Marry Me, Sao Paulo

I'm in love with this city! Adam is getting there, but history shows him requiring more scrutiny than I when blasting out affection. Our first day here, after a gallant airport rescue effort from Marco and Juliana, was spent largely asleep on the fold-out sofa lovingly prepared for us in their tv room. Their apartment is gorgeous, tastefully decorated with plantlife and artwork from all over the world. We are very spoiled travelers, our hosts being funny and generous English speakers with a thirst for adventure and joy. Our second day here was spent hiding in our room while M&J were both at work, unwilling to disturb their housekeeper, a chatty, friendly 21 year old whose confrontation with us required more courage than either party was able to muster. I'm beginning to understand how crucial my ability to communicate is to my confidence in situations, and if you heard my embryonic Portuguese you might understand why I'm at this point reduced to a quivering social mess, which my English speaking friends might (or might not) find amusing.

Marco and Juju have a tiny dog named Batuki (spelling anyone?) meaning approximately 'to drum' and he is saving me from the separation anxiety I have being away from our gentleman cat-friend Mr. Fatty back home. For now.

Today Juliana took us on a public transport journey to briefly experience the city. Once a week she is prohibited from driving, a scheme applied to every registered car in an effort to reduce traffic in Sao Paulo.
She booked me an appointment at her favourite waxing place So Depliaçao, which I am only able to transcribe because the card I was meant to return is still in my pocket, Aussie aussie aussie. Let me just say that I am now completely beach-ready, and thinking on my previous experiences with hot wax in intimate areas, I wonder now if the entire Australian waxing industry is some kind of government pain-preparation program for the construction of an unbeatable female army. I tried to tell my technician afterwards that 'you are an artist' and I can only guess that it came out intelligible. I mean I understood what she meant by saying 'baby' when she sprinkled talcum powder on my bottom. Before this we had wandered into a regular kind of shoe shop and it was the single best shoe buying experience of my life, I highly recommend it. From the appointment we ate fantastic Japanese food from an all-you-can eat buffet 70 years strong in the city. There is an enormous Japanese population in Sao Paulo, the largest outside of Japan says Juju. The food was delectable, and the miso excellent. Next we made good friends with a bunch of stairs and lifts taking us to our 5 minute allowance on top of Sao Paulo's highest building. I hope Adam uploads some pictures to this blog soon, because Holy Heineken, you know the city is huge, but stretching as far as the eye can see in every direction huge? I've never seen anything like it! We had clear views of enormous clouds and could see exactly where their shadows fell on the distant architecture. Pretty incredible stuff.

The buildings mid-city are enormous, towering above every street on both sides. 'Your city is so tall, and Melbourne is so short' I had said in a moment of profundity. The colour is incredible, the streets alive and activity everywhere. Today was quite a hot day, but not insufferable as the north will be when we visit for the festival. I won't want to leave by then, I'm sure of it.