Christmas and New Years (Feliz Natal e Feliz Ano!)

Well as some of you may know, I spent my holidays in Brazil with my wonderful girlfriend.  To answer your next question, yes I have returned to Russia, albeit against the will of many involved in my holiday festivities!  Well, I guess the best place to start is with the flight (Turkish Airlines).  I flew from Kazan to Istanbul (my first time "in" turkey) then from Istanbul to São Paulo.  Needless to say I was quite tired when I arrived, but I arrived at night time in Brazil so it was nice to be sleepy during the correct time for this state of being.  The flights were pleasant enough, fairly smooth, but I find it hard to sleep on planes, so I watched numerous movies during the 13 hour travel time.

Crossing from land to the Atlantic! (mom don't look)

When I arrived in Istanbul I removed my winter jacket and packed it away, and when I arrived in Brazil I removed my sweatshirt and packet it away as well.  It was great to be in warm weather again (really great)!! Fe picked me up at the airport in São Paulo and we went home and had some snacks with her brother and cousin and then i pretty much passed out into a very long and content sleep.  We then went to Tupã, where her family is from, for Christmas.  Tupã is hotter than São Paulo, and sunnier.  It was very beautiful there and Fe's family was extremely nice and warm to me.  And the food, oh the food, finally there was spice and peppers back in my life.  Russians do not like spicy food, conversely I have a great passion for hot peppers and spicy food (thank you mom), so it was great to have delicious food with delicious flavor once again.  One national cuisine of Brazil is Feijoada - a meat stew of pork and beef with beans, rice, farofa, and fried collard greens - and it is very very tasty.  Unfortunately I was too busy shoveling food into my face to take a picture, so I apologize for that.

sunny day, palm trees, and a pool to keep cool!

We also passed the New Year in Tupã with the other side of the family.  During these couple of days I met many many people whose names i have promptly forgotten (sorry Fe), but was again received with open arms and many kisses.  While Christmas without snow or cold was a bit strange for me, I rather enjoyed New Years in the summer.  It reminded me a lot of the 4th of July, drinking and eating all day outside, meeting with family and fireworks at night.  So I'm thinking christmas in Detroit and New Years in Brazil, but logistically this is a nightmare!  The time between Christmas and New Years was spent in São Paulo where did some touristy and not so touristy things.  First I will talk about the food, as usual.  We went to a few delicious restaurants, the first of which was Mori Sushi.  Interestingly, Brazil (more specifically SP) has some of the best sushi in the world.  who knew?  At this particular restaurant there is an 'all you can eat' option...yes, for sushi.  Anything on the menu is fair game, needless to say after the meal we didnt move for some time.  We consumed about 3 or 4 rounds of a table full of plates, if you are a sushi lover this experience is like heaven. 

 Half of rounds 1 and 3

rounds 2 and 4. yummmmm.

We also ate at a mexican restaurant, 'Viva Mexico'.  The food, again, was amazing and after the meal we had a tequila-coffee liquor called 'Tekali' that I highly recommend all of you find and try.  We tried to find it, but could not before I left since it is from Mexico and not distributed widely.  Definitely worth it if you come across it though.  Finally, we ate at an Arab [ok, not arab, i have been corrected, but i had a sandwich that is based off food from middle east] restaurant where I had a delicious kind-of sandwich and an amazing dessert of ice cream, home made chocolate syrup and home made farofa.  I forget the name of the restaurant and of the food i ate, so Fe when you read this if you want to add this information to the comments that would be great :)  Aside from eateries, I also visited a couple museums in São Paulo.  Notably, the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo and the Museu do Futebol ('Soccer Museum').  The Pinacoteca has an eclectic art collection, but is centered around Brazilian art and more specifically modernist Brazilian art.  The Museu do Futebol was actually really cool.  They had a room with many TV screens where they had about 20 or so famous goals from Brazilian Futebol as well as international Football History.  These videos included colorful and often emotional commentary from Brazilian players and sports analysts/journalists.  Also highlighted was the evolution of the ball and the cleat.

It's not a very big museum, but we ended up spending a fair amount of time here.  The museum has a room with panels that display every world cup winner and location, where my lovely girlfriend kindly kept reminding me "oh, where is USA's panel....ahh that's right, you've never won!"  Yes, yes, we know, Brazil has the most World Cups and we are all very happy for you!  We now have a bet going that at some point in our lifetime USA will beat Brazil.  There is a victory cake at stake, however, if I win I believe I will also have to sleep on the couch.  Worth it.

Although it is no 'winter wonderland', there are still plenty of christmas lights to see!  On one of the main avenues in Brazil, Av. Paulista, all of the businesses and big building decorate for the holidays. To see all the pictures, check out my facebook album from this trip, but here are a couple good ones to get you started!

Well, I am a bit tired, so i think this is enough for now.  As you can tell I had a wonderful time in Brazil and I can't wait to return, but I am also happy to be back in Russia and getting energized for another fantastic semester here in Kazan.  I have missed some of my students so it will be nice to annoy them again soon.  We have even had a couple days of sunshine poke through the winter clouds this week, which was quite pleasant.  Until next time, and happy post-holidays to you all! -G.