Tuesday, May 22

Today was one of my favorite days so far. After a lecture in the morning, we headed to Ibirapuerra Park. This park was created in honor of the city of Sao Paulo's 400th anniversary. It has trees, walking paths, but is also home to many cultural institutions. It has an Afro-Brazilian museum, the Museum of Contemporary art, and a giant auditorium designed by famous Brazilian architect Oscar Niemayer. A group of us first went to the Afro-Brazilian museum, which is dedicated to the culture and history of Africans first brought to Brazil as slaves. This massive museum had 3 sprawling floors filled with artwork, artifacts, and photographs. We could have spent the whole day there, but given that all the information was in Portuguese, we looked at the coolest exhibits and then went outside to enjoy the beautiful day.

Yeah, I was pretty confused too

We wandered outside into the park, where we met the other group in front of the auditorium. The giant white building imposed upon wide fields, and I could imagine sitting in a crowd here on sunny evening, listening to a concert.

We played frisbee, kicked a soccer ball, then climbed around in a massive tree. Around 4 PM, 3 other guys and I went to go rent bikes and ride around the park for an hour. For $2 USD, we got bikes for an hour, and cruised around the circuit that rings the park. There were plenty of people biking, walking, running, and rollerblading and it was interesting to see all the different ways people were enjoying the park.

3 Words: Pedal. Power. Gang.

It was super fun to ride around, and although the bikes could have used a little love, I was happy to be back on two wheels after being away from mine. The park had excellent cycle tracks that helped to keep bikes from pedestrians, and for the most part every was happy as can be. I even got to pet a cute little bull dog!

Look at that wrinkly boi

On our way out of the park, we walked across a footbridge over about 15 lanes of highway right at rush hour- it was crazy. To see all of the cars, trucks, and motorcycles all heading their separate ways. We all thought we were going to the bus and then home, but Renato, our tour guide, led us into a building, where we checked our bags, then crowded into an elevator. He told us we were going to the roof. We stepped out of the elevator, and looked right to see the sun lighting up the sky a rosy, orange hue. The city was light up and we had the perfect view. Everyone giddily walked out to the deck that was already filled with people taking it all in and snapping photos.

It was incredibly beautiful, and I felt so lucky to be able to witness that. In the evening, we networked with Northeastern alumni, then headed to the same jazz club as last week. It looked like most of the band changed, except for one guy- a valve trombone player who looked like Danny Devito. This time, I paid more attention to him. He was crazy good- super enthusiastic, and I think clearly the best musician onstage. Enjoy the video of him linked below.