Moving to Brazil

Colombia

2012-02-29T16:17:00.001-08:00

The Fort at Sunset, Cartagena

We decided to escape carnaval madness and we went to Colombia to visit our friends (from Sao Paulo) who now live in Bogota. I always forget how big this continent is! I was thinking it was a couple hour flight... 6 hours later, a little bit frazzled flying with two kids we landed in Bogota...

I think people have similar perceptions of Brazil and Colombia in terms of security. Yes, there are certainly dangerous elements here and there is a higher chance of 'something' happening but I honestly (and maybe naively, I'll admit) don't feel as threatened / intimidated as I have walking through Clapham Junction or parts of South Bronx...

So the idea of living here is that we get to travel and know this region better, as for me, it's completely untouched. We booked our tickets the day that Camille and Ian moved there! Bogota has a temperate climate all year round aside from the last months which rain heavily. I hadn't packed enough warm clothes for the evening but we made do bundling the kids in blankets and layers.

Food: soup, soup, soup. I love soup and the Colombians certainly do it justice, even in steaming hot sunshine. Add a squeeze of lime and a spoon of chilli. Lots of peruvian ceviche too, delish- i could eat it every day, along with sushi and pizza and everything in between. Everything was a little bit tastier than what you get here in Brazil - I think they actually use pepper!

Cartagena
We stayed in a super cute pousada / boutique hotel called Casa El Carretero in Getsemani (which I read in my travel guide that it's known as the red light district.. ). I really recommend it - it only has 3 rooms and a pool on the top. It's right next to a square where all the locals hang out - we spent one night after dinner with a beer and watching boys kick a ball around, a bunch of police standing around doing nothing, local girls flirting with local boys, sleeping grannies - it was like being in a movie set!

The old city is split into 4 sections - Getsemani being one of them. Most of the American tourists (generalising here...) stay out in the Tourist section (yes, seriously called that) with the big hotels and McDonalds. What I loved about this old city is that it's still filled with locals going about their daily business - alot of the shops are catered for locals, and old buildings have been converted into government buildings or schools / universities. We did as our guide book suggested and spent our days there just wandering the streets and picking most restaurants at random. We had been recommended to stay at the Charleston which looked fabulous but we struggle to pay $600 a night for a hotel.. and La Cevicheria which is a very lowkey, on-the-street restaurant visited by Anthony Bourdain so obviously popular!

Bogota
I love visiting cities where friend's live - to see how a normal (expat) person lives their life there. It always makes me think about how much I would enjoy living in a different city. They took us to La Candelaria (the old town) and to Usaquen which had a good market and lots of fabulous looking restaurants. One that sounded great was 'WOK ★' - Read that out loud! For our dinner out we had more yummy ceviche - infact, I'm going to say the best I've had so far in my short (well medium) life .... even better than La Mar here in Sao Paulo.

Everything just seemed much cheaper! We met some other expats who thought it was expensive but I guess coming from Sao Paulo makes everything relatively cheap. I spent the morning in the supermarket buying jalapenos, baby wipes and fajitas. Even the airport is SO exciting compared to Guarulhos here - the have a decent coffee shop, and things to look at other than other bored passengers.

Colombia - definitely worth a visit while you are in the region. We heard about lots of other places in Colombia we want to visit (Medellin, Santa Marta, Taganga and the national parks) but think we will have to look at leaving the girls behind the next time!!

House for rent in Itaim

2012-02-19T16:39:00.000-08:00

A friend is looking to rent out his 2 bedroom house in Itaim - a great location!! If we didn't have kids and dogs we would've taken it.

http://www.zap.com.br/imoveis/oferta/Casa-Padrao-2-quartos-aluguel-SAO-PAULO-ITAIM-BIBI-RUA-FERNANDES-DE-ABREU/ID-2913449

We are Brazilian!

2012-02-19T16:19:00.000-08:00

OK not quite Brazilian yet but we have the protocolo (stamps) in our passports to say that we can stay here for the next 5 years* until we need to renew. As I mentioned before, we used a fantastic agent called Renata Laterza who helped us with Olivia's brazilian passport. We met her at 8am and took us straight to the front of the queue (note that EVERYONE has to go: Olivia and Sophie included - a rule that the unfortunate couple infront of us didn't know as they hadn't bought their older child with them who had just started back at school). It turns out that we needed Olivia's RG which we hadn't picked up yet so he asked us to come back the following week - aahh! Renata should've known but she managed to book the next earliest appointment at a Poupatempo for us to get Olivia's RG. She picked me up from our house as only I needed to go with Olivia and took me through the process (a friend even tagged along to do the same).

To pick up your RG you need
- 3x4 photo
- original birth certificate plus a simple photocopy (by simple I mean there is no need to take it to the cartorio)
- Original RNE and simple photocopy of each parent's

Poupatempo's are great places to go and get everything done at one time - there is a post office there, banks, wedding registrations etc. My friend had bought the wrong sized photo (note that the brazilian passport photo is much larger - 5x7 i think) but there was a counter where we could take a baby's photo really quickly. Then we had to go to the post office to pay the fee (R10), and then back to another line to pick up a queue ticket. We waited 10 minutes before our number came up and it was just to check all details and take fingerprints which just looked like little dots! The lady said it would be ready the following morning at 10am. We arranged for Renata to pick up the RG's the following day, to then take Olivia's to the cartorio and met us at the Policia Federal straight after.

Lunchtime is not a great time to go to the Policia Federal - it is open but much slower, if that is really possible. Again, we all had to be there but we jumped to the front of the queue with Olivia in hand - though I did watch one mother struggling under the weight of her 10 year old daughter so she could be in the priority line. It was comical but no one else seemed to be laughing.

So we submitted our documents again and almost had a heart attack when the guy came to question another document! You have to submit these declarations from both the mother and father which are signed by each of us, and then taken to the cartorio to authenticate the signature... anyhow, they were confused and thought there was no form for the mother (Jaime is only a man's name here!). He then asked us to sit and wait for our names, it took 20 minutes and we finally got the protocolo stamps in our passport!

It will take 6-8 months for our new RNE cards to be ready but they will have the same number as our temporary ones now. In the meantime we will have an unannounced visit at our house so they can see where we live, what we do etc. This is more of a formality when the visas are based on a Brazilian child, rather than on a marriage to a Brazilian (think Gerard Depardieu and Andie Macdowell in the movie Green card).

Next step: a Brazilian driver's license which we have to do within 6 months of our new visa. The paperwork doesn't stop...

*permanent visas are not necessarily permanent, they need to be renewed every 5 years and if the visa is based on your child that was born in Brazil, it expires when they turn 18 as they are not a child anymore. You can then apply for your visa under their sponsorship. Nice to know that we have to through some sort of Brazilian paperwork process potentially for the rest of our lives! Also, if you move to another country and want to maintain your PR, you need to enter Brazil every 2 years. If you don't you just need to pay a small-ish fine which was either R120 or R350 - though I guess irrelevant as would've changed by the time we need to do this in 5 years..

Make Samba

2012-02-15T07:17:00.001-08:00

Samba is one of the things that is synonymous with Brazil. Before I moved here I expected to see people dancing samba down the streets, on the bus and on tables in restaurants. Much to my disappointment, people don't just jump up on a table and burst into song and dance. We have been in Sao Paulo for almost 2 years and only tried to learn to samba a handful of times... admittedly quite drunk.

I think it's the carnaval in the air but we've had a good dose of samba this week. A friend came over for dinner and every other sentence he talked about 'making samba'... a great idea emitted a 'that's awesome, it's going to make samba!', talking about doing business together was 'let's make samba'! I think I need to learn the moves quick before I make any samba...

A friend from Boteco da Cesinha's invited us to join one of the practice sessions for Perola Negra. The schools spend all year preparing for the Sambadrome but the month before you can go and check out most schools on a Thursday or Sunday night. Perola Negra is located on Girassol in Vila Madalena down near the cemetery. The streets were heaving, people were wet from the thunderstorms, hot from dancing up and close and drinking from little carts all up and down the street. I saw a guy walking around with a shower curtain hung up around him - I wasn't sure if it was a special fantasia (a carnaval costume) or what, but I had a massive dejavu from the Hong Kong 7's on a Saturday night.. it looked like it was going to be a messy night for people (not us...).

The queue to get a R10 ticket was long but our friend managed to get us a ticket without having to wait and we shoved our way in. Firstly, I was dressed completely wrong - I had jeans and heels on with a big handbag to carry our big camera in... all the girls had little dresses or skirts on, and havaianas or trainers on with tiny little handbags. After an hour I was HOT and had sore feet (and the floor was pretty gross). It was loads of fun; it reminded me of a mix between a nightclub (with the lights on) and an evangelical church service. There was a guy leading from the front with the band and everyone knew all the words to the songs, and danced around in circles waving their hands in the air and at the same time, there were all these beautiful girls dancing samba (how DO they move their feet like that? I just can't do it!).

We decided to have a night out yesterday for Valentine's Day... we dropped by our favourite Boteca, and then decided to walk back down to a samba bar I had read about and had been dying to check out. We ended up doing a small bar crawl as found a few other botecas with live music which weren' around when we lived in VM - it was really nice to be sitting out with a cold chopp, and with no kids to run after!

We then went to O do Borogodó, a tiny little samba club down by the cemetery. R15 entry and you get a little piece of paper to mark all your drinks on. Super shabby-chic, a great mix of people of all different ages, types and heights... but I guess what they have in common is making samba. I again was wearing heels (why do I not learn?) but I love people watching and people samba, beautiful! I will definitely be back soon... with my havaianas! Highly recommend a visit if you are looking to make samba.

Brazil Public Holidays 2012

2012-02-08T11:08:00.000-08:00

I don't work in an office, in a full time job anymore so I thought that public holidays were irrelevant to me until Sophie started school this week.

After experiencing ridiculous traffic jams to the beach on public holiday weekends and ridiculous accommodation prices over said holiday weekends, our plan is to generally try and do the opposite of what your typical Brazilian would do. For example, go to the beach in the winter and the interior in the summer, book accommodation and flights months in advance (particularly now that we are limited to school holidays) or just stay at home!

Source: http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/cotidiano/1026261-2012-tera-tres-feriados-caindo-na-sexta-feira-veja.shtml

Driving in Sao Paulo

2012-02-05T17:01:00.000-08:00

Traffic is definitely up there for most-talked-about-topics here in Sao Paulo. Ways to avoid traffic, blitzs (police drinking stops), rodizios, bus lanes, accidents. when it rains how it gets 100 times worse...

When you are stuck in traffic sitting there patiently for it to clear.... the most irritating thing is when a car zooms by in the emergency lane and cuts in at the top as the traffic light goes green. Firstly, you're just pissed off that you hadn't plucked up the courage to do it, and secondly, you're really pissed off that the driver has the impunity to do it and nothing is going to happen to him/her. English people would never consider jumping the queue, it would be just considered rude. In the opening chapter of Watching the English the author has to have a drink to be able to jump a queue, which is a big no-no there!

There is generally seen to be a very poor standard of driving here, and coupled with the terrible standards of the road, I'm not surprised over 37,000 people died last year in car fatalities (1). People die every day, motoboys drive like demons down the marginal with not a care for ther life, people kill people and walk away just paying off the family. I actually don't even drive here yet because I'm scared sh*tless. It's on the wrong side of the road and I was never a very confident driver in the first place but I'm about to start lessons with a Brazilian instructor... wish me (and him) luck!

1. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-ehrmann/brazil-traffic-deaths_b_1198759.html?ref=brazil

* Just got my Angloinfo newsletter today titled Accidents in Sao Paulo. I've copied the information below:

Dealing with Road Accidents

Do you know what to do if you’re involved in a road accident? Are you confident you know what to do if you witness a crash? AngloINFO has the information you need, so you can rest assured that you know how to handle accidents on the road, whether it’s a minor prang or something more serious.

Need to know

In the case of a serious road incident, the most important thing to do first is alert the emergency services. The Emergency Telephone Numbers Information Page has the numbers to call.

Whether you’re a driver or not, it’s important to be aware of the rules regarding what to do following a road accident as you might be involved as a passenger or witness. The Road Traffic Accidents in Brazil Information Page has important information regarding accident reports, the people and vehicles involved in a crash, as well as which authorities to alert afterwards. The page on Insuring a Car in Brazil has helpful information about insurance coverage and filing a claim. Make sure you understand the procedure so that you know what to do, should the need ever arise.

And finally, to fix dents, dings and bigger damage following an incident on the road, browse through the Car Service & Repairs category of The AngloFILE where you'll find listings for English-speaking professionals in your local area.

Boerewors and Biltong

2012-01-30T17:50:00.000-08:00

For all you South Africans and lovers of all things South Africans...

Bertus will make-to-order all the sausages and biltong you could ever want and deliver them to your door. He also makes the most incredible spicy chutney (recipe based on Mrs Balls) to go along with his sausages. Our freezer always has some sausages as they are a staple in our 'churrascos'!

Drop him an email: Bertus Burger <bert_guide@hotmail.com>

For vegetarians: Banana Verde

2012-01-29T08:29:00.000-08:00

I am definitely NOT a vegetarian but I'm open to trying new things, like having an entire meal with no tasty morsels of meat in... I know it's hard to trust someone who doesn't eat meat but for the few vegetarian friends I have, it's testament to their characters : )

Yesterday we went to Banana Verde in Vila Madalana (corner of Rua Harmonia and Rua Madalena) as we had one of these vegetarian friends in our midst. It was seriously delicious. The dishes were really creative (not to scary and new-age). There was a buffet salad bar which included a delicious pumpkin soup, and then you had a choice of a main, plus dessert (a banana-chocolate torte). The set-lunch was r41 which is pretty standard in that part of town and I would happily pay it again to eat platefuls of couscous, bulgur wheat and cauliflower.

There is also a photography exhibition throughout Vila Madalena. There are displays in various restaurants and shops (mainly along Aspicuelta). Definitely worth a stroll when the weather is good like today! It's on until feb 13th.

Samba School - Get in the spirit!!

2012-01-23T06:21:00.000-08:00

Last year we joined the school Tom Jobim at the Sambadrome dressed as 'British Railway Workers' and danced (not sure if we could really call it dancing...) for about 4 hours straight! This year, the idea of dancing all night and then having a toddler and a baby to look after all day is not so appealing... we have booked a trip to Colombia to visit some friends but are only flying on the Monday (carnival starts on Friday 17th) as the prices for flights were extortionate. So in the lead-up to Carnival this year I really want to experience some of the samba schools instead, where the real parties apparently are. The INC has just put out it's invite to Vai-Vai on Sunday 29th (I've copied it below) but I think we'll go and find one in Vila Madalena to check out one Sunday night.

INC Invite....

It takes blood, sweat and tears – plus lots of fun, partying and high spirits – to create the amazing spectacle that is Carnival at the Sambódromo. Even better than the main event, for many, are the lively parties that comprise the samba school rehearsals, which take place all over the city in the weeks and months leading up to Carnival. They're a chance for the participants to learn the song (enredo) for that year's parade, for the drummers to get in step, for the dancers to crank up the heat, and for the neighbourhood in general to start celebrating.

The basics Don't let the term 'rehearsal' confuse you – a samba school rehearsal is as much a party as a chance for the school to practice its song and its moves. Everyone's welcome – get involved if you know some samba steps, or just enjoy the party. They can be crowded, sometimes slightly chaotic events so take care to work out how you're getting home beforehand, and leave valuables at home.

With a mostly outdoor practice site squeezed between high-rises in Bixiga, 82-year-old Vai-Vai is arguably the city’s best-known samba school. Last year’s Carnival champs, they hope to maintain the title at the Sambódromo this year with a theme honouring women.

