Befriending Sao Paulo

Before leaving NY I was repeatedly told....“Don’t worry Brazilians are very friendly people!”

7:00 am Wednesday morning, as usual I walk in the hotel cafeteria for breakfast, bored of having breakfast alone since a week, I decide to randomly join a group of three people. Thirty minutes later, I had three friends from Bahia (a state to the northeast of Brazil) – 2 of them do not speak much English...but we meet at regularly at breakfast and talk and talk and talk…who says language is a big barrier to communication :)

***

It is a beautiful Saturday in Sao Paulo, I and another of my friend (of course I found him at the breakfast table too) decide to explore Paulista Avenue (a famous street in Sao Paulo) - the only problem we both knew little about the neighborhood and spoke practically no Portuguese. As we were wandering around the street like homeless dogs, clouds took over and a downpour began. We took shelter under a building and thought it was a good opportunity to take directions from someone. So we started talking with a lady who told us that she was waiting for her husband to pick her up. After a good 20-30 minutes conversation, we exchanged email ids and promises to exchange notes in future. Next we knew, a couple of weeks and a few emails later, we were having lunch and laughing it out with her and her family in a restaurant at Paulista Avenue! The duration of the lunch 2 pm to 6 pm!

***

In NY, I was talking a some lessons in Portuguese language and just before leaving for Sao Paulo, my Brazilian instructor connected me to her - husband's - office colleague's - son - who lives in Sao Paulo. Sergio is a Brazilian who has spent some time in US and is an English instructor in Sao Paulo. On one Friday he invited me for dinner at his place where I met his wife and a few of his friends cum students…a couple of journalist, a doctorate student, a social worker, an artist… the result endless conversations and laughs...so much so that Sergio even offered us stay over at his place and take a cab home in the morning as it was already very late by the time we finished!

I write this story when after spending a month befriending Sao Paulo, I am considering leaving Sao Paulo to be in a different city for the next month, but….“don’t worry Brazilians are very friendly people!” :)

Cathedral de Se - Another venue where I made friends with two random people, who were trying to explain to me the history of place...in Portuguese of course!