We went to a bunch of museums today and looked at super cool buildings and churches and walked around the city and took a tour of the National Library. But those are boring things to write about, only the pictures are fun, so I'm just going to skip to night time.
We met this guy named Chum Roa at the hostel, a really cool guy who actually saves up every year and goes traveling. We went out to eat pizza with him, which was amazing, and then went to Lapa. Following Chum's lead, we got to Rio Scenarium, a really nice looking Samba club. It had these colorful lights on the outside, was three stories tall, and looked fancy. We went inside, and it was awesome. It wasn't that crowded since it was a Tuesday night, but the band was still good and watching the dancers was just incredible. There was this one couple, a tall guy and a girl in a red dress, and they were just going crazy. Spins and really fast footwork... it left all three of us speechless. We actually all tried dancing with strangers, and even though we weren't good, it was really fun (and there was this one long-haired Asian guy who REALLY sucked so we didn't feel that bad). We left the fancy club and went to a smaller club down the street, and even though it was crowded, small, and not as fancy, it was even better. The live band was so good that it left us talking about it for days, and Chum actually went back two nights in a row. With one singer, one guitar, one ukelele, a tamborine, and two drums, we didn't expect such amazing music to come from them. The dancers here were even crazier, we couldn't even see their feet move sometimes. Here, we didn't dance but we had such a great time watching and listening. We just sat and enjoyed for a really long time. Once the band finished up, we left as well and didn't get back to the hostel until around 1 AM.
Wow, this is the shortest post yet. Looking at all my posts, it makes me sad that readers will never understand how exciting my travels actually are. Especially since I'm not that good at describing them. But really, the samba club was sooo cool. Just imagine the craziest dancers you know, plus the best singer you know and the best musicians you know, add some locals singing along with the band, multiply that by a hundred, and then maybe you can visualize how awesome it was. Traveling is so coooooool.
Rio de Janeiro!
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We woke up Sunday morning and took a bus to Rio de Janeiro. Pretty uneventful day, since we spent 6 hours in a bus. The kids in the bus kept running around and laughing SO LOUD, so we didn´t sleep that well. I wanted to punch them in the faces. When we got to Rio, we were trying to find the Metro to take from the bus station to the hostel, but it was getting dark and we were having some trouble finding it. The bus station is in a really shady area and it smelled like pee everywhere. One guy just randomly started yelling and cussing at us. It was kinda scary. We walked around for a while, and ended up going up to this guy to ask for directions. We talked in a mix of English and Portuguese, and not very effectively. We managed to understand that he was an African spiritualist and he had been "warned" about two lost travelers who would come to him for directions. He got up from his spot where he´d been waiting and led us to the Metro, dropped us off, and then just left. Kinda freaky. We got to our hostel, got the cheapest rooms with triple bunk beds and no warm water, hand-washed some clothes, ate, killed time, and went to sleep.
The next day was a very epic day. On Monday, August 3, 2009, we climbed up Corcovado. Rio is home to the largest statue of Jesus in the world, and Corcovado is the mountain it sits on. Most people take buses or trains to climb it, but Yoontae and I decided to go on foot. Not because we´re active or because we´re cool, but because we´re cheap. Buses and trains are too expensive.
So, we took a public bus (R$2.80 per person, roughly a buck and a half) to the base of the mountain and started walking. 9 kilometers and 2 gallons of sweat later, we were at the top. On the way, we enjoyed great views of the city, spotted a wild monkey, met kids from a favela, and took lots of pictures. On the top of Corcovado, the view was amazing, and the huge Jesus was really cool. There were so many tourists, though, that getting a clear shot of the statue was sometimes a bit tough. We spent a while at the top resting and discussing our plans for the next few hours, and then we got up and walked back down. We got down the mountain in an hour and half and went to Copacabana to find some Brazilian barbecue. By now, we had walked about 20 kilometers and were starving, so we found a churrascaria (where you eat Brazilian barbecue) but left right away after seeing that it was R$58 per person. We found another place though, that was around R$35, and we ate there. We ate SOOOO much beef. We really ate like 10 different parts of a cow. We went all out on this meal and got dessert too, and it came out to be... much more than we would have liked to spend. But it was worth it and we left with our bellies full of high quality beef. We tried to walk around Copacabana, since it´s a really nice beach area, but we felt too full. So, we went inside the extremely luxurious Marriott to take dumps. I finished in a few minutes and came out and waited until Yoontae came out. Apparently he wasn´t getting enough fiber.
