Post 9: Barbecue and Shopping

We started the day off with a presentation given by Litro do Luz. This organization creates street lights and portable lamps out of solar panels and plastic bottles and donates them to under-developed villages and neighborhoods in Brazil. Tomorrow we will be doing a workshop at their headquarters where we make a few of these lights in groups. The presenters showed several videos about where the lights are implemented and how the whole system works. It was really cool to see where our help will be going to.

We finished a bit early, so we had time to chill in the hostel while we waited for lunch. It was nice to have time to just relax and do nothing with the group. I feel like I've gotten to know everyone so well, and I cannot believe that it's only been a week. We just sat around talking to each other and it felt as though we had all known each other for months at least. The barbecue was awesome. The food was really good, and again, it was great to just be able to relax and talk with the group.

After lunch, a group of girls and I went with Professor Pfluger to a shopping district of Sao Paulo -- a street called Rua Oscar Freire. She called it "the Newbury Street of Sao Paulo," and I think that this was a very accurate title for it. All of the stores were high-end, the restaurants were fancy and expensive, everything was walkable, and the whole atmosphere was really cool. There are, of course, differences between Boston and Sao Paulo's shopping scene, but it was interesting to see that we do have a lot in common.

One of the coolest stores we went into was a store dedicated to solely flip-flops. They had every color, pattern, and Disney character imaginable. 

There was also a huge sunglasses store where we tried on a bunch of weird looks. All of the glasses had these reflective colors. They were really cool but also weird and very, very expensive. 

One of the last stores we went into was a shoe store that had the craziest entrance I have ever seen in my life. We almost got lost going in, and well, I'll let the photos and video speak for themselves.