Brazilian. . . what?

Today is (or was?) the [Brazilian Day]. It's a festival on the 46th street, known as Little Brazil Street, with famous Brazilian bands, festival and, obviously, Brazilian people. Did I go? Hum, no.

I wasn't a big fan... ok, rephrasing that, I was not a fan of Brazilian festivals while in Brazil. I know, I know, what about [Brazilian Carnival] and all those parties? Well, usually I would travel far from all that. I can't say that I didn't want to go and see the [parades from Rio de Janeiro], but in good and appropriate conditions it costs a little fortune. I wasn't a type of person that would enjoy the famous [Carnival in Salvador], a huge party where people dance for days on the streets following a huge surrounding sound truck, jumping and singing. Come on, it's summer, that means sweat all over, disgusting drunk people, no decent bathrooms and also sometimes no respect for some parts of your body (and I don't mean only feet, ok?). Oh, plus another tiny fortune. So there was one last option and it was going to the countryside for smaller carnival parades. There are really nice and famous places in Minas Gerais, such as [Ouro Preto], but I don't know... It's just not my type. Maybe I should have gone once in my life, but know it's too late, I'm too old for that (or too married too).

It's not that I don't like Brazilian music at all, but I have a different taste. I enjoy listening to [Ivete Sangalo], [Skank] and [Paralamas], and probably would enjoy a lot their concerts, I listen to some Brazilian music called [mpb], but I listen to it just as I listen to Enya, you know? I like it, but I don't love it. I went to some concerts in Brazil, they were [Linkin Park], [Oasis], but not a single Brazilian band concert.

So I knew today there would be [Jorge Ben Jor], Banda Eva and [Lulu Santos]. I've listen to them all, I have it in my iTunes library, but it just didn't get me to walk some blocks and fight with 1,5 million people (that is what they were expecting) to barely listen to them. You also have to remember that on my 1.6m (5'4") I can't see much during a street concert, right?

And I have to say the truth: I only remembered about it because my Canadian-Argentinian friend called me to say she was there (sorry, I got your message almost 6pm). After that, when I was reading the news from [UOL], a Brazilian news website and found an [article] about it I decided it was such a big event that I should write too. When it comes to Brazil, people, food and beaches are amazing. Music... I'm not an expert.

My (our) personal trainer experience

Felipe and I signed up for a gym. I'm not sure if he's worried about being a super stressed lawyer and wants to reduce this by exercising or if it was the love for his wife and the idea of spending time together. I want to believe in the second option. So the gym is not one of those fancy ones you imagine in nyc, but it's nice and across the street from home. They have good equipment and also a 25 yard pool so Felipe can exercise doing what he likes best. Signing up for one year gave us one personal session each and we went there this morning.

It is super nice to have someone watching you, counting - I'm so bad at counting while exercising, I am not able to remember where I was - and thinking what you should do next, grabbing the right equipment, right weight etc. It is worth every single penny, but it's just a huge amount of pennies we can't afford at the moment, but I never thought it would be so practical and motivating. If you hate exercising + you have some spare money, it's really something you should consider.

After that we went to a salad place called [Chop't]. Some days ago one of my friends asked me if we have found good restaurants. It's hard to say which one is not good. When we go for a walk around our neighborhood there is always an interesting corner, a different and exotic place that I want to try. Unfortunately I don't have enough meals per day to do so, but I think that it is one of the best things about New York. Felipe asked me today about where we would have lunch and my reply was "don't know, let's walk" and that's when we found this salad place.

First time you go there you will get lost with all the options they offer. It's basically "do whatever you want to do with your salad, add what you like, we'll mix it, chop it and add your favorite dressing". There is also a really good lemonade and tea (they can be combined or by itself) and you can take it to go, eat there or even ask for a delivery if you can't leave your office for a lunch break. Really? Yes, this might sound really crazy for some people, but it's a reality people from big cities know pretty well.

Chá(i)

* English follows *

Eu sempre gostei de chá. Desde que me conheço por gente via a minha família toda tomando ban-cha em casa. Eu também gosto muito de ir às casas de chá, as Mestiças, as Noviças, claro que não só pelo chá em si, mas pelo ambiente e pela combinação do chá com todas as comidinhas maravilhosas que eu sinto tanta saudade.

No Japão eu tomava chá todo dia, toda hora. Lá você sentou numa mesa para uma refeição vem um chá. Seja verão, seja inverno, vem sempre o cházinho e ai de você se esvaziá-lo, eles colocam mais. E com um marido que não é tão fã eu sempre acabava tomando pelos dois. Tinham também os chás das vending machines, geladinhos que eu carregava para cima e para baixo nos nossos passeios, a tão famosa cerimônia do chá e até a super barraquinha de chá da feira de Tokyo.

