Praia Grande

This weekend was a 4 day weekend, since Corpus Christi is an important religious holiday in Brazil. To take advantage of the long weekend I went to the seaside of São Paulo. Fernando has an apartment at one of the beaches called "Praia Grande" or "Long Beach". I went with Fernando, his mom, Michelle, and one of Fernando's former students named Pedro.

We got there around 7am on Thursday morning to avoid traffic. On the drive to the beach we drove through many mountains but unfortunately it was too foggy to see them. Once we got to the beach though the fog started to dissipate and we could see mountains all around.

Corpus Christi is a big holiday here and to celebrate different schools and churches decorate the streets with colored wood chips. We walked around to look at all the "rugs" and then we went to a military base    where we took a bus going approximately 2mph to the top of a mountain where there was an old fort and a beautiful view of the beaches. We didn't go to the beach that day since it got pretty cloudy again.

The next day we spent the morning and part of the afternoon at the beach. All of the women wore bikinis, no matter what shape they were in. For lunch in the later part of the afternoon we went to the food court at the mall where we ate at a buffet sort of restaurant where you take the food you want and then weigh it and only pay for the food you take. What a genius idea.

We came home Saturday morning and today Michelle and I are going with one of the nuns to a market and then to a famous park here in São Paulo called Ibiraquera Park.

This week will be my last week teaching, and then Michelle and I leave for Rio de Janeiro on Friday. We'll get back Monday night around 9, and then my flight to go home leaves Tuesday morning at 6am. I'll get back home at 2am Wednesday morning, those will be a long 3 days of traveling!