One in a Million Chance. No, make it 20 Million

Sorry for the lack of any updates in the last couple of weeks. My internet
time has been taken by my nightly capoeira classes. Instead of regaling you
with tales of my journey, I have been busy doing handstands, cartwheels, and
break dancing. But I have found a bit of time here, so I will offer you some
tidbits about my time between Iguazu Falls and Rio de Janeiro (I have been
in Rio for about a week and half now).

Who´s laughing now? I am

Among backbackers, there are a few standard conversations. They typically include the ´´where are you going?´´, ´´where have you been?´´, ´´how long are you here?´´ , ´´how long are you traveling?´´ variety of questions. Most people, whether they are interested or not, act excited and intrigued by your travels. That was until I finished my stay in Argentina.

Because the first place in Brazil that I would be visiting was Sao Paolo, I naturally answered the ´´where are you going next?´´ question by saying ´´Sao Paolo.´´ In response to this answer, some people laughed and others asked ´´why?´´ Most suggested that I go directly to Rio and bypass Sao Paolo.

Logistically, it didn´t make sense but more importantly, 20,000,000 people live in Sao Paolo (actually, only about 11 million in the city itself but many more in the metro area). It is the largest city in the Southern Hemisphere. If nothing else but to see such a massive metropolis, there must be something interesting in Sao Paolo.

And I found it. In fact, I would probably say that my experience in Sao Paolo was the best of any city I have visited in my travels. I stayed with and hung out with some locals, who showed me around Sao Paolo. I went for a walk around the downtown, went to shul, walked around the central park, visited the central fruit market, attended a soccer match, went to see Batman and experienced the nightlife.

I´m going to be the subject of a documentary

After arriving in Sao Paolo, I went to lunch with the guy whose apartment I was staying at. While eating, one of his coworkers, a 50-something Jewish mother, walked into the cafe. We started talking, and it turns out that she is in the middle of making a documentary about Jewish foods.

I told her about kugel-offs, my mom´s challah, hotdog carts, assorted other Shmooze topics. Two days later, I was braiding challah in her kitchen. I will pass along the link to the video when she puts it on YouTube.

What are the odds?

The common phrase when something unexpected happens is that is was a ´´one in a million´´ chance. But when you walk into someone who you know in Sao Paolo, I would describe it as more of a ´´one in 12 million´´ chance.

With great population comes great congestion: In Detroit, there are problems with traffic and fewer than a million people live there. Imagine how bad it would be in Sao Paolo.

The municipality of Sao Paolo has an interesting solution: make it illegal for people to drive. Depending on the last two numbers of your liscense plate, there is one day a week that you cannot drive.

Zero tolerance

In Brazil, there is a zero tolerance law when it comes to drinking and driving. If you have any trace of alcohol in your breath, you get in trouble. Many people are made about this, saying that you could eat a chocolate with a bit of liquor inside and get ticketed.

This law has really hurt the bars in Brazil because people aren´t going out as much. Some bars even offer to pay for cabs within a 10 km radius so they don´t lose that much business.

True love

The first thing that I was told when I got to Brazil was: ´´In Brazil, you can change your religion, you can change your wife, but you can´t change your football team.´´ They kind of take that sport seriously down here.

When I was in Sao Paolo, I went to a Sao Paolo FC game with a friend. Sao Paolo won the game 2-1. Despite a lackluster effort for the first 30 minutes of the second half, I saw enough to commit myself to Sao Paolo. Now, I´m Sao Paolo fan for life.

Parati on, Wayne

After Sao Paolo, my next stop was the colonial beach town of Parati. The downtown area is gorgeous and so are the beaches. It was my frist real beach vacation experience.

The cool thing about Parati is that it is built right on the water. When the tide comes in, it floods the streets of the city. Because of this, the streets are made of stones, making them unfriendly to pedestrians, bikes, and cars. Actually, I can´t think of a mode of transit that they are friendly to, so I would just describe them as unfriendly.

The beach was gorgeous but I can´t take too much sitting at the beach and doing nothing. I have to be active, whether it be running, talking Portuguese, playing soccer, etc.

While I wanted to tell you about my experience in Parati, I mostly wanted to make the outstanding Wayne´s World reference in the notebook slug.

Brazilian foods I like

Like any country, Brazil has its unique cuisine. In Brazil, I have developed a few favorite items. The top of the list would be the queijo con banana sandwich, which is essentially a grilled cheese and banana sandwich. It´s very good and available at most street corner cafes.

I´ve also fallen in love with Guarana. It´s a fruit juice/energy boostin drink. It´s best served chilled, on ice with an orange slice.

My name is different down here

When a word begins with ´R´in Portuguese, it is pronounced with an ´h.´ So, my last name would not be pronounced Robinson down here, but rather Hobinson.

That means that whenever you say the name of Brazil´s famous soccer players Ronaldo or Ronaldinho or Romario, the words should begin with an ´h´ instead of an ´r.´ Rio de Janeiro is called Hio de Janeiro. as well.

I could be a soccer player

With my name, I have everything it takes to be an outstanding soccer player in Brazil, except for soccer talent. Imagine the story: student journalist/hotdog salesman/usher turned world class soccer player (actually, I would accept mediocre soccer player. I don´t need to be world-class).