Hot and Homeless

I don’t mean to make anyone jealous, but it’s hot here. It has been at least 80 every day so far, and I don’t think the temperature has dropped below 70 at night. Kim has fair skin, so inevitably she got sunburned within a couple days. We didn’t bring any sunscreen for some reason, even though Kim had heard sunscreen was expensive in Brazil. We weren’t prepared for exactly how expensive, however: R$28 (US$14) for a 4-ounce bottle!

Praça da República (Republic Square)

Every weekend there’s a flea market in the Praça da República, so we went to check it out. It was about 90 degrees and humid, so we tried to stick to the shade as much as possible. When we weren’t standing under trees, we wandered around to look at the wares. There was a lot of jewelry, belts, purses, old coins, and novelty t-shirts (which I’m sure would’ve been hilarious if I understood Portuguese). And like any good flea market, there were a few booths selling actual garbage. Best of all, though, there were a bunch of booths selling moderately priced artwork. If you’ve ever been to Art Fair on the Square in Madison, it’s kind of similar to that—except you can actually afford to buy stuff. We bought three small prints which I’m sure will be nice and wrinkled by the time we get home.

Kim’s school, maybe.

I’m pretty sure one of these buildings is Kim’s school. It’s hard to know for sure, though, because just about every building in São Paulo looks the same! Here’s a fun fact: a couple years ago the city banned all outdoor advertising, including billboards, neon signs, and electronic panels.

The apartment hunt has been frustrating. We e-mailed over a dozen people, and we got precisely two responses. In one of them, the guy instructed us to call him (despite the fact that the first sentence of our e-mail said, “We’re e-mailing instead of calling because we can’t speak Portuguese”). In the other response, the guy gave us his height, weight, and several other measurements. Creepy.

Fortunately, one of Kim’s fellow exchange students suggested an agency that he found helpful. We stopped by their office today, but they were closed, so we’re hoping we’ll be able to talk to them tomorrow. If all goes well, they’ll help us find a place to live by the end of the week. In fact, the classmate who told Kim about the agency said there’s an open bedroom in the apartment he’s living in, so it’s possible that we could be roommates. The guy happens to be French, and it occurred to us that we might end up learning more French than Portuguese during our time here. Oh well, c'est la vie.