We headed back to the hostel, hand washed more clothes (seriously, don´t take your washer, dryer, and detergent for granted), and slept.
Although I didn´t make it sound that great, climbing Corcovado was amazing. Also, it was very strenuous, so be proud of us. Climbing up, we were sort of afraid since people kept warning us about the danger. Going up, we kind of cut through a favela (the slums of Brazil) and at one point this one guy started shouting at us and ran towards us. I got kinda scared (Yoontae probably did too, I´m not a pansy) but we just stood there anyway because we´re stupid. The guy was actually just yelling to tell us that Corcovado was the other way. I felt very ashamed. People in Brazil are seriously so nice, even in the slums, and I still had this hidden prejudice and this fear, probably because everything that my mom and Yoontae´s mom tells us is negative. They tell us horror stories about people getting mugged or pick-pocketed, but we´ve met only amazing people who surprise us with how nice and helpful they are.
Moral of the story: don´t listen to your moms.
The next day was a very epic day. On Monday, August 3, 2009, we climbed up Corcovado. Rio is home to the largest statue of Jesus in the world, and Corcovado is the mountain it sits on. Most people take buses or trains to climb it, but Yoontae and I decided to go on foot. Not because we´re active or because we´re cool, but because we´re cheap. Buses and trains are too expensive.
So, we took a public bus (R$2.80 per person, roughly a buck and a half) to the base of the mountain and started walking. 9 kilometers and 2 gallons of sweat later, we were at the top. On the way, we enjoyed great views of the city, spotted a wild monkey, met kids from a favela, and took lots of pictures. On the top of Corcovado, the view was amazing, and the huge Jesus was really cool. There were so many tourists, though, that getting a clear shot of the statue was sometimes a bit tough. We spent a while at the top resting and discussing our plans for the next few hours, and then we got up and walked back down. We got down the mountain in an hour and half and went to Copacabana to find some Brazilian barbecue. By now, we had walked about 20 kilometers and were starving, so we found a churrascaria (where you eat Brazilian barbecue) but left right away after seeing that it was R$58 per person. We found another place though, that was around R$35, and we ate there. We ate SOOOO much beef. We really ate like 10 different parts of a cow. We went all out on this meal and got dessert too, and it came out to be... much more than we would have liked to spend. But it was worth it and we left with our bellies full of high quality beef. We tried to walk around Copacabana, since it´s a really nice beach area, but we felt too full. So, we went inside the extremely luxurious Marriott to take dumps. I finished in a few minutes and came out and waited until Yoontae came out. Apparently he wasn´t getting enough fiber.
We headed back to the hostel, hand washed more clothes (seriously, don´t take your washer, dryer, and detergent for granted), and slept.
Although I didn´t make it sound that great, climbing Corcovado was amazing. Also, it was very strenuous, so be proud of us. Climbing up, we were sort of afraid since people kept warning us about the danger. Going up, we kind of cut through a favela (the slums of Brazil) and at one point this one guy started shouting at us and ran towards us. I got kinda scared (Yoontae probably did too, I´m not a pansy) but we just stood there anyway because we´re stupid. The guy was actually just yelling to tell us that Corcovado was the other way. I felt very ashamed. People in Brazil are seriously so nice, even in the slums, and I still had this hidden prejudice and this fear, probably because everything that my mom and Yoontae´s mom tells us is negative. They tell us horror stories about people getting mugged or pick-pocketed, but we´ve met only amazing people who surprise us with how nice and helpful they are.
Moral of the story: don´t listen to your moms.
Super Sabbath in Sao Paulo
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Okay, I'm going to skip Friday except to say we went on a 5 mile food run. Each part of the food run has a picture on the Facebook album.
