Back in the US

We're in Detroit and enjoying a hefty layover, which gives me the time to do another post. I think one of the most consistently shocking things about returning to the States is all the English around us. Even though I speak Portuguese, for two weeks I chose to listen or to not listen to conversations around me. But here everyone is speaking English around us right now and I have the darnedest time tuning it out. I don't want to listen... but I do. It's amazingly nice to be able to so easily choose to tune out.

But anyway, we're back State-side. And it's snowing lightly here in Detroit. True confession as a fan of winter - I'm glad we'll get a bit more time with winter before embracing spring. But I realize that's easier for me to say that having just enjoyed some summer weather in Brazil.

Our time in Sao Paulo was an awesome way to end our trip. We ended with very friend-filled days, which seemed very appropriate. When I lived in Sao Paulo in 2006, I was a recent college grad (or at least I felt like one) and the people I spent the most time with were all current college students (especially since we were there doing campus ministry at the University of Sao Paulo). So it was great fun to hear about friends' jobs, families, marriages, babies, changes in community, etc. The ways in which it was fun to catch up in person rather than simply "liking" a Facebook status should be obvious, but I cherished the opportunity. And then to get to introduce Jachin to friends all the more made it fun. So below are some photos that capture some of those moments in Sao Paulo.

Overall our trip was surprisingly brief - I'm glad we got to do everything we did, but it made our time in each place all the briefer. I'm grateful to see life now (both Brazilian friends' lives and our current season of life or Jachin and I) in light of so tangibly reflecting on the different seasons of life in Brazil (especially since they were particularly transformative seasons). And I'm beyond grateful to enjoy the continued journey.

And I can still speak Portuguese. Phew.

So that's all... until our next travel adventure...

THURSDAY

When we landed back in Sao Paulo, we spent plenty of time wandering around my old neighborhood. My old apartment building (behind me) got a fancy new front entrance! And the neighborhood in general is doing very well... with lots of cute new restaurants and even a "Nice Ride"-like bike rack a few lots down from our building now. Fun to see the neighborhood doing so well.

We had pichanca na chapa for dinner (which is the lovely beef roast and onions roasting on the cast iron skillet in this picture). It's a Sao Paulo classic and it was soooo good. We ate a lot of great food, but I think this one makes the top of Jachin's favorites list.

FRIDAY

We spent our morning in the largest urban park in Sao Paulo (Parque Ibirapuera), which included checking out a couple museums.

The Sao Paulo skyline sure makes great art.:)

Then we went to Liberdade, which is Sao Paulo's Japantown. We got some all you can eat sushi... which was soooooo good at an amazingly low price. We both would eat more sushi if we can do it like this in Minneapolis.

We ended our day with dinner at Laila and Andre's. Laila made some stroganoff (which is a surprisingly common dish in Sao Paulo), which was followed by watching a movie on their 3D TV! The whole 3D TV thing was way cooler than I thought it would be.

SATURDAY

We started our day at a outdoor artisan/antique market in a nearby plaza... which was not only a great spot for earrings and people watching, but we ate some great food. That little cup I'm holding in my hand is loaded with sweet, sugary brigadeiro goodness mixed with another equally amazing sweetness. Jachin and Itamar got to bond of Vikings football fans, too (American football fans in Brazil are a very small minority... but they exist)

Then we made a visit to a local cemetery, too. The degree to which I enjoy Latin American cemeteries and how they represent cultural values is a tale for another time... but it was great to be back in one. :)

The mall was a good meeting spot for hanging out into the evening... so we enjoyed some Starbucks to help us remember our pending transition home. :) 

And a great way to end our day - dinner with friends from Alpha & Omega (the student ministry at the University of Sao Paulo)

 SUNDAY

Sunday was a day of grilling great food and hanging out with friends from church. It affirmed that we just don't understand how to do a good BBQ in the States.

The gang. :) It was so fun to spend time with these guys.

Grilling was followed by a night at church - it was so great to be back at Calvario and to catch up with Bruna and Stefanie (as well as meet Bruna's data Ana Clara).

Great friends :)

There were a lot of jokes and commentary about Jachin's height while we were at church. My favorite was when a little boy came up to me with what appeared to be a pressing question only to ask how Jachin manages to fit into cars... and then proceeded to suggest that he should try taking special shrinking powder to shrink him just a little bit so that he fits in the car better. It was great. :)

Church friends, some new and some old.

MONDAY

So much of our travels were about the food we ate. So it seemed only appropriate to eat well at the Municipal Market with Laila before we headed home. :)

The "must eat" of the market is the Mortadela sandwiches... which I think is bologna? 

