July 23–31: São Paulo
Rex was taking a bus to São Paulo, which left several hours earlier than my flight. I had a nice leisurely morning while he packed. We went down and had breakfast. (I should say that the breakfast buffet at Hotel Mabu is one of the best I’ve ever had.) I took my time packing and headed out to catch the airport shuttle after noon. The flight was uneventful. At baggage claim I ran into Ricardo, a fellow panel participant at the conference. He and I took the airport shuttle to Avenida Paulista and then shared a cab to Butantã. The R$45 was much better than the R$120 a cab would have cost. Flâvio was out of town but had left a set of keys for me at the administration office.
When I entered the apartment, I realized this was the bachelor’pad of a man who rarely spends any time at home. The refrigerator was bare except for a carton of milk and a Tupperware container of cake. That was it. (I should mention that since my last visit in 2009, Flâvio and Ingrid have separated and divorced. It’s sad. Flâvio spends his weekends with his kids in Sorocaba.) Any way, I quickly realized a trip to the local supermarket was in order. At least the place was clean, quiet, and had internet. Plus, I was able to get some laundry done.
The next morning I headed to church and went to sacrament meeting. I spent most of that afternoon and evening unpacking, doing more laundry, and talking to the family on Skype. I took a four-hour nap, which I think finally helped me get over my cold. Monday morning, I headed to Avenida Paulista and checked out several bookstores: Livraria Cultura, FNAC, and Martins Fontes. It was fun to finally spend most of my $1,000 book stipend from the university. I acquired a number of books I’ve wanted for several years, including the complete fiction of João Guimarães Rosa. Since I had several bags of books, I decided to take a cab back to Butantã. Flâvio came home that night and set up the wireless router, which has been great.
Rex was also in São Paulo, just a few miles from where I was staying. However, he had to finish writing a paper that weekend that he was delivering at a conference in Rio. We did get together on Tuesday to check out the town. We went to the Museu de Futebol, Museu da Língua Portuguesa, a Pinacoteca, 25 de Março, o Mercado Municipal, Praça da Sé, Liberdade, and Livraria Cultura. We saw so much in the course of several hours that my feet were killing me when I got home. But it was fun and I was able to visit a few places I had never been before.
Wednesday, I headed over to Shopping Butantã, ate lunch at Mickey D’s, watched a crappy Brazilian movie about a bank heist, and began my quest to fill several orders for Havaianas—you know, those flip-flops with the little Brazilian flag on them? Between Carrefour, Lojas Americanas, and Walmart, I was able to find about half of what friends had ordered. But, I couldn’t find any in my size. Flâvio got home from work around 9:30 and he took me to a chic Italian restaurant, a Famiglia Mancini. The four-cheese lasagna was amazing. As we drove back on Rua Augusta, we saw plenty of prostitutes and even Fofão, a transvestite / actor who had plastic surgery that disfigured his face. He’s become somewhat of a local celebrity and part of the night scene on Avenida Paulista. He’s named after a character on a kids show, who is equally horrifying.
Thursday: the main reason why I came to São Paulo in the first place. Originally, I had planned on returning to the IEB to transcribe more letters between Rosa and de Onís but shortly before my trip I learned of several MA theses that had copies of the letters. I also entered into contact with Professora Sandra Vasconcelos, the curator of the Guimarães Rosa archives. I met her briefly in Curitiba. She was one of the keynote speakers, and we agreed to meet Thursday afternoon at the IEB. We met around 2:00 pm and spoke for over an hour about my project and our mutual love of all things Rosean. I mentioned one MA thesis in particular that was a proposal to publish the letters. Sandra informed me that their library had a copy of that thesis. After our meeting, I headed over to the library, found the thesis, and put in an order to have it copied in its entirety. If I had had this thesis in 2009—or rather, the reproductions of the letters in contained—my dissertation would have been different. Now, the thesis doesn’t contain all of the letters, but it is a start. I have also contacted other professors and former graduate students who have various sections of this correspondence. My next task is to reconstitute the correspondence as much as possible. Sandra and I also talked about me trying to find the heirs of Harriet de Onís and get their permission to print the letters. That would be pretty amazing, actually.
Okay, enough of the boring academic stuff.
