Parque Buenos Aires

This beautiful park is just 6 blocks from my apartment and I take a "short-cut" through it everyday on the way to school.  

It has become my favorite place to run, practice yoga and sometimes on the way home from school I stop by to just sit for a while and watch the people enjoying the park.

The park has many gorgeous statues, two play areas for kids, a separate mini dog park, two fountains and tons of benches throughout the park for visitors to relax.

Here are just a few pictures.

Mixture between interpretive dance and yoga class?

Of course I joined in after snapping the picture :)

Aula de Cozinha Paulista

Twice a month my school offers a cultural class to the exchange students so we can learn a little bit more about Brazil.  

Our first cultural class was before Carnaval.  We learned about the origin of Carnaval, the way it is celebrated and of course, how to samba.  

(Don't worry, I will be holding Samba lessons when I get home for all of you).  

The second cultural class was called Conzinha Paulista (or Paulista Cooking).

One of my professors, Edson, led the class and taught us how to make three traditional Sao Paulo dishes.  

Feijão com linguiça e Arroz de Cachaça

Carne com Bacon e Batatas

Salada (as previously explained, just alface and tomate)

for dessert a tradition Brazilian doce

Gioababa (guava pulp) e Queijo Branco

Aka. Romeo and Juliete

And of course... 

The National Beverage

Caipirinha 

A beautiful mixture of Cachaça (rum made from fermented sugar cane), lime and sugar.

And here's a picture of my group during the cooking. The hat and apron were free believe it or not.

Jogo de Futebol

Last week I went to a futebol game at Pacaembu stadium in Sao Paulo.  

The stadium is about a 25 minute walk from my apartment and is the home stadium of the Corinthians.

The game I went to was part of the Copo de Liberdades (a tournament for Latin American teams).

It was such a cool experience to see how passionate the fans were about their teams.  And it was interesting how different sporting events are here compared to the US.

No one was eating, there was never a line at the food vendors, and the vendors don't sell any alcohol. 

Here is just a few pictures of inside the game.

Corinthians V Cruz Azul

Sometimes the fans would hold huge banners over the entire section, or an entire section would start dancing and singing, I'm not sure who orchestrated it every time but it was fun to watch!

And of course, because we're in Brazil, after the game, the street meat vendors come out.

A Trip to the Zoo


Last weekend some of the exchange students organized a trip to the Sao Paulo zoo.  Getting there took some time with such a big group of people, but eventually we made it there after about an hour and a half of metro stations and bus stops.  The weather was nice all day, and we had time to walk around the entire zoo and go on a mini "safari" before it got a little chilly outside.
Here are a few pictures from the day..

Zoologico de Sao Paulo

Monkey on  tight rope

I caught him smiling :)

The camel stuck his whole head into our safari car

Some of the group after the safari

Also, this week one of my roommates taught me how to make Brigadeiro, a traditional Brasilian dessert.  Expect some Birgadeiro at family functions when I get back :)

This is not a picture of the ones we made, I forgot to take one, but this is what the end result looks like. 

YUM