Week 2: ESPN, Burlesque and Bull Testicles

My first week of internship at Sulistas has come and gone and in all honesty all went pretty well. They entrusted the office to me a few times, handing me the keys and leaving me there alone while they handle important business or sleep in late. The most eventful thing to have happened at the office this week must have been the camera crew that passed by to interview some of my colleagues about games. The funny thing was the fact that they were an ESPN camera crew. Now normally ESPN covers all kinds of sports but in Brazil apparently video games are considered sports as well. The big light they brought with them made the entire office hot as hell though and we weren't allowed to open windows or put on the AC at the time because it would make too much noise.

ESPN camera crew at the office

On my way to and from work I come across this very busy street where it takes forever to be able to cross. Iko showed me a 'secret' passage that goes underneath the street and for some reason I find this passage to be really cool. The walls are filled with art and in the middle there is a guy selling all kinds of secondhand books. The staircases up and down are covered in newspaper clippings and old images and the book guy always has funky music on his audio system. I really dig walking past here every work day! The passage leads me to a very busy street with lots of tall buildings housing banks and what not. Amongst these tall buildings stands a single little house which apparently is the oldest building on the street. It doesn't fit the aesthetic of the street at all as it looks like a little haunted Adams Family house and nothing like an expensive business building. I find it to be quite eerie. 

The 'secret' passage

The creepy house

Friday is the day I work with MiniBoss (the other indie studio where I'm interning) at their office not too far from my home. Truth be told it is not much of an office as it is more their house. For me this poses somewhat of a problem as they have 3 cats in their home and I am extremely allergic to cats. However this problem is easily fixed by taking in some allergy pills and working from either the hammock on the balcony or down by the pool. As you can imagine either is fine by me.

My office at MiniBoss

The view from my office at MiniBoss

That night I went out with the MiniBoss folks and some of Amora's old time animation friends to eat at a good but cheap Chinese restaurant in Liberdade, a part of São Paulo where most of the Asian/Brazilians live. As a desert we ordered a portion of 'fried milk'. None of us knew what to expect. It turned out to be a type of fried porridge with condensed milk on top. It was quite good but way too sweet. Afterward me and Rafa headed out to a bar/club called Sonique where I met a bunch of his friends. The music was good (indie/alternative) but not really danceable so we just hung around on the couches talking and drinking. At some point a friend of a friend of Rafa's started a little strip show on the dance floor, referred to as a burlesque show here. We didn't stick around for too long after the show and on our way home we took a last little beer at a little neighborhood gathering at a gas station shop. It all looked to be very 'gezellig' but we were too tired and they were too far gone so after the one beer we opted to go to bed.

Folks I was sitting with whose names I have completely forgotten

Rafa showing the burlesque lady what's what

The burlesque lady doing her thing

The next day we woke up late and Rafa took me to eat lunch for free at his Mom's biological restaurant a few minutes walk away. The weather was extremely hot (34 celcius at some point) and I was dying in my jeans which I was still wearing from last night (I slept at Rafa's so didn't have the chance to change). Afterward I headed home, took a shower, changed and baked myself a bit in the sun, chilling in the hammock on the patio. That night my landlord and her neighbors headed out to a 'boteco' which is a kind of Brazilian bar but different? Anyway I went with and there we met all kinds of family members of our neighbors. It was all good fun and I got my ass handed to me in parlor tricks by a little kid with a abundance of toothpick image guessing games. There, for the first time ever, I ate frog legs. And bull testicles. Both were quite nice and the bull testicles especially if you ate it with some peppers and lime juice.

My neighbor and the toothpick champion kid

Chopped and fried bull testicles and some kind of salty seeds

I didn't stay long at the boteco as I was meeting Rafa to go to a club called Vegas located in one of the nightlife streets of São Paulo. First we hung out at another boteco while we waited for Rafa's friends to show up. A couple of liter bottles of beer later they finally came and we were ready to hit the club. Except we didn't. Nobody really felt like going so we just hung out on the busy club street and talked and drank and I actually had a great time. Rafa's friends were all super nice and it was all once again extremely 'gezellig'. I found it funny to see how beer was sold by individuals from the backs of their cars and how this was extremely normal here. At some point I met these 3 folks who shared an interest in music with me and were planning on going to a concert to which I was also planning on going and one of them apparently had a dream to go to Amsterdam because she loved bicycles. When the sun came up we went back home and ate some breakfast at a 'padaria' which is a kind of mix between a bakery and a mini supermarket.

Nightlife on the streets of São Paulo

Too much nightlife for her

Rafa and one of his friends (I'm rubbish with names, it's terrible I know)

Breakfast that morning

The next morning we woke up late (I once again spent the night at Rafa's) and went down a few blocks to get a killer sandwich when it started pouring. This ruined our plans to catch Nahor's open air performance in the park so we opted to stay in and Rafa forced me to play Zelda on the N64 as I had never played any Zelda game before. When I got back to my own home that night I watched The American with the landlords which I found to be quite a beautiful movie.

Waiting for the rain to clear

On a less fun note, my grandfather was admitted to the hospital this week. After a few days they found out it was Dengue, a type of tropical disease transmitted by mosquitoes. Thankfully he has been released already and he is regaining his strength, but it was quite a shocker nonetheless.

That's it for this week. For more check back next week (I've decided to make this blog thing a weekly thing).

Peace and love