First week

It´s Monday and I just returned from a weekend trip to São Sebastião and Ilha Bela... São Sebastião is city on the coast of São Paulo state (1 1/2 hours away, 2 1/2 hours by bus + traffic)... from the port of São Sebastião one can take a ferry over to Ilha Bela to visit beautiful beaches and pousadas. The trip was awesome... a little crazy... but awesome. We couldn't find anywhere to stay on Friday night because it was high tourist season (tourists from São Paulo city mainly) and so we spent most of the night out in clubs and then slept on the beach. On Satruday night six AIESECERs drove up to visit and eight of us slept in a house we rented for $R20/person. The amazing thing is that I ended up spending so much more money than expected, even with spending only $R10/loding for the night (yeah, it's free to sleep on the beach from 5:00-6:30 am, lol). I got home last night at about 10 PM completly exhausted and looking forward to nothing more than food, shower and sleep... little did I know that the entire family would be waiting for me, as well as the neighborhood Priest, to have a formal dinner. The end result of that experience is that I´m going to mass tonight for the first time in my life.... Should be interesting... at least it counts as community involvement.
Here's some commentary about the prevous week:

Brazilian Portuguese is extremly fun to learn... they're pretty big into abbreviations, especially with "estar." So instead of saying "está," it's "tá." They rarely use the word "yes." If someone asks you a question, to respond in the affirmative they use the verb right back. Example:
English: Q: Is she thirsty? A: Yeah
Portuguese: Q: Ela tá com sede? A: Tá
I'm still extremly far away to pull off these kinds of sounds: "pão," "ção" in every day conversation. Portuguse has a certain rythm to it, while English is just super flat in comparrison.

I'm also taking Capoeira* classes from a Carioca (Rio-born) instructor. He's around 40 but has been playing Capoeira for 25 years, so it's not surprising that he looks about a decade younger than he really is. The first class was quite interesting... he went into a bit about how in many locations Capoeira is romanticized and few people give the art credit actually being quite dangerous (example: he warned to be careful whom you play with, as someone really end up hurting you if you). To demonstrate the "darker" side of Capoeira he called forth a man (who we speculate is his apprentice), and without warning, jump-kicked him square in the chest. In a further demonstartion, as the two were playing, from the ground he kicked the man in the back of his legs, causing him to fall on his back. It was a little intense, I'm sure the look on our faces was priceless.
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capoeira

My visit to São Paulo was hassel-free... it took them about 5 min to fix my passport and correct the visa information. I went with a Brazilian friend from ITA who had three different stops to make around the city, so most of the day was spent walking around, getting on and off the metro. I really like São Paulo, I'm sure I'll be back soon for more.

Bank of Brazil (Banco do Brasil) headquarters.

Japanese newspapers in Libertade, São Paulo's Japanese neighborhood.