Tatuape

I arrived at the Guarulhos Airport on Tuesday. I got to know it's an Indian name. A lot of areas in Sao Paulo are named after Indians. There were a lot of Indians before the Portuguese killed them all. Poor thing. There is also a road here called Aryton Senna. Named after the famous F1 driver. (He's also dead).
I'm staying in this area called Tatuape (another dead Indian name...what's with Brazilian and dead names?). And Tatuape is an industrial district. It's just like our Bayan Lepas FTZ. A lot of factories. My hotel is 15 minutes away from the office. There is nothing much to see or eat around my hotel. The sky gets dark by 6pm cause it's now Brazilian winter. Weather is chilly around 10 degrees celcius almost everyday. Kinda like Genting.
The people here are nice. All of them speaks Portuguese, a language that is almost similiar to Klingon in Star Trek. A lot of them thinks I'm local and tries to talk to me in Portuguese. I wonder which part of me looks Brazilian? English is like a language for God. Only privileged people speaks them. The managers in the office speaks English. Order takers in Mcdonald's only understand Portuguese. I tried ordering in English and it was a nightmare. I asked them "how much" and they just smiled at me and stared blankly. Reminds me of the guy in the show "Mind Your Language" that just say Por Favour. At the hotel it was even funnier...I asked them for a kettle to boil water and they asked me what is that. When I described, they told me that I do not have a stove in the room. Apparently, electric kettle is almost a non-existance here. They use fire. Pretty primitive.
Work so far has been ok. My boss is very understanding. He gives me more time to sleep to recover from jet-lag. Actually I sleep a lot since I got here. Usually will feel sleepy by 9pm. I'll nod off in front of the tv. Then I'll just wake up at 4am. Weird timing huh? They have porn showing on tv at that time. Maybe that's why I just wake up automatically? I've got an awesome body clock :-) Then i'll just have to try to force myself to sleep and get up at 730am. Which almost never work.
Have not had a chance to go sight seeing yet. Will probably head downtown over the weekend. No transportation except for taxi and these things can get pretty costly. To and from the hotel is around B$24.00 (which is around RM38.40).
Anyway, things are getting better cause today is Friday. My weekend is booked. There are some nice people who invited me over to their house for BBQ and to watch the Brazilian football match tomorrow. And on Sunday, I'll have a local as a guide to take me around town. (Hooray!)
I tell you, football is big here. Everybody talks about it. I make friends quite easily...I told them I support brazil and they are all embracing me like a brother. Wow, let's just hope I don't go home with a Brazilian name like Sanchez Chng...that'll be funny.
Today is retail therapy day...a.k.a shopping. I just found out that there is a shopping complex near my hotel. So it's not so disheartening after all. But this whole area is still very much 'sien'. Thinking of moving to an area called Paulista Avenue. That is more like the Beverly Hills of Sao Paulo. There they have theatres, cinemas, restaurants, shopping malls, museums and the likes. But the problem would be convincing my boss to let me move there as the hotels can be quite pricey. (I believe the most expensive hotels in Sao Paulo is there with a price tag of 300 pounds a night). Wish me luck.
A very 'cool' thing happened this morning in the hotel. As I was about to go have my breakfast (oh, breakfast is pathetic by the way. I have to look at the same thing everyday. Menu: scrambled eggs, boiled sausages, cereal, 4 types of fruits and juices) there was a commotion. It seems that the hotel staff were trying to break down a hotel door. Apparently, the guest inside couldn't wake up because of drug overdose! Awesome! Let's just hope he survives...
Lunch today was good. My boss took me out for lunch in a restaurant with TV. (Germany was playing Brazil's arch enemy: Argentina). All Brazilians were partying cause Argentina lost. Gosh! This is a clear case of having fun on other people's misery. The lunch was in a buffet restaurant that sells steak. There are people walking around carrying different part of the cow. Asking you if you want a piece. I didn't know there were so many names for the parts of the cow. I'm used to Sirloin but names like hump and rump? Man...it's making me have funny ideas! There are also salmon, prawns etc... pretty cool buffet. Think dim sum...except that it's eat all you can.
I'm getting pretty good at Portuguese. :-) How can you not improve when everyone around you speaks it. Bom Dia is portuguese for good morning. (Try changing my name to Ga bin Chng and saying that word in KLIA...I'll be a blardy terrorist!) My favourite pastime here is talk to the people in Hockkien. The people here sometimes tend to drift into Portuguese even when they start talking to you in English. When they start talking in Portuguese, my favorite thing to do would be to smile, look them in the eyes and ask..."Lu Kong Hamik Lampah?" They'll then smile back and apologize. :-) It's pretty cool. That's what keep me occupied.
I guess that's all from me for now. Still not use to the time change. Will write more when I have the time.
Tcau!