Come with a group of INC members to enjoy the cadence of the drums, watch beautiful people doing the samba, taste flavorful food, get a preview of this year's costumes for Carnaval and shop for Vai-Vai souvenirs.

Admission: R$20 per person in cash at the door.
Address: R. São Vicente, 276 - Bela Vista, São Paulo, 01314-010, Brazil

Lollapalooza Brazil

2012-01-22T09:07:00.000-08:00

We did Lollapalooza Chicago 2005 and it was brilliant! Just read that Lollapalooza is coming here to Sao Paulo for Easter weekend (7-8 April) and will be hosted at the Jockey Club. I'm so excited to act like a - well to act like someone who's not a responsible parent!!!

I think the tickets are pretty reasonable (!!) by Sao Paulo standards, r500 for the weekend and some of my favourite bands are coming! Foo Fighters, MGMT, Band of Horses, Friendly Fires... I haven't been to any concerts or gigs here yet. I always hear about them last minute and they are really expensive. I know that Groupon does some good last minute tickets and I've also been told that it's worth just turning up to buy tickets from the touts outside the stadium but with babysitters to organise in advance it's never something I can be spontaneous about.

Florence and the Machine are here this week too... maybe I'll do some planning this weekend (so I can afford to be spontaneous)

http://www.lollapaloozabr.com/

Football and Beer

2012-01-20T10:10:00.000-08:00

My first job out of university was organising football (soccer) tournaments all throughout Asia. I love sports, sports marketing and event planning so the two 'relatively' major world-class tournaments in the world that are coming here to Brazil are something I love to keep tabs on. The lack of organisation, facilities, stadiums are almost laughable but I think the Brazilians will still pull it off....

FIFA is insisting on the sale of beer at the stadiums and within their exclusively controlled zones. But the Brazilians are holding out as beer is not in sold in stadiums at football games. It was banned in 2003 as a way to try and combat violence between rival fans. Apparently it hasn't made much of a difference as fans will drink earlier and heavily before the game (not unlike some areas in the UK!).

But these big tournaments are controlled more so by the sponsors than people who are running it for the love of the game.. slightly hypocritical to be pushing beer drinking when they should be encouraging healthy-living... (I also question their relationship with McDonalds who sponsor all their youth tournaments..). The World Cup is sponsored by Budweiser, bad American beer, so no one is really going to drink it anyways... It will be interesting to see what their compromise is as I know FIFA will not budge since Budweiser has already paid them silly money to sell beer.

The ticket prices are also still to be determined and it will be interesting to see how high they set them. If they take Sao Paulo prices into consideration it will exclude the majority of the people and, in my opinion, defeat the purpose of having a Brazilian World Cup.

Read the BBC article here.

Instituto Butantan

2012-01-18T10:32:00.000-08:00

We have been going a little stir-crazy being stuck inside with all this rain. Rain or rain, I had to get out of the house and decided to explore Instituto Butantan which is literally on my doorstep. "Butanta, where the f88k is that!", is what most people ask.... We now live on the otherside of the river from Pinheiros / Parque Vila Lobos. The bonus is that we live in a house now and Tim is literally 6 minutes away from work. It's not the prettiest area but we are slowly getting to know it.

Instituto Butantan is the snake venom farm! It's been around for awhile and it sits on the site of an old factory. There are 3 parts to the museum - adults are R6 and kids under 7 are free. There is the Museu Biologico which is filled with snakes, spiders and lizards. Sophie couldn't decide if she was scared or happy - two words she used quite liberally - but I want to take her back regularly, as long as she is more happy than scared! The Museu Historico has old equipment and machinery that they use to use - I like antiques so it was my cup of tea. There were also monkeys but they were all in steel cages and I believe all for testing. We had randomly just watched a Law & Order episode on monkeys being used for testing... if you don't like that sort of thing dont' go and see the monkeys. Didn't make it into the Museu Biologico but we'll go and check it out the next time.

Please don't be expecting the Science Museum in London or the Natural History in NY but if you have nothing else to do this weekend it's definitely worth an hour visit, and there's a small cafe you can stop off for a strong brazilian espresso...

For those of you with children they have activities for 4 year olds up all next week

I'm single!

2012-01-17T16:18:00.000-08:00

I went to 'open my signature / abrir a firma' at the local cartorio so they could authenticate my signature on several documents for our permanent visa application.

Man with very hairy mole on arm : What is your status?
Me: Huh?
Man w/HMOA: Are you married or single?
Me: Married.
Man w/HMOA: Did you get married in Brazil or outside?
Me: Is my husband here in Brazil? yes
Man w/HMOA: No, did you get married here in Brazil?
Me: Ahh no, outside
Man w/HMOA: Ahh you are single! haha
Me: nervous laughter, thinking why is it funny that i'm single!!

*note this was all in portuguese, and this is my interpretation of our conversation. It was a particularly large and very hairy mole. I think he uses it as some distraction when he's asking trick test questions about whether you are married or single.

Teachers needed

2012-01-16T10:41:00.000-08:00

Tots and Teens are looking for teachers to start in Feb. If you know of anyone looking please pass on the message.

I am looking for teachers preferably with experience for year one/two and also a teacher for a group of teenagers. Please have them send their CVs to tots@globo.com

Brazilian passport for Brazilian-born children

2012-01-10T05:23:00.000-08:00

We just booked flights to visit Sophie's best friend, Hannah, who has recently moved to Bogota, over carnival week in feb so we thought we might as well get Olivia's Brazilian passport as well. She is also entitled to a NZ and British passport and I tried to get my head around the paperwork before xmas and it wasn't going to happen.

NZ passport: I had to renew mine before we applied for the permanent visas so I thought it would be easy to send her application in too. I luckily was meeting up with a kiwi friend who could sign the witness declaration for me and olivia. She also needed to apply for her NZ citizenship by descent but this form needs to be notarized by a kiwi with a particular profession- i.e teacher, lawyer etc. I tried the consul-general too but he couldn't do it. We would also need to send my passport in with her application which has my Brazilian visa in - I don't trust the postal system (I've even heard of couriers losing passports!) and I'm not willing to let my Brazilian visa out of sight after the emotional and physical torment we went to get it in the first place! so Olivia will have to wait to become a kiwi until our next visit there.

UK passport: You can apply for a UK birth certificate at the consulate in rio but both parents passports are required. You don't need a uk birth certificate to get the passport so we are leaving it for now as again, don't want to lose sight of our visas. Uk passport applications are only processes through washington so you have to send your application there but you don't have to send your passports along. They obviously have lost a few in the past, shock horror. we will send her application in after we have got our protocole for our pr. We also really need it as we are planning a trip to the US in April and don't want to go thought the pain of getting a us visa for her Brazilian passport.

Brazilian passport: we fortunately had friends that recently did it. You need to get an appointment at the policia federal and apparently the next available ones are in April! We ended up using our agent who charged us r350 for the application and her fee. She managed to get us an appointment in 2 days as cancellations come up online and she can reserve on the spot. Having a baby always helps with the queues there too incase you're thinking of not taking your baby with you. Renata met us outside and took us through the process. It took half an hour max - I can say it was almost a pleasant experience! The passport was ready in one week!

I can highly recommend our agent Renata who is also processing our permanent visas for us. She speaks very good English and is super efficient.

RENATA LATERZA Consultancy and Relocation

www.renatalaterza.com.br

renata@renatalaterza.com.br

Tel / Fax: +55 11 5055-9750

Mob: + 55 11 8652-3000

Viva a Tacos!!

2011-12-08T10:47:00.000-08:00

I've had one of those really productive days in Sao Paulo, shock horror. I'm ignoring the fact I've sat in traffic for 2 hours of it because I've managed to accomplish quite alot...

8am We went to Federal Police in Lapa to apply for Olivia's passport. After our headache last year with our visas I begged tim to use an agent and it ended up being a pretty pleasant visit as far as visits there go. I will do a separate posting on the Brazilian passport process when we actually have it in our hands..

10am Next admin was mine and Sophie's third Hep B vaccinations. We went to Clinivac next to Hosp Sao Luiz this time as it was more convenient. I use to take Sophie to Cedipi but only because it was one
block away from where we use to live in Jardins. It's smaller but has a much cuter play area for kids - though I would just recommend going to which ever one is more convenient.

12pm One month appointment with my doctor before she goes on holiday. Everything is back to normal so don't have to go back and see her again until I'm pregnant again....

1pm Lunch at Hecho en Mexico, a taqueria in itaim that has just opened (rua renato paes de barros, 538). Since I'm not pregnant anymore I can't really blame cravings but I did go with a pregnant friend... . Unfortunately no fish tacos but we had chicken ones, and rice and beans which were all pretty tasty. It was also really cheap by sao paulo standards; when we got the bill I thought they had divided it for us already but it was only r45 for the two of us. Will someone go and check out the margaritas for me while I can't drink?!?!

iphone in Brazil

2011-11-29T05:20:00.000-08:00

All I want for Christmas is an iphone!!

1. all my friends that live overseas have one (yes, i'm a sucker for peer pressure)

2. they look pretty

3. essential breastfeeding app

4. sophie has claimed the ipad, ipod and other phones

But I just can't bring myself to pay the extortionate fees / contracts for one here. I see lots of Brazilians walking around with their iphone, tapping away a message in a coffee shop (so much for not flaunting one's wealth...) and I think - how the hell can they afford one?!?!!

I'm waiting in vain that Tim has ordered one for my sister to bring over from HK, and we have some friends who have cut their pay-as-you-go sim cards to fit.... I'll let you know on the 26th December whether I'm a new iphone owner or whether I'll be languishing in Sao Paulo iphone-less...

Do you remember that the iPhone 4 8GB was supposed to be a cheaper model, launched alongside the iPhone 4S? Well, it seems that Brazilian operators didn’t pay attention to Tim Cook... read rest of article here.

Moving house

2011-11-23T04:34:00.000-08:00

It occurred to me the other day that we have not had our ‘own’ apartment / house to live in since we left London in December 2009. We’ve been travelling, staying with family and friends, hotels, house rentals, sub-lets (a 2 month sublet in Moema, an 8 month sublet in Vila Madalena, a friend’s house for a month over Xma and most recently a 10 month temporary lease in Jardins). It is SO nice to finally have our own place with our furniture which has been in storage since March.

We had been looking for a place pretty much all this year. Earlier this year we looked at places to buy and reform but the currency is too strong, and at the same Tim was offered a stake in his company so we put the money into that and decided to look for rentals. The place we were staying in was pretty convenient – we had a rolling month lease on a 3 bedroom apartment in Jardins, so we didn’t feel the pressure to get somewhere straight away. Tim hated the commute but since having a car at least it was in his own space, even if he was stuck in some awful traffic jam. We had the idea of moving before Olivia was born but the house hunting was disheartening.

We started looking before our Europe trip in August and found a couple of places but firstly, real estate agents were SO slow in responding and secondly the market is pretty depressing – big ugly houses that are our of our budget. We also needed to organise house insurance. This isn’t a problem for most people as their companies will organise this on their behalf but Tim is (will be) a partner in his firm and doesn’t draw a big salary so it turned out to be a pain for us. We found a house we liked literally driving around the neighbourhood we wanted. The owner let us have a few visits and we thought we were in but it turned out she was just using us to put pressure on the first couple. We found another house we really liked walking distance to his office on a private road, and in our budget but the real estate agent (who turned out to be the owner as well) only returned calls after Tim had left a couple of dozen messages, and insisted that we had to be approved by one particular insurance company which we just couldn’t get. I think he either didn’t want to rent (he wanted to sell it as well) and/or didn’t like dealing with gringoes.

Looking online* is futile – most of the places advertised are probably gone already, don’t look like the photos or don’t have any photos. My favourite agency I liked to look at was AXPE but they were out of our budget. Agents / house owners will also negotiate with you based on who is paying for the rent – a common first question is ‘Is your company paying?’. Unfortunately for us / them, we were paying rent out of our own savings. If you can find a place direct with the owner you are looking at 15-20% cheaper than what is advertised through agencies.

Through a random cupcake contact (thanks Nicole and Myrna!) who had just seen a place in Butanta that was direct with the owner. Tim tried calling but there was no answer, but the next time we met up with my friend she texted the guy straight away and he replied saying it was still available. Tim went to see it, and took it straight away owing to earlier hesitations not getting us the very first place we liked. I didn’t want to get excited but surprisingly (shockingly!), Tim had the insurance (we were able to use a different company) and the rental contract signed within 2 weeks! It came at a price of fixing up the guttering, and we had to repaint and re-do the bathrooms ourselves but it balanced out net/net with the monthly rent. We moved in on the weekend and just waiting for NETS to turn up for the second time for internet (just prepping this blog while I wait) even though they were scheduled for 8am-12pm. Fastshop is the best place to buy electronics – our fridge was delivered at 6:30pm on Friday night, the washing machine on Tuesday night (even though it was scheduled for 8-12pm). We have a great painter, and electrician and tiling man if anyone needs recommendations and have been spending a lot of time at Leroy Merlin.

So Butanta is not exactly the area we were looking at but it’s only a 5 minute drive across the river to Pinheiros where Tim works. I don’t know the area well though I’ve seen a few American style strip malls. We are close to USP which is good for cycling, and Instituto Butanta which I have been meaning to visit (future blogs). I figure my life has changed with 2 children now. I won’t be popping out to the shops or restaurants anytime soon, even if I lived in Jardins the pavements are barely made for one buggy let alone a double buggy. I just need to learn to drive, on the otherside of the road / car, to get around Sao Paulo. Wish me luck (and other people on the road more luck).

*Here is a list of property websites I used....

http://www.axpe.com.br/site2/home2.html
http://www.pronto.com.br/
http://www.imovelweb.com.br/
http://www.leardi.com.br/

Giving birth in Sao Paulo...

2011-11-21T09:18:00.001-08:00

Our little brasileira, Olivia Chian Yi Chamberlain, arrived on Thursday 3 November at 10:45pm at Sao Luiz hospital in Itaim. I know everyone’s birth experience is different – and this was certainly different from my first labour in London.

I went for my weekly checkup (2pm). Dra Fernanda couldn’t find any amniotic fluid and I was 4cm dilated already (maybe something to do with the ribs AND chilli cheese burger I had for lunch at Butcher’s Market – for another blog!). She told me not to rush but to call Tim, go home and get my things and head to the hospital. It was rush hour, and our rodizio so we had to jump in a cab who decided to take us the longest route but I wasn’t in pain so wasn’t too stressed (another thing to put on my to-do-list is how to complain in portuguese.. ). We arrived at the hospital at 5pm and I didn’t get into a room until 8:30pm!!! I had a minor flip-out at reception when she printed 100 pieces of paper that I had to sign with the wrong name* and then had to print them again...

First I had a checkup downstairs with a hospital doctor and then when I had finally signed all the documents they had someone to escort us upstairs. (A friend who gave birth the night before said that they had a 2.5 hour check-in and that was at midnight, so it seems to be the norm for natural births at least.) I had mentioned in my previous blog that I had picked Sao Luiz because of the natural birthing rooms. When the nurse came back in with a hospital gown I asked for the natural room, and she said this was it! The bathroom door slid open and there was a big bath, birthing balls and blue dim lights on the ceiling. They said I couldn’t give birth in the pool and they would be taking me out regularly to monitor me, which I already knew. I was 6.5cm by the time I got checked again at 8:30pm. They put the fetal heart monitor on and I waited for Tim to come back down, who had been sent straight to the room to drop all my stuff off.