I'll miss getting to spend time with Laila.

But then our dessert consisted of a lovely spread of market treats. Including dried fruit...

... and some amazing fresh fruit...

as well as perusing other sites and smells.

We made sure to spend our last Brazilian reais in the best possible way - Acai with banana and granolla.

It may look a little funky, but this stuff is amazing. I will really miss eating this stuff.

And a quick stop at the Luz metro station before making our way to the airport.

A great end to a lovely trip.

Homeward bound

We're already back at the airport... waiting to get on our Delta flight to head back to MN. I've been silent since our return to Sao Paulo because we were just having too much fun. :) The free wifi at the airport is moving veeeery slowly, so this post will be brief. I'll post photos and tales of our time in Sao Paulo when we're back in MN.

But I will say that neither of us feel quite ready to be back at the airport. We both would have liked more time with friends, with food, with the language, with opportunities to explore the things we never got to. This still feels like home. And it's sad to be saying good-bye again. This was a very meaningful trip and it was absolutely a blast to share it with Jachin... or I should say that Jachin made it all the more meaningful.

Time to board! Tchau until MN!

We're spending our final moments in Sao Paulo munching on Jabuticaba fruit. It's a great way to go out.:)

Getting ready to leave Rio

We successfully managed to have a super mellow day yesterday. It's tough to slow down when there's so much to do and see. But yesterday was lovely. And it's so hot in Rio... that sweating less was very welcome. We ended up doing quite a bit of exploring in a neighborhood called Lapa. It's really fun to people watch here. Rio is really quite classy, so the mix of people is fascinating. But we found a corner place with tap beer, a ceiling fans, and a soccer game on and settled in right next to the open window. But prior we also did a fair amount of exploring... here's a glimpse:

This is from the inside of a cathedral designed by Oscar Neimeyer, who is the architect that designed Brasilia.

It's kind of a beast of a concrete structure... but the space inside is actually pretty cool.

But it has an odd presence in the city - certainly is a unique building.

Then we also visited the Escadaria Selaron, which is a mosaic stair that is decorated by a Chilean artist. It was colorful and attracted an equally as colorful crowd.:) 

For our Texas family - go Red Raiders!

The view of the center of the city from the top of the stairs - you can see the catherdal there as well.

And now we're chilling at our hostel until we get ready to go back to Sao Paulo. This has been a lovely break, but I'm looking forward to seeing more friends.:)

Cristo Redentor and Sugarloaf Mountain

We had a fun day yesterday. I've never traveled Rio by bus and metro, so it's been a fun challenge to navigate the city. It's particularly fun how eager and willing people are to help. All we need to do is just a bit of initial planning and then we can be confident that we can ask along the way and people will go out of their way to make sure we know what we need to know. Better than Google Maps... or at least more interesting. I love this about Brazil.

But anyway, yesterday was a fun day of hitting the two most important sites in Rio - the big Jesus statue that overlooks the city and Sugarloaf Mountain. In a lot of ways the journeys there were just as fun as the sites themselves (because of the above mentioned and other people we met along the way)... so here is just a glimpse of our day yesterday....

We first made our way up the mountains to see Christo Redentor - this is from a lookout point on the way up. And that's Sugarloaf Mountain to the right of me.

This is halfway up the mountains and Jesus still looks tiny

But he wasn't so small when we actually made it all the way to the top.

Lots of gorgeous views of Rio.

And we kept our eye on our next stop - Sugarloaf Mountain.

It was a zoo up there. This picture doesn't really capture the strange magnitude of people sweating in the glaring sun at the feet of Jesus.

We debated whether Jesus or the Statue of Liberty is bigger and we decided that the Statue of Liberty is definitely bigger, but Jesus definitely has a presence. We have done no research to confirm or deny our conclusion.

But then we went over to Sugarloaf Mountain and looked back toward Jesus. He's perched on the top of that narrow tallest hump there.

Jesus is on the little lump to the left of Jachin. This view is actually from Urca, the mountain you stop at on the way to Sugarloaf.

There was a renovation project happening on Urca, so we didn't see nearly as many monkeys as anticipated. But this one was actually hanging out eating a banana. A bit trite, but cute.:)

The view of Copacabana beach from Surgarloaf.

We traveled by gondola - first stop Urca and then the gondola kept going to the second stop at Sugarloaf. 

We watched sunset from Urca... and it was really lovely.

Sunset meant a bit of relief from the heat, too. Phew. :)

It's so easy to enjoy this city. :)