My first taste of the traffic in the big city

On Tuesday, I went to a Laundromat all by myself and driving.

I left Paulo at his office (because we only have one car for now) and went on my quest to the laundry place. The only reference I have of big avenues in Sao Paulo is called Santo Amaro Avenue. So, I left in that direction and I was feeling pretty confident that I was in the right way. But I was WRONG. I got the street to the wrong side and when I figured that out I was almost 10 miles out of my way. When I made the u-turn to come back, I was greeted with a huge traffic jam (according to the radio speakers, it was normal at that time of the morning in that avenue). It took me 90 minutes to get to the Laundromat Street and if I had taken the right side of the street it would take me only 15 minutes.

So I thought: Welcome to the big city and so I was baptized.

And for those of you who are wondering, we (Brazilians) are kind of stupid and we don’t use (East, West, North and South) kind of directions, it is only the neighborhoods names. And these names don’t make any sense to me yet. The public transportation here is quite good, if you don’t live in a noble area. They figure if you have money to live in this neighborhood you will have a car, so there are not trains or subways, just a few buses, which is really a shame, because I wouldn’t mind to travel by subway.

I will be traveling to Bahia on Saturday and I do not have internet at my house anymore. So, I won’t be able to access the internet really often. So, I am MIA for a few weeks, don’t worry I will be back no later than October 5^th.

~ Kisses and Hugs~

There is so much....

... going on here and at the same time there is nothing interesting happening.

We finally moved to our new small apartment and we are trying to adjust the living system in 3 pieces apartment and a really small kitchen.

But there is one thing that I really have to tell you. Because the traffic jam in Sao Paulo is huuuuggge, there is this system that if your license plate finishes with 1 and 2, you cannot drive on Mondays from 7:00 to 10:00 am and from 5:00 to 8:00 pm, if it finishes with 3 and 4, you cannot drive on Tuesdays, if it finishes with 5 and 6, you cannot drive on Wednesdays, if it finishes with 7 and 8 you cannot drive on Thursdays and if it finishes with 9 and 0 you cannot drive on Fridays.

And if you do and you get caught you will have a big ticket and they will take 10 points from your driver’s license. If you have 20 points taken from your driver’s license during 2 years, you get you license suspended.

~ kisses and hugs~

Off the hook.

As you all know, ever since we got married we’ve been living far away from everyone. So, we were never in any birthday party, Easter, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. We were always off the hook with family obligations and we were always fine.

We decided to stay away from everyone, because if we went to my family’s party, my in-laws would be jealous and vice-versa.

But now….. The situation is completely different. We are in the same city that my husband’s family. Tomorrow is father’s day in Brazil, so we will endure the first family/celebration lunch. I think it will be really hard for me to re-visit this decision that we made so long ago, but after all life is not as the way we planned.

Let’s see what will happen, especially because my “fake” in-laws are really the nosy type. I promise you a post all about them.

~ Have a nice Sunday~

The house hunt is over.

Last Tuesday we closed the deal at our new house. The house is still under construction and it is scheduled to finish in February 2008. So we rent a really, but I mean really small apartment, in a month to month kind of contract. I will be flying to Bahia by the end of the month to finish our lives there.

The house is not as big as our house in Bahia, but the subdivision is perfect and so is the neighborhood. It is located in a really green area in Sao Paulo and it is just across the street of one of the golf clubs of the town.

Today we are still in the hotel, but we will be moving to the apartment on Monday.

But in all this arrangements, there are two huge disadvantages. The first one is that we will have to live out of a few suitcases for almost 8 months and the second one is that I will have to do the laundry in a Laundromat kind of place. And as weird as it seems, there is almost none Laundromats in Sao Paulo. I am already thinking maybe this lack of laundry places it is a window for a future business ; )

Have a nice Saturday

~ Kisses and Hugs~

Back on track

We arrived safely in Sao Paulo last Wednesday. After a final walk down the Free Shop, the new life started.

I come from a 2 million people town and now I do have to ajust to a 18 million people city. It will be a huge challenge, but I am so ready to take it.

We already started the house hunting. As you know, my husband has a huge dog and we do need a house in a only apartment buildings city. It will be a challenge. We are flerting with 2 houses and do hope we will be able to buy one of them. I will be back soon with my new adventures.

Have a nice weekend.