I got into the pool with my saline drip. They also gave me glucose later for energy. My first labour (in London) I had tried to hypnobirth but Sophie didn’t come out in the pool and ended up being a vontouse delivery. I hadn’t had time this pregnancy to practice my hypnobirthing but it came back to me in the pool; the water was really hot and my visualisation was drinking an ice cold beer! My doctor arrived, and I got out of the pool again so she could check me. I was at 8.5 and the contractions were really fast and strong and I decided I wanted the anaesthetist. I had said earlier in the day I would decide during the labour and didn’t want the anaesthetist there waiting during the labour and would just use a hospital one, but it turned out she lived really closeby so she came in straight away.

I was 9cm when I had the epidural. I know that in the UK you wouldn’t be allowed the epi this late in the labour, but hey, this is Brazil! I pushed for about half an hour and Olivia arrived at 10:45pm. Compared to my natural, no drugs labour in London this was almost enjoyable. I felt so much more in control because there was no pain. We also did a very Brazilian thing and booked the webcam and Tim sent all our family the link (thank god the link actually didn’t work) and the video guy for the last 15 minutes of labour, who I would’ve punched if I had been in any type of pain... It was actually comical and surreal at the same time. I’m not sure I ever want to watch it but we figured if it’s that bad then we can just burn it! Another very Brazilian thing; my Dra said that she would do some ‘plastic surgery’ down there because since I had the epi, why not? I won’t go into any graphic details but she told me she made everything look better down there. Lucky Tim!

Olivia was put straight on me and I got to breastfeed her before they took her away to the bercario. They wheeled me upstairs to my room and Tim stayed the night though it turned out to be a mistake. Olivia was in the bercario for the first half of the night, and someone came in every hour to either give me medicine, check my drip, just check, and the best was a 5am wakeup call for a shower!

I had a pretty decent room which was spacious and had lots of light. I also had a small balcony for that fresh SP air and beautiful view... Breakfast, lunch and dinner were edible, and Tim was given an accompaniant meal which turned out to be Sophie’s lunch or dinner. They are very particular about security – you’re not allowed to take the baby out of the room as I find out when I was told off for going to visit a friend who was just next door. A nurse will come and take the baby away for tests 2-3 times a day which I really appreciated. I was an emotional wreck watching Sophie have her heel prick test, and her vaccines. Tim was given a special wristband which allowed him in and out of the maternity ward.

My cupcake-partner-in-crime, Nicole, baked some beautiful pure vanilla cupcakes as lembrancinhas*. Tim’s colleagues and our Brazilian friends were the first to visit in the first 24 hours, and other friends over the following days. The Brazilians would say it’s much easier to have all your visitors in the first 3 days while you’re in the hospital as you don’t have to serve people tea and biscuits, and they don’t stay for very long. I would agree; the nurses at Sao Luiz were great, and I got a lot of sleep in those first 3 days knowing we were about to move house the next weekend...

We were given the all clear by the paediatrician on Sunday morning to go home and check out took less than an hour. Olivia’s BCG was done at the hospital by Clinivac for R70 which we opted for instead of going to the clinic once we left the hospital. The registry was also available at the hospital which we did on Friday since they were closed on Sat and Sun and neither of us have the appetite for queuing in government buildings. The only paperwork they required were our identity documents (our RNE’s or passports) and our original marriage certificate which did not have to be translated, consularised and notarised (thank god, because we unfortunately didn’t get that document back during the RNE process). The next step is getting her her Brazilian passport and our permanent residency***- we were sent a list of paperwork required, let’s just say we might put it off for a few more weeks.

We were escorted downstairs by a nurse who carried Olivia herself before handing her ceremoniously over to me to take home. I use to be confused why Brazilians would move back to Brazil to have babies rather than stay in the UK or even the US.... as my Dra would say - ‘It’s a much more beautiful process for everyone.’

*Your name has to be correct as the baby wears a name band with your name on it and the nurse will ask you what your name is to make sure that she is giving the right baby to the right person.
**Lembrancinhas are gifts that you give when people come visit, come to your party / wedding / event etc. I’ve heard of some lembrancinhas being as extravagant as Tiffany boxes.... Yeah, I’d like to know those people too!
*** Brazil gives permanent residency to parents who give birth to a baby here in Brazil. I don’t know of many other countries who do the same.

2nd Hand Sale

2011-11-10T01:16:00.000-08:00

I miss my ebay, gumtree and craigslist here. Mercadolibre is not the same! The INC runs a facebook page where the members are quite active and they have set up a separate facebook page for selling second-hand goods here in Sao Paulo. Once they get it up and running will definitely be worth logging on and having a look. There are always expats leaving, children sales etc.

Our little brasileira arrived last week but will post next week, once we have moved house this weekend. Nothing like doing it all in the same week!!

Hi folks,

I would like to inform you about our Facebook group called 2ndSALE_the group and 2ndSALE page.

We've created it as a virtual garage sale, a place to post all your good stuff you need to sell or you don't want it anymore.

We've worked with INC doing the bazaars and now we have this private group where we have friends from INC and non-INC members, who are having fun posting. We are trying to make 2nd stuff popular cause in Brazil this is a cultural issue. Now with all the sustainableprograms and recycling work maybe people will start to pay more attention on great opportunities like this! :)

Feel free to invite your close friends to participate too. Most people are Sao Paulo based so it makes easier to sell and buy being here. but it does not stop anything. If you are not in Facebook you can send us your stuff with light pictures and contact info and we can post it for you.

We have an e-mail 2ndsale.svk@gmail.com if you want to ask about the sales or send us more info & etc please feel free.

our best,

2ndSALE team.

Awkward conversation

2011-11-01T13:37:00.000-07:00

The grandmother of the family next door passed away last week.

So I bumped into the father earlier last week in the lift and said 'muitas desculpas' (even though probably - ok definitely - wrong, I thought he would understand the sentiment). I think he was as confused as I was so we talked about the weather instead. The next day I had a portuguese class so I asked my teacher what was the correct form to pass on our condolences...

So 2 days later as I was leaving I saw the parents standing out at the main gate. I had to hide behind a pillar to remember what to say before I walked past.

Me: Ola, bom dia. Sinto muito.
Her: Obrigada.
Awkward silence for about 15 seconds as I nod my head in sympathy...
Me: Ok, ciao
Her: Ciao.
... and eventually continue walking.

I'm SO good at this stuff in english but in portuguese... next time i'm just going to hide until they walk by!!

Aizome

2011-10-30T16:27:00.000-07:00

So I've been treated to some pretty good food this weekend! Last night we went to Aizome which Tim had been just recommended as the best japanese restaurant in Sao Paulo. It's only 3 blocks from where we are living so thought we we would take a visiting friend there for dinner las night. We decided last minute so had Sophie with us but she was good the night before sleeping in her buggy and we were hoping for the best again!

Aizome is a little hidden gem - you would never expect it to be there, just off Brigadeiro Luis Antonio... We hadn't booked so we sat at the bar which I enjoy; I love watching the chef preparing the food, particularly a cuisine like sushi; it's like watching an artist paint. He was using chopsticks to place tiny little flowers or a thumbelina-sized portion of seasoning on some delicately (and generously) cut pieces of fresh fish. Sophie fell asleep on her second walk that Tim took her for, thank god!

They only have a desgustacao menu available at R180 per person (our final bill was R220 per person with wine and drinks) and I have to say the food was absolutely exceptional. The scallop was the highlight along with the chocolate souffle. The portions were small but there were quite a few of them and the entire meal was perfectly sized; I didn't feel like a beached whale trying to get off my chair, usually how I feel when I go for rodizio sushi here!

I haven't tried all the japanese restaurants in town so I'm not sure I can give it 'best japanese' label - but it was pretty damn good! Highly recommend!

Korean BBQ restaurant

2011-10-30T16:11:00.000-07:00

Forget Bom Retiro! We were recommended Lua Palace in Vila Mariana / Paraiso which is a Korean BBQ restaurant. It's open from 6 - 9:30pm so make sure you get there at least by 9pm. The floors and walls are tiled, possibly the ceiling as well - I forgot to check - the only purpose I can think of is for easy cleaning... certainly not for decor!

The bulgogi was as good as I've had and we were with friends who had lived in Seoul for a couple of years and can testify to the authenticity. Ontop of all the meat we also made it through extra servings of kimchi, korean pancakes, bibambap. We did stay until 11pm on Friday night and weren't rushed out, though next time will make sure to get there for 6pm to make the most of available eating time! We had 3 hungry guys and 2 pregnant ladies = R75 each.

Lua Palace
Avenida Armando Ferrentini, 182

More dumplings

2011-10-25T18:31:00.000-07:00

I was recommended another restaurants in Liberdade for dumplings so I went today to pick up 100 dumplings to put in the freezer - basically for backup when I have the baby. I'm not sure if they will last the next few days. I got 80 pork ones and 30 veggie ones which are amazing. I pan fried and steamed a mix of them.

Their portuguese isn't great, mine is bad. My chinese is awful (I really can't hold more than 1.5 languages in my head at one time) and their english is non-existent but I got the message across!!

Restaurante Jardim Meio Hectare (半𠺖園 )

Rua Thomas Gonzaga, 65

3207-3133

Pregnant in Sao Paulo

2011-10-25T18:14:00.000-07:00

This year has gone so quickly that I've realised that I haven't posted about being pregnant here in Sao Paulo! I am already at 38 weeks... my first daughter arrived at 38 weeks + 2 days... but I'm hoping daughter no.2 will be arriving in 2-3 weeks more time. I have too much to do!

I will be giving birth in Sao Luiz hospital (Itaim) which has 2 natural birthing rooms, which I didn't get to see on tour* as it's in the restricted zone. I also visited Einstein (Morumbi) where the toilets I visited in the visitors area left much to be desired, particularly from what is commonly stated in SP as the best hospital in South America... and Promatre (Paulista), a maternity-only hospital where the guide asked what the little boy's name was (Sophie) and made me cry (it was just one of those hormonal, emotional, pregnant days...).

A few interesting things I learnt on my hospital tours:
- a c-section is generally the same price as a natural birth;
- there is a viewing window for family and friends to watch the entire birth (seriously!);
- you can have as many visitors in the first few days as you would like (common question on tour)
- you can leave your baby in the bercario all day or night (another common question on tour)
- you can take your camera into surgery and allocate one of the nurses to take photos for you.

Another few things I've learnt about having a baby here:
- the majority of people here know what they are having from week 12 and have usually named the child as well.. we are still working on it, maybe even a Brazilian name since she will be Brazilian! But people are horrified when I tell them that she still doesn't have a name....;
- we also have to prepare an elaborate name sign for the hospital room door so everyone knows her name, usually these are 3-D castles with gold plated names... we have a blackboard and some chalk...;
- there are special colours that the baby (and mother) have to wear on the first 3 days of its life. I've yet to find out what day 1 and 2 are for a girl but it HAS to be red on the third day; the day she leaves the hospital, and i've even heard with a babygro made out of their father's favourite (read: most expensive) shirt;
- it's common to have as many visitors in the first 3 days (I've just realised that this is why c-sections are more common - you can make sure your hair, nails and make up are done so you look fabulous minutes after you've given birth), possibly even people you have never met!
- you have to give these visitors a gift - or a 'lembrancinha'. Everyone visiting us will be getting a cupcake!
- if you have other children it is customary for visitors to bring them a gift as well so they don't feel left out;
- Brazilians love pregnant women and children (unless you are crossing the road...) but generally you are ushered to the front of the queue in shops, supermarkets, post office, airport!

**
Einstein Hospital - To schedule the visit you need to call to 2151-1233 and contact the AGENDAMENTO department or email aline.bering@einstein.br who speaks English.
Sao Luiz Hospital - Solange Porcino is my contact there. She doesn't speak English but has been really helpful. Tel/Fax 11 3040-9100 - Unidade Itaim, comercialmaternidade@saoluiz.com.br
ProMatre - You can email hospitalidade@promatre.com.br

Brazil Makes It's Own Manhattan..

2011-10-17T15:31:00.000-07:00

NY Times article on Sao Paulo this weekend...

But I think the comments are definitely worth reading.... how do they find one person to interview who reflects such a small percentage of this city's population?? This population live in a very small, isolated bubble in this city which I think has so much to offer - you're missing out if you feel it's too dangerous to walk to the restaurant on your corner! Life here doesn't have to be just about bodyguards, bullet-proof cars and hanging in shopping malls...

Free children's books from Itau

2011-10-17T09:39:00.000-07:00

Banco Itau are sending free books to children - you just have to register on their site here.

Awesome curry delivery in Sao Paulo

2011-10-16T13:35:00.000-07:00

We have had curries from Sabores da India a few times already and they are excellent, as good as a curry you'll find in India or in the UK! Exactly what you need on a rainy Sunday night in Sao Paulo....

They need 3-4 hours for 4 people, or 12 hours notice for a bigger party.Their contact details are 85569779 / 32537671, deepali@saboresdaindia.com.br

Snacks:

VEG SAMOSAS: R$ 1.75/unit
CHICKEN SAMOSAS: R$ 2.50/unit
DHOKLA: (Gram flour, curd, Mustard seed & curry leaves prepared by process of fermenting and cooking on vapors).R$ 40/kg and a kilo will have 55 pieces
CHICKEN TIKKA: (boneless chicken marinated in curd and spices) R$ 50/kg and a kilo would have 40 pieces
VEG PAKODA: ( Assorted Vegetables deep-fried with Gram flour coating) R$ 0.50/ unit
KACHORI: (Puffed Bread stuffed with green peas) R$1.70/ unit

All Snacks are accompanied and one or two type of INDIAN CHUTNEY’S, Tamarind+ Dates Chutney, Coriander + Coconut chutney,& Mint + Coriander Chutney…………..
Main course:
BIRYANI a Royal dish of the Nizams and the Nawabs, this dish originate in Persia and recently after giving the perfection is served in Sao Paulo by Chef Deepali.

Biryani is prepared with various kinds of meats (i.e. Lamb, Chicken Beef) it’s cooked with Basmati Rice special long grain with aromatic flavor. The Biryani recipe is one of the time consuming preparation in our menu. The meat is marinated with curd and Spices for more than 4 hr and same is cooked for 2:30 hours on slow fire.

Ingredients & Spices like Cardamom Cinnamon Cumminseed Cloves Ginger Garlic Green Chillies Fried Onion & Coriander Leaves give the royal flavor to this dish.

CHICKEN BIRYANI R$ 50/kg
MUTTON BIRYANI R$ 60/kg
PRAWN BIRYANI R$ 80/kg
VEGITABLE BIRYANI R$ 40 /kg

** Per kg of Biryani is sufficient for 5 guests...

Curry Preparation. Curry are prepared from various sauces based such as Onion, Tomato, Cashew Nut paste and few one are coconut and Cream based. Blended with special spices
Meat Currys (Chicken and Lamb):

CHICKEN CURRY: R$ 45/kg

MUTTON CURRY: R$ 65/kg
CHICKEN KORMA: R$ 50/kg
CHICKEN TIKKA MASALA: R$ 50/kg
BUTTER CHICKEN: R$ 50/kg
ROGHAN GHOST : R$ 65/kg
KEEMA MATAR: R$ 65/kg ( Minced Meat with Green pea)

Vegetarian Curry’s:

VEGETABLE CURRY: (assorted vegetables cooked in onion and tomato sauces along with special spices) R$ 40 /kg
PANEER KOFTA: (Cottage Chess prepared in Caju Paste with various special spices.) R$ 45 /kg
PANEER MASALA: (Cottage Chess cooked in onion & tomato sauces) R$ 45 /kg
BUTTER PANNER: (cottages marinated in yogurt and spices & cooked in Butter) R$ 50 /kg

INDIAN BREADS

ROTIS: (Handmade bread of Integral Wheat flour, salt and water) R$ 1.50 /kg
PARATHAS: (Handmade bread of Integral Wheat flour, salt egg & Toasted in Butter.) R$ 2.50 /unit
STUFF PARATHAS: (Integral wheat flour, bread stuffed of various filling either it could be Potato, Cauliflower or Cabbage Toasted in Butter) R$ 5/ unit

INDIAN DESSERT:
Very tempting and mouth watering after a sumptuous meal is always incomplete without sweet dish so chose any one to two of this below.

