First Week in Sao Paulo

Hello everyone,

It has been a fast/long couple of days in the past week. I won't go into detail about the plane ride or other insignificant stuff. To start us off, the STINT (Short Term International students) made us go on a photo scavenger hunt. That was fun because we got to tour the area around us and get to know where we are. We also were able to order some food. It is EXTREMELY hard to order food when you don't speak the local language. Most people do not understand English, so I am forced back to my primitive days and I have to point to an item and then rub my stomach to say I'm hungry (I may over exaggerate some points by the way). When we ordered from Subway (we do eat actual Brazilian food too) the cashiere just laughed at us because she did not understand a lick of what we were saying.

By the way, I will also add in random photos of our journeys through out the blog

So I know basically two phrases in Portuguese: Nah fallah Portuguese and voce fallah ingles? Basically, I don't know Portuguese and Do you speak English? This will help on campus, but most other places do not speak English.

One other thing to think about in Brazil is WATCH OUT FOR THAT CAR!!!! They are crazy down here. Motorcycles especially. They will just be blazing through traffic and if you don't watch out you might get clipped. Cars have the right-of-way always, pedestrians are just targets. The buses are fun though. They go very fast and over a lot of bumps. They should almost make a ride out of it at an amusement park somewhere.

Other than those things it has been great. The people on project are fun. More pictures of them will come, but be patient. Fellowship is great and should be expected because we are all lost. I sleep in a cozy bed with two other roommates. We have a set schedule throughout the week with discipleship, Bible study, evangelism, family fun, and random other events.


Today was our free day. Some of us went to a Christian even called Passion. It was AMAZING. Brazilians worship like nothing I have seen. It also helped to have David Crowder (sp?) and Chris Tomlin there singing worship. It was like TCX except MUCH BETTER. So it was pretty stinking neat. People were crying, jumping up and down, and just praising God with all of their might. This is something that you don't see too much of in the states, which saddens me. I wish we could all just be a little bit more undignified in how we worship the King of Kings. He deserves it.

I also met this awesome freshmen that is now attending USP (universidad de sao paulo). His name is Pedro and is going for mechanical engineering. I hope to see more of him and get to see where the Lord is leading him in the next six weeks.

Next week will be difficult because they are having something called congresso on campus. They are discussing what needs to change on campus, which means that all of the undergrad students will be gone for a week. And it was tough this week because they just got done celebrating Corpus Christi (the ascension of Christ).

As for now I will leave you with this. If you meet a Brazilian, don't say the word "cool." I learned from a Brazilian that it means a part of the body they don't like to talk about.

Well that is all from me for now, I'll keep updating regularly throughout the weeks. If you have any questions, just type them in the comments. Thanks!