A Quick Post

Hey everyone...a quick post as today has been filled with work and studying (no need to write about that!) The morning started off with a trip to the Museo de Arte Sao Paulo. The building is raised about 20 feet off the ground by huge concrete pillars on either side of the building. It is right on Avenida Paulista, so you could actually hear the craziness inside - makes it difficult to lose yourself in the art. The collection, although small, was pretty impressive, with Goya, Velazquez, Manet, Monet, Picasso, etc. The building itself looked like someone had hastily painted a Third Ward loft in Milwaukee and threw some priceless paintings on the wall. The lighting was kinda crummy and the paint on the walls was flaking off. They wouldn't let me take pictures inside, so you'll have to take my word for it.

I had to laugh at one point in the museum...bear with me.....There was a painting of Jesus in the museum that made him look less handsome than normal. It reminded me of a tour my family and I did in Seville, Spain. They expilicitly pointed out a painting of Jesus that they called "The Ugly Jesus." Apparently it was one of the only painting of Jesus ever done which portrayed him as an ugly man. That night, we were out at the bars (Pud, Peg and all), and we saw ugly Jesus at the bar!!! My stomach hurt so bad from laughing! This guy was a spitting image of the painting. Good stuff. Okay - moving on........

I came out of the museum to a crowd of people in the street - I think there had been a motorcycle-car accident. This wasn't surprising given the number of people on the roads and the craziness of the motorcycle drivers.

From the art museum, I headed to the Casa de Rosas, a French-style mansion with "Versaille-inspired gardens," built in 1935 for a famous Pualistano's daughter. I put the garden in quotes because it was all of 20 feet by 20 feet. I'm starting to learn that this tour book is stretching to point out "tourist" sights. Nonetheless, the building was very pretty, and a nice surprise on a street full of ugly skyscrapers.

After those sights, I stumbled my way through ordering an ice cream cone (delicious, by the way, and worth all the effort), and headed home. Throughout some studying and watching more movies, I saw a couple of funny things. First off, it seemed particularly loud today - maybe that was because of the helicopters regularly taking off from the buildings around me. Yes, that was plural, helicopterS. My only guess is that its businessmen who can't bear to sit in traffic - or are afraid to? I don't think its that bad around here! Later, when I went out to watch one of the helicopters, I was briefly confused - is that the Eiffel Tower (sorry for the bad pic) ? I think that means its time to go to bed!

Tomorrow I'm going to try to navigate to Ilhabella, and island off the coast, about 3 hours east of here. If all goes well, I'm going to try to learn to kitesurf...and survive. We'll see how that goes. The moral of the story is that there will be no updates until Friday evening. Until then, take care, and we'll talk soon!

-Kevin