Ok, I finally have some time again to catch up with sleep, eats, emails and blogging. And what a week it was. I'll make this post about the São Paulo experience so far, and what my future plans are. Then I'll blog about the Global Young Greens, and then the Global Greens and all the amazing people therein.
So, São-freakin'-Paulo. I think I've already articulated that it's quite big. And crowded. However, there's only one place that I know of (besides within one of the many helicopters - the unsustainable transport-method of choice for the rediculously rich) that you can see the whole city from, which is some Empire State Building wannabe. Otherwise you're just looking at another corner, with more cars and people and high-rise buildings. (I'd love to show you some pics, but unfortunately this computer doesn't seem to like my camera. So you'll just have to put up with boring latin characters for now.) Very confusing, even for the locals. The only way you can tell it's really huge is when it takes ages to get somewhere, even though it looks like it should be just down the road on the map. The city is constantly moving, people are constantly getting in each other's way, and beeping at each other. There seems to be no consistancy at crossings other than pedestrians walking out at bad times and car drivers - who seem to have priority - getting pissed off. There a good metro system, an OK bus system, but way too many cars. Some people think in about two years people will drive to work one day and never return because the traffic will be stuck in a standstill for eternity.
The Brazilians in São Paulo are just as much party animals as they probably are in Rio, just maybe they are more subtle about it. There are bars and clubs everywhere, and many of them go well into the morning on any night you feel like dancing. And, just like with most other things here, if you know where to find it, you can find clubs of all shapes and sizes. On the second night of the Global Young Greens (30 April) we went to a traditional Samba Bar which was packed on a week night, with live music starting about midnight, and continuing, I'm sure, well after I left at about 4am. Those who were game enough (not me) ended up being taken to a line-dancing country and western club the next night, which was also packed on a week night. It sounded like it was more Texas than Texas, with people dressed as cowboys and everything. Some unsuspecting Europeans also ended up in a gay bar one night, only realising that it was when they went to the toilet and... well, I'll leave the rest up to your imagination.
There's the Japanese quarters we went to on one of the last nights - which helps make up the largest Japanese population in a city outside of Tokyo. I didn't particularly notice so many Japanese, but everyone here is so mixed race (and therefore beautiful) it really doesn't matter who or where you are. The Brazilian people are so nice and welcoming, but also seem disorganised sometimes from my impressions at the conference. I think, however, that that can be put down to a confusing city and large groups of "intellectual" Greens who never seem conscious of what's going on immediately around. They also have a culture of lateness in a sense - extended lunch breaks, which lead to late dinners and a late start to the partying...
Of course there's a huge problem with the wealth divide - the sky scrapers of the wealthy Ave Paulista, mixed with the beggars, dirty street kids, and people with strange jobs that must not pay much - such as the guy who sat in this lift pressing the buttons, which one of my Canadian friends accidentally led me and two others on to. There are also literally hundreds of thousands of police officers, judging by the numbers that are around. Some look busy, others just standing around. And very few people speak English. This hasn't been to bad a problem so far, but now that I'm more on my own I'm starting to learn the language. Of hand signals.
Anyway, that leads nicely into my current plans - or lack thereof. There's a couple of incrediby awesome locals that seem to have taken me under their wing, which is more than fine with me. I met them at the Global Green congress - they were volunteers, and are both about my age. They go to the local university, studying first-year International Relations. I've moved to a boutique bed-and-breakfast hostel near where they live (pretty much just around the corner from one) which I found through the power of Google. It's in a more wealthy part of town - so I guess a safer one too. It's still not advisable to be out late alone though - although most streets are busy and safe all times of the day. And there's music shops (mainly with shiny guitars) by the buckletload just down the street. They've asked me to come to one of their classes on Thursday, and I'll probably stay the weekend here too. It sucks having had to say goodbye to so many new friends the last couple of days. I want to put off saying goodbye to these two a while longer.
Once I finally do say goodbye, methinks I will just hop on a bus straight to Rio and spend a few days their before my mamoth tour starts on the 19th.
