Bem-vindo a São Paulo!

Just a few days in Sao Paulo and it has already been so eventful. This is my first experience going abroad for an extended period of time and by myself. I had no idea what to expect. My thought as I was departing the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) was, “What am I doing??” I was leaving my home and everything that is familiar for a country I have never been to, full of people I don’t know, and where I can’t even speak the language. “Nervous” doesn’t even begin to describe the emotions that were rushing through me.

But finally, I arrived. I safely made it to the Sao Paulo Guarulhos International Airport (GRU) and right as I walked out of the exit, I was kindly greeted by my host Thais, a 22-year-old Brazilian University student, and her welcoming parents. We exchanged kisses on both cheeks and suddenly, everything wasn’t so scary anymore.

Sao Paulo pizza definitely lives up to its reputation of
being one of the most delicious pizzas in the world. Yummm!

After stopping at Thais’s home for a bit to drop of my bags and settle down, we headed to her grandmother’s house for dinner, where I also met Thais’s cousins and Aunt Valeria. At dinner, I had my first experience of what a typical Brazilian household was like, as well as my first taste, literally, of authentic Sao Paulo food. Dead tired from being up so long from traveling, I finished the small cup of coffee Thais’s grandmother poured for me. Brazilian coffee is so good and so strong! I drank the tiniest amount of coffee I had ever had and became wide-awake! The flavor was also just so rich. Most delicious coffee I have ever tried—and I am a Starbucks regular. The food just kept getting better. Sao Paulo pizza is known to be among the best in the world and it certainly lived up to the expectation. So delicious! Trying different foods, whether well-known or previously unheard of, is definitely one of my favorite aspects of traveling.

I survived my first day in a foreign country, and now it was time to rest up for my big day at work.

I woke up at 6am to get ready and eat breakfast. For breakfast, we had some white bread with cheese and a type of Brazilian meat called mortadella (which is quite similar to the American bologna!) and some fresh guava (called goiaba in Portuguese) juice to wash it down. If there is one thing that is certain about Brazil, and probably most of South America, it is that the flavored drinks and juices here are soooo delicious and plentiful, thanks to the wide variety of exotic fruits available. After gulping down one more cup, it was off to work!

I took a bus to the subway station around 7am and found that I had arrived just in time for rush hour! The station was jam-packed! The subway traffic was nothing like I had ever experienced before (here is a picture of a crowded subway station in Tokyo, but it was basically this):

So crowded!!

As a result, it took about 40 MINUTES to get onto the first car. Personal space means absolutely nothing during this time. In total, it took about 1 hour to get to the school, though, during normal subway hours, it should only take about 15 min.

After surviving the most hectic subway ride I had ever been on, I finally arrived at the school. To my surprise, I was welcomed by a faculty and student body made up of about 75% people of Japanese-decent! I did not expect to see such a large concentration of Asian students at the school. Though, I later learned that the neighborhood the school is located in is actually one of the communities most concentrated with Japanese families and is in close proximity to Liberdade, also known at the “Asian District” and where the largest population of Japanese outside of Japan is located.

At the school, I met the two English teachers I will be working with, Professora Sueli and Professora Christiane. They introduced me to their students, 2^nd through 9^th grade, who were all so welcoming and enthusiastic! They were excited to learn about American culture from a native and were eager to enhance their English.

The enthusiastic 6th graders!

Just as the students were thrilled to learn about a culture and its language, so was I. Let the journey begin….