GULAB JAMUN: (Milk Balls soaked in Sugar Syrup) R$ 35 /kg have 25 units.
GAJJAR KA HALWA: (Carrot cooked in condense milk, topped with dry fruits) R$ 35 /kg
RAS MALAI: (ricotta cheese, saffron, cardamom blanched almonds green pistachios) R$ 45 /kg
SHRIKHAND: (Sweet Golden Yogurt, prepared with nutmeg saffron chopped green pistachios) R$ 45 /kg

Thanking you

Deepali Bavaskar

Clocks change tonight!

2011-10-15T19:31:00.000-07:00

Remember to change your clocks tonight!! NZ vs Australia at 6am in the morning!!

http://www.estadao.com.br/noticias/cidades,horario-de-verao-comeca-neste-domingo,785460,0.htm

Cirque d'Alegria - CIS Major Fundraiser

2011-10-13T17:39:00.000-07:00

The CIS Gala Night, Cirque d`Alegria, is just around the corner on October 22nd! This is CIS’s most important fundraising event and includes live music, a circus performance from Arena de Artes, raffle, silent auction and more! Contact rsvp@cisbrazil.org to reserve your tickets.

Raffle ticket holders do not need to attend the Gala Night to win. There are many raffle prizes to be won, including a round-trip airfare to Canada, courtesy of Air Canada. There are limited tickets so buy them before we sell out!!

Rugby World Cup in Sao Paulo

2011-10-07T17:03:00.000-07:00

Thought I would pay him tribute even though he's not in the WC anymore...

*OK, so maybe not a Kiwi-England final....

Unfortunately for us here in Sao Paulo the Rugby World Cup games are in the middle of the night. A Kiwi-England Final will be the one I'll pull myself out of bed for (more so to dress Sophie up her in her All Blacks top and wind Tim up!)..

The Quarter-Finals are starting this weekend and Tim has been in a panic as he can't get his VPN to work for tonight's game. I had forgotten about Hotspot Shield *as it stopped working on us a few months ago but I just downloaded it again and hey presto! We've borrowed a friends Sky login so he'll be able to wake up right before the games tonight (wales v ireland at 2am and england v france at 4:30am).

If you are up for actually staying out, or going out at 1am to catch the games, O'Malley's is showing the games live, though god knows what state everyone else will be there who have been drinking there all night!

*Actually he's had to buy another VPN as Hotspot Shield thinks it's in the US so we still can't access skysports

** Some clearer instructions if you are desperate to watch the game but want to just roll out of bed in the middle of the night. Sign up for PureVPN (at least an hour before KO as it takes time for the system to register you) and make sure that when you connect you are connecting to a UK server. Then watch the games live or highlights first thing in the morning on ITV (though they give away the score at the top of the highlight package...)

Unlock your phone

2011-10-03T18:25:00.001-07:00

Tip from an INC member: They can unlock phones for 60R$ in Itaim. Axcell, Rua Clodomiro Amazonas, 732. Tel 28123981. The store is a little shady, but the guy can do it right away (15-20 minutes) the price is amazing and it works!!

A to-do-list for your Empregada in Portuguese

2011-10-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

The INC runs a facebook group which is pretty handy when you are looking for something, or need some advice from other expats. Here's a list that was just posted of things for your empregada to do. I'll post a blog on all the paperwork we've done for our baba in the near future as there are lots of rules / laws to make sure you abide by!

Cleaning Checklist – Lista de Limpeza

*** This is list was created by Erica Winter and it is based on a list found on Martha Stewart's website. It's been adapted for Brazil and translated. Please feel free to use it. ***

Daily – Diário

□ Make Beds – Fazer as camas

□ Manage Clutter – Guardar objetos, brinquedos e roupa

□ Clean as You Cook – Limpa enquanto cozinha

□ Sweep & Mop Floors – Varrer e passar pano no chão

□ Empty trash bins – Esvaziar latas de lixo

Three Per Week – Tres Vezes por Semana

□ Clean bathrooms – limpar banheiros

□ Vacuum floors – Passar aspirador nos tapetes (muito cuidado com as franjas dos tapetes persas)

□ Dust surfaces, furniture, objects, & light fixtures – Tirar pó de todos os objetos, lustres & usar lustra moveis onde for madeira

Weekly - Semanal

□ Change bath mats, towels, & washcloths – Trocar toalhas & tapetes de chão

□ Empty trash and wipe the insides bins – Lavar latas de lixo

□ Wipe mirrors – limpar espelhos

□ Change sheets – Trocar a roupa de cama

□ Discard foods past prime – Limpar geladeira & tirar comida vencida

□ Wipe surfaces & kitchen cabinets– Limpar a cozinha inclusive dentro dos armários

□ Wipe the inside of the oven & toaster – Limpar forno & torradoreira

□ Dust the tops & spines of books, shelves – Tirar pó de livros e estantes

□ Wipe windows & glass surfaces – limpar vidros

Monthly – Por Mês

□ Wipe baseboards and moldings – limpar rodapés, cantos de parede e teto

□ Wipe insides of medicine cabinets – limpar dentro dos armários de åbanheiro

□ Launder duvet covers & mattress pads – lavar acolchoados, e protetores de colchões

□ Dust shelves & storage bins – tirar pó dos armários de roupa

□ Discard food in the freezer past its prime – descongelar o freezer e tirar comida vencida

Organic food delivered in Sao Paulo!

2011-10-02T06:09:00.000-07:00

A friend has recommended Ponto Verde, an organic shop based in Santo Amaro who also deliver. They get organic milk and yoghurt, and a seasonal fruit and vegetable box each week. I like getting my f+v in my local feira but I'm definitely going to try out the milk and yoghurt this week.

There is also an organic food market in Perdizes on the weekend if you are looking to potter around.

Banking in Brazil

2011-09-29T12:20:00.000-07:00

*An update from our Bank Manager in HSBC Brazil

Global View limits are:

Per day: US$ 2.950,00
Per Month: US$ 15.000,00

Always choose American dollars currency because that's GV currency.
If you choose to do a wire transfer in R$, GV will exchange it into dollars twice and you will lose money this transaction.

So for those of you who have opened a bank account in brazil you have bled the same sweat and tears... We spent the first 8 months here drawing cash from our HK account each day - max withdrawal of R1000 meant lots of pre-planning when rent day, Juliete's payday etc were all due. We couldn't even start to apply for an account until we had other paperwork in place (CPF, RNE, rental agreement)

We were already knew we we would be going with HSBC since we already have accounts in Hong Kong, UK and US but it does you no favours (so much for being the World's Bank...... I'm about to take this comment back in few paragraphs). The paperwork we had to endure - no different from your Visa, CPF, RNE, renting an apartment, renting a pousada, having a baby - was painful but we got it altogether and had been recommended a manager at HSBC here who spoke English.

We had been pre-warned that our first set of bank cards would go missing as the bank could ONLY send it to the residential address and the delivery had to be signed for but you would be given no forewarning of when it would arrive - it could arrive in 1 week, 1 month or 6 months. We asked the Bank Manager if we could change the delivery address to Tim's office but he said it was standard procedure - we would only be able to change it once the cards were sent back to them. So instead we got a note from our Bank Manager (the same one) saying the cards had been returned and would we like to pick them up from him or have them sent to another address. Super efficient huh!

But the reason why I still LOVE HSBC is for things like this - HSBC Global View. Again, as most of you know - bringing money into Brazil is a complete pain in the a**!! I believe you can bring in up to R15k every 2 weeks that will stay under the radar - any amounts larger than this would have to got through the mandatory banking system here, and who knows how long your money could be stuck. I think our last major transfer took about 6 weeks to come through and that wasn't including all the paperwork needed before.

Another side note on this money stuff here is how to write cheques in Brazil. I was given an example when I first arrived but thought I would never use so threw it away - cheques are so old school where I'm from - but here they are not! I've slowly been learning how to write cheques.

1. No name needed - just the amount
2. Write the amount on top right with a hash symbol on eitherside, e.g. #R400.00#
3. If you are writing 'Um' as your first number put an 'H' infront so it reads as 'Hum' and no one can add a few other numbers..
4. Use a capital letter for your first number e.g. Quatrocentos, Cinco, etc
5. cross twice on top left so the person has to deposit it into their account and can't just cash it
6. Any other tips?

Bus to Guarulhos Airport

2011-09-29T11:47:00.000-07:00

We just had one of my sister's friends from NZ staying who has been backpacking around South America and it was such a pain working out how she was going to get to the airport. Major international airports will usually have a few public options, which are not necessarily the most efficient, but certainly a cheaper option than taking a taxi into the city. Take the F train to JFK, the bus from Port Authority to Newark, the Heathrow express or the tube in London, and of course my beloved, super-efficient Airport Express in Hong Kong but in Sao Paulo there is no easy way to do this unless you want to spend R100 minimum on a taxi. Hello SP people - what are you planning on doing for the World Cup!!

We found a website about the airport bus but it seemed to be pretty useless as it just had a generic pick up point (i.e. Paulista/Augusta - but which corner?) and a mention of a hotel circuit - but which hotels?!? I really didn't want Steph wandering around at 5:30am trying to find the right corner or hotel!

Our favourite Brazilian family, from Boteca da Cesinah on our old Rua Delfina (who btw, got a cute write-up in Time Out Sao Paulo), told us that she could pick the bus up from the Renaissance Hotel on Al Santos, but it was to late for us to call the company to confirm; the Hotel was taking no responsibility. First bus was leaving at 5:50am so Tim woke up early this morning to drive Steph there. I haven't heard from her since so I'm guessing she made her flight!! Safe travels Steph! x

*apparently there is also a free airport transfer from Guarulhos to Congonhas Airport which takes about an hour, and then you could take a taxi from there which would be a slightly cheaper than taking a taxi all the way from Guarulhos - but I guess only worth it if you have a few hours to spare, and feeling pretty perky after your long-haul flight here.

New English pub opening tonight!

2011-09-27T13:20:00.000-07:00

Rua Tucambira, 163, Pinheiros

http://queenshead.com.br/

Antiguadades

2011-09-23T08:26:00.000-07:00

I grew up in Hong Kong. I like to shop... quite a bit. But Oscar Friere and the shopping malls just don't do it for me. Tim has bred in me, being the English-man that he is, how to take pleasure in scouring through antique and vintage shops.

I was forwarded an email inviting me to the sale of someone's entire house, run by Meredith Promoções. I wasnt' sure what to expect but it was walking distance and there are a few things we are looking for, like an old record player for all the records we buy in the markets but can't play! Unfortunately, that had gone but I did pick some random pieces - an old clock, radio, a sugar pot and an old English-Portuguese dictionary all for R40-.

Next Friday there is a sale in Higienopolis - please leave the record player if you see it!!!

Restaurant Week in Sao Paulo

2011-09-18T15:48:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately we didn't get to try any of the restaurants this week but the bonus is that I know have a list of must-trys!

http://vejasp.abril.com.br/especiais/comer-beber-2011-2012-restaurantes

On the Economist: Brazilian equivalents

2011-09-11T11:32:00.000-07:00

The Economist has compared the GDP of Brazilian States with other countries; Sao Paulo's equivalent GDP per person is Poland! Note that the stats are taken from 2008 and I think that if they were to do the comparison now there would be some states showing significant differences.

Click here for the comparison.

Footage of Amazonian tribe!

2011-09-06T14:19:00.000-07:00

First footage of one of the remote tribes living in the Amazon. Really amazing!!

More photos and information here.

A Day at the Races with CIS - 17th September, Jockey Club

2011-09-06T12:44:00.000-07:00

http://www.cisbrazil.org/race-day-17th-september.html

Some of the things I miss...

2011-09-06T12:38:00.000-07:00

It's hard not to make comparisons when we are away from Brazil - things we love and things we hate. I was never the biggest fan of living in London but coming back always highlights all the things I do love about being here, much to the surprise of my husband.

Being in London has also been a good reality check. Sao Paulo is expensive but London still is!!

Old friends. It's so lovely catching up old friends - so many of them are as close to me as my own family and it is like coming home. After a day or even a few hours, it's like we haven't been apart. We have made fantastic friends in Sao Paulo and as it always in expat circles, you make those friendships strong and fast and share your deepest darkest secrets after your second or third week (nothing to do with pinga of course!). I just wish I could collect all my lovely friends up and put them all in the same city!

Shopping. I went a little crazy but to be fair, I don't do much shopping in Sao Paulo apart from the supermarket and have been really excited about some silly things like clingfilm in a box with a razor, cute kitchen shops, Peter Jones, Waitrose, Primark! We have 120kg to bring back so have a bit more shopping to do while we are in France though maybe some of that luggage allowance maybe taken up by some good old bottles of Sancerre.

Food. I love my rice and beans but I don't miss it like ... hmm, sausage rolls, frazzles, dairy milk, clotted cream and scones, chinese and thai takeaway... ok, basically junk food!

We are heading back to SP this weekend after being away for almost a month and looking forward to some warm weather, seeing all our NEW friends (and sadly, saying goodbye to some more) and having a pastel or 2!

A view on the London Riots

2011-08-11T16:03:00.000-07:00

I know I'm going off topic here but wanted to link to my friend's insightful blog on the London Riots. Watching it from Sao Paulo has been disconcerting - aren't we supposed to be in more 'imminent danger' here? I use to live up the road from the Junction where shops I frequented have been smashed in and burnt down. We're heading back to London for a visit next weekend and not sure how I'm going to feel walking around the streets of my old neigbourhoods with Sophie but then, I'm already use to walking around watch-less, ring-less and handbag-less...

Check out Miss Kristie Wests' blog here.

Canadian PM becomes our 100th CIS member!

2011-08-11T15:35:00.000-07:00

The Canadian PM, Stephen Harper, was in town on Tuesday and picked Casa São José Community Centre that the Canadian International Society supports, to visit. We fund Marcio's, the capoeira teacher, degree so he can continue to teach the kids at this community center in Jardim São Luis. He watched the capoeira group perform, and drummed along with them, and the kids were fantastic, became the 100th official member of the CIS (!!) and doggy-bagged his churrasco to eat on his way to the airport.

Become a CIS Facebook Fan here!

Prime Minister Stephen Harper plays a drum during a Capoeira demonstration at the Casa Sao Jose in Sao Paulo, Brazil, August 9, 2011. Minister of International Trade and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Canadian Consul General to Sao Paulo Abbie Dann look on.

PMO Photo by Jason Ransom

Cool Hunting Sao Paulo

2011-08-02T13:40:00.000-07:00

A short guide from Cool Hunting on Sao Paulo my sister forwarded on to me. Worth a quick look!

Canadian International Society

2011-07-31T15:15:00.000-07:00

I've posted regularly about events of the Canadian International Society (CIS) and wanted to give you a little history.

I joined the Society last year when they needed some help with their major fundraiser. I was recruited by a fellow kiwi - and in the absence of any other kiwi group - joined their Board for 2011. The CIS recently changed their name from the Canadian International Women's Society, which had initially been set up (49 years ago) by a mix of expat and Brazilian wives to fundraise for chosen charities in Sao Paulo. Times have changed and we made an executive decision to become all-encompassing. The 'Canadian' aspect of the group is the official link we maintain with the Consulate here in Brazil. Previously, wives of the Consul Gen were the Honorary President and this year we are honoured to have Abbie Dann, the Consul General of Canada, who actively participates in the Society. The 'International' aspect of the group is reflected in the membership with members from all over the world. I was recently told that there is another expat group here in Sao Paulo screen their members and only allow their passport holders to become members - CIS is completely the opposite!

