Day 15/16 – São Paulo

The weather was still chilly, but the sun came out so we went for a walk in the park nearby and then went to their club for lunch. São Paulo is an interesting place and a lot of people with means belong to these social clubs, and the Dorias belong to the Clube Paulistano. They have a wide variety of activities – pools, tennis courts, etc. We got to see Celso’s parents again, who we’d last seen at our house in Dallas for new year’s in 1997. We also got to see his sister Ana, who we also last saw in 1997 in Dallas. Her husband Marcos is a diplomat and they are now living in Brasília, so it was a bonus to be able to visit with her, too.

The Book Store
We went to the Livraría Cultura near Avenida Paulista so I could buy the Harry Potter books #6 and 7 in Portuguese to complete the series. The bookstore itself is really cool because it’s entry staircase looks like a bird cage, and the inside is laid out in two large ramps with an undulating handrail and semi-random spindles and a huge wooden model of a dinosaur skeleton suspended from the ceiling.

Changes in Brazil (part III)
We had a chance to talk with both Celso and Marcelle about some of the changes we'd seen in Brazil since the last time we'd been there. They confirmed our observation that many things were changing in Brazil, not the least of which was the greater number of automobiles on the road, including luxury brands such as Audi, Volvo and Lexus. Some of it has to do with the emergence of easier credit, made possible by the relative economic stability of the last 10 years. Some of it can't be easily linked to economic stability, such as all the public service advertisements, people carrying plastic bags to pick up after their dogs and building projects stopped for years because the builders are being held accountable to building ordinances

The demise of jeitinho?
All these changes got us speculating on whether or not the "jeitinho brasileiro" was on it's way out. We hope not, because while "jeitinho" has its downsides in various forms of corruption, I think it's what has enabled everyday Brazilians to cope with hyper-inflation, military dictatorship and various other man-made hazards through the years. It's also what drives the optimism in the national psyche that sets Brazilians apart from their Spanish-speaking cousins and even the Portuguese themselves.

São Paulo’s Sunday Pizza Tradition
Dinner on Sunday night was at the Pizzaría Camelo, which we’d visited the last time we were in São Paulo and going out to these pizzerias on Sundays is a Paulista tradition. SP also has a very large Italian community, so there’s very good Italian food to be had there. Pizzaría Camelo is just one of many. If you visit one, be sure to ask for “alho frito,” which is garlic flakes that have been browned and can be sprinkled on your pizza like parmesan cheese.

Celso is the head of IT for Morgan Stanley Americas for all offices outside New York, which is a big job to say the least. Needless to say, their home office is wired with the latest and greatest, so Alex and Lilly got to watch movies, surf the Web and play video games with the Doria kids until they were all bug-eyed. Lauren and I got to check email and update our FB pages and catch up on the news from home.

Marcelle is a teacher at the American School, where Alex & Lucas are both in school. Because they both are using English all day and the boys are in the American school (Juliana just transferred to another school) they are all fully bilingual.

On our last day in SP, we continued to devote our energies to relaxing, drinking coffee and hanging loose with Celso & Marcelle. We headed out to Shopping Eldorado and a Brazilian arts and artisan store for last-minute purchases and then we packed up to go. We planned ahead to leave plenty of time to get to the airport because of the legendary SP traffic, which did not fail to disappoint as we crawled across town for 1.5 hours.

Leaving Brazil with Saudades
The airport was a complete zoo and to finish off our trip right, the boarding process was somewhat disorderly even though it was conducted in both English and Portuguese. All in all, this trip was particularly special for me because it was as if I went to Brazil for the first time by seeing it all through the eyes of my children. It brought back memories of my first trip to Brazil, when I was much younger. I was in awestruck wonder during that whole trip at the sights, sounds and smells of this phenomenal land of colorful, barely-contained chaos.

That first time leaving Brazil back in 1977 was when I really learned the meaning of “saudades,” which roughly translates to a “longing” or “yearning” for something. I remember being sad to leave, but also feeling as if a part of me was staying behind, therefore creating the need for me to go back again some day. I still have that feeling of leaving something behind when I leave Brazil even after all these years, two extended periods living there and dozens of trips back. It's never a question of "if" I go back, but always simply "when." And the answer is always "not soon enough."