I know that this post is a little out of order. But it sets a really good background for the one that will come after, about my bookstore experiences in São Paulo. And I think it is one of my favorite stories from 2009.
Like I mentioned a few posts back, I have really enjoyed reading this year. Last year, after I finished all the law school applications and all, I started to do something I hadn’t done in a while—read for pleasure. I didn’t do much during school because I had lots of reading for classes and all and preferred to do something else with the free time. But last year I enjoyed reading some good books, other than when I was golfing, playing softball, and watching sports. It was probably the best summer ever.
Anyway, haha, this year I made a new year’s resolution to read a non-law school book each month. I thought it would be good to keep me relaxed and to have something to enjoy each day. I read each day on the subway home from school and usually on weekend evenings or maybe right before bed on weeknights. I read a lot more than I excpted. I think I read 10 or so books in the semester, and it really worked—I felt way more relaxed, and also that I was getting a well rounded education. I found lots of cheap books on amazon.com, which was good, or at bookstores in NYC.
There are also these legal research databases that give rewards to law students. Their services cost a ton of money for lawyers, so their plan is to get law students hooked by giving them free stuff for using the services. Knowing this and knowing that I wouldn’t get addicted to using it, I used their stuff and that provided me with some free books.
So I started to accumulate lots of books, and I hadn’t even brought that many with me from Utah. One day last semester, I went to a furniture store just to see if they had any cheap bookshelves. I didn’t find anything. But the next night, as I was walking with a friend on 110th Street, right across from Central Park, I saw this bookshelf-type thing. I thought it was perfect and decided that, if it were still there when I came back, I would take it.
It was still there when I came back, but it was late in the evening and it turned out to be much heavier than I thought. I couldn’t carry it the two or so blocks by myself. I went home, grabbed a roommate, and we carried it up together. I knew it was dirty, but in the dark you cant see how bad it is. When we got it inside, I realized that it was really dirty, and it smelled like urine. It seemed like some homeless dude was living in it or something. I was afraid too that it would infest my room and our apartment with some weird bug or something. I wanted to throw it out.
But I also didn’t want to throw away a little gold mine, so I wanted to keep it at least to think about it. But not inside the apartment. I couldn’t figure out what to do. I thought about leaving it in the hall, but then we thought maybe the security guards wouldn’t like that. Then literally after at least five minutes of thinking, my roommate said—why don’t we put it on the balcony? I had totally forgot about the balcony, the best option to allow me to keep the shelf for a little, not let it smell up or infest the place, and then think about it.
Also, it turned out to not be a bookshelf. It was just on its side, so it looked like a bookshelf. But it was a closet-type thing. It had cubby holes on the bottom and top and then a longer section in the middle with hooks for hanging stuff up. But on its side, it becomes a mean bookshelf, trust me.
I decided to clean it off and give it a shot. I got my friend Dave, who had just joined the church, to get some Chinese food with me and then clean it off. It had this weird wood thing on the back, that had these small holes in it. Those in my family know what this is, because I think the same exact company made that toy cabinet thing that is still in my mom’s basement. Anyway, before Dave got there, I took that thing off. With that thing, the smell came off. That was a relief. Then I took out all the staples that had kept that backing on. Then I took off the hooks and all other sharp things. When Dave arrived, we cleaned it with a pinesol-type liquid and normal cleaning spray. It looked like a million dollars.
We put it into my room. It fit like a glove. I put my books and some other things on there, and keeping it turned out to be a great decision. It didn’t smell anymore, it was clean, it was functional. After that, it seemed like I would look for free books not only to read but to put on my bookshelf, haha.
After that, I bought some really cool cheap things in Chinatown to put on there. And then in the Japanese neighborhood of São Paulo, I bought some other sweet cheap stuff to put on there. As you can tell, I am really proud of my bookshelf, and look forward to seeing it again in about a month.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
First Week in São Paulo
I arrived in São Paulo on Friday morning, which gave me Friday and Saturday to get acclimated to the area. I was living in a great area, Jardins, on the Avenida Rebouças. It is only 6 or so blocks away from the Avenida Paulista, one of the main streets in São Paulo. On the first day, I went up to Paulista to walk around and walked pretty much from one end to the other. It was a cool feeling because I felt like I was in the middle of the action, kind of like being in New York. On Saturday and Sunday, I walked to the Parque Ibirapuera, a big park in an area of the city. It is really pretty and it was a great place to sit and read Les Mis (an amazing book!). My first few days were focused just on Paulista, Jardins, and Ibirapuera. The downtown area can be pretty shady, and especially at this time of year when it gets dark early down here. So I didn't get there yet, but I made it later.
