The biggest small City youve never heard of....

To quickly finish the Argentinian portion of our trip, the rest of the time in BA was really awesome. Amy and I ended up meeting some new friends from Chicago who we were able to share part of the experience with, too - which made it even more fun!  We also had the chance to take a couple of private yoga sessions... A wonderful and hysterical activity at the same time... Perhaps more to come on that.. 

And then we flew to Brazil... 

The flight from BA to Porto Alegre (PA) was painless...until we had to fill out the Brazilian customs form... Ha.  I can confirm my Portuguese is worse than my Spanish, but also that Brazilian people are very nice... We had many a man come to our rescue en route.  We got help with our customs forms (thankfully!!), tips for things to do in and around the City and in general.  My mom told me I shouldnt talk to strangers. Per the above about my terrible Portuguese, I dont think that is a problem...

My initial impression of PA was that of...'Wow...this is truly the largest City that noone has ever heard of'....On the way from the airport into the City (where our hotel is), I was on the hunt for Capybara's (aka the world's larget rodent - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capybara) - which I didnt find. But I did see a number of wild horses...(First time for everything, I guess!) I am still hopeful about the capavara's (en portuguese).. but we shall see. 

Our hotel is in the City center - close to a lot of restaurants, and bars... and city life in general.  We can easily walk around from here... People are generally quite happy to help in English and Portuguese and my colleagues from SAP are lovely.  There are 12 of us who are a part of this program...none of whom had ever been to Brazil, so we will experience this together.

I am glad my trip began in BA, and then moved to Brazil, because I am not sure I wasfully prepared for this... Although Porto Alegre is allegedly quite wealthy... there is also poverty which I dont know if I have seen like this...even with all of my travel and living different places. On our walk to the grocery store yesterday afternoon, Amy and I saw many, many people eating out of dumpsters, and sleeping on the street. I  dont know what I was expecting, but I did need a bit of time to recover.. I can already tell this is going to be eye opening for me on many levels.

Last night, the SAP team had dinner at a local establishment (steak and fries! YESSSS!!!) - and listened to some local music - which was awesome.  Oh and of course, had a caiparihna or 2... Delish!

I am thrilled to have another few weeks here getting to know the language, City and Brazilian cultture... Especially since Spring is springing as I type.. Hello nice weather!

More to follow.. More to come... Obridgada. Bom Tarde. Agua sem gas. Con lisenze... :)

XO - Sar