I thought the first weekend in the apartment might have been a bit lonely but it was the total opposite, people came over on Friday night and all day Saturday, the girls I'm living with are serious partiers (is that a word?!), they put me to shame, especially considering I'm 10 years younger!
By Sunday I was ready for a bit of a rest so after a good lie in I was happy to hear that one of my flatmates was planning to go to a Bolivian cultural celebration (well that's all I understood at first, my brain is telling me that I have listened to enough Portuguese now and I am struggling to understand a lot!) and asked if I would like to join. Of course I said yes... We arrived in the car park to see it full of very drunk Bolivians in traditional costume staggering around, a funny sight!! We arrived at the Latin American Memorial, a cultural exhibition centre where all kinds of events celebrating Latin America take place.
The costumes were amazing
There we met up with Paula's Bolivian friend Chris, it was great to be able to go with a Bolivian as he explained what the event was all about; celebrating Bolivia's independence day from Spain. I stood out completely as obviously I don't look Bolivian but also as I was about a foot taller than everyone else, including the men!
Traditional cholas wearing their bowler hats
You may be wondering why there was a Bolivian celebration in São Paulo, I thought the same thing, Paula explained that the Bolivians are the largest recent immigrant group to move to the city, figures estimate that there are over 500,000, most of them doing the worst paid jobs, largely in the textile industry.
Absolutely everyone took part
It was an amazing experience, like nothing I had ever been to before, I felt super lucky to be there as there were no tourists and we only got to go because of Paula's Bolivian friend. It felt such a privilege to be able to experience what was obviously a very important day for the Bolivian population and the atmosphere was amazing.
The cutest baby I have ever seen!
When I got home in the evening I achieved the impossible and managed to make brownies without a tin, scales, caster sugar (their sugar is like icing sugar), and difficult gas oven! They only came out a little bit dry, but they'll be better next time! I brought them to the office this morning where they were demolished in seconds! It's so nice having lots of unfussy people to bake for!!
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