What drew me to this group is the active fundraising we do. There are some other great expat groups here in Sao Paulo too but they don't have a 100% focus on fundraising. Yesterday we went to visit Casa dos Idosos- an old folks home where 90% of the residents have come from living on the street but have become incapable of looking after themselves anymore. They have no family ties and are brought to this home to be cared for - provided a bed, showers, food and medical care. The home houses 75 people at the moment which is at it's capacity but is in generally good shape. Irmã Natalina founded the Casa over 20 years ago and continues to be a big part of it. She has some exciting ideas and we are hoping to raise more money this year to be able to continue supporting the Casa (as well as our other chosen charities).

Story telling

Irma Natalina

While we are away....

2011-07-29T09:50:00.000-07:00

our nanny is available for work, nannying or cleaning. Juliete works 90% as our baba and 10% cleaning. She has looked after Sophie since she was 8 months old (who is now 2 years old). She is great with Sophie and highly recommend her. She is happy to work during the week and some evenings. Her rate is $80-90 a day depending on location / work.

We are away for 3 weeks (from the 19th August to the 11th September).

If you are also interested in sub-letting our apartment (Jardins) let us know. We could sub-let on a weekly basis or for the whole 3 weeks.

Leave your details below if interested!

Juliete with Sophie & Theo, of
Sophie & Theo's Cupcakes

Bourbon Street Festival

2011-07-26T12:22:00.000-07:00

Ahh so excited for some cajun food and jazz in the park this Saturday!

Like all the years, the Bourbon Street Festival is going to be held at Ibirapuera Park for free with lots of jazz, funk, blues bands from New Orleans!
The opening at the park is free this Saturday July 30th. Time: 3:30 p.m., near Museu Afro Brasil, gate 10

http://www.bourbonstreetfest.com.br/

Is Brazil in a bubble?

2011-07-25T08:56:00.000-07:00

A couple of interesting articles worth a read.

Is Brazil's consumer spending boom a bubble?, Arab News, 23 July
Brazil's giddy convergence, NY Times, 4 July

Baby monkey anyone?

2011-07-22T12:22:00.000-07:00

Just had lunch at 7 Molinos on Lorena 1914 (just before Consolação), a cute little French-style bakery with fresh soups and (small) salads. The breads are all freshly baked and delicious; I almost didn't need lunch. Definitely recommended for brunch / lunch though strangely sandwiches were only available after 4pm.

I wanted to treat myself to a bottle of O&C Balsamic Vinegar which I adore but they were charging R$150. I almost had a heart attack! Luckily one of my friends is heading back to New York next week and offered to pick me up a bottle for US$34, which I would already consider as expensive, and a luxury purchase!

On the way home we stopped off at the Pet Shop as I heard that they had a baby monkey in. I love the little puppies there but also know that they have lots of exotic birds upstairs. They have a toucan (is it not illegal to trade in these beautiful exotic birds???) in a tiny cage. He is absolutely stunning; I hope that someone buys him soon and sets him free. They also have a little baby monkey in there who is adorable - I was laughing to myself, imagining Tim's face if he came home to a new pet monkey! I hope he's not caged up for much too longer either. Someone go buy him please!!!

Sao Paulo: 10th most expensive city for expats

2011-07-17T14:18:00.000-07:00

Alot has been made of the Mercer list of 10 top most expensive cities for expats. Sao Paulo has made the top 10, and not surprisingly, for those of us who live here. I would argue for Sao Paulo to be even more expensive than Hong Kong and Singapore, but we did live in those cities in another life time.

I think it's also important not to compare how the locals afford to live - they benefit from public medical care, public schooling, public transport, family / government housing. Ok yes, they are not the best in the world but they are available to a certain extent. As expats we have to consider housing (at an expat rate), earning in US dollars, private schooling (eek!), cars (for the record we walk, take buses and taxis alot too but with number 2 on the way a car seemed more cost efficient over the next couple of years).

It's hard not to focus on the cost of things here; on a daily basis I will be shocked by the cost of something but at the same time, I am slowly getting use to it. We live here in Brazil on our (well, Tim's) savings (USD) and came here off our own back (no company expenses here unfortunately) so with a combination of us getting use to it, the real weakening with the dollar strengthening hopefully our lives will become more affordable!

Sources:
1. Mercer
2. Huffington Post
3. CNN

Sao Paulo Aquarium

2011-07-13T12:12:00.000-07:00

We've started weekly trips to the aquarium in Ipiranga which Sophie loves. Her favourites are the albino jacares (alligators) where she can lie on the glass floor and peer at them from above (and less than a meter away which gives me a little heart attack!). Hannah's favourite is the dinosaur display which Sophie is scared of - but there's something there for everyone!

Don't go there expecting the world's best - it can be dark and claustrophobic in some places - but there are some amazing and super-ugly things to see there. The second part has a giant tank with a beautiful seal, and lots of giant fish from the Amazon. Definitely worth a trip if you are at a loss for something to do with you kids! At the moment it's $15 entry over the school holidays - and try to go early to miss the kiddie groups!

I'm going to slowly put together a list of things to do with kids here in SP. There are lots of things to do but just finding out about them is hard!

http://www.aquariodesaopaulo.com.br/

Collecting your RNE

2011-07-04T14:25:00.000-07:00

We finally picked up our RNE's! Its only been 10 months....

Anyhow, just a tip if you are still waiting on your RNE - there is an email address you can follow up with. Keep sending emails until you get a response. Tim heard back the third time..

To pick up your RNE from the Policia Federal in Lapa you need to go in after 3:30 and before 4pm. It's on the third floor and the queue on the right. We only had to wait 15 minutes for our documents. Hopefully we won't be visiting this building anytime soon again!

Send an email to this address nre.delemig.srsp@dpf.gov.br.

Bom Dia,

Por favor, fui avisado que o RNE sai em até 180 dias e até agora não recebemos nenhuma informação sobre eles.

Gostaria de saber se é possível verificar o andamento do processo e qual é a expectativa??? Seguem os dados abaixo...

Nome: XXX
Nacionalidade: XXX
Data de Nascimento: XXX
Passporte:XXX
Número de Protocolo RNE: XXX

Muito Obrigado,

Jericoacoara

2011-07-04T10:26:00.000-07:00

*update: My friend has just discovered that she picked up some parasite from the beach at Jeri, apparently from all the animal feces on the beach. She said that they looked like mosquito bites at first and then long lines grew out of them and they are still really itchy. This is 3 weeks after we were there. Be warned!

The journey

We had an 11am flight from GRU which landed just after 2pm. The pousada had organised a 4x4 to pick us up (Rs500 each way so if you can find people to share with the better! Other option is the bus which goes twice a day). The ride was just over 4 hours long and we took the main road until half an hour out where we turned off towards Praia da Prea (about 15 mins on average road) and then 20 minutes along the beach in the dark. It was really cool and the driver was a really safe driver (not what you would usually say about Brazilian drivers!).

The pousada

We stayed at Vila Bela Vista which is run by an American family but they were away and in their place there was a guy from England and a girl from Canada who's married a Brazilian, looking after the pousada. We had a 2 bedroom suite and they provided a cot for Sophie. The pousada was really lovely - clean, well designed and had a little area for breakfast. You can also eat dinner if you give their chef advance warning. I'ts located about 10 min walk from the main part of town, and they will give you a ride in by horse and cart (during the day) and buggy (in the evening).

Food

The first night we were too late to eat at the pousada so we went into town and it has such a lovely atmosphere. I know it was the night before the feriado so wasn't as busy. There are 3 main streets and small connecting lanes. We found a photographer and bought some postcards and asked him to recommend a place and he sent us to Tamarindo (next to Mosquito Blue) which became my favourite and Tim adamantly refused to go there for a third or fourth time (we were only there 5 nights..)

Tamarindo - fish, pizza and pasta- my favourite. Located next to Mosquito Blue.
Casa Dela - on Rua Principal down towards the beach. Local food.
Fish restaurant on beach at Praia da Prea. Grilled fish was delicious. Had lunch here on our buggy trip.
Pimenta Verde on S. Fran - sadly only went for our last lunch but the pasta was really good.
Club Vento on the far end of the beach - sandwiches, pasta and rice. A lovely spot for lunch.

There were two other local places we missed out on trying but that were highly recommended.

Chicken and Rice on Rua Principal - but keep walking up, I saw them serving at lunch time
Fish place on Rua S Fran. - only open in the evening

Passeios
Horseride at sunset - organised through our pousada and Jose, our guide, was fantastic. Firstly he carried Sophie with him who fell asleep in first 5 minutes but he could still ride his horse, and guide all the other horses with a click of his tongue. For me, a definite must-do!

Buggy trip out to the Lagoas. We unfortunately were there on a bank holiday weekend so it was pretty busy. We went out early so the first lagoon was empty which was gorgeous and the girls had a wonderful time playing in the water. Lagao Paraíso was lovely too but a little more built up - with a little retaurant and chairs and tables in the water. Lagoa Azul is one where you have to take a little boat out to the restaurant and it was really busy, and the tide was pretty much all the way up so you had to sit in the water. I can imagine how beautiful it would be if there was no one else there! haha, wishful thinking. Some great people watching, especially poses for the camera.

Kitesurfing - Tim took a few lessons but unfortunately the second time the wind conditions weren't good, and the third time the wind was so strong his kite broke and that was the day we were leaving. We saw loads of guys out on the water close to Praia da Prea and they looked amazing. I'm not sure I would have the courage to go out there on the water - maybe if I was 15 years younger. For another lifetime!

Sunset - you can watch from the sunset dune wich is right next to the beach, and you can't miss it as everyone climbs up it just before sunset. There is also a walk you can do to Pedra Furada which is a rock with a hole in it that you can see the sunset through. We decided to late in the day, jumped in a buggy who took us to the other side though we didn't realise we still had to walk about 30 minutes along sand and rocks with the girls, so that's my excuse for missing it and not having a picture of it.

The beach
The main beach is not the prettiest beach - the sand is dark brown and the water is really low and goes out a couple of hundred meters. On the last day I noticed the sand slug things which grossed me out but Sophie and Mia loved it! They could run around everywhere, and make sand castles and splash in all the puddles. There are also alot of dogs and horses on the beach so make sure not to step in any poo!

The lagoons in the dunes are much prettier but there is still alot of horse, cow and dog poo - not that pleasant to hang out in and I had to stop Sophie from drinking the water.

The holiday
I had a great holiday, met some great people, read 4 books (more than i've read all year), had lazy afternoons in the hammock, and tried some great restaurants. Would definitely recommend but don't expect too much from the beach.

Map of Jeri and Restaurants (from our Vila)

Buying books online

2011-07-04T09:53:00.000-07:00

I've always been a big fan of Book Depository which has free international delivery. I've tested it a couple of times here in Brazil and receive my books within 2-3 weeks. Another bonus, is that you don't get taxed on books sent into Brazil. There are some nice bookshops around too but if I'm looking for something in particular they are bound not to have it!

Some of the bookshops I like

Livraria da Vila - my favourite (one on Lorena in Jardins and one in Vila Madalena)
FNAC - there is one on cnr of Paulista and Joaquim Eugenio
Cultural Livraria- supposedly the biggest bookshop in South America but always really busy!

Book Depository has just been bought by Amazon so am hoping that their standards continue to stay the same

Jeri-berry photos

2011-06-28T17:40:00.000-07:00

Some photos first until I find a few minutes to blog about our super relaxing trip up to Jeri. We have managed to lose one camera and break another so these are all off my blackberry, not too bad as long as I don't want to print any...

Las Chicas

2011-06-17T04:56:00.000-07:00

Lovely brunch / lunch place I'd love to recommend. Went there yesterday for lunch with some girlfriends, had a cheeky glass of wine and their buffet lunch which was absolutely delicious. Big lovely salads, chicken xadrex and the best cheesecake (dessert) I've had so far (obviously aside from my cupcakes!!).

I also saw on their menu that they do eggs for brunch too so will have to head back there on the weekend to try. The only problem is that it's tiny! Because it's so small I can't imagine it's the best place to take Sophie (but that's all relative, as everywhere here is childfriendly...) but I can imagine it's aboslutely packed on the weekend.

Las Chicas, Oscar Friere 1607, Pinheiros (north side of Reboucas). They are open from 9am.

*on a side note, we went to Pain et Chocolate in Moema for supposedly the best breakfast last weekend and it is so average. The only thing that was 'NY brunch' about it was the 1 hour waiting time!!

Jericoacoara

2011-06-09T09:24:00.000-07:00

Just booked flights to Jericoacoara for later this month!!! If anyone has any tips on places to stay, things to do and most importantly, restaurants - all would be much appreciated!!!!

Waste Land

2011-06-07T18:24:00.000-07:00

Just watched the Vik Muniz documentary, Waste Land.

It's about the catadores - the people who work picking through the rubbish for recyclables - who work at Jardim Gramacho in Rio de Janeiro, one of the largest rubbish dumps in the city. Through Muniz's documentary he brings this underclass to life, putting faces to the faceless. The idea is that he takes their photos, sells them, and gives them the money back to support their association (which they started to try and formalise their workforce in the industry).

Definitely worth a watch, and a think.

Check out the NY Times review too.

Ilhabela: Eaten alive

2011-06-07T09:13:00.000-07:00

We went to Ilhabela 2 weeks ago and I still have the bites to prove it (they're still itchy!).

Had my mother-in-law in town and decided to take her away for a long weekend as Tim couldn't get much time off work. Ilhabela is one of the dozens of places on our list of places to visit here -and decided it would be ideal, the weather was going to be good, it wasn't too far to drive and technically off-season so wouldn't be so busy. We've heard that the summer months can be awful there - too many people, too many mosquitos and too much rain. But we figured that if people still go there, that this island must be pretty amazing!

We drove up on a Friday morning and it took us just under 3 hours to get to the ferry point at Sao Sebastiao. We had read other blogs which advised to pre-book the ferry online, but we couldn't find the link and it turned out to be fine particularly since it wasn't a public holiday in peak season. We arrived 10 minutes before the next ferry was scheduled (they go every half an hour at this time of the year)

We booked a little chalet up on the hill next to Praia Grande which is half way down the island, using the website Alugue Temporada. It's low season so it was only R$150 a night but next time I would like to definitely be walking distance to the beach.

The little town was cute - a few restaurants and shops. The first night we were recommended Cheio Verde which serves local food. There is no menu - you choose from 4-5 daily plates that they have. Ilhabela is a popular sailing destination and this is restaurant is a favourite amongst old-school sailors for a good hearty meal after a long day at sea. My seafood spaghetti was OK but I personally wouldn't go back.

It was a really lovely weekend and we were really lucky with the weather considering it's winter. Though the first morning, one of Madeleine’s varicose veins burst!! It must’ve been from the pressure of her flight over from the UK. Not the best thing to happen when you are settling yourself into a hammock for a morning cup of tea. So Tim rushed her down to the hospital in town and luckily they didn’t have to wait too long for a doctor to check her out and give her some pills. Spent a day on Praia do Curral (where DPNY hotel is located) which was the busiest beach. I love to people watch and the water there was great for Sophie. The only thing that spoilt it for me was two cars that had put on loud dance music (e.g. electronic version of 'I had the time of my life'). We went to Restaurant Nova Iorqui (at the south end of the tarmac road) where we were told had the best seafood on the island. We had a lovely seafood stew but got pretty cold sitting on their balcony - would recommend going there for a late lunch and watching the sunset.