I only had about a ten or fifteen minute walk to the chapel for church, which was very nice. Church was good, lots of members, lots of people from different places, etc.
On Monday I started working. I wanted to get a subway/bus pass before I went to work because it saves money. If you have a card, you can get on a bus and then make a few transfers for free within 3 hours. If you do not have the card, you have to pay each time you get on the bus. So I walked up to the Consolação subway station, got some pães de quiejo on the way (really really good), but then found out when I arrived that the system was down. I had left really early, so I thought--no big deal, I will just walk toward work and get the card at the next subway station. By the time I arrive, the system will probably be working. I arrived at the next station, and the system was still down. Now I was a little more worried because traffic gets bad, I had never been to work before, etc.
Traffic here is the worst I have ever seen. There are so many people here and so many drive--it causes long delays. Luckily the buses have lanes they can use, but taxis carrying people can also use them, and that means that sometimes it is not really better to drive in those lanes as compared to the others. I think one of the reasons why traffic here is so bad is because the city continues to expand geographically and has no limits on how many roads it can build and how many lanes it can put in each road. This isn't a criticism, it is just an explanation of my own theory. The traffic is not great in New York, but the roads in Manhattan are as wide as they will ever be, unless you tear buildings down. And because it is an island, the city can't go anywhere but up.
Here it's different. The towns that used to be suburbs become part of the city because the city keeps growing and expanding. So they keep building roads. Since the subway system is not as extensive as in New York, for example, people would rather drive than take the bus. And many people don't have to pay to park their car in São Paulo because there seem to be more houses than in New York, where there are mostly apartment buildings. Anyway, people seem to drive if they are able, and even with tons of roads, they get clogged up and it takes forever to get places.
So I was worried about making it. And since I have been living on the slimmest budget possible, I only wanted to pay for one bus ride (the card would have let me take two buses). An American intern from church put it into great perspective a week or two ago. I had gone somewhere the day before at 2:30 or so on the bus. I was coming back home at 5:20 or so, and wanted to make sure I got on a bus as fast as I could so as to not pay again--it was within my 3 hours to make transfers. So one came and I knew it would get me relatively close but I wasn't sure how close. I ended up having to walk 8 or 10 blocks, which for me is relatively close. But it was funny because he said--you'd rather get lost than pay $1.15 for another bus ride? It was pretty funny, and pretty true when you put it in those terms.
Anyway, I took the bus down to a big street where I would have connected with another bus. I got off, and had about 30 minutes to get to the building. I have almost gotten into a lot of trouble in the past when I say to myself: yeah, of course, I can just walk here, take this bus, or do that, and it will all work out great. When I was on my internship in Belgium, my boss paid for me to fly to Scotland. I thought I could just walk out of my apartment and find the bus, but then realized it was like a mile away. I had to sprint in the terminal to catch the plane. Things like that seem to happen periodically. Something to work on. Anyway, this walk was longer than I expected, but I walked into the lobby of the building right at the time I was supposed to be there.
I got checked in, went upstairs, and met the people at the office. I started working with the international trade group right from the start. We had a group meeting that day, which I really enjoyed. I learned a great deal about international trade, and also had a lot of fun doing all of these things in Portuguese. My boss was explaining to me all these concepts of international trade and I wanted to laugh out loud, not believing that I was understanding everything and not really having any problems communicating with the rest of my team. It was great. I got some projects right off the bat and was able to start working.
I was able to go to court that week too. Our firm represented a big international client against a law suit. It was really interesting to see how the process worked. The two sides met with the judge, who decides the case based on what they say in those oral arguments (which only lasted 10 minutes or so) and mostly based on what their written arguments say. It was very interesting. I especially liked the poster of the judge's favorite soccer team on the wall of his chambers. The courthouse is in the downtown area, which was nice because then I could go back on Saturday and be more or less familiar with the area.
I only had about a ten or fifteen minute walk to the chapel for church, which was very nice. Church was good, lots of members, lots of people from different places, etc.
