Sao Paulo Daily Photo

Double bus

2006-07-23T11:59:00.000-03:00

Few buses or too many people?

Banespa Building

2006-07-22T12:04:00.000-03:00

Pay phone

2006-07-21T12:03:00.000-03:00

There's a version for handicapped people (or small people in general). :-)

Strange building

2006-07-20T11:54:00.000-03:00

Viaduto Major Quedinho x Rua Maria Paula

Brazilian Sky

2006-07-19T10:03:00.000-03:00

Brazilian Sky, originally uploaded by e-Beth.

Brazilian Church

2006-07-18T09:59:00.000-03:00

, originally uploaded by e-Beth.

Church

2006-07-17T09:56:00.000-03:00

, originally uploaded by e-Beth.

Parque da Aclimação

2006-07-16T09:50:00.000-03:00

Parque, originally uploaded by e-Beth.

Ipê-roxo

2006-07-15T12:24:00.000-03:00

i.pê [ip¢e]
sm Bot common name of several Brazilian trees and shrubs (Caesalpinia, Bignonia and Boraginaceae) of the genus Tabebuia with violet and yellow flowers.

Disproportions

2006-07-14T12:20:00.000-03:00

The big guy with his tinny dog.

Preferencial

2006-07-13T10:26:00.000-03:00

The green house

2006-07-12T10:12:00.000-03:00

The old new Sao Paulo

2006-07-11T10:02:00.000-03:00

My old neighborhood and the new buildings.

Gave up

2006-07-10T11:29:00.000-03:00

The worldcup never ends

2006-07-09T19:01:00.000-03:00

At the museum again

2006-07-08T15:29:00.000-03:00

Elevator

2006-07-07T23:54:00.000-03:00

Marcos, remember all the stuff you taught me about how to photoshop pictures? Yeah. I don't remember a thing. Can you all make out the stuff on the walls? I know *I* can't.

The sign says, in bad Portuguese, that before getting into the elevator you should check whether it's really there. Oh, woops, are people really that dumb? Another sign says everyone's welcome to take the 'social' elevator, despite their religion, color, or financial situtation or if sick. This may sound like a silly sign, but contrary to the image Brazil has - that there's no prejudice whatsoever in the country - poor people, who also tend to be slaves descendents (due to the late slavery abolishment in the XIX century, slaves and their families couldn't find jobs - well, long historical explanation here), were only allowed to take the service elevator. Not by law, but by this weird and conservative and stupid use.

Orelhao

2006-07-06T19:44:00.000-03:00

Public phone in Sao Paulo.

Nove de Julho

2006-07-05T20:36:00.000-03:00

The corner house

2006-07-05T20:06:00.000-03:00

(through the car window, not a good pic. i just love this house and its BIG three.)

Anhangabau

2006-07-03T22:40:00.000-03:00

And we lost. Again.

2006-07-01T22:25:00.000-03:00

Saturday sad night.

Everything World Cup

2006-06-30T10:33:00.000-03:00

Brazil 3 x 0 Ghana

2006-06-29T11:48:00.000-03:00

France is the next victim. YES, revenge! :-)

Brazil x Ghana

2006-06-28T18:50:00.000-03:00

We won. Again. ;-)

Ghana who?

2006-06-27T14:31:00.000-03:00

Brazil scored 3 goals in the Round-of-16 game against Ghana today, and we will play the Quarter-finals next Saturday, against either France or Spain (playing later today).

In the picture, my buddies from the office during the game-lunch, a classical Brazilian barbecue. ;)

Travelling

2006-06-26T13:51:00.000-03:00

I went spend the weekend in a city nearby, but, as you can see, we can't forget the Worldcup. Yellow and green eeeeeeverywhere. :)

Rest in peace

2006-06-23T15:04:00.000-03:00

Flower in a grave on Sao Paulo Cemetery.

Brazil x Japan

2006-06-22T14:58:00.000-03:00

Yes, we won again. :p

Entanglement

2006-06-21T14:55:00.000-03:00

Pinheiros neighboorhood.

Violet Sky

2006-06-20T14:37:00.000-03:00

Old picture, from my parent's house.

