Fourth Largest City

[jrising]

I returned to São Paulo, to the same hostel I slept at when I arrived by plane three months ago. I was surprised by how reminiscent everything felt. The way I struggled with my Portuguese with the deskworker felt the same, with few new strengths and few fewer weaknesses. I went to the large grocery store, and if I could feel that my sense of bewilderment was less, it wasn't much less: I moved through those aisles with similar confidence and similar confusion three months ago. I spoke with the same mouth, heard with the same ears, saw with the same eyes.

I was there for a week and met a bunch of travelers, but balancing in work and preparing for the beta release of the Travelers Network, I didn't have so much time to explore the city. The last few days, however, I met some folks from England, and played the tourist with them. Except, now I was the one explaining Brazil: showing them what to try, telling what I knew of the elections happening this weekend, translating words around then city. When they wanted to try a comida-por-kilo, I just went and asked some locals where one was. When they went the get tickets, I tried to explain the dizzying array of options and help them at the counter. I was their first Brazilian.

I'm now back in Rio, and glad to be out of the smog.

I was also reunited with my camera! Here are some pics:

São Bento Stained Glass	São Paulo, from high up	Catedral de Sé
Goldleaf in Catedral de Sé	Lake in Parque de Ipiranga	Out a Window
Hotel Unique	Green-Covered Wall	Vila Madalena Mural
Vila Madalena Mural	Vila Madalena Mural	Vila Madalena Mural
More murals we can't see	Vila Madalena Cemetery	Expensive "Poor Family" Monument