Day 1: Sao Paulo

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     The good news about flying from the US to the Southern Cone which consists of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile is that the time zone is almost the same: plus or minus a few hours depending on the time of the year. The bad news is that most flights are red eyes i.e. overnight flights. Yesterday, we flew from Chicago to Sao Paulo. We had to stop and change planes in Miami. We caught a flight that left Miami at 8:05 pm (7:05 pm Chicago Time) and landed this morning at 6:40 am (3:40 am Chicago time) at Guarulhos International Airport.
     We were not jet lagged as much as we were simply tired from not having slept very much. I did sleep for about four hours, but it was it was not very restful. The temperature in the plane kept changing. I got cold, woke up, and had to put a jacket on. Thirty to forty minutes later, I woke up in a sweat as it was too hot and had to take the jacket off. The best sleep I had was just before the plane landed. Sadly, I had to wake up. Needless to say, I was groggy and listless.
     I slept in the bus from the airport to the city center which took a good hour and a half. In Sao Paulo, the fifth largest city in the world, the traffic is always heavy and congested. It takes an hour to two hours to go almost anywhere. I was still groggy when we stopped. The good news was that we stopped at a coffee shop and bakery. I ordered a double espresso. It was one of the best cups of coffee and most needed cups of coffee I have ever had.
      The coffee shop was on the ground floor of the Copan building which was designed by the renown Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer (1907 – 2212). It is one of the tallest buildings in Sao Paulo and had an observation deck. As was no charge to go to the observation which fit our travel budget perfectly, we decided to venture up. As it was free, and sometimes you get what you pay for, we ended up wandering around the building, which had a maze of what might loosely be called a lobby. We went from elevator bank to elevator bank asking anyone that looked official how to get to the observation deck. Finally, we were directed to an office where we had to sign in. We were instructed to wait in a small, windowless, and not air-conditioned foyer. It was a like a

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sauna and we were there until the benefits of the recently consumed double espresso were negated. At that time, we instructed to go to a much cooler space by the elevator which would take us to the 35th floor observation deck. It was well worth the wait.
     The rest of the day we did a coach tour of the city where our excellent guide Maisa pointed out various sites and parts of the city where we might want to return and visit in

depth on our three free days.
      We checked into the hotel, the Blue Tree Premium Faria Lima, which is where I stayed a few times I stayed on previous visits to Sao Paulo. I got to take a much needed shower and a two hour nap. I then met up with our two North Park Alums, Felipe Mattar and Deborah Wanderley Dos Santos. Deborah is a violinist in the Sao Paulo and has arranged for us to visit the Symphony Hall tomorrow to meet with the executive director, tour the historical building, and hear a symphony rehearsal. While Felipe could not go to dinner with us, Wes Lindahl, our dean, Leonardo Gilbert, an alum, Lauren Johnson, a graduate student, and myself took Deborah out to dinner to thank her for all she has done.
     

We ended up going to Eataly. I laughed because I always wanted to go the Eataly in Chicago but never did. I had to go to another country in another hemisphere to experience this most excellent restaurant and marketplace. I was just glad that when we went for coffee earlier, we went to a local coffee shop and not Starbucks which seems to be on every other corner in Sao Paulo.