Thursday night, Flâvio and I went to a mall, Shopping Morumbi, in pursuit of more flip-slops. This time, we went to a Havaianas store where I was able to find some for the kids but, alas, none for me. Boo hoo. Then, we went to a nice churrascaria on the outskirts of town. I sure like Flâvio. He’s such a hard worker and a dedicated father. His divorce has been hard on him but he’s making the best of it. What I really respect is that he refrains from saying anything negative about his ex-wife. That, I feel, is a sign of great maturity since it is easy to blame the other person. He recognizes that he was just as much at fault for the dissolution of his marriage as Ingrid.
Friday, I headed back to USP to pick up the thesis. I met with my friend Matthew Layton and we had lunch. He had his wife, Cinira, are our good friends from Nashville. He is working on his doctorate in political science, focusing on Brazil. Cinira is from Manaus, Brazil. Matt and I had lunch, went to the university art museum, and spent several hours catching up. I really like him. We were home teaching companions for a few months before we moved to Utah. They become close friends of ours, we spent Thanksgiving together one year, and we always invited them to our parties.
That night I went to a session at the São Paulo temple. It was nice, although I was really tired.
Saturday morning, Matt, Cinira, and I headed into town. I decided that I would give my Havaianas quest one more chance so we went to the flagship store on Oscar Freire, the equivalent of Rodeo Drive. I don’t know why I didn’t go there first because not only did they have what I was looking for, they had anything you could ever want in a flip-flop. I could have saved a lot of time and effort if I had simply gone to their main store from the get-go. Oh well. Then, we went to Livraria Cultura, where I bought a few more books (naughty me), and then went to MASP, had lunch at the café, and checked out the exhibits. Once again, the Cândido Portinari collection was on tour elsewhere. Bummer. But, I ran into Hillary and her dad. That was fun. It was drizzling a bit when we left, but we headed to the park across the street and took a few pictures. All in all, it was an enjoyable day. It was fun to be with these two friends and spend time together building memories. Even though Cinira is Brazilian, she had only been to São Paulo once before, and only to visit the temple. Matthew had served his mission in some of the more remote areas of Minas Gerais and had never been to Sampa. It was fun playing tour guide and showing them around this huge city I’m liking more and more.
And this brings us up to today. I went to sacrament meeting and had intended to stay for the full three-hour block. But, my back was killing me so I came home to take some ibuprofen and relax a bit. The neighbors invited me over for lunch, so I should go now. And I need to call Ivan and Luciene since I think we’re going to try and get together this afternoon.
Rex was taking a bus to São Paulo, which left several hours earlier than my flight. I had a nice leisurely morning while he packed. We went down and had breakfast. (I should say that the breakfast buffet at Hotel Mabu is one of the best I’ve ever had.) I took my time packing and headed out to catch the airport shuttle after noon. The flight was uneventful. At baggage claim I ran into Ricardo, a fellow panel participant at the conference. He and I took the airport shuttle to Avenida Paulista and then shared a cab to Butantã. The R$45 was much better than the R$120 a cab would have cost. Flâvio was out of town but had left a set of keys for me at the administration office.
When I entered the apartment, I realized this was the bachelor’pad of a man who rarely spends any time at home. The refrigerator was bare except for a carton of milk and a Tupperware container of cake. That was it. (I should mention that since my last visit in 2009, Flâvio and Ingrid have separated and divorced. It’s sad. Flâvio spends his weekends with his kids in Sorocaba.) Any way, I quickly realized a trip to the local supermarket was in order. At least the place was clean, quiet, and had internet. Plus, I was able to get some laundry done.
The next morning I headed to church and went to sacrament meeting. I spent most of that afternoon and evening unpacking, doing more laundry, and talking to the family on Skype. I took a four-hour nap, which I think finally helped me get over my cold. Monday morning, I headed to Avenida Paulista and checked out several bookstores: Livraria Cultura, FNAC, and Martins Fontes. It was fun to finally spend most of my $1,000 book stipend from the university. I acquired a number of books I’ve wanted for several years, including the complete fiction of João Guimarães Rosa. Since I had several bags of books, I decided to take a cab back to Butantã. Flâvio came home that night and set up the wireless router, which has been great.
Rex was also in São Paulo, just a few miles from where I was staying. However, he had to finish writing a paper that weekend that he was delivering at a conference in Rio. We did get together on Tuesday to check out the town. We went to the Museu de Futebol, Museu da Língua Portuguesa, a Pinacoteca, 25 de Março, o Mercado Municipal, Praça da Sé, Liberdade, and Livraria Cultura. We saw so much in the course of several hours that my feet were killing me when I got home. But it was fun and I was able to visit a few places I had never been before.
