São Paulo and SoDak

Right now, I am sitting on my bed, eating chocolate and watching the movie 'Mozart and the Whale.' Joy, Lys and I watched it during finals week I think it was- a totally random rental, but a good movie.

Anyway ... despite the fact that i'm doing something exactly the way I would in america on a saturday ... this city is about the farthest thing from my life in the midwest. the smog - not liking it. had a cold the first few days we were here, then i was fine for a few days, and now my throat has been scratchy for the past few days. i think it's due to the pollution in the air because i've been taking a few meds and it hasn't cleared up- plus others on the team have it. weird. at least i feel fine otherwise!

at school i live in a farmhouse a half mile from the neighbors and 5 minutes from a town. peaceful. here, we have to run the air conditioner at night to drown out the street noise - and we live on a quiet street. i guess that's what you get when you live in a city of 18 million, or however many people live here.

last night we ate at applebees - i had chicken fingers, fries and corn on the cob and it was amazing! (save the corn. can't beat sweet corn grown in your own back yard, for sure). the ketchup here is worse, but the ranch is better. the food is good, tho - the fruit is wonderful and therefore the juice is wonderful as well. Maracujá is my new favorite (passion fruit). I didn't even know that was a fruit.

today we spent the afternoon in a totally different part of brasil - photos may follow (my camera battery died right away). Great architecture, a lot more homeless people, (and prostitutes), tons of people in general. The metro (subway) is the cleanest thing I've seen in this city. Sao Paulo is ironic - smog, noise, grafitti, litter EVERYWHERE-- yet the subway was immaculete, and the broken cobblestone sidewalks are washed daily with hoses by the respective shop owners.