On Monday I started working. I wanted to get a subway/bus pass before I went to work because it saves money. If you have a card, you can get on a bus and then make a few transfers for free within 3 hours. If you do not have the card, you have to pay each time you get on the bus. So I walked up to the Consolação subway station, got some pães de quiejo on the way (really really good), but then found out when I arrived that the system was down. I had left really early, so I thought--no big deal, I will just walk toward work and get the card at the next subway station. By the time I arrive, the system will probably be working. I arrived at the next station, and the system was still down. Now I was a little more worried because traffic gets bad, I had never been to work before, etc.
Traffic here is the worst I have ever seen. There are so many people here and so many drive--it causes long delays. Luckily the buses have lanes they can use, but taxis carrying people can also use them, and that means that sometimes it is not really better to drive in those lanes as compared to the others. I think one of the reasons why traffic here is so bad is because the city continues to expand geographically and has no limits on how many roads it can build and how many lanes it can put in each road. This isn't a criticism, it is just an explanation of my own theory. The traffic is not great in New York, but the roads in Manhattan are as wide as they will ever be, unless you tear buildings down. And because it is an island, the city can't go anywhere but up.
Here it's different. The towns that used to be suburbs become part of the city because the city keeps growing and expanding. So they keep building roads. Since the subway system is not as extensive as in New York, for example, people would rather drive than take the bus. And many people don't have to pay to park their car in São Paulo because there seem to be more houses than in New York, where there are mostly apartment buildings. Anyway, people seem to drive if they are able, and even with tons of roads, they get clogged up and it takes forever to get places.
So I was worried about making it. And since I have been living on the slimmest budget possible, I only wanted to pay for one bus ride (the card would have let me take two buses). An American intern from church put it into great perspective a week or two ago. I had gone somewhere the day before at 2:30 or so on the bus. I was coming back home at 5:20 or so, and wanted to make sure I got on a bus as fast as I could so as to not pay again--it was within my 3 hours to make transfers. So one came and I knew it would get me relatively close but I wasn't sure how close. I ended up having to walk 8 or 10 blocks, which for me is relatively close. But it was funny because he said--you'd rather get lost than pay $1.15 for another bus ride? It was pretty funny, and pretty true when you put it in those terms.
Anyway, I took the bus down to a big street where I would have connected with another bus. I got off, and had about 30 minutes to get to the building. I have almost gotten into a lot of trouble in the past when I say to myself: yeah, of course, I can just walk here, take this bus, or do that, and it will all work out great. When I was on my internship in Belgium, my boss paid for me to fly to Scotland. I thought I could just walk out of my apartment and find the bus, but then realized it was like a mile away. I had to sprint in the terminal to catch the plane. Things like that seem to happen periodically. Something to work on. Anyway, this walk was longer than I expected, but I walked into the lobby of the building right at the time I was supposed to be there.
I got checked in, went upstairs, and met the people at the office. I started working with the international trade group right from the start. We had a group meeting that day, which I really enjoyed. I learned a great deal about international trade, and also had a lot of fun doing all of these things in Portuguese. My boss was explaining to me all these concepts of international trade and I wanted to laugh out loud, not believing that I was understanding everything and not really having any problems communicating with the rest of my team. It was great. I got some projects right off the bat and was able to start working.
I was able to go to court that week too. Our firm represented a big international client against a law suit. It was really interesting to see how the process worked. The two sides met with the judge, who decides the case based on what they say in those oral arguments (which only lasted 10 minutes or so) and mostly based on what their written arguments say. It was very interesting. I especially liked the poster of the judge's favorite soccer team on the wall of his chambers. The courthouse is in the downtown area, which was nice because then I could go back on Saturday and be more or less familiar with the area.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
São Paulo
I purchased my bus ticket in Belém on Tuesday and was getting ready to leave for São Paulo on Wednesday. The guys at the terminal told me it would be about a 50 hour trip. I was getting close to finishing Around the World in 80 Days, so I decided to buy another book. I finally found a bookstore. Actually, I had found one, but it was all gospel stuff. I think gospel stuff is good, but only the right gospel stuff, not Joel Osteen's best seller translated into Portuguese, or whatever these bookstores had. So I asked a guy on a park bench and he directed me to a mall nearby with a good bookstore.
