New Apartment!

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So I have finally settled into my new apartment next to the famous Avenida Paulista! It has everything you need, lots of things to do, and best of all, I have 3 incredible roommates that are helping me with my Portuguese and really getting to know the city: where to eat, where to shop, who has the best juice, meats, cheeses, live music, etc. During my lull in Portuguese classes I didn't think I would be able to stay busy, but I spend most of my mornings doing a language lesson or two on DuoLingo (the free language learning website, I wholeheartedly recommend it!) drinking coffee and eating fresh fruits with yogurt or the Brazilian version of cream cheese on toast called requeijão cremoso.

If its sunny, which it usually is by 9am, I head up to the terrace to read articles or write verb conjugation tables in Portuguese...sometimes I read a magazine or newspaper (Portuguese), catch up on letters and postcards, which usually turns into a nap. A gust of wind or dense cloud usually wakes me up, and I scurry downstairs to the apartment before the afternoon rainstorm cuts loose, and it moves fast. Here's a picture I took one afternoon where the sky changed from a cerulean blue to a bruised gray in 15 minutes....the power went out within the hour:

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I usually make lunch around 2pm, standard Brazilian lunchtime, a sandwich and salad or homemade temaki, which is pretty much a sushi taco and is super delicious and MUCH cheaper to make at home.

Of course mine doesn't look this pretty but it tastes the same and is much faster than going to a restaurant where getting take out takes as much time is eating there.









Here's some tempura temaki I made recently with carrot, green and yellow peppers, onions, and a simple egg/manioc flour batter with cream cheese and sesame seeds (and hot peppers, of course):

So I've tried to make a routine for myself to keep working during the week. I've discovered a quiet place in the PUC library where I can type away all day without interruption until about 5 or 6 when the night students show up to do group work before class. 





Fortunately I was there when I received an email from the Consulate office of Bolivia here in SP stating that I could meet up with Ambassador Jerjes Justiniano from Bolivia to chat about my research and safe access to the Bolivian population!

It was pretty crazy actually tracking him down, but after going to two consulate offices (3 metro stops/hour apart) and waiting in a sweltering hot office for 2 hours watching Bolivian families pass through the lengthy process of becoming Brazilian residents. In the end it was probably just a political move on both our parts but will definitely be helpful in accessing current policy in Bolivia and looking at the 2012 Census data concerning immigration patterns to Brasil, it was a great day!

A day to relax in Guarujá, a beach 1 1/2 hours away from the city center.

The awesome roomies jamming in the street in front of Alberta #3, a chill bar in the Centro, their band's called The Soundscapes, check 'em out on Facebook!

Well that's about it for this load of updates! In the future I'll be do a bi-weekly update on new foods, music, movies, drinks, and events/travels.

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I just signed up to do the Meia Maratona in SP 2013 on St. Patty's Day! Its a 21k so wish me luck, I am definitely not in shape for it but I'm gonna try to conquer it anyway! 


Following that I also signed up to do another half, the standard 26k, in Rio in July! This one I'm really going to be timing myself, I would love to beat my Baltimore time of 2 hours! Should be a beautiful run in both places :)