Brazil x Australia

2006-06-19T20:57:00.000-03:00

Angel

2006-06-18T14:04:00.000-03:00

Worldcup

2006-06-16T09:56:00.000-03:00

As you can see, people can't think in anything else.

Ibirapuera Park

2006-06-15T22:27:00.000-03:00

Beautyful afternoon on thursday, trying to don't see brazilian flags everywere.

Dude, where is my car?

2006-06-14T15:52:00.000-03:00

Some stupid driver parked his car in front of my office, in a prohibited place, and probably gone to watch the Brazil x Croatia game, last tuesday. The prefecture take away the car with a tow winch and leave this plaque. Poor stupid driver. :p

...

But Brazil wins, that's good news. ;)

Guess what?

2006-06-13T09:43:00.000-03:00

We only work until 2pm today because people have to watch Brazil v. Croatia. The World Cup is a very, very serious business here.

And yes, we know. São Paulo daily photo. We get the daily part of the deal. But in our defense, it's World Cup days! and blogger has been very weird.

The worldcup begins

2006-06-09T13:35:00.000-03:00

Bedroom

2006-06-08T19:55:00.000-03:00

Here you can see the bed I mentioned in another post and where the shelves are. That's Cuca, again, on my bed. Say "hi", Cuca! :)

And let's not talk about that disgusting astray full of cigarette butts, mmkay? I know! It's horrible to be a smoker! :~

Horses

2006-06-07T22:55:00.000-03:00

Although the amusement park where I've taken this picture is not exactly in São Paulo (but 30 minutes from here - and what is a 30-minutes drive anyway? People take more than a half hour to get to their workplaces every day), I thought I'd post it - look at those colors. 10 people lined up facing the horses had to throw balls into holes. Each hole was worth a certain amount of points and would make the horse corresponding to his/her, ummm, table (?) move further.

And I thought, 'Isn't it just an older version of a videogame?'. Except you get to see your competitors, and interact, which is way, way nicer.

Talking about books again

2006-06-06T20:26:00.000-03:00

I don't know what's the deal with these new apartments. There's just not enough room for books - or other stuff for that matter; I've mentioned books because I happen to care about mine. My room is extremely small - as the apartment is, so I had the idea to get this bed on wheels and have the walls covered with shelves where I'd put my books.

Isn't that the worst picture ever? Out of focus, with the flash all augh...

Anyway. They say these new apartments are small because (a) if they're small, they are cheaper and then people can afford them; and (b) people don't spend time in their homes anymore. Well, why should them? With so little room, people would of course want to spend all the time they possibly can out. I was talking about it with Marcos earlier today. But we talked mostly about kitchens. Kitchens so small they look like hallways. Disgusting. I'll be posting more pictures of the apartment I live in (and hopefully Beth and Marcos will too, someday), so you can see what a Brazilian apartment looks like.

Faces

2006-06-05T19:31:00.000-03:00

This is another sculpture that stands in the garden of the museum Lasar Segall. The website is very, very nice (I didn't know they had an English version of it), and you can read about his life. There's also an online exhibition available.

Another peek at the library

2006-06-04T19:00:00.000-03:00

Closed

2006-06-03T21:56:00.000-03:00

Sometimes we find some closed doors. It's funny. These pictures were taken a long time ago and I was unaware that my life was about to change completely. So, yes, some doors had been closed so I could open new ones. Oh, so cheesy. [sigh]

I don't live here anymore

2006-06-02T10:11:00.000-03:00

So, I finally moved. I have a new home, and the same old problems, and the same old job and the same old camera, but I promise to improve my pics and come here more often. ;)

Lamppost

2006-06-01T09:50:00.000-03:00

Smell of books

2006-05-31T22:30:00.000-03:00

I love it. I regret not having come into the library. The thing with São Paulo is that it's so huge we forget to do stuff. Lasar Segall is such a nice place, only a few blocks from where I live and I think I've been there only once or twice.

Fall

2006-05-30T13:01:00.000-03:00

Petals on floor.

Fog

2006-05-29T16:32:00.000-03:00

Saturday morning, from my new window. :)

Sao Paulo's flag

2006-05-28T14:40:00.000-03:00

On top of the Banespa Building.

