First Impressions of Sao Paulo

Sao Paulo is a big city. There is no doubting that. Everyone warned me, "Sao Paulo is nothing like Rio." and  "In Brazil, Rio is like LA and Sao Paulo is like NYC."

After landing, I realized that anyone who has said "Sao Paulo is like NYC" has clearly never been to NYC. Or maybe they just havent been to Saigon. Or maybe they were referring to the Bronx. Either way, it is unlike any place I've ever been to. A massive city, population approx 20 million, with skyscrapers as far as the eye can see, and traffic jams even further. According to the BBC, on average, Fridays have traffic jams backed up 112 miles, and sometimes exceed 183 miles. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0%2C8599%2C1733872%2C00.html

As a good traveling consultant, I had done my research and was expecting the mess of people, buildings and cars.

These following items, however, are my first impressions that were totally unexpected:



1. The finger wave. In American culture this would be offensive, basically holding your finger in someones face and wagging it back and forth, with your lips downturned, to indicate that something isnt true, or isnt going to happen.

2. Friend-of-a-friend. Three days into my Sao Paulo adventure, I realized I now know more people in Sao Paulo than I do Denver, which is the city I have lived in for 6 years, own property and exhausted eligible dating pool on match.com. Everyone knows someone that you would like or has an interesting connection, or can help you in some way. For example, the apartment I am hoping to rent was discovered through my friend Joana’s half-brothers wife’s friend’s (who we ran into on the Requiejao run, see #5 below) friend who knew someone looking to rent out his flat. All of this was accomplished in less than 2 hours due to iphones and the general willingness to help out a friend-of-a-friend.

3. The cheek kiss. Sure, when a Carioca shows up into town, it throws things into disarray with the age-old single cheek vs double cheek conundrum, but I love the intimacy of meeting someone, whether at work, a grocery store, or a club and giving a simple, “Oi, tudo bem” and a cheek peck.

4. Flakiness. For lack of a better word, the behavior I am about to discess can only be described in the least offensive way as flakiness. I have finally found a culture where I fit in. I love that you can double and triple book yourself, and then either show up hours late, or not show up at all, with nary a hard feeling. It is a breath of fresh air that if I have dinner plans, I can claim traffic, or sleep, as a valid excuse for not showing up, or showing up two hours late. I do have some Brazilian friends who value punctuality in social sitautions (one is also consistently EARLY and that disturbs me considerably). I used to love hanging out with my “flaky” friends most when I was living in Rio. I got so comfortable in this culture, that I used to text my friends “in cab - traffic” or “leaving house now, looking for cab” as I would be just getting ready to start my shower. Side note: As I'm typing this, it is Friday morning at 9:25am. I am in the office. I was the first one here at 8:30. Right now, people are beginning to trickle in, but I am basically alone. We were supposed to have a 9am team meeting but no one is here yet. I could get used to this...

5. Requeijao. I have been to Brazil 5 times now and consider going to foreign (well domestic too) grocery stores a hobby, so I’m disappointed in myself that I had not discovered this on my own. This is a highly processed, white cheese which is apparently made from the lowest quality ingredients that arent good enough to be made into milk. Yum. The day I arrived in Sao Paulo, my work lunch got canceled at the last minute (see item #4) so I made plans with my friend Joana’s brother’s wife (see item #2). My new friend Rachel and I met for lunch and since it was a beautiful day on Oscar Freire, and we didn’t have to work, we ordered the whole bottle of wine. As she was jonesing for sobremesa, I kept insisting she could have it, but I’m more of a cheese person myself. Earlier in the conversation, as she was listing items that are had or impossible to get in Brazil, I told her her how I’d probably miss Tostitos Cheese Sauce a lot, She said, “We must go get you some requeijao.” Once she introduced me, I knew I had made two new friends immediately: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requeij%C3%A3o