So Saturday, Sabbath, we woke up and walked from our hostel to a Korean Adventist church in Sao Paulo. I don't know how far it was, but it took us a while walking so it was probably a couple kilometers? I'm bad at estimating. Once we got there, we felt really awkward because we couldn't find anyone our age, but we asked an ajuma for help and she sent us upstairs to have worship with the youth. The program was in Portuguese, though, so a girl named Changmi came to sit with us and translate from Portuguese to Korean. We suck at Korean too, but it was still better than Portuguese. Later we found out that Changmi is cousins with Richard and David from Glendale (SO CRAZY! Such a small world). Anyway, we finished up the Sabbath school worship and went downstairs for the main service. It was in Korean, so we only understood bits and pieces of it, but we sat there pretending to understand. Once the service was over, a bunch of ajushis and ajumas came to us questioning us about where we were from, why we were in Brazil, where we were staying, and if we knew anyone at the church. We got asked these four questions about thirty times, and got a little better at answering them in Korean each time. The potluck was pretty good, and after we ate we went upstairs for another youth worship. More people came for this worship, and it was in Portuguese again but a new arrival, Daniel, translated from Portuguese to English for us. He's so good at languages, and he spoke the best English I had heard in Brazil since I had arrived. After worship, they asked us to introduce ourselves and share a little story/testimony, so we told them about our experience at the soccer game and about how amazing it was that God was blessing us so endlessly. They seemed to enjoy the story, and they took time to pray for our travels and for our presence at their church.
This really made me feel so happy, seeing how welcoming these Adventists were. I really hate the whole denominational emphasis that Adventists have sometimes, but seeing the brotherly love that we received, I am now a proud supporter of Adventist networking. This church was the most perfect representation of Christian brotherhood that I have ever seen, and their love for us was so touching. Not only did they make us feel so comfortable and welcome at their church, but they invited us to their meeting with another church and also told us that they were going to take us out at night to show us some more sights in Sao Paulo. They really planned their day around us and gave us so much help.
After the youth worship, they took us to another church right outside of Sao Paulo. It was our first time in a regular car since we started traveling, and it was a crazy experience. If you think driving in LA traffic is bad at all, wait until you see Brazil. Lane changing is so crazy, and I really think normal drivers would die here. No exaggeration. A really nice guy named Eric took us to the other church, where we sat down and listened to the speaker. We also met another girl named Carol, who acted as my personal translator for the night. Yoontae's translator was a really funny girl named Erica from the Korean church, so he got a Korean translation while I got an English one. The speaker was this awesome guy with a bright yellow shirt. His name was Donasote or something like that. He grew up in a violent home where his stepfather beat his brother and his mom, so one day Donasote threatened to kill his stepfather if he didn't leave the house. He left. As he got older, he got into the life of a criminal, robbing people, killing people, and he even said that he blew up an armored money transport truck with dynamite. As the money flew everywhere, he waited for people to pick up the money, then robbed those people later. He was so notorious that even the police were afraid of him, and one time when a cop had a gun pointed at him, Donasote put a grenade in the cop's pocket, saying that he would kill them both of the cop tried to shoot him. Eventually he got caught and was shot six times, declared dead for 16 hours, then came back to life as the mortician was about to cut him open with a scalpel. He went to jail, smoked weed everyday, and dealt drugs in jail until an Adventist pastor came to the prison and spoke to him. After that, Donasote changed his ways and now he goes around preaching. Amazing. I took a picture with him.
After the service, the Korean church that we came with took us to Brooklyn, the nicest area of Sao Paulo. There, they took us to the mall, showed us how nice the area was, and bought us Brazilian food. It was SO amazing. They all ate Subway and Burger King because they were sick of Brazilian food. The group was really fun and they kept us entertained nonstop. When it was time to go, Bruno, the youth leader, took us back to the Metro station. Erica, Yoontae's translator from earlier, was really funny and stayed with us all day and she became our good friend. She eventually stayed with us longer than everyone else when we had to leave because she took the Metro home too, and we said our goodbyes and came back to the hostel.
We started the Saturday not knowing what we would do after church. We expected a simple service that we would leave after potluck, but we got a lot more than that. These people we met were all so amazing and kind, and they made our stay at Sao Paulo so much more memorable. I really want to just take everything about them and bring it back to the States. So many times, we don't really include the visitors or really go the extra mile to make them feel welcome, but this church was just so perfect in everything they did for us. Not only did they help us to enjoy our Sabbath, but they made Sao Paulo better for us. We could have left the city thinking it was great and that we had fun, but now it's so much more. It's an AMAZING city, with so much more than we were able to see, and the people are so genuine and kind. AGHHHH I LOVE BRAZIL.
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