Parque do Ibirapuera

2006-05-27T14:39:00.000-03:00

Lasar Segall

2006-05-26T16:04:00.000-03:00

There are 71 museums in São Paulo. One of them is Museu Lasar Segall (this was taken at the garden and shows a sculpture made by Lasar Segall). There's a movie theather, a library with art books and they also offer classes and workshops on photograpy, writing and stuff.

Dinos

2006-05-25T05:40:00.000-03:00

Dinosaurs shown at Parque do Ibirapuera.

My neighbor's doggie would love this! :-)

Grande Sertão: Veredas

2006-05-24T10:12:00.000-03:00

One of the stories at Museu da Língua Portuguesa shows a Brazilian literary masterpiece (considered by many as the most important one): Grande Sertão: Veredas (or, as translated, The Devil to Pay in the Backlands), by Guimarães Rosa. There are copies, on fabric, of the pages of the book, with the editing marks made by hand by the author.

Spread all around, many pieces of art in different media, show excerpts of the book. Some of these pieces are curious, because you have to be standing at an especific spot to make out what's written, as you can see below:

One of the sentences on this is one of the most important ones: Viver é muito perigoso, or Living is extremely dangerous.

Shoeshine guy

2006-05-23T18:54:00.000-03:00

I was having coffee and thinking and drawing dumb stuff and he came in again and asked me for something to eat and drink. He was speaking really fast, so I said to the waitress it was okay and she could give him whatever he asked for to eat. But because I didn't get the part he asked for something to drink, they thought I'd only pay for food. So he came to the table and asked if it was okay if he got a Coke, instead of food. I told him he was welcome to get something to eat as well. I asked him if I could take a picture of him. He's 18, he lives on the streets and he polishes shoes (BRL 3.00). So I took the pictures, showed them to him and thanked him. He said he thought he looked good on them, thanked me and left.

I'm not telling the story because I want you to think how nice of me it was to pay for stuff, or because I wanted to do it so I wouldn't feel guilty for not doing enough to help the situation as a whole (except for voting, I guess). I wanted to tell this story because to some people, having what to eat and what to drink seems like something impossible. I wonder if there are people who would only pay for one or the other, as if it is asking too much if a person asks for something to drink and something to eat. I know for sure there are people who wouldn't have paid for anything.

Of course charity is not the answer to social problems, and inequality - which I believe is the main reason why we have people in Brazil living like this - won't just go away, but then I wasn't thinking about it. I was thinking about this person, Anderson, and wondered why *he* got to be homeless. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to lecture you. Anyway, these are people almost no one cares about and they, like Beth Marcos and I, live in São Paulo.

Portuguese Language Museum @ Julio Prestes Station

2006-05-22T10:26:00.000-03:00

SP fact: More than 120 theaters, 71 museums e 11 cultural centers.

You've seen Júlio Prestes train station before. This is what it looks like on the outside. After going through renovation, the station now holds projects sponsored by the State Secretariat of Culture, and a room for our simphonic orchestra to perform. One of these days I'll show you the Portuguese Language Museum.

Bandeiras

2006-05-21T12:39:00.000-03:00

This one I took from the bus, and my not being a photoshop expert, I couldn't get rid of the reflections on the window. Marcos, I need help! :)

São Paulo was founded in 1555, by Jesuit priests who built a school (located downtown and that amazingly still exists). Back then, not much happened in São Paulo. We were basically a bunch of priests and native people being slaved (or converted to Catholicism, so they would be "real people", as they thought back at the time). São Paulo is up in the mountains - okay, the mountains may not be that high - 760 m above sea level (2,493 feet), but it was right in the middle of the tropical forest, so you can imagine how hard it was for people to get here.

Maps:

A map of Brazil, where you can see where we are.
Here you can check a map showing Mata Atlântica - how much of it we had back then in light beige; in brown, what's left of the forest.

Anyway, after some time, people living in São Paulo organized - with or without help from Portugal - many expeditions to the country side (heh) and were lucky enought to find gold and precious stones (and also to capture natives to work as slaves). These expeditions helped us form the borders of the country and, of course, got the attention of Portugal to Brazil.

