Arriving in São Paulo...

Arriving in São Paulo...

From this...

To this...not bad for 5 months!!

British themed gifts bought in Heathrow!

Car to the airport: 1hr 30.

Wait in Heathrow: 2hrs.

Flight London-Washington: 8hrs30.

Stop-over in Washington: 3hrs.

Flight Washington-São Paulo: 10 hrs.

Bus São Paulo International airport-São Paulo Domestic Airport: 1hr.

Taxi São Paulo Domestic airport-Maria Eugenia's house: 1hr.

Total travel time: 27hrs

Almost there...

Arriving in a cold and wet São Paulo!

Tonight I am staying at Maria Eugenia's house. She is doing a work placement with a guy who is the best friend of my friend at uni's parents! A slightly tenuous link I think you'll agree!! Brazilians must be among the most hospitable in the world...She has welcomed me into her family home and is helping me find somewhere to live (I have my first house viewing tomorrow!). I am waiting to meet her when she gets back from work in a few hours, although I have already had lunch with her brother and grandma! Oh and it's her birthday party tonight which I will be going to!

The journey started rather stressfully by being aggressively told by united staff at check in that I hadn't bought my "ESTA US visa waver" and that if I didn't buy it soon I would not be able to travel! Thank goodness for my mum's iPhone! After a bit of a stressful start I felt more relaxed after some window shopping in Heathrow duty free.

Wishful thinking!

On my first flight I was seated in between two very large American guys and on the second seemed to be in the middle of a Brazilian tour group dressed in luminous yellow that had been visiting Disney World! Let's just say my intention of getting some sleep didn't really go to plan.

I took a coach from the international to the domestic airport and watched the Brazilian equivalent of "This Morning" in which the presenters were exhaustively discussing the name of William and Kate's baby! I then took a cab to Maria Eugenia's house, a journey which should have taken 5 minutes but took almost an hour, that's rush hour in São Paulo for you!

Anyway I am just very relieved that I am here! I am going to take a well-deserved nap now until Maria Eugenia gets back from work but will write another post soon about the impending house hunt!

And so it begins...

After a friend’s amazing 21^st in Italy I am back in the U.K and have began to think about how I am going to pack my life into one suitcase, a situation made more difficult by BBC weather saying that São Paulo is currently 11°C, yes Brazil isn’t all sun and beaches!

That being said it’s not 11°C often and by the time I leave it will likely be in the 40s so I am attempting to pack for every eventuality. If it were Madrid I would just raid the nearest Zara on arrival but, as I learnt from my visit last summer, high street fashion in Brazil is dubious, something I will no doubt be writing a blog or two about when I arrive!

So… in case there is anyone reading that isn’t my mother (doubtful!), I am in my third year studying modern languages at Bristol and will be spending 6 months until Christmas working in São Paulo (need to check with the boss before I explain what I’m doing) and then from January until June will be in Madrid.

Writing, especially about myself, is definitely not something that comes naturally to me but I am determined to give it a try. I feel so lucky to have been given this opportunity and really want to make the most of it so I am going to try and record everything, no matter how mundane, so sorry about that in advance! I hope that it might also be useful to anyone either moving to Brazil/Spain or with an interest in Brazilian or Spanish culture/cuisine/fashion/economy.  

Well… that all sounds a little ambitious, more likely the blog will become a series of recipes with lots of pictures and not much else but we’ll see! So unless anything super interesting happens before I leave in 4 days the next update will be coming from here!

São Paulo

Once I sort out an internet connection that is, which with Brazilian bureaucracy may be my first challenge!