On Friday after school, Ana Paula and her friend/employee Cristiana (I was mistaken earlier, her name is not Carolina) taught me how to use the ônibus to get to and from classes. We decided it was time to wean me off Ana Paula's car. Cristiana lives a lot further away from work and gas is really expensive so she's an ônibus expert. Ana Paula never takes the bus; it was hilarious watching her learn at the same time as me. We rode the bus to the CIEE office and from PUC back home (PUC shown at right and below). I came away from the lesson slightly overwhelmed, but determined to get it down. It was really frustrating that I felt so dependent on Ana Paula and her car. It's extremely annoying to be unable to get from point A to point B efficiently and without someone holding my hand. Monday would be the first official trial.
That night, everyone in the program went to a Samba show at CESC, which is a community center with various locations around the city, much like a YMCA. The show was inredible. I love this music. I can't really dance to it well yet but it's so much fun to watch them play. And the entire audience knows all the words. The group is called Samba da Laje (right), and it's one of the best in SP. They started as a family group, and have been playing together for about 12 years. A guest sambista came on stage to sing after a while and he was announced as being pretty famous (below)--I can't remember his name but he was wonderful. 
On Saturday we took a field trip to Pinacoteca do Estado, the oldest art museum in São Paulo. Brazilian art is different than any other art I've seen because the tension between and mixture of African, European, and indigenous influences is plain as day. Sometimes on purpose, sometimes as a result of failed "anthropofagy," as Professor Wilson says--the concept of one culture consuming another and by this creating a completely different one; Wilson has been teaching around this theory all week. I'd never heard the word before but it makes sense when you study colonialism. Luckily, Wilson was our tour guide. He knows SO much about everything, it's ridiculous. Pinacoteca is located in the center of the city right next to the Jardim da Luz, which is a gorgeous park. We walked around for a while admiring waterfalls and fish until we started getting bitten by mosquitos and all we could think about was dengue fever. We tried several different exit gates but they were all locked. I've never walked so fast in my whole life. (Right: Rodin sculpture, "Génie Du Repos Éternal," I was excited to see there after falling in love with the Musée Rodin back in February)Once free of the humid dengue prison, we made our way to the Memorial da Resistência, a museum about life and politics under the military dictatorship. It felt a lot like a Holocaust memorial. There were lots of old documents and letters under glass, and the videos they had playing in different rooms were actually really helpful in clarifying the timeline of events. The museum is housed in the original building where political dissidents were imprisoned and tortured. For real. Pretty creepy.
It's super late and I have to get up early so I'm stopping there for now but much more on the weekend/week to come! Até mais
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