I had a hard time deciding what to buy. I couldn't buy a book in English, because they didn't have any. And that was fine, because I like reading in Portuguese. I saw a lot of books that interested me, but I was looking for one in particular: Les Miserables. I found it and bought it. In the edition in Portuguese that I bought, it has two volumes, and I just purchased the first one. I was a little afraid of the grammar and vocabulary because it is quite a bit longer and more complicated than Around the World in 80 Days, but I wanted to read that book. I read the first half about 4 years ago and loved it, but got really bogged down in the middle when Hugo talks about nonsense. That is what I got for trying the unabridged version. This version is unabridged too and in a different language, so I wondered if I would make it through. But I love reading much more than I did then, and I don't have anything else to do in the evenings because I didn't bring my computer, etc. I was also about to get on a bus for 50 hours, so I needed something.
The next day, as I was leaving the hostel, the guy at the front desk asked me where I was going. I told him, and he asked if I was going by plane. I said it was by bus, and he said: that trip is 4 days! That scared me a little because I had made my first night's reservation in the guesthouse for Friday night. But it turned out that he was not well informed.
The bus ride was interesting. The scenery was very pretty. There were lots of shades of green: jungle-type area, meadows, forests, etc. There were areas with red dirt, kind of like Southern Utah, and things like that. It was nice. Sometimes it felt like slow going because there were speed bumps all over the roads, which were like the interstate roads. These weren't really wide roads, which was kind of fun.
There were no movies or anything, and I forgot how I don't really like to read in moving vehicles. The boat was fine, but not the bus for some reason. It was ok. I finished Around the World in 80 Days and read a lot of Les Mis, but I could have read a lot more. It was really nice though to just sit and think as I looked out the window.
One of the most annoying things about the bus was the cockroaches. I never imagined that there would be cockroaches on a bus, but there were on this one! They weren't big, but they were annoying. I didn't see hundreds or anything, but here and there. I kept imagining them on my leg whenever I felt something, and maybe it was because once there really was one on there. It was so annoying. I have never seen a cockroach in a moving vehicle.
We finally arrived in São Paulo. It didn't seem that long, and it never got too boring. We arrived in the morning on Friday, which was a relief because sometimes it seemed like it would be 4 days. I got a taxi at the terminal and headed to the guesthouse where I would be for a few weeks. It turned out to be a nice place and I was happy to be getting ready to start my internship.
I had a hard time deciding what to buy. I couldn't buy a book in English, because they didn't have any. And that was fine, because I like reading in Portuguese. I saw a lot of books that interested me, but I was looking for one in particular: Les Miserables. I found it and bought it. In the edition in Portuguese that I bought, it has two volumes, and I just purchased the first one. I was a little afraid of the grammar and vocabulary because it is quite a bit longer and more complicated than Around the World in 80 Days, but I wanted to read that book. I read the first half about 4 years ago and loved it, but got really bogged down in the middle when Hugo talks about nonsense. That is what I got for trying the unabridged version. This version is unabridged too and in a different language, so I wondered if I would make it through. But I love reading much more than I did then, and I don't have anything else to do in the evenings because I didn't bring my computer, etc. I was also about to get on a bus for 50 hours, so I needed something.
The next day, as I was leaving the hostel, the guy at the front desk asked me where I was going. I told him, and he asked if I was going by plane. I said it was by bus, and he said: that trip is 4 days! That scared me a little because I had made my first night's reservation in the guesthouse for Friday night. But it turned out that he was not well informed.
The bus ride was interesting. The scenery was very pretty. There were lots of shades of green: jungle-type area, meadows, forests, etc. There were areas with red dirt, kind of like Southern Utah, and things like that. It was nice. Sometimes it felt like slow going because there were speed bumps all over the roads, which were like the interstate roads. These weren't really wide roads, which was kind of fun.
There were no movies or anything, and I forgot how I don't really like to read in moving vehicles. The boat was fine, but not the bus for some reason. It was ok. I finished Around the World in 80 Days and read a lot of Les Mis, but I could have read a lot more. It was really nice though to just sit and think as I looked out the window.
One of the most annoying things about the bus was the cockroaches. I never imagined that there would be cockroaches on a bus, but there were on this one! They weren't big, but they were annoying. I didn't see hundreds or anything, but here and there. I kept imagining them on my leg whenever I felt something, and maybe it was because once there really was one on there. It was so annoying. I have never seen a cockroach in a moving vehicle.
We finally arrived in São Paulo. It didn't seem that long, and it never got too boring. We arrived in the morning on Friday, which was a relief because sometimes it seemed like it would be 4 days. I got a taxi at the terminal and headed to the guesthouse where I would be for a few weeks. It turned out to be a nice place and I was happy to be getting ready to start my internship.
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