The monument shown in these pictures shows an expedition like that. If you click on them to see a larger version, you'll see natives, horses - although I think they used mules and not horses, "white people", etc.

Everything - everything! - World Cup

2006-05-20T23:59:00.000-03:00

Hanging outside a pet store, cages "dressed" for the World Cup.

Sushi for lunch

2006-05-19T16:01:00.000-03:00

SP fact: 16,800 sushis are made per hour in São Paulo.

So I tutor (or used to, as Marcos has missed, like, 6 classes in a row) Marcos - teach him English - and occasionally he invites me for lunch. I always choose to go to this place that used to be a fish store. They started serving sashimi to some of the customers and turned the place into a fish store/Japanese restaurant. On their menu, grilled fish, sashimi, sushi and missoshiro.

We eat a lot - really, a lot! - and we spend BRL25.00 each (approx. US$12.50).

CGH Airport - view from my old place

2006-05-18T15:18:00.000-03:00

My dad taking a look at Congonhas traffic.

Night

2006-05-17T18:24:00.000-03:00

It seems like the three of us are living busy, hectic days. So, here's a boring, shitty picture for you.

About the madness going on in São Paulo: it's much calmer now and we're all safe. Thanks, everybody.

A little church

2006-05-16T16:27:00.000-03:00

On Largo do Paissandu.

Wires

2006-05-15T21:14:00.000-03:00

Things have been quite rough down here for the past 3 days, as you'll read here (CNN article). Situation is just crazy. There's a 220km traffic, which is absolutely insane, even for São Paulo, and people are scared to leave their homes. Instead of the 5,000 buses we usually have around, only 1,000 were available today (several have been burned down yesterday night) and many stores haven't even opend their doors because employees weren't able to get to work. There's been a bombing in a subway station, schools have sent students back home. Extra-officially 90 people have been killed so far - police officers and criminals.

Just a shot of an ordinary street

2006-05-14T16:49:00.000-03:00

I feel totally uncreative, so here's a boring picture of Avenida Domingos de Moraes, near my house. SP fact: More than 5.5 thousand crossroads with traffic lights in the city. The good thing about this neighborhood is that it's very convenient - it's near the subway station, drugstores, markets, everything. The bad thing is that because it's convenient, there are lot of buildings being built around here and it gets noisy as early as 7 am. Nothing's perfect I guess.

Please pick up your dog's poo. Thank you.

2006-05-13T14:46:00.000-03:00

On a tree at the the place I take my dog for walks, a sign saying "Please pick up your dog's poo". And, yes, I always do - so, you're welcome. SP fact: There are approximately 5,000 pet stores in the city. The biggest pet store, Cobasi, makes BRL1,000,000.00/month (roughly US$500,000.00), if we only consider the sales during the weekend. Each person spends approximately BRL 46.00 each time they go there. There are more than 1.5 million pets living in our houses. Amongst them, Cuca, the cutest dog ever:

Gari

2006-05-12T13:55:00.000-03:00

These guys sweep our streets everyday. SP fact: There are more than 5,000 garis (street-sweepers) working in the city, where more than 10 million people leave. They have this uniform in bright colors so we don't hit them with our cars. They're paid minimum wage, BRL 350/month (approx. US$170). Now, you really have to be an honest person to work for such low money. I can only imagine how hard it is to decide to do a crappy job like this for money that is far from enough to live a decent life instead of becoming a drug dealer or a thief. The problem with these guys - and many other workers - is that they don't have much education and if they do, it's public education, which is really, really bad, except for our universities, that are among the best in Latin America.

Marlene, the cleaning lady who comes to my house once a week, makes more than that. She gets paid BRL 55.00/day (approx. US$26.00), so she probably makes, like, BRL 800.00/month (US$388). As you can see, unlike what happens in other countries, we get paid by month - with few exceptions - and not by the hour or by week.

Okay, I don't mean to shock you, but the best EFL (English as a Foreign Language) schools pay approx. BRL 13.00/hour (US$7.50). Classes are 1 or 1.5 hour long. So we have to get as many classes as we can to get decent money. Of course there will be teachers who'll make more money, depending on the qualification they have.