The next day we drove up as far north as we could go to a beach called Jabaquara. It was stunning as it was much more off the beaten track than all the other beaches we had seen so far. We had a plan to do a boat trip to the other side of the island where we heard the beaches were even more stunning (because they are harder to get to I assume) but we didn't plan our day properly. But we we were quite happy to stay on Jabaquara - during the day we spent there, there couldn't have been more than 50 people on the beach. Spent the morning watching a kite surfer fail abysmally at taking off. We had a gorgeous prawn risotto there and left to drive back mid-afternoon when we couldn't take the borrachudas (a special variety of sandflies) anymore! Note to self: take cash to this beach, they do not accept cards.

We also decided to stop off at the hospital again, for Sophie this time. She had a nasty allergic reaction to the bites, and even though they didn’t seem to bother her they were so ugly (on the second day it looked like acid bubbles had formed under her skin). Again, luckily, there were not very many people waiting so we go to see the doctor pretty quickly. He prescribed her some cream, and it took 3 days for her bites to dry, scab and peel off. I’m now going to have to smother her in Vitamin E cream to try and get rid of her scars : (

We went for dinner at Manjericao which is a new restaurant in town. We were impressed with the food - the fish dishes were excellent - but it was pretty empty. I guess everyone had already started heading home that Sunday night.

Not the best night sleep. All of us woke up every other hour to itch a bite (or 20). All our creams (I’m a big fan of tiger balm to help relieve the itching) didn’t last the whole night. Madeleine spent the next week pouring boiling water on her bites, and we were also told to use a hairdryer on full heat to stop the itch but if anyone has any other tips on how to stop getting the bites in the first place that would be great! All the deet and citronella did not work with these little buggers.

On Monday morning I spent it down at the café on Praia Grande while Tim took Sophie and Madeleine for a walk to a waterfall. It was a gorgeous 27 C and the beach had 10 other people on it. Fresh fruit juices, and no sandflies here made it heaven! It’s morning like these that remind me of why we moved here to Brazil. We just need to make the most of the opporunities here.

We caught the 6:30pm ferry back that evening and were back in Sao Paulo by 10pm. Certainly worse ways to spend a weekend : ). Next trip back to ilhabela, I will be armed with vegemite (I was advised by fellow kiwis that eating vegemite every day the week before your visit would keep the little pesky biters away) and definitely organise a boat trip to the beaches on the other side of the island. Any other tips on must-see's or must-eat's would be much appreciated!

Rong He Noodle Shop

2011-05-28T14:48:00.000-07:00

Best chinese noodles I've found so far in Sao Paulo! Rong He are based in Liberdade on Rua da Glória, 622. They make fresh noodles and dumplings there and the stir-fried beef noodles are pretty close to the real thing. I've also had the wonton noodles which were pretty good.

Apparently they are really busy on the weekend so either go early or be prepared to wait. Give them a call and make sure they are open before you go there (so you're not really disappointed when you turn up and they are closed, like I did last Monday).

Oooh and I found out they deliver, pretty much anywhere in Central Sao Paulo (Vila Mariana, Jardins, Higienopolis, Itaim...).

Mmmmm... might have to order in tonight!

My little pet hate...

2011-05-24T12:57:00.000-07:00

Have you ever received a call from a Brazilian and they ask YOU 'Quem ta falando?' or "Quem e?". When I first got here, picked up my phone and was asked who I was I use to be so confused - I thought it was one of those trick phonecalls when two calls were made and then put together and no one would be able to work out who was calling who, and why.

Then I realised it was just a standard greeting on the phone... even if you know who you are calling, and it's 99% most likely that they are the one to answer the phone you still ask the person you called - Who is speaking?

I tried to get an explanation from my Portuguese teacher and she said, people like to check they have called the right number but I still don't understand why you wouldn't ask "Would I be able to speak to so-and-so?" (sounds much more polite!). I guess this is one of the other Brazilian things I will get use to over time!!

I guess it's a good tip for Brazilians who travel overseas - when you make a phone call, don't just say 'Who are you?' - it would be considered very rude!

Another...new favourite restaurant

2011-05-19T18:28:00.000-07:00

I know I have a lot of new favourite restaurants in this city BUT this is a REAL japanese restaurant - bem, bem, bem tradicional.

It's called Sushi Guen, Av. Brigadeiro Luis Antonio 2367 (tel: 3289-5566) in a shopping plaza called Ouro Branco. It's been there since 1974 and run by a Japanese couple. You won't find hot rolls or rodizio there - it's as original as a restaurant as you will find in Japan.

Definitely worth a visit if you are a sushi lover, like me!

Winter in Sao Paulo

2011-05-18T13:26:00.000-07:00

What did I envision my life would be like when I moved to Brazil?... NOT COLD!

Yes, there is a winter in Sao Paulo. It's very similar to HK where most houses and apartments don't have any indoor heating and they are actually designed to lose as much heat as possible. So I walk around the apartment in my uggs (which I didn't have last year!) and go to bed in big woolly socks, tucked well under my duvet. My husband has given up taking the piss as he finally gave in the other day and told me he was so freezing (after telling me each morning over the past 2 weeks - there is no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothing...)

I'm being serious when I say I don't remember feeling this cold in New York (-20 C) or London (0 C) or Dunedin (-5 C).

I've replaced my evening drinks with a hot cup of tea rather than an icy cold caipi or beer... and I'm going to have to stop typing now as I can barely feel my fingers... : )

Real Cupcakes in Sao Paulo

2011-05-17T15:04:00.000-07:00

My new little baby is Sophie & Theo's Cupcakes. After months of R&E we have managed to replicate a real american cupcake here in Sao Paulo - either importing essential ingredients or finding the perfect substitute. If you're looking for cupcakes for children's parties, weddings or just to treat yourself drop us a line at contato@saopaulocupcakes.com.

An Invitation from the Canadian International Society

2011-05-16T12:48:00.000-07:00

The Honourary President of the Canadian International Society, Canadian Consul General Abbie Dann is hosting a charity cocktail evening at the Official Residence next Wednesday, May 25th.

For further information please email rsvp@cisbrazil.org

http://www.cisbrazil.org

Virada Cultural

2011-04-17T04:55:00.000-07:00

24 hours of music, theatre, films and more all throughout Sao Paulo city. It started last night at 6pm and will go on through to today at 6pm in 13 different stages.

I think we are going to head to Repulica and samba!

http://www.viradacultural.org/
http://www.insidesaopaulo.com/2011/04/virada-cultural-2011-in-sao-paulo-will.html

Time flies when you're having fun

2011-04-13T14:50:00.001-07:00

I don't know where time has gone these past few months. Here's a little of what we have been up to:

Travelled to the UK for 2 weeks and my belief that Brazilians are the friendliest people in the world was reinforced...
We launched our JAM Brazilian Portuguese flashcards: 99 verbs on Kindle.
Set up a small home business with Nicole & Theo selling real american cupcakes - Sophie & Theo's Cupcakes. We have baked for St Paul's International Day, the INC vendor's fair and have 200 easter cupcakes to bake tomorrow for Tots & Teens! Become a facebook fan here!
Discovered my new favourite restaurant Oba which has authentic Mexican dishes (and a few Thai ones too!)
Attend INC playgroups every Thursday morning with a fab group of mummies and kids
Went to our first Kindermusik demo session with Camille Miller who also put on a great gig a few weeks ago for us adults! Her sessions are hopefully going to be on a regular basis on Saturday nights in Jardins at Buchanan's Lounge.
Saw this band Ailaika and their glo-in-the-dark hula hoop dancer at Quinta dos Infernos, a private house that opens it's bar downstairs on Thursdays, but not every Thursday. One of the coolest bars I've found in SP so far.
At the last CIS Board meeting we planned the rest of the years events. If you are Canadian, or not Canadian (like me), please feel free to come and join us. Any funds raised go directly to a variety of charities we support.
Checked out Arte da Vila in Vila Madalena this weekend just gone and ended the day with our adopted Brazilian family at Boteca de Cesinah (Rua Delfina). It was our one year anniversary to the day of 'meeting' Vila Madalena. We visited it for the first time last year during the same art festival and we miss living there so much!
Sat in traffic on the way back from 25 de Marco (stocking up for cupcake stuff) and watched 2 ladies washing their clothes on the street and some guys working out in an outdoor gym caged with chicken wire, and under a highway. It really made me thankful for everything I have.
One of my best mates is heading out here for 2 weeks from Hong Kong and I can't wait to show her around!

Cyclists mowed down in Porto Alegre

2011-02-28T16:31:00.000-08:00

How is this guy still free?!!!

Chinky-chonk eyes

2011-02-28T16:20:00.000-08:00

You know that children's song, "Heads, Shoulders, Knees & Toes"? Where, each time you sing the song, you remove one extra word and just point to your heads, or shoulders, or knees and toes...

In my portuguese lesson the other day, we were talking about Liberdade and my teacher said to me, "You don't look ". Now I know with her gesture she meant 'asian / chinese / whatever from the Far East' because she did that thing when you replace a word with a gesture / or with pointing....she put her index fingers to the side of her eyes and pulled backwards. Talk about stating the obvious... yes, I am Chinese. It's not news to me! Yes, there is a word for Asian here in Brazil but I have never heard it used - it's like this special game (like the Heads, Shoulders, Knees & Toes song) that I've finally worked out.

Now it's not the first time I've been told the same thing, in exactly the same way and it always takes me a split-second to remember that I'm in Brazil and it no one means any offence by it. I certainly don't take offence. I believe when people say things or do things, in general, it's all should be interpreted in the context it is being said in.

I did take a moment to explain to my teacher that if you did that in some other countries that it would be considered pretty offensive and is rarely done (maybe by a 7 year old in the school playground...) but she assured me here it was very common here, and not considered rude at all. I think there must be loads of gestures that would be considered rude in one culture but possibly the mean the opposite in another!

"Yes, I'm a !" - no doubt about it, I have the eyes to prove it as everyone here keeps telling me.

Paulistano's don't do havaianas...

2011-02-20T11:11:00.000-08:00

I love my havaianas. I wear them to pop down to the supermarket, to go out for lunch or hang out on the beach... and even on the plane (if I'm going to land somewhere warm!). Sophie has 3 pairs of baby havaianas to pick from when we go out, they are the cutest little things ever. And if anyone has a new baby, guess what their baby present is!

But I had a friend tell me the other month that she was told by one of her socialite friends here that any self-respecting Paulistano would not be seen dead in a pair of havaianas in public. I mean, seriously?!?!? Is this true?? I've only heard it from one source so I'm not going to tar all high-society Paulistano's with the same flip-flop...

So I've taken this mission on ... to wear my havianas everywhere and anywhere we go in the city, even if we are going somewhere considered 'posh'!

Arca de Noe, Vila Prudente

2011-02-17T13:39:00.000-08:00

As a part of the board of the Canadian International Women's Society we are looking into other projects that we can contribute to and through a friend of a friend of a friend (as everything here in SP is) we were invited to attend a fundraising meeting a school called Arca de Noe, was holding.

It is a school in one of Sao Paulo's oldest favela's, Vila Prudente which is at the east end of the green line on the metro. My little human alarm clock didn't wake up until 8am and we were supposed to meeting at Terminal Vila Prudente so in very un-Brazilian style I texted everyone to apologise for being 5 minutes late, before I had even left the house and made it on time. Carrie Doyle, a teacher volunteer, lead us on about a 15 minute walk down some pretty unattractive streets until we reached the entrance of the favela. There were a couple of guys hanging out and checking out the girls we were with (some beautiful european students who were volunteering too) but apparently if we were just a bunch of guys it wouldn't be so easy just to stroll in.

From what I understand Arca de Noe is a school that has been running for about 10 years which has been supported by the French community of Sao Paulo. It has been a haven for children aged 2-6 where parents both had to go to work and have had no direct family support. In the past few months the government has changed the law and they can no longer operate as they have been so are in the process of re-inventing themselves as a youth centre for 6 - 12 year olds, providing after/before school activities and generally just keeping the kids off the streets while they parents are at work. The school will start up again at the beginning of April. They are currently looking for more volunteers to help out with some of their planned activities as well as funding for a new site that they hope to build on. They currently will be able to take up to 90 students per session (morning and afternoon) but could take up to 120 students per session with more space and teachers!

I'm really excited to see the school once it starts up again and hopefully will be able to volunteer too. Hopefully through the CIWS we will also be able to offer our members volunteer opportunities and collections for their library. A big plus is that it is accessible via the metro and they currently do activity sessions on Wednesday mornings and will also select one afternoon.

Easter in Rio

2011-02-10T12:54:00.000-08:00

Does anyone want to rent their apartment out over the Easter holidays in Rio?? Or know of anyone that does have a holiday apartments to rent out? Thanks!

Happy Waitangi Day (for yesterday)

2011-02-08T03:57:00.000-08:00

Tom Dwyer, a native kiwi, who has been here for 25 or maybe it was 35 years - basically a long time! - hosted the Waitangi Day drinks at his wife's bar Drosophyla in Consolação. The bar in name started in Belo Horizonte almost 25 years ago and will celebrate 10 years in it's current location this year.

I know it's early days (i've only been there once) but I want to say it's my favourite bar in Sao Paulo! Fabulous hosts, great atmosphere (maybe it was all the kiwis there last night), and the canapes were deeeelicious.

Tom hosted the Waitangi day drinks last year as well but I don't think I will wait another year before I step into Drosophyla again (most likely next week!).

Sao Paulo Groupies

2011-02-04T05:56:00.000-08:00

When we first arrived in Sao Paulo we decided to make a special effort to make Brazilian friends. In all the countries we've lived in, our main group of friends have always been expats! We have made some fabulous Brazilian friends but 6 months down the line I really wanted to find a group where I could meet other mums who had just moved here, and where Sophie could have some playtime with other kids her age. In Sao Paulo it seems that most kids start to go to school 5 days a week from about 18 months.. I don't really want her to start for another year or so.

A friend recommended the International Newcomer's Group and I've been to a few of the playgroups. These are every Thursday morning from 10am-noon and hosted by someone different each time. It's a great way to meet other mummies or daddies, and other children Sophie's age.

Other great groups are the Canadian International Womens' Society (CIWS) which is not just for women! They host lunches, drinks and fundraisers to raise funds for a select number of charities. I helped organise their fundraiser last October and it was a big success, and it was really exciting to see our effort directly impact the lives of others.The Internations group in Sao Paulo is organised by the fabulous Kelly and Mariana. They organise a drinks night once a month at a different venue and the group is a great mix of expats and brazilians - I really like it for this particular reason. They always pick some great bars / venues and everyone is open to meeting new people. The other international group is Gringoes which is mainly a super helpful online forum, and they also organise drinks once or twice a year.

Annette, one of my new fabulous mummy friends, and her gorgeous Cooper, sent us through some advice about where to buy/sell goods and to get some helpful advice on facebook so I thought I would pass these on too.

KidStuff Bazaar
International Newcomer's Club of Sao Paulo
Expats Sao Paulo

Açaí for children

2011-01-19T06:57:00.000-08:00

Does anyone know whether it's okay for Sophie, my 17 month old, to eat açaí? I'm assuming here in Brasil it is okay as it's a fruit and eaten naturally rather than as a diet supplement....

It's so cheap here (one of the few things in Sao Paulo that is cheaper!) and I want to take advantage of it being so accessible. I eat it almost every day - with my granola, or in a juice mixed with banana or strawberry and always give Sophie a taste of it but haven't given her her own serving of it yet.

Source: http://the-acai-fruit.com/

Donations for Rio flood victims

2011-01-19T06:55:00.000-08:00

I just received an email from the Brazil Foundation. I don't particularly love the idea of just giving money to charity but the Instituto da Criança is accepting in-kind donations at their headquarters in Rio so just wanted to pass on the message. I'm just checking with the SP headquarters whether they will accept in-kind donations here too - a very good reason to go through Sophie's clothes and clear out things she can't wear anymore!

