Peas Louise!

I just had the biggest burger known to mankind and it included the usual corn, crisps, tomato etc but I noticed that pea fell out and it was loaded with peasy goodness too- now that is service for you!

I am in my final week in Brazil now and have hit Porto Alegre- after just 115 hours on various buses! I went from rainy Florianopolis to rainy Sao Paulo and onto rainy Curitiba and finally to gloriously sunny Porto Alegre, way down south.

People kept advising me not to go to Sao Paulo, stating that it was just another big city. And so I avoided it at first but the rain in Floripa just seemed like a sign and a quick MSN conversation with Marina, another ex-student, and I was on my way.

And with a population of over 17 million, it could quite rightly be stated that SP is a big city but I have come to the realisation that I really do like cities. I do. I know I am a bit of a hippy and should therefore prefer nature (and nature certainly has its place, let´s face it, the highlights on my trip have oft included it) but I am happy in a city, I understand them more than nature. You don´t often get dragged out on eight hour hikes in the city, you never run out of water and if you get lost you can just jump in a cab. Perfect.

So the first day I arrived in SP, Marina was working so I just left my stuff in the Guarda Volumes in the bus terminal and went out for the day. I retrieved everything in time to meet her at the metro and we went back to her house. She lives just off Avenida Paulista which is pretty central- central to the good stuff and away from the actual centre where I was advised not to even attempt to take a photo for fear of having my camera nicked. Certainly when I was walking around there there did seem to be a lot of people who lived on various benches around the centre.

Mari was my student in the winter of 2006, leading up to my trip to Colombia and I have to say that she is one of the happiest and most adorable people I have ever taught. Despite the shocking winter weather she never lost her enthusiasm for London and life. Wonderful. And for our two nights out she carefully selected people who could speak English to accompany us- bless!

The next day was a holiday for everyone in the city, bar Mari. Of course it was a holiday at her company too but they were told that all the bosses would be there and so..... hum. Fortunately for those of us on holiday, the sun came out the next day- which made all the overly large Santa melting in its heat seem even more surreal to me. And the next day I was off again, this time to Curitiba.

I was going to stay in Curitiba for a couple of days- there are some nice things to do and see around there but I spent the night alone in the hostel and thought better of it. Instead of taking the panoramic railway to a fishing town, I overslept and took my stuff to the Guarda Volumes (yes, my most useful bit of Portuguese vocab to date!) and went off to SHOP! The rain gave me a perfect excuse not to have to go on the open top sightseeing bus or anything like that.

I was rather pleased with myself when I managed to buy a new top (yes! I am sick to death of everything in my backpack already, not least of all because it all stinks!), new batteries for my reading lamp (by bringing the old ones along and delighting a group of Brazilian shop assistants with my feigned shock at the price) and new contact lenses! Yes indeed an achievement. This was done by photographing the packaging of an old lens and just going into an opticians and asking if they had the same. I was relieved to find that not only can you buy contacts without a test or prescription in Brazil, they also have no qualms (?) about selling you one which is the wrong strength- albeit only 0.5 out.

So now I can see, read at night and I don´t stink- today anyway!

My last task in Curitiba was to call the student that I was due to be staying with in Porto Alegre. Easier said than done. Calling interstate is hard here- there seems to be a whole load of secret numbers which only Brazilians know, each passerby giving me a different secret number but alas to no avail. I sent him an email, hoped for the best and got on a bus.

Eleven and a half hours later I got off and he was not to be seen. I went to Brazil´s most expensive internet cafe in the bus terminal to check for messages but nothing. A very helpful man at the tourist information told me that I had too many numbers on the number which I had written down.

Hum again and back to the internet but the number I had written down was the one in the email. By now the guy in the tourist info office was looking at me like I really should have caught on that the boy didnt want to see me by now. But he had called me in London a couple of weeks before so he seemed pretty keen. It was a sunny day and after so long on the bus I decided that I needed to get out- another trip to the Guarda Volumes in the bus terminal later and clutching a map with Jeferson´s street hightlighted on it I emerged to have a look at one of my last destinations in Brazil.

You see, I had arrived at 9.30 on a Sunday morning, not a healthy time to turn up on someone´s doorstep. After all the fussing trying to phone and getting freshened up in the toilets (the room not the actual receptacle), it was still only 10.30. So I thought that walking would be better. And it was.

And I finally got there, managed to communicate my intent to the doorman who phoned upstairs, then guided me into the lift, pressed the button for the 8th floor and told me that I was pretty and finally I was there.

Poor Jeferson, looking as bleary-eyed as you can imagine a poor 23 year old is before lunch on a Sundy, opened the door and welcomed me in.

I think that it is worth saying at this point that I think Jeferson is possibly one of the sweetest guys I have ever met for oh so many reasons. We went to watch a football game last night (Inter vs the team that won) and he lent me a shirt to wear. There was even samba dancing at half time. But óur´team still lost.

And I think that brings you pretty much up to date with everything. I am heading out of the city for a couple of days tomorrow to visit another ex-student then back here for the weekend- my last weekend- I am flying to Buenos Aires on Monday!

Goodness me, how seven weeks flies!