Photo by Beth; text by Ione.

Bus

2006-05-11T11:35:00.000-03:00

SP fact: There are more than 15,000 buses in the city. The guy in blue shirt, he collects money. They tried to make it all automatic, but we couldn't just fire all these people working as "bus-money collectors". It costs BRL 2.00 for a ride, which is now approximately a dollar. There's also this program that allows you to pay the same for a two-hour ride, so you can change buses as many times as you need during that period. You can also buy a ticket that allows you to take a bus and then the subway and it costs approximately BRL 3.60.

I enjoy taking buses. It's nice to look out the window and not have to be all stressed with traffic - let the driver do that for me. I can read or take pictures (cof), and eavesdropping is a must. I remember being on a bus reading Lolita and getting weird looks from a lady. Like I were a pervert for reading Lolita. Ha!

Welcome to the jungle

2006-05-10T16:20:00.000-03:00

Mural on a School's wall in Cambuci.

Museu do Ipiranga

2006-05-09T17:23:00.000-03:00

Brazil was a colony of Portugal until September 7, 1822 when we then became an Empire, ruled by D. Pedro I, and after by D. Pedro II, both part of the royal families who run Portugal. Yeah, it's weird. According to a legend, D. Pedro I shouted "Independence or death!", while riding his horse close to the place where later this builiding in the picture got built. Although it was meant to be the symbol of independence, it was only ready in 1895.

Parque do Ibirapuera

2006-05-08T09:29:00.000-03:00

A nice place for skating.

Ione, you said you were only going to post bad pictures. No deal, huh? :-)

SP fact: 2.5 million people/day take the subway.

Everything World Cup II

2006-05-07T13:30:00.000-03:00

The real jerseys cost a lot of money, so we have pirated shirts being sold everywhere. Number 9 is the shirt Ronaldo wears. Number 10 is the shirt everyone wants to have, though, because Pelé used to wear it. The black shirt is Corinthians', one of the most popular teams, with approximately 25 million fans all around the country. Beth, as far as I know, is a Corinthians fan, but Marcos and I are fans of São Paulo Futebol Clube.

SP fact: There are more than 5.5 million cars in the city.

Soccer table

2006-05-06T01:00:00.000-03:00

I won't be able to post tomorrow (Saturday), so I will use a blogger trick to post it with a different date. Okay, that's cheating... I know!

Our love for soccer is so huge we don't play it only on the field (or the beach or anywhere). We have these tables to play soccer too.

The rules are almost the same as in "real" soccer. Except the game doesn't last for 90 minutes.

You can check my dad and my cousing playing here: my cousin Zé, and my dad.

SP fact: Over 30 thousand taxis in the city (3rd largest number in Latin America).

Memorial da América Latina

2006-05-05T20:32:00.000-03:00

A project of Oscar Niemeyer, the most famous Brazilian architect - he designed Brasília, our capital - Memorial da América Latina, with its buildings, is one of the most modern cultural centers of São Paulo.

There you can find information on the Latin American culture, as well as expositions of crafts, library, music files and a film collection. There's also a room for musical/dance/theatrical performances.

This picture shows the symbol of the place, an open hand where you can see the map of Latin American as if drawn in blood.

SP fact: 30 mi people/month go to the shopping malls in the city.

Everything World Cup

2006-05-04T10:45:00.000-03:00

This is for Nicola, who's mentioned The World Cup recently. We'll certainly have many other pictures on World Cup. Such a fever. Bunnies, bracelets, flags, purses, everything is yellow, blue and green these days. This picture was taken on Avenida Paulista, that you've seen here a couple of times, after having had lunch with Marcos.

A friend from the States who doesn't understand the first thing about soccer asked me if Brazil's supposed to win this year. The answer is: Brazil's supposed to win every time. There has never been a time we thought Brazil didn't stand a chance. The country stops to watch Brazilian soccer team games. We'll go as far as having TVs in our workplaces so the staff can watch them. Nobody expects life to go on as normal during the World Cup.

SP fact: We have more than 70 shopping malls in the city, more than any other city in Brazil.

