All The Things That I've Done

The past couple of weeks have been fairly busy here. I have been spending a lot of time trying to be a tourist and to spend time with the friends that I have made here in São Paulo. So here is a slice of what I have been up to (warning: there is a lot of food and world cup involved, clearly).

As previously mentioned, I ate fondue. This is the spread (not including the chocolate fondue with fruit we had afterwards).

Tabatha, our gracious host and fondue chef!

Went to Embu with Monica and Javier. Here I am outside of a cafe where we had some coffee and one of the best brownies I have ever tasted! One day I promise to try to take a picture where I am not wearing one of the same 4 cardigans and where I have actually attempted to fix my hair. Maybe.

Facing down just one of the many streets in Embu (Mom, do you remember when we came here?). It is like a 24/7 art fair - but instead of booths there are little shops with things ranging from handcrafted furniture to touristy trinkets. Really a pretty and fun town...that now has a ton of my money.

Javier and Monica also took my to a town nearby to see a Buddhist temple called Temple Zulai. It was really beautiful, and I have a ton of pictures, and we learned a lot talking to one of the guides.

Here, I am breaking the rules by climbing up on this grassy/stone thing to take a picture. I felt very uncomfortable with this, as I am by nature a rule follower, but Monica encouraged me to go ahead and live a little.

And then, even though I was cheering for the Dutch (because I like the Hollish, in general), I watched the World Cup final with a family cheering for Spain. My friend Paulo (Fabiana's boyfriend) invited us over for the game and his mom (who is Spanish) made Paella.

BTW, I fully intend on replacing that BoSox cap with a Cubs one...he just doesn't know it yet.

Oh my goodness. It was amazing.

There were also 4 pies/cakes (the 3 pictured plus a cheesecake), including one with a Spanish flag and colors. It was crazy. Crazy ridiculous.

Me and Fabi.

Paulo's niece, Sabrina. She blows kisses at everyone and it is pretty much adorable.

I also went out to dinner with some other friends and met more new people here in the city which has been nice. It is great to have so many friends of friends that can put me in touch with people down here to get to know.

Also last week, I went with my friend Rafael to a legal clinic. He is finishing up law school here, and he works in their legal clinic. I got to sit in on a couple of client consultations with him, and it was cool to see how things work down here.

More to come later...I promise!