You may have seen the sad news of the heavy flooding in Rio de Janeiro. Indeed conditions are dire, the number of casualties is still rising, hundreds have lost their homes along with all their possessions and many of areas impacted are still unreachable.

Our partner organization Instituto da Criança(Children's Institute) is working on the ground in affected areas to alleviate the immediate impact of this tragedy. And they need your help. Instituto da Criança (IC) is well positioned to deliver aid to the victims in Rio de Janeiro, as one of its core sponsored programs - Recicla Vida - is located in one of the most severely affected communities, Itaipava. The IC's own headquarters in Rio are serving as a drop-off location for in-kind donations.

IC's founder Pedro Werneck reports from Rio:

"We are mobilizing corporate and individual supporters to enable us to acquire a variety of vital supplies such as food, cleaning and personal hygiene products, refrigerators, stoves, clothing, mattresses - any useful items."

Monetary commitments from the United States will be immediately applied toward the acqusition and delivery of emergency supplies; over the longer term, the facilities of Recicla Vida will need to be almost completely rebuilt - an apt metaphor for the lives of so many survivors in the region.

Please consider making a contribution online for the benefit of IC under the auspices of the BrazilFoundation at: www.childrensinstitutebr.org

For more information, please call BrazilFoundation at 212-244-3663.

The Children's Institute or "IC" is an NGO founded in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1994 dedicated to promoting social change and sustainable development through social entrepreneurship for the benefit of under-served children and their families.

My thoughts...

2011-01-13T14:11:00.000-08:00

are with all those who have been affected by the flooding here in Brazil, and Sri Lanka and all our friends in Brisbane.

Life goes on so easily for those unaffected, for example, me complaining about having to stand in a queue for half an hour... I think if anything, times like these should make people, myself included, think twice about what really is important in life.

Paciência

2011-01-13T13:29:00.000-08:00

I've never had alot of paciência but living here in Brazil has forced me to chill the f**k out! haha, I have to laugh at myself because I can get myself so worked up about the smallest things that really don't matter....

my nanny arrived 15 minutes late today when I wanted to go out and run some errrands. I asked her if there was a traffic accident and she simply said 'no, I was just delayed' and i irritated myself even more but saying 'sorry, i have to leave', why was I sorry?!!
traffic jams and taxi drivers saying they know where they are going and really have no idea (though I've heard Rio cabbies are worst, it's all relative right?)
none of the card machines were working at the Pao de Açúcar checkout yesterday so everyone had to queue to use the ones that were sort-of working. I didn't realise what was going on until I was ushered into the queue which took 35 minutes (of course I timed it). so irritated as I had cash!!
today i decided to go to Carrefour but of course the one queue I was in had another machine that didn't work!

But today me and Juliete, our babá, had cause to celebrate. We are her first job so we had to do everything from scratch - including registering her. I knew I had to pay INSS and when I worked it all out, plus backdated pay, and tried to pay it at bank they said they needed her INSS number. We were advised to go to a Posto Atendemento to register her but this was right before our month away in November so I asked Juliete to go and do it herself. When we got back it turned out I needed to go too (I found out today it was because I've signed her 'data de saida' - which is only when you fire someone!) but then Christmas came around, and then Juliete was sick for 2 weeks.

Yesterday we were advised that she needed a PIS number which we could get at the bank Caixa Electronica Federal. So we went today but were then told she doesn't need one - only people who work at a company need one but a domestic worker doesn't require one. The lady told us to go to a Posto Atendemento, or go on the website http://www.previdencia.gov.br/ or call 135. Juliete spoke to the people on 135 and managed to register over the phone! YAY - half way there.

So now we have 24 hours to use her new registration number (like a social security number) so wish us luck. I have 8 months of backdated INSS to pay plus the fines whatever they are tomorrow at the bank. I will blog about all the nanny laws / websites / information I have collected over the past couple of months once this issue is closed - fechado!

An Italian Sunday afternoon

2011-01-13T07:31:00.000-08:00

Tim read about the antiques market on Sundays in Bixiga so we decided to head over for a day with the Italians. We had spent NYE day in this area but town was completely empty and we found only one restaurant opened on Rua Avanhandava which was filled with real italians. The served big portions for sharing which was a perfect lunch for the all of us. Sophie is a big spaghetti fan.

Treze de Maio is about a 20 minute walk from where we are in Jardins, and we are never in a rush when the sun is out. There is a a building that leads down from Rua dos Ingleses (just opposite Rua Holandesa) filled with antique shops. The first one is our favourite with lots of art deco furniture which would look awesome by a poolside, old fridges which have been refurbished, funky lamps. Follow the stairs down and you will come out onto Praca dom Orione where the antique market is held every Sunday. It was a beautiful day and it wasn't crazy crowded (I assume because schools are still on holiday and everyone is still at the beach). Stalls sold all sorts of random things from junk to antiques, to CD's and dismembered dolls parts (random!) and even grass! When we eventually have a permanent home I would love to come down here every month and buy something random for the house!

Nap time was almost over and we found Cantina Roperto on Treze de Maio, 634 which is an old school restaurant with old time waiters. Our lovely man recommended our pasta dish to share - whatever it was we loved it, and Sophie too. Delicioso!! I love the idea, here in Brazil, of sharing lots of big dishes of pasta and meat - you get a taste of everything. Would love to come and do a big birthday dinner down here - comfortable and casual or loud and rowdy if you want (the most expensive bottle of wine on the menu was Rs 125 - most of the other restaurants we go to this is usually the cheapest!) and we could fit everyone in here, whom we've adopted as family. Will certainly be back - for my old record player and bowl of pasta!

Raising multi-lingual children in Sao Paulo

2011-01-02T12:36:00.001-08:00

I'm a terrible chinese person but a perfect example of chinese kids growing up in western culture. I was born in New Zealand, to Chinese-Malaysian parents, and moved to Hong Kong when I was 10 years old. I wasn't able to enrol in a local school as my cantonese was non-existent so joined one of the British schools instead. Much to my parents dismay, learning cantonese or mandarin was not my focus as a teenager (!) and me and my sisters were bribed into having private tuition every Saturday morning.

My mother still continues to speak to to us in cantonese and I can understand about 80% but for some reason, I just can't form sentences in my head so it all just comes out in english no matter how hard I try!

I have spent my adult life regretting not making the most of learning cantonese or mandarin, when they were both readily available to me. I wish my parents were harder on me!! Now that we are living in Brazil we are really make a concerted effort to learn brazilian portuguese. We even use our basic vocabulary at home as well as in our every day life (only a few in Tim's office can speak English and our nanny only speak Portuguese) to try and ingrain ourselves in this language, and culture, as quickly as possible.

But now that Sophie is on the cusp of starting to speak it has started to raise the question of, with regards to languages, how do we approach her language development. Do we send her to a Portuguese only school or a bi-lingual school? Should we only speak english at home? Should my mother speak cantonese with her (since I don't use it)? Is it to her advantage to be exposed to lots of different languages?

I found this article on the Myths of Multilingual Families which was interesting. I think it depends on a variety of different factors... where you are living, for example, here in Brazil barely anyone speaks english so we would have to make a special effort at home. As much as I want her to learn brazilian portuguese, I would not want her to lose out on her english either. If she went to an english school here I could very easily see her losing her brazilian portuguese as her communication at school and at home (80% of her life) would be in english.

I would be really interested to hear from other families, particularly here in Sao Paulo or Brazil, about their approach on raising their children in different languages.

Feliz Ano Novo!

2010-12-31T06:27:00.000-08:00

New Year marks the start of the celebrations in Brazil that last until the end of Carnival (March 4th-8th). The streets of Sao Paulo have been emptied and everyone's heading to the beach to celebrate. The idea of sitting in traffic (we've heard of people leaving at 2am and taking 11 hours to get to a beach that, on a normal day, should only take 1.5 hours) with a screaming toddler terrifies us so we decided to travel for Christmas instead (when all the Brazilians stay at home with their families) and stay in the city this year. We have a kilo of file mignon and a bottle of cachaca to last us the evening. So is the life of one that has children!

The last New Years that we spent here in Brazil was in 2006 and we had arrived a few days earlier in Salvador. We booked ourselves into a local bar as we had been told how crazy busy it was going to be, had a few warm-up caprihinias (it only really takes me one to warm up!), tucked some money into socks or bras (anywhere a wandering hand might be noticed!) and headed out for the evening. The party on the street and beach was much more exciting than the inside of a bar so we left the comforts of the bar (for me this was access to a toilet) to go and get involved.

It was our first introduction to live music in Brazil and it was amazing. There was 4 days of music in Salvador and on that evening we saw some Brazilian greats, including Daniela Mercury. Entire families (and I'm taking 4-5 generations all dancing together) took it upon themselves to teach us estrangeiros to samba and we made some great friends for that evening.

The ancient African religion of Candomble is still highly regarded here in Brazil. Thousands will go to the beach today to pay homage to the Afro-Brazilian Goddess of the Sea, Lemanja. Candles and flowers are floated out to sea in the hope that she will answer people's hopes and wishes that are carried in these little boats.

Also, everyone dresses in white out of tradition and it is considered to bring you good luck and peace in the New Year (so leave your little black dress at home). The evening will end with a series of fireworks at midnight which we hopefully will be able to see from our balcony. There is a big party on Avenida Paulista tonight starting at 10pm - if we've run out of cachaca we might pop Sophie in the buggy and head over to see the fireworks. If not, here's to good health, good times, good friends and making some fantastic memories here in Brazil in 2011!

Total SP guia

2010-12-27T06:38:00.000-08:00

So I've been living in Sao Paulo for almost 8 months now and have just discovered Total SP!!

I found their guide book in Anna's bookshelf and read it front to back in one sitting. It's a great little guide for Sao Paulo - if you're moving here, or if you're just coming for a weekend visit (though you'd need more than a weekend to check out all their recommendations). I've already picked up 3 of them - a copy for ourselves (I think Anna would notice if we had stolen hers) and a couple as cute little presents.

I had to hunt them down - Livraria Cultura, supposedly the biggest bookshop in Brazil, didn't have a copy but I found them in a little boutique bookshop off Oscar Friere. The shopkeeper asked me if I knew the authors as he knew them personally himself. I like that they are a little more homegrown than your Lonely Planets or Rough Guides. All our weekends in Sao Paulo 2011 are already planned!

They also have an online guide with updates.

http://totalspguide.com/

Gazumped!

2010-12-27T03:16:00.000-08:00

Bugger, have lost the house we wanted to buy. Does anyone want to sell their house in Alto de Pinheiros / Pinheiros?

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas weekend! Will post about our weekend later x

Feliz Natal!

2010-12-21T03:52:00.000-08:00

So we are finally back in Brazil, after a month of travelling to the Middle East, Hong Kong and Australia for weddings and Tim's work, with our visas and CPF intact! The last (..) bit of paperwork is Tim's 'carteira de trabalha' but we are finally able to start living live here in Sao Paulo.

Since the last post we have decided to buy a house. We found a house in Alto de Pinheiros which needs a lot of work done. We had to take some time to decide whether we are prepared for more bureaucratic headache.... and we decided yes, what better way to learn Portuguese even faster! Tim found an agent to take us around some of the houses in the area. We already decided we want to stay in Pinheiros to make Tim's commute much more bearable. At the moment we are house sitting in Jardins and it can take him upwards of 1.5 hours just one way (bearing in mind it is Christmas season here so traffic is even worse).

We were recommended a couple of architects by friends, one didn't bother to show up so that helped us make the choice. There is a bit of work to be done on the house and she estimates 4-6 months - which I'm translating as 1 - 2 years... see, I'm learning patience albeit slowly!!

Tim has hired a lawyer who has put the initial offer in for us so let's see where this takes us in 2011.

Sao Paulo has lots of Xmas lights and decorations up along Av Paulista and there is a light show in Parque Ibirapuera. We are starting our christmas traditions as a family in sunny Brazil - hunting down recipes for mulled wine, mince pies and christmas pudding which I have managed to make all from scratch has actually been quite satisfying. Apparently the supermarket Casa Santa Lucia has lots of imported stuff but not quite prepared to pay Rs $40 for a box of mince pies...

It's common for most people to stay with families over Christmas (our nanny is having Xmas with her family - all 70 of them!) and everyone travels to the beach for New Years. We're going to do the opposite this year so we're not stuck in 10-12 hour traffic jams to get to the beach which is technically only an hour away... so we are planning on staying put in Brazil. No more flying! We are off to Paraty for Christmas weekend to have some family / beach time and probably chilling in Sao Paulo for New Years Eve. Will remember to take some pictures of us drinking mulled wine on the beach this weekend...

Merry Christmas, Feliz Natal and Happy Holidays to all!!

Obtaining a CPF in Sao Paulo

2010-10-18T10:33:00.000-07:00

Thought it might be helpful to post the instructions that we have received for applying for our CPF. The CPF is an Individual's Taxpayers number and from what we have experienced, you need it for everything - to open a bank account, rent an apartment, book flights online, utilities!! So we are desperate to get ours as soon as possible. Will post again once we have managed to get ours...

1st: Pay the Fee (R$5,50) at Banco do Brasil. Documents to be presented: copy of identification page of the passport and its sworn Translation*

2st: After 48 hours of the payment, the following documents must be presented at Receita Federal: copy of identification page of the passport and its sworn Translation, paid Fee.

The CPF number will be given at the moment of request. The card will be sent to the address informed within 90 days.

Two places to register for CPF are:

Praça do Carmo, s/nº - São Paulo - SP (utilize a saída do Metrô Sé da Rua Anita Garibaldi).
Av. do Contorno, 60 - São Paulo -SP (ao Lado da Estação Corinthians-Itaquera do Metrô).

More information on the CPF is here.

*Update: The passport only needs to be translated if someone else is doing it on your behalf
Update 2: Sophie's CPF can only be done once ours are done as we need to submit our numbers as a part of her application
Update 3: A friend told me today that she had to have a translation of the ID page of her passport for the Receita Police...

Final visit to the Policia Federal!

2010-10-18T10:27:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update on where we are as of today. We received Sophie's passport back with the correction this morning and decided to try the Federal Police today. We arrived just before11am and there was only one person in the queue! The guy remembered us and told us to wait, saying it would be quite quick....

We met another couple who I remembered from the last time as well. Nice to know that there are other people in the same boat.

Sophie's passport came back at 12:15 with the protocol - FINALLY!!

So now on to the CPF, registering our baba (nanny), opening a bank account, finding an apartment, buying a car, shipping our things over from London, finding an escolinha for Sophie.... lots more paperwork and patience required!

An update on the update

2010-10-13T07:56:00.000-07:00

We went to the Federal Police on Monday morning in the hope that, with Tuesday being a public holiday (Dias das Criancas), it would be a little quieter. We arrived at 8am when they open the doors with Sophie. Having a baby works wonders as you can usually go straight to the front of the queue, or be let in first, without any complaints. *

We were told to sit and wait... 3 hours later Tim came back with Sophie's application... her birth date had been entered incorrectly on their system!! They refused to give her her protocol but we got ours back. We were really disappointed that we still didn't have it all done. We have to send her passport off for a re-correction and go back to the Federal Police one more time.

They are little slips of paper with all our details on and apparently we will be sent our RNE number in a week or so.

Off to try and register for our CPF this afternoon at the post office based on the information here. Without a CPF we have been unable to arrange for any utility bills in our names so let's see how I get on with just our rental agreement...

* I've heard that some people start queuing from about 2am...