Actually, people from other cities make fun of people from SP - they say our idea of fun is going to the shopping mall.

My favorite bookshop

2006-05-03T13:50:00.000-03:00

Here's where I spend a lot of my money buying books. I love reading. Last month I made the terrible mistake of buying A million little pieces, by James Frey. Dude, don't ever spend a second reading it. Trust me. I wouldn't believe when they told me it was bad. It's worse than bad. Also, I thought I'd give JF a chance. What if the story was really good, or that he was really a talented author? Woops, my mistake. This guy won't deserve my giving a second chance. I also bought Diary - a novel, by Chuck Palahniuk - but I haven't started that one yet, and A short history of nearly everything, by Bill Brison - I love it so far.

GDP of São Paulo is US$76 billions.

Dogs

2006-05-02T15:31:00.000-03:00

I'm not sure there's such a thing in other places around the world, but I'd like to know (please tell me!), but 3 years from now a weird job has been created in Brazil: dog walker. You pay for someone to get your friend at home and exercise.

Your dog might find his/her soulmate, because they usually take a group of dogs to walk. Take a look at the couple on the left. :-)

--

SP fact: There are more than 240 thousand commercial venues in the city.

Playing at Ibirapuera

2006-05-01T14:54:00.000-03:00

Ibirapuera is the biggest park in the city, with 1.6m m2; 200 thousand people go there each weekend.

Important art and culture centers are located there, such as the Modern Art Museum (MAM), Oca, o Pavilhão da Bienal (Biannual pavilion) and the Japanese Pavilion - with a replica of Kyoto's Imperial Palace (in Japan) - and the Folklore and the Airforce museums.

I've got tons of pictures of this park and I promise I'll show you all of them. :-)

--
SP fact: There are 10,000 restaurants, which made it the world's gastronomy capital.

And I look out at the window

2006-04-30T13:28:00.000-03:00

Literacy rate in the city is 95.4%.

The coffee shop

2006-04-29T13:25:00.000-03:00

Here you can see what the coffee shop looks like. I love the stuff on the walls.

The area of São Paulo is 1,530 km2.

I'm so old

2006-04-28T13:20:00.000-03:00

I'm turning 29 today, but let's not talk about that, okay? Anyway, this picture was taken between classes. I have to go to this place and teach 2 classes and then wait for an hour and a half to teach again. I hang out at this coffee shop, always reading a book, writing something and, obviously, having coffee.

As of today, we'll be adding a fact about São Paulo to each picture.

São Paulo is the 3rd biggest city in the world, population-wise, with 10,434,252 people.

My neighborhood

2006-04-27T10:31:00.000-03:00

I live near to CGH airport. The noise is not pleasant, but you get used to it with time. Sometimes friends sleep over and wake up with a jump, unaware of the noise you hear from the jest flying over at 6am.

The airport starts its activities at 6am. As Ione has told you, it's an airport in the middle of the city, so they have to obey the "silence bill", which means there can't be any noise after 10pm.

Fair

2006-04-26T14:41:00.000-03:00

Once a week, a street market where people can buy fruit, meat and vegetables takes place on a street in the neighborhood. The districts in São Paulo are very large (remember we have a population of nearly 10m), so there's more than one fair in each neighborhood, although in alternate days.

You can see in the picture not only my two nieces and my dog, but also a sign that says the day such fair takes place (Tuesday, in this case) and the time (from 4 am, when the trucks start parking so people can set their stands until morning, to 2 pm, when the street's suppposed to be all cleaned up). For 10 hours no cars are allowed.

Fruits and vegetables are usually cheaper in such street markets and they come fresh from CEASA, which is the largest distributor of such goods in all Latin America (as far as I know).

Also, notice how we use military time here. 24 hours on our clocks.

Parque da Aclimação

2006-04-25T15:41:00.000-03:00

Yes, the water is green.

Art at the subway station

2006-04-24T15:18:00.000-03:00

Tomie Ohtake, a Japanese artist living in Brazil, made these murals that are in Clínicas subway station. Each mural represents a season.

Japanese lamps

2006-04-23T18:59:00.000-03:00

Fish in plastic bags, necklaces, Japanese lamps made of paper and the best tempura you can find. Liberdade.

