My Last Week In Brazil...July 6-12, 2009

Ah, it's good to be back in São Paulo in the comfy "De Paula" house. I missed my friends here...and I was a bit relieved to be back in the lap of luxury so to speak. Monday was mostly recovery time from my week of madness in Rio and Bahia. Tuesday I laid low - Rose and I went to the mall and did some shopping, ate lunch, then splurged with MacDonald's milkshakes and apple tarts (yes, I've gained PLENTY of weight during this month in Brazil). It was so fun to spend this day with her... just like being with my mom back in CA - I so needed the bonding time. Later in the day I went to the gym, showered, and waited for Nick and Patty to pick me up for dinner.

We went to this pub-esque little restaurant in the uber-chic district "Vila Madelena." It is chock-full of barzinhos (Night clubs) restaurants, cafes and more... extremely bohemian, extremely cool. Being that it was a Tuesday night, there was only one place playing live music and it happened to be the one bar that I had already visited a couple of weeks ago - so we opted for a restaurant with killer meat and sat outside at a table with a pumpkin-size candle.

We ordered a plate of delectable meat and a large baked potato for each of us topped with loads of Velveeta type white Brazilian cheese and other deliciousness. Totally sinfully amazingly scrumptious. I was a bit sad to say goodbye to Patty and Nick. I really grew to love these guys and I'm sincerely hoping that this is the beginning of a life-long friendship between the three of us.

The next day Rose, her business partner Teresa (mentioned in an earlier post), Ana Carolina and her BF Rafael - we all headed down to the Mercado Municipal, which is basically a big wharehouse with the inside serving as home to any type of food or beverage you could imagine. Kind of like what I imagine heaven to be like. We sampled fruits and meats and cheeses and olives and nuts and I tasted what must be the most delicious pineapple in existence and then treated myself to a stick of fresh strawberries dipped in milk chocolate. Um. Yum.


After playing in this mini-paradise for a while we headed out onto the surrounding streets which are basically a madhouse of street vendors and incredibly cheap designer knock of ANYTHING you might want to get your hands on. Since the robbery I was pretty much in need of everything so I bought a Gucci wallet and a Dolce and Gabanna leather purse for the grand total of like $45 bucks. It was pretty great.

The following day a friend of a friend picked me up - his name is Daniel (I like to call him Danielzinho) and he is an absolute DOLL. We headed to a rehearsal that he was having with some musician friends. That is when I met Freddy, Thiago, and Rafael. Freddy is a singer/songwriter - and one of the most gifted guitarists I've come across in a long time, Thiago is a rocker at heart and has this thick Eddie Vedder type voice, and Rafa is a great drummer and due to the fact that he went to an American school growing up - speaks more colloquial English than I do. Seriously, he has no accent, it's unreal how he pops back and forth between the two languages. Anyways - a couple of hours into the rehearsal I really really wanted to sing with these guys...the vibe was just way too good, so upon everyone's support I approached the mic and sang George Benson's "On Broadway." It was a blast and by the end of the four hour rehearsal the band had invited me to sing the following day at a private party for Freddy's father's 60th birthday. The chosen songs: "On Broadway", "Who will save your soul", and a duet on the Beatle's "Blackbird."

After the rehearsal we went out for drinks at this little pub in Vila Madalena - when we arrived we were greeted by a table of some 20 Brazilians who all knew eachother... and me. Ajam. Who am I kidding, IT WAS GREAT! We spent the next couple of hours drinking Bohemia and chatting it up and the night ended with some acoustic jam time back at Freddy's house. It was a good day.


The following night - Friday - Danielzinho and I hit up this Samba club called "Di Quinta." The band was killer and I was "Sambando" my little booty OFF. The highlight was when a group of Brazilians started a spontaneous "Group dance" in the middle of the dance floor - sort of a latinized line dancing. OF COURSE, I joined right in (Bohemia in hand) and rocked out with the group as the rest of the club looked on. Oh, also, seeing how i'm pretty much obsessed with Brazilian music I was singing along to most of the Pop tunes as well as all of the American Pop hits - the cute female DJ LOVED this and she and I were rocking out. We kept making eye contact and mutually recognizing the righteousness of the tunes she was spinning. It was a great exchange.




About 4am my feet were killing me and my eyes were nearly swollen shut from the cigarette smoke, so I pleaded with Daniel to drop his 6th red bull and take me home. We went back to his place and he resigned to sleep on his couch so I could have the bed in his room. It was raining buckets that night and for the next few hours I woke up frequently and just laid there listening to the sound of the rain on the roof and thinking about how lucky I was to be having such a journey.

The next morning Danielzinho and I went for breakfast at this little place right next door to the Brazilian MTV station...I pretended to be an unrecognized superstar. hehe. We had a fantastical breakfast and then headed to Freddy's house to set up sound for the private concert. The afternoon was great - the band was totally well-received and I hit it off with many of Freddy's family members. His dad was super appreciative and all around it was a great event.



After the end of my very last full day in Brazil... I was sad. In all honesty, I was questioning my decision to move to Buenos, since the music/people/atmosphere of Brazil had felt like such a good fit for me. I packed my bags and made a list of things I was thankful for (which always makes me feel better) at the top of my list was this : I'm thankful that I was brave enough to take a leap in the hopes of turning my dreams into reality. And I felt happy, and proud.

Buenos Aires, ¡ Agarrate ! (Hold On) cause here I come.