Post 2: First Day

The past few days have felt so long, but at the same time, they have been incredible. 

I arrived at Boston airport Thursday morning, and waited there for several hours until meeting up with the majority of our group outside our terminal. While I met everyone, introducing myself to the people I will come to know over the next 30 days, I was simultaneously slightly nervous and very excited at the same time. But as I kept talking to everyone, I realized how nice everyone was and I began to focus only on my excitement. 

Our flight to Newark ended up getting delayed several hours because of storms in the New York area. When we arrived in Newark finally, we found out that our flight to Sao Paulo was delayed until the next morning, and we were all prepared to sleep in the hotel overnight. By this point, we were all exhausted, but it was great bonding experience to be stuck together for so long. We ran around the airport looking for food, waited in line at United Airlines for several hours, and talked. Eventually, Professor Pfluger managed to find us a hotel, which was so awesome of her. We took Uber, and we made it to the hotel where we slept the night. In the morning, we had breakfast at the hotel restaurant (which happened to have "The World's Largest Pickle Bar" which we thought was hilarious at 2am running on just a few hours of sleep), and then headed back to the airport in the morning. When we got on the plane, our flight was delayed yet another hour, but then we were in the air! We arrived at Sao Paulo late Friday night, roughly 12 hours behind schedule. Although the whole experience was exhausting, I wouldn't have changed a minute of it. I feel like I've gotten to know everyone so well because of it. 

Saturday was amazing. We started off the day with a tour of Beco do Batman, an area in our neighborhood of Vila Madalena completely filled with street art. Everything was just as, if not more colorful and vibrant than I imagined it would be. 

From here, we visited the Benedito Calixto street fair. This flea market had everything from antique tools to handmade scarves, fried food to watercolor paintings. I was a bit nervous at first to order food and talk in Portuguese, but I ended up just going for it and it was an amazing time. I bought a really cool handmade necklace and coconut water right from the coconut.

We walked to the Museo do Futbol next. This was such a cool experience learning about the history of soccer in Brazil, and it also happened to have a wonderful view. 

We finished off our first day with a dinner at a traditional Brazilian Steakhouse where I tried a bunch of new foods (including quail eggs and chicken hearts), and a visit to a local bar in Vila Madalena. Living in Sao Paulo has been a fantastic experience so far, and I am so excited to keep learning about this in this country for the next 30 days!