Update on RNE

2010-10-03T14:16:00.000-07:00

Tough day to write this blog, have been a bit quiet on the blog because we are still dealing with crap associated with moving to this great country. I have a friend in London asking me for visa advice here and I am having to tell him to try someone else because our experience has been pretty bad.

I think jaime updated that we now have visas, but the fun does not stop there. The next step is to register with the Federal Police, get finger prints taken and get an ID card. Well, I got there, stood in-line from just before 7am and it was interesting to talk to some of the folk there. One interesting guy was getting his paperwork on the amnesty programme they have from time to time, he had arrived illegally from Venezuela some time in the early 90s after he had his passport stolen there, he said it was impossible to get a replacement there so that is what brought him here.

Anyhow after waiting in line and running off to the cartorio one more time to get another document (that was not on our list) notarised, we thought we had cracked it. However, the visa we were given in Argentina has a mistake on it and that has brought everything to a complete halt and will send me to another branch of the government on Monday. It is annoying just because it is such a small and petty thing and there are around 30 numbers listed in this small box at the bottom of the visa. The consulate input one of them wrong and we are stuck.

I hate to think what the running tally is of expenses related to this visa but it is getting very big. My advice to anyone would be that is seems to be fine to move here with a big multinational with a great agent etc, but for those trying to join a small firm, or a start up like me, is to prepare yourself for battle.

Applying for RNE in Sao Paulo

2010-10-01T05:49:00.000-07:00

So we are in the midst of getting our appointment with the Federal Police in Lapa and came across a really helpful thread on gringoes and wanted to copy it here as the more help you have, the more prepared you are and the easier (and less stressful) the process will be. I will, of course, post a new blog on our personal experience when we finally have our RNE!! Wish us luck!

Note to self : never rely on cheap agents again!! We are currently photocopying all stamped passport pages to be notarised this morning and hopefully be back in Lapa this afternoon for our appointment.

This was originally posted on gringoes.com by user Molendinar:

Finally got my permanency on basis of marriage approved so a big thanks to everyone on here for all their help, in the end it was a relatively smooth process and has only taken 5 months from start to finish (I am in São Paulo).

My timeline was:

27-04-10 - handed in documents
17-06-10 - Police visit
09-08-10 - appears on MJ website - Aguadando Análise
24-09-10 - Proposta do Chefe - deferido
27-09-10 - Publicado no DOU

In order to get the page from the DOU I did two things.

First I went to the Imprensa Oficial in Mooca, Rua da Mooca 1921, São Paulo 03103-902. You go in the door past reception, go to the right and it's the second desk on the right. I asked for the DOU for that day but it hadn't arrived, this was about 3pm) so they gave me a phone number and said to phone the next day to check before coming (2799-9482, 2799-9797). I phoned the next day at 9am and it had arrived so I went back and they photocopied the page, reducing it to A4 and then stamped the back of it. I was charged R$2.

Because of the delay at the Imprensa Oficial I also printed a copy myself of the relevant page from the Internet (http://portal.in.gov.br/in select Pesquisa nos Jornais then "Leitura Completa dos Jornais and then put in the publication and the date) and took it to a cartório to get authenticated. They refused to do this initially but I insisted the only copy available was from the Internet and the boss agreed so they authenticated it and stamped it with "Esta AUTENTICAÇÃO não dispensa consulta à internet para verificação da validade". This was the copy I gave to the Policia Federal in the end and was accepted with no problems.

I then took all the documents to the Policia Federal in Lapa and joined the queue for RNE. I was then given a form to complete and a blank "declaração de desembarque" statement as well as a list of the documents necessary. I was also told I needed to make an appointment, luckily I was able to do it the same day, but I needed to go back to the ground floor and register at the first window on the left after you come through the metal detector. It was about 11am by this time.

After getting a number I had to then fill out the form, and the declaration then join the queue again.

I was asked for the following documents:

• RNE application form, which will be given to you at the DPF office when you arrive. You fill it in there and submit with the other documents. Only fill in the part in the red box, only sign it on the back - you sign the front in the presence of the police officer)
• Two (02) recent colour photographs, size 3cm x 4cm with a white background, no date on photos
• valid passport, plus authenticated copy from a cartório of ALL the pages except for the blank ones i.e. photo page plus every page that has a stamp in it
• autenticated copy of marriage certificate
•authenticated copy of page from the DOU reduced to A4, with no pen marks (if yo have been published more than once then you need to bring all of them)
• original protocol (this was a stamp in my passport)
• declaração de desembarque (fill in the blanks in the statement about when you arrived in Brazil)
• recpeipts for the payment of the two fees. Go to the web site https://www2.dpf.gov.br/gru/gru?nac=1 from which you need to print out vouchers for: Code 140082 (REGISTRO DE ESTRANGEIROS/RESTABELECIMENTO DE REGISTRO) R$64.58 and Code 140120 (CARTEIRA DE ESTRANGEIRO DE PRIMEIRA VIA) R$124.23. Pay these at a bank before you go to the DPF office.

I was not asked for a Consular Certificate.

Here's the paper I was given (he asked my nationality, when I said British he ticked the boxes):

Once I handed all this in I was told I had to come back at 15h00 to get my passport back and receive the protcolo. However, he never told me I would be called for fingerprinting, but luckily I decided to wait. After 20 minuted I was called to do the now digital fingerprints where they scan your fingers and take your photo. The woman there then told me I didn't have to come back till 15h30.

I decided to wait, not a lot of things to do in Lapa and by this point it was 13h00 and I'd brought a book to read.

At 14h30 they started shouting out people's names, it was very hard to make out what the names were, some of the police offices used a microphone and speakers while others just shouted the names. You really needed to pay attention. They do this every 10 minutes. Anyway, 15h30 came and went and finally at 16h15 my name was called and I was given my passport back and my protocolo.

I asked about getting a certificate to prove I was awaiting the RNE and was told to come back in 3 weeks by which time my name should be in the system and I could then request a certificate.

Hope all this helps someone.

For a good cause

2010-09-29T10:23:00.000-07:00

One of my new lovely Sao Paulo friends, who is a native Kiwi too, has roped me into helping her out with the CIWS annual fundraiser. If you are around in a couple of weekends and want to eat, drink and be merry all for a good cause buy a ticket! All the profits go to Casa São José, a community center that helps 3000 families in Jardim São Luis.

If you are unable to attend but would still like to support in other ways you can contact us on sponsorship@ciwsbrazil.org or raffle@ciwsbrazil.org.

The CIWS is very happy to announce the 2010 beneficial event
“Luzes do Mundo” to be held on Saturday, October 23rd at the
Residence of the Canadian Consul General, Ms. Abina Dann.

All members of the São Paulo international community are invited
to attend this evening of cocktails, dinner and live music.

Don’t miss out on this great networking and community event!

For those interested in obtaining a ticket (R$150)
please contact Sandra at reservations@ciwsbrasil.org

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Canadian International Women's Society
www.ciwsbrazil.org

Almost there!

2010-09-08T11:34:00.000-07:00

In Buenos Aires trying to sort out our visas... not the worst place to be I guess but I am dying to get back to Sao Paulo to finally start settling in. We have been travelling since 29th December 2009 and our 3 month trip / living out of our suitcases has extended to Month No. 9!

Our visa story so far...

March - process started

April - process for UK police reports takes up to 2 months (no online application so dependent on Brazil post which is actually not so bad...)

May - police reports need to be legalised at Brazilian consulate in London

June - agent submits application but won't be ready for our June London trip so we elect Buenos Aires

July - question about application comes back, agent re-submits with clarifications. Wedding cert and Sophie's birth certificate needs to be translated into Portuguese by an authorised translator. Agent also just remembers that these documents need to be legalised by the consulate (nice of her to remember after going already in June!)

August - one of Tim's colleagues sits next to someone who works in the Ministry of Trabalhadores and explains the situation. He takes her contact details and that week Tim emails the case file.

August 15th - one week later the visa is finally approved BUT we have to pick it up in Buenos Aires, which is a bit of pain as we are heading back to the UK for some weddings.

August 26th - another visit to the Brazilian consulate in London but (obviously) they will not legalise our wedding certificate which is New York issued. Nightmare! Tim finds an agent to send the certificate to in New York but it turns out that it needs to be notarised by the State Department first, and then the City Clerk before the Brazilian consultate in New York will legalise it.

September 2nd - In Buenos Aires by now and the agent calls as he needs Tim to send a notarised letter giving him permission to have our wedding certificate released to him. There is a specific letter format required. The notary system is not as simple as it should be (in New Zealand I had just called up a notary in the yellow pages, went to visit him and it took 2 minutes, literally). A client of Tim's recommended some notaries but we couldn't find one that spoke English so we winged it with one. It turns out that they have to produce a separate formal letter to confirm that they have checked his identification and have it sent off somewhere else and it was going to take 6 hours. When we returned at 5pm they told Tim that it wasn't complete as the formal ID letter also needed to be sent to the School of Notaries to be stamped..... we decided to Fedex it up to NY as it was anyhow.
September 3rd - the NY agent managed to get the certificate legalised at the consulate and fedexed that night. woohoo! Appointment had to be rescheduled for Wednesday as Tuesday was a public holiday.

TODAY - WOOHOO our passports are with the Consulate now. Our appointment was for 12:30 and we turned up but it was really just to submit our forms and passports. She was happy with all our legalised documents, thank god! We were honestly prepared for something else to happen to delay our visa! The fee was much higher than we thought. Our agent in Brazil had told us it was Peso $421 for all of us but it turned out to be $2,400 instead! I think there were additional fees for processing only the British passports but because I hold a NZ passport (and New Zealander's love Brazilians, they have a study/work visa available for Brazilians) there was no additional fee for me. There was no way that they could fast track it so we pick it up on Monday. Flights have been changed to Monday evening now and we have an extra 5 days here in Buenos Aires so going to make the most of it as don't think we'll be back here for awhile.

*I haven't mentioned the Brazilian agent's name as we haven't completed the process quite yet and I don't want to jinx it! But I will do once we have them in our hands as a warning to anyone not to use her... I guess we got what we paid for, and less : (

A weekend away in Switzerland - NOT!

2010-08-09T13:02:00.000-07:00

We couldn’t decide where to visit this weekend so we flipped a coin for the beach or the interior. The coin said the interior – the coin was wrong! We had glorious sunshine all weekend and, as you can see from the map, we were nowhere near the beach : (. Taking heed of this adventure here, we took our trusty GPS and I memorised the map (as Tim was insisting that we just needed to get to Taubate and turn left).

We visited Campos do Jordao which is a small town in the interior, about 2.5 hour drive from Sao Paulo. We hired a car for the weekend which only cost us Rs 150 for the entire weekend (friday through to monday) but it was a special rate for Father's Day! Normally it would be Rs150/day and we've yet to find a decent rental place nearby.

I had had this town on the list of places to visit as it is THE town to go to in the winter. I found two heliports on the map - that's how many rich people from SP like to come here and be cold. There is a winter festival there all through July and if you look at all the local gossip rags (very good for learning portuguese, seriously!) most of the local celebs will have been papped by papparazzi here. Mainly Paulistas, and some Carioca's, travel here to play cold (OK, Sat night did drop to 12'C). It's a chance for them to bring out their big fur coats, woolly hats and mittens I have to be honest, I was a little disappointed with the town as it doesn't look anything like Switzerland. I honestly thought it was going to be a picturesque little Swiss village in the Brazilian countryside....

We had managed to book last minute, Pousada Piano Piano which was about a 10 minute walk (part of up a hill) from the main part of town, Vila Capivari. Places were still pretty full this weekend and most require a minimum 2 night stay which is a little pricey at Rs350 per night.* They were very family friendly, provided a cot for Sophie, had a great selection of movies and electric blankets! It was such a gorgeous day we desperately wanted to sit outside for lunch. We walked around the square and found Baden Baden, famous for it's brews, which had lots of outdoor seating but it's where everyone wants to be / be seen. There were lots of places for fondues and hot chocolate but we really couldn't bring ourselves to pretend to be cold when it was about 25C. We eventually decided on a beautifully terraced Italian restaurant who were a little snobby but didn't bat an eyelid with Sophie throwing spaghetti around our table.

We then took a drive to Pista de Itapeva (10km) which turned out to be a pretty breath-taking view of the surroundings. You could see 3 towns in the distance, and beyond that was really impressive mountain range. This photo doesn't really do it justice.

We had dinner at Baden Baden as a table was free and I was up for trying their fondue. We actually ended up with a hot 'tepid-warm' plate instead of a vat of hot oil, but it was really good aside from waiting an hour for our meat to cook ... I understand that being cold is a novelty to most Brazilians but, now that I think about it, how many 'winter' countries do al-fresco dining? Sitting outside at 12C, is not a pleasant way to dine!

On Sunday we took drove to Horto Florestal (10km from Vila Capivari) which is their state park. I wish we had done a bit more research and been prepared with walking shoes and backpacks as this was definitely the highlight of the area. There were a 6 different trails of varying difficulty, and lots of forest and fauna and waterfalls to see. We, instead, went to the chocolate shop (not quite Swiss but very, very good) and the local cantina. It was Father's Day in Brazil and lots of families were out celebrating. Tim even had other father's shake his hand and say 'Congratulations' on being a father, so lovely!

So in summary, if we come back to Campos do Jordao, we would come back with a bunch of friends, rent a big, lovely house, drink lots of baden baden, cosy and warm next to a fire most nights, and plan some great outdoor activities each day (horse riding, mountain bikes, off-road trips). OK, I should be honest - I doubt we'll head back to Campos in the near future. We've moved to Brazil for the beach and sunshine. I don't need to pretend I like winter and we'll get our dose of it when we are back in the UK for a visit!

*Note to travellers use to great value accommodation in places like Asia - you can pay silly prices for very average places. Don't be surprised!

Brazil on The Pearl Report

2010-08-06T06:49:00.000-07:00

The Pearl Report, Hong Kong, focuses on Brazil this week.

Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jr55sxi533g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5rcatqcW68
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYEFMAfSgLk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rsf1ptRFMQ

E.CO

2010-08-02T15:28:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't been blogging in awhile. We were travelling for most of June and had a friend visiting the start of July, and it always takes me a bit of time to mentally return to 'normal'. We are also still waiting for our visas, which is taking longer than expected. We really shouldn't be surprised. So we are in a 'holding zone' for now - it's hard to make plans if you're not sure where you're going to be next month. That said, we are still making the most of Sao Paulo being our new home. On the weekend we went and did some exploring of parks. Spent some time chilling in Parque Ibirapuera and Parque Vila Lobos, hunted down a pretty decent chinese restaurant in Liberdade (Tenzan on R. Galvao Bueno which has giant portions, you only need one or two dishes for 4 people). We also visited Centro Cultural Sao Paulo which is an open building next to Vergueiro metro. It serves as a library, meeting place, exhibition space, shelter from rain; courses, various performances and collections can be also found there.

There is a fantastic photography exhibition currently running called E.CO - a display of 20 photographic collections from Latin America and Europe. My favourite collections were NoPhoto (Espanha) which was a series of photos of chinese cyclists training in a chinese metropolis, Documentography (UK) which showed the impact of urbanisation throughout the world and SupayFotos (Peru) which depicted local life. I think everyone nowadays, with a digital camera and photoshop, fancies themselves as a photographer, but this exhibition has reminded me of why photographers are justified in calling themselves professional. Most of my photos are stored away on my computer somewhere never to see life in print. Seeing these well thought out images blown-up, close and personal is truly enlightening. Definitely worth it! (and then Liberdade is just up the road for lunch).

*p.s if you are lover of photographic exhibitions and travel a bit, here are some other spaces that are worth visiting if you are in NY (International Center of Photography near Times Square ) or London (Getty Images Gallery near Oxford Circus).