1. playing at a park 2. Gabi and Gu 3. Praca da Se 4.View from Andersons

So here we are in Brazil we are in our second location now. We spent five days in Sao Paulo and our schedule looked like this, on Wednesday we spent the day at Dre’s house. We got in really early at 8:30 and had been traveling all the day before. We left our house in California at 11am and our flight left LAX at 2:35 on May 29. We first flew to Houston and had an hour layover, just enough time to get to the next flight and get a little food. When we got to the gate in Houston we remembered that we had three seats all over the plane but when we tried to change it in LA they said all seats were full. They were boarding when we arrived to the gate so we got in line to speak to a ticket agent and figured she would tell us to try and change with people on the plane but at least we could get a gate check for our stroller. The agent was really nice and told us we should get a onepass, because after flying to Brazil once we would have enough miles to fly primer. She also got us three seats together in a flash, we didn’t ask any questions and just went on our way. When we got down the runway and started looking for our seats we found out we had the best seats, we got the first row, bulkhead seats the middle three all together. Oh yeah and on our first flight we met some really nice guys from Brazil who had been on business in Las Vegas, they were two brothers and they asked us if we were Brazilian because we had two kids books from Brazil. When we said no, they just started talking to us, one of the guys told us about his son who is Gabriella’s age and they found out about our plans and wanted to tell us about where they live. They live in the southern state of Brazil and pretty much convinced us to go there, but we are going to go there in August because he said it is 4C=40F now so we asked if it would get warmer at the end of our trip and he said yes. When we arrived in Brazil, the next day May 30, he gave us his card with his home number and cell number written on it. Oh, yeah and when we got to the customs and started to go to the foreigners line some people who were working the lines to help said oh no Brazilians go over there, we told them we weren’t Brazilians. Then they told us to go to the small line for the pilots and flight attendants because we had a kid, so that was really nice too.

In Sao Paulo we pretty much just slept the first day and went to the mall for dinner. Gabriella loved their little dog, Tony, and would run around after him and try to pet him, and eventually he got fed up with it and nipped her hand (it wasn’t bleeding or anything, and we couldn’t even see a mark). We thought it was great, so that Gabriella wouldn’t bug him any more. Gabi was a little traumatized, but she got over it. We ended up going to Andre’s brother, Anderson’s, apartment to sleep. He and Andre kept trying to figure out how to get extra mattresses and blankets and stuff to make us more comfortable, and to figure out which room we should go in, but we finally convinced them we didn’t need anything extra and went to the apartment. On Thursday we didn’t get moving until about 12 noon, the first thing we did was get some lunch, pizza. Pizza is really popular in Brazil, but it is very different than pizza in the States, pizza here does not have to have cheese, but the pizza we got on Thursday was just cheese and boy was it a lot of cheese. After eating we when to a park and Gabi played on the slide and teeter-totter, then we got on a bus to the train (Gabriella has so far loved every train and bus that we’ve been on) and went to the Praca da Se. We walked around a bit and got a little coffee at a soda at a little streetside bar, more like a café just a little place open to street. After that we headed to Mastre Suassuna’s academy, we got there early so we got some food at a little place on the corner near the academy. Then Nate went and practiced for a bit and we headed home with Dre on the train and bus.

On Friday we woke up late again and I (Shelley) wasn’t feeling very well so I slept quite a bit while Nate and Gabi played with playdough and toys. Around 2 we headed to Avenida Paulista and found a bank to get some money and looked into getting a cell phone which we thought would be a good idea. But really isn’t because they don’t have nation wide plans so whenever we go to another state we would have to pay roaming or get a new card for our phone with a whole new number. Maybe if we find somewhere we want to stay awhile we might think about it again, but for now it really isn’t a good idea. We got a little snack of bread and coffee and rested a bit, before walking around and thought we would wait for Dre to get off work because he works near there but he said he had to stay at work late so we decided to head home. When we transferred trains there were so many people we decided to get off and get some dinner, we walked around Praca da Se again and found a place to get some dinner, we thought we were set but when dinner arrived I had a plate of rice and fries and Nate had a plate of rice with a steak, Nate asked where the beans we ordered were and the guy said they had run out, but he could bring us a salad. I thought that this was ridiculous! How could they run out of beans in Brazil! So we had to settle for a salad, which was good, and rice. Gabi ate a ton of Nate’s steak and a ton of rice too.
After our meal we hopped back on the subway, to the bus, to Anderson’s apartment. When we got back, Anderson, his son Gu, Andre and their sister Adriana were all hanging out at the apartment. Gabriella and Gu played together for a little bit, but when the two of them got together it was pretty hit or miss, especially at first. They would do the classic kid thing where no matter how many toys there were in the room, they each had to play with the same one, no matter what it was. Gu got really mad and said he wanted Gabriella to go back to the United States. It was pretty funny.
The next day, Nate and Gabi got up and went to get bread. This is one of Gabi’s favorite stories to tell. She says “Me and Daddy went to the store, and Daddy went to the wrong store and Daddy couldn’t find any bread, and then Gu and Anderson got the bread!” She get’s really excited when she tells it. Nate forgot which way to go to the Panadaria (bakery) and went to a little market that didn’t sell bread, and as they were walking to the other store Anderson drove up with lots of bread. So we had delicious fresh bread for breakfast.
This takes us up to saturday, and we´ll post again soon, and hopefully bring everything up to date.