. Really starting to pick up on this language. Definitely not fluent yet but 5 hours of Portuguese every morning and then being surrounded by it in the city and at home has made life here much easier!

2. Beco de Batman "Batman Alley". You'll see some of the pictures in my album link posted below. A very neat graffiti area in the city. The artists come by and change their art as they please and when an artist passes away, their last piece of art stays there forever.

3. National Soccer Museum. Definitely one of the highlights of my week. In Brazil, soccer is king, so it was neat to see the museum. Very interactive, lots of highlight reels, intense and energetic stadium clips, 3D soccer movies, and lots of displays about what Brazil specifically means to the sport. I was going to walk away with some gifts from the gift shop but the cheapest thing I wanted was a good $150USD so I decided to withhold so I could eat this week haha.

4. Sao Paulo cultural center. A great place for studying with a rooftop for relaxing. Neat architecture and lots of spaces for concerts and art exhibits.

5. Liberdade. Asian neighborhood with great sushi (although I'm not a fan) and even better markets for bargain shopping and delicious food.

6. Praca Por do Sol. We went to a nice park to watch the sunset before stopping for a nice dinner.

I also got a chance to go to the Orthodox Cathedral for church on Sunday. It was beautiful! A beautiful church and it was nice to have some familiarity in my life once again, with a church service very similar to home...although it was in Portuguese, not Greek how I'm used to. It was only two subway stops away from my house so I'm pretty pumped that I'll get to go every Sunday.

If there's anything that I would encourage everyone to do who's been reading this blog is...EXPLORE YOUR HOME CITY!!! Seeing the ins and outs of Sao Paulo has made me regret not exploring my own city, Cincinnati, as much as I could have. I got so caught up in doing what I did normally, that I never even ventured to places like the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Krohn Conservatory, the Bourbon Trail or the Aquarium. Even places like Mt. Adams, the Zoo, and OTR I've only been to a time or two. I really think the more you explore your own city, the more you will love it, at least that's how I've felt here in Sao Paulo, my new city.

Here's the link to the lastest edition of my album: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4395556969812.180697.1315085436&type=3&l=d5bc6c0f97

1 comment:

  1. I totally know what you mean about exploring your own city! I feel the same way - putting so much effort into weekend trips to new cities, but spending hardly any time on my city back home!

    ReplyDelete