Fish

2006-04-22T14:54:00.000-03:00

More on the stuff you find at the market fair in Liberdade.

Colors

2006-04-21T14:05:00.000-03:00

In the Japanese neighborhood, there's a street market on Sundays. Color, food, crafts and lots of fun.

Liberdade, the Japanese neighborhood

2006-04-20T22:51:00.000-03:00

The city of São Paulo has the largest population of Japanese people living outside Japan. They came to Brazil in the begining of the XX century to work in farms mostly (as slavery was abolished in 1888). In São Paulo, they've settled in a neighborhood that would be later called Liberdade (freedom). I love the street lamp posts and the signs in Japanese.

My grandparents were among Japanese immigrants. My grandfather was a photographer (surprise, surprise!) and my grandmother helped him in the studio and ran the house. I didn't get to meet my grandma and I don't remember my grandpa much. He didn't speak much Portuguese and it was hard for me to understand the little he said with a very thick Japanese accent. He used to give me candy and he had puzzles inside cans for the granchildren to play with when we visited.

Praça da Sé

2006-04-19T13:38:00.000-03:00

This is Praça da Sé, milestone zero, if there is such an expression. My English knowledges fail me now. Anyway, what I mean is Praça da Sé is (or used to be, when the city was not this huge) located exactly in the middle of the city. With Marcos' picture, you saw the underground. With this picture, you get to see what's on the surface.

Train

2006-04-18T15:38:00.000-03:00

I took this at Santa Cruz subway station.

Metrô, Estação Sé - Sé Station

2006-04-17T11:41:00.000-03:00

This is Sé subway station, the main station of São Paulo subway, not only because it's located downtown, but also because it connects north-south and east-west lines. 100,000 passengers go there each hour on rush hours.

I generally avoid this place because I hate crowds. :)

Stairs

2006-04-16T11:36:00.000-03:00

Câmara Municipal de São Paulo.

Happy Post

2006-04-15T16:22:00.000-03:00

View from the Banespa Building

2006-04-14T17:15:00.000-03:00

Marcos has posted a picture of the Banespa Building and has mentioned the view we get once up there. Here it is.

Sky and tree

2006-04-13T18:40:00.000-03:00

Okay, back to the bad pictures. This picture was taken when I was coming home last fall from a trip to our family's farm. Last fall had just the perfect weather. It was not too cold (well, yeah, as cold as it gets here in São Paulo, Brazil) and we had the most amazing sunny days. It's not a great picture - none of my pictures are-, but there's something about it I like. I guess it's because of the tree against the blue sky. Again, it's a shot of Avenida 23 de maio, with not so many cars, which only happens now and then.

Capoeira

2006-04-12T11:37:00.000-03:00

Still on Avenida Paulista.

Capoeira is the mixture of martial art, dance, fight, popular music/culture, and a game/play. It's been created by African slaves brought to Brazil and their descendents. It's all about quick, complicated moves, frequently close to the floor and made upside-down, almost like acrobacies. It's not like any other fight because you kind of dance to music.

View from my window

2006-04-11T16:52:00.000-03:00

Well, I didn't introduce myself: I'm Beth, the photographer wannabe of this blog.

Ione said in the first post Marcos and I are in charge of taking nice and artistic photos. What a responsibility! ;-)

I actually like to take photos from my window - the view made me choose this apartment to live, I love this sky. I'll try to take better pics, I promise not to only on my sky. ;)

Avenida Paulista

2006-04-10T11:13:00.000-03:00

With no rain. :)

Rainy Saturday on Avenida Paulista

2006-04-09T10:43:00.000-03:00

Ione, i think we were in the same place, at the same time. ;)

and this one kind of shows Avenida Paulista

2006-04-08T18:28:00.000-03:00

I'm sure Beth and Marcos have better shots of Avenida Paulista, the financial center of São Paulo and one of our main streets. This, again, is an attempt to encourage them to post their good pictures. This is a threat. Post your pictures or get mine.

As you can see, it was a bit traffic-ey because of the rain. Even though I took this on a Saturday afternoon some time ago.