E alguns meses atrás um dos meus vizinhos perguntou se eu queria chai (lê-se tchai). Eu não sabia direito o que era, nem como fazer, então confiei neles para preparar o mix da [Tazo] (a marca dos chás do Starbucks) para mim. Eu achei super diferente e encantador, ele tem várias especiarias, um mix de chá preto com pimenta preta (!!), gengibre, cardamono, cravo, canela e mel. Geralmente não se toma puro, adiciona-se igualmente uma parte de chai para uma de leite e esquenta no microondas. Eis ai meu problema de hoje, com o mix me esperando na geladeira, mas com as nossas canecas todas no caminhão de mudança. Eu recorri à caneca de abóboras da Farmácia por $1. Hum...


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I'm a tea person since I was born. My family drinks lots of tea, it can be comforting, relaxing, refreshing, warm and sometimes full of energy. There are in Brazil what we call "Tea Houses" and they not only have great and many options of teas, but food and atmosphere are so good.

So you can probably imagine myself in Japan, where tea is served by the time you sit to have a meal, and I got married to a non-tea person, so I would always drink for 2. There were also many types of tea at the vending machines, and I would always carry my tiny bottle while traveling around.

And some months ago our neighbors offered me chai. I didn't know what it was nor how to prepare it, so they made it for me from a Tazo mix. It's such a nice flavor and smell and taste that it's hard to describe. It's black tea combined with spices, such as black pepper, ginger, cardamon, clovers, cinnamon and honey. Really good that today I bought myself a mix to have a warm chai at home. Oh, and that's when I remembered that all our mugs are coming in a truck from California, so I went to the Rite Aid close to our builing and got a $1 halloween mug. Hm...

Walking night

So I know I've said it before, but I always think a city and touristic experiences change depending on people. Not only random people, as obviously NYC during summer time and in February is pretty different, but those traveling around with you. It happened many times to me, as when I was walking around [Metropolitan Museum] with an expert in arts, when I walked in San Francisco around the same places for the fourth time, but with Italian girls and the city changed completely. You are never able to see the same stuff and talk about the same stuff. It might be a tiny store you didn't notice before, a girl and her ice cream that weren't there, anything.


So today I went to Times Square to meet Myrna. She is a friend of mine from Canada, she has been to Brazil once and I even took her to a Brazilian wedding of a close friend of ours. And she was here with some friends visiting the city 10 days after we moved in.


We went to the M&M World (oh, peanut butter, almonds, minis and dark chocolate), Hershey's Store, walked to Rockefeller Center, these really basic touristic spots in the city. But the energy, what we talked about and specially how long it has been since last time I saw her made it really unique. Oh, and the magazine I'm holding has an article she wrote. =)

MoMA & Farmer's Market

Today we decided we should explore the city, considering there is not much to do in our apartment - still nothing from our moving company, nor Ikea and the broken coffee table - and also that Felipe is still a non-working free person. We went to [MoMA], the Museum of Modern Art, there is a subway line that takes us right there, just 2 stations from home, to have lunch in a new and non explored place, as we had already tried twice the [Food Emporium] across the street. We also wanted to go there to become members.

Really? (If you ever read the book called [Shopaholic], I know you might think I wasted my money and did all the calculations about how many times I should go there so it's better to pay for an annual fee. I actually DID all this math, but I didn't waste my money. Hopefully not.)

Yes, yes. I really like that museum, we can come and go with our membership card and also buy discounted tickets for our visitors, there is always a tiny corner not previously explored, there will be Van Gogh and Miró exhibitions, two of our favorite artists, all the paintings and sculptures to admire in this crazy city... and obviously, as it was MY idea to become a member, they also have good food. I think it's amazing how food is always interesting in museums' cafés. It doesn't matter where you go: Legion of Honor, D'Orsay, Masp, Metropolitan, De Young, SFMoMA, they all have good food, sometimes a little bit more expensive then buying a sandwich somewhere else, but today we spent only 3 dollars more than on other days.


Ok, I didn't go there JUST for the food! But it's a museum, and as the concept of it you have to see by yourself. Museums are experiences so hard to share and explain if you are not with the person you are talking to. So let's skip this part.

On our way back, walking as good New Yorkers, we saw something that really got me. There were some fruits. Veggies and paperboard signs. People. Farmers... Market! I really couldn't believe, there is one in the middle of Rockefeller Center during summer 3 days a week. Well, it cannot be compared to California ones, but as a good Brazilian expression would define it quebra o galho. Translating literally would be "it breaks the wood stick", when we want to say that something will never be as good as, but it still helps.


What did I buy? Nothing. Maybe I still miss the smell of fresh fruit, cheap singers, french crepes, beautiful flowers and crazy handcrafters at California Avenue. But I might go there until the end of the month.