Wednesday, I headed over to Shopping Butantã, ate lunch at Mickey D’s, watched a crappy Brazilian movie about a bank heist, and began my quest to fill several orders for Havaianas—you know, those flip-flops with the little Brazilian flag on them? Between Carrefour, Lojas Americanas, and Walmart, I was able to find about half of what friends had ordered. But, I couldn’t find any in my size. Flâvio got home from work around 9:30 and he took me to a chic Italian restaurant, a Famiglia Mancini. The four-cheese lasagna was amazing. As we drove back on Rua Augusta, we saw plenty of prostitutes and even Fofão, a transvestite / actor who had plastic surgery that disfigured his face. He’s become somewhat of a local celebrity and part of the night scene on Avenida Paulista. He’s named after a character on a kids show, who is equally horrifying.
Thursday: the main reason why I came to São Paulo in the first place. Originally, I had planned on returning to the IEB to transcribe more letters between Rosa and de Onís but shortly before my trip I learned of several MA theses that had copies of the letters. I also entered into contact with Professora Sandra Vasconcelos, the curator of the Guimarães Rosa archives. I met her briefly in Curitiba. She was one of the keynote speakers, and we agreed to meet Thursday afternoon at the IEB. We met around 2:00 pm and spoke for over an hour about my project and our mutual love of all things Rosean. I mentioned one MA thesis in particular that was a proposal to publish the letters. Sandra informed me that their library had a copy of that thesis. After our meeting, I headed over to the library, found the thesis, and put in an order to have it copied in its entirety. If I had had this thesis in 2009—or rather, the reproductions of the letters in contained—my dissertation would have been different. Now, the thesis doesn’t contain all of the letters, but it is a start. I have also contacted other professors and former graduate students who have various sections of this correspondence. My next task is to reconstitute the correspondence as much as possible. Sandra and I also talked about me trying to find the heirs of Harriet de Onís and get their permission to print the letters. That would be pretty amazing, actually.
Okay, enough of the boring academic stuff.
Thursday night, Flâvio and I went to a mall, Shopping Morumbi, in pursuit of more flip-slops. This time, we went to a Havaianas store where I was able to find some for the kids but, alas, none for me. Boo hoo. Then, we went to a nice churrascaria on the outskirts of town. I sure like Flâvio. He’s such a hard worker and a dedicated father. His divorce has been hard on him but he’s making the best of it. What I really respect is that he refrains from saying anything negative about his ex-wife. That, I feel, is a sign of great maturity since it is easy to blame the other person. He recognizes that he was just as much at fault for the dissolution of his marriage as Ingrid.
Friday, I headed back to USP to pick up the thesis. I met with my friend Matthew Layton and we had lunch. He had his wife, Cinira, are our good friends from Nashville. He is working on his doctorate in political science, focusing on Brazil. Cinira is from Manaus, Brazil. Matt and I had lunch, went to the university art museum, and spent several hours catching up. I really like him. We were home teaching companions for a few months before we moved to Utah. They become close friends of ours, we spent Thanksgiving together one year, and we always invited them to our parties.
That night I went to a session at the São Paulo temple. It was nice, although I was really tired.
Saturday morning, Matt, Cinira, and I headed into town. I decided that I would give my Havaianas quest one more chance so we went to the flagship store on Oscar Freire, the equivalent of Rodeo Drive. I don’t know why I didn’t go there first because not only did they have what I was looking for, they had anything you could ever want in a flip-flop. I could have saved a lot of time and effort if I had simply gone to their main store from the get-go. Oh well. Then, we went to Livraria Cultura, where I bought a few more books (naughty me), and then went to MASP, had lunch at the café, and checked out the exhibits. Once again, the Cândido Portinari collection was on tour elsewhere. Bummer. But, I ran into Hillary and her dad. That was fun. It was drizzling a bit when we left, but we headed to the park across the street and took a few pictures. All in all, it was an enjoyable day. It was fun to be with these two friends and spend time together building memories. Even though Cinira is Brazilian, she had only been to São Paulo once before, and only to visit the temple. Matthew had served his mission in some of the more remote areas of Minas Gerais and had never been to Sampa. It was fun playing tour guide and showing them around this huge city I’m liking more and more.
And this brings us up to today. I went to sacrament meeting and had intended to stay for the full three-hour block. But, my back was killing me so I came home to take some ibuprofen and relax a bit. The neighbors invited me over for lunch, so I should go now. And I need to call Ivan and Luciene since I think we’re going to try and get together this afternoon.
No comments:
Post a Comment