Sometimes life has a way of making you think brokenness is a bad thing. I’ve realized though that being broken is the only way we can change. It’s the pieces of ourselves that we don’t need that get broken off and fall away, just like baby teeth. We panic when it happens, and wonder how we’ll go on without that part of us, until we realize that we’re better off without it and that there’s no room for adult teeth until the baby teeth are gone. We can’t grow bigger until we let go of the things that are keeping us small.

Here, just sharing a bit of my neighborhood, specially to my new Brazilian Xangans who tend to weirdly love the city I live in. Here are some spots of the subway station next to where I live. In the first picture it is possible to see a bus terminal as well. This huge building above… Is where I currently call home.

Parada Inglesa Station

Have a nice week!

After almost a week , the city recovers from the series of violent attacks. Now, what people most hear is about the trials the Govern make to avoid communication between prisoners and criminals who are free. Thanks for everyone´s concern. Though the city lacks natural attractions and is known to be a crowded place, it doesn’t mean it is a place that has to be forgotten when one comes to Brazil. There are some things I would appreciate to share here and hopefully that would be another excuse for me to go out more often.

Nightlife is almost equally varied. In Sao Paulo, you can find nightclubs offering every beat in Brazil, as well as jazz and disco. The two main entertainment districts are Rua 13 de Maio and Jardins, and some of the best-known shows can be seen at Olympia, Palace, and Tom Brasil. (didn’t find online pics…guess I need to go there…)

There are two things Sao Paulo is best known for in Brazil: business and food. Because the city’s sprawling population represents every ethnicity in the country, cuisine in Sao Paulo becomes a matter of choice. There are thousands of restaurants, and if there’s something you crave it’s bound to be there, be it the obscurest of world cuisine or a simple slice of pizza – a local favorite due to Italian heritage.

Some popular foods in the city:

• Tutu a Mineira: Mashed beans served with roasted pork loin, cabbage, and rice.
  
• Pao de Queijo: cheese bread.
  
• Acaraje: Fried shrimp pie. (Some Acaraje fillings)
  
• Virado Paulista: Rice, beans and banana served with meat and/or egg.
  
• Feijoada: A stew of black beans and a variety of meats, served with rice and kale.
  
• Polenta: Baked dough of corn flour with salt.
  
• Churrasco: Excellent quality barbecued meat
  
• Pastel: Fried pies eaten with various fillings like meat, cheese, guava, and condensed milk.

In response to Christopher´s  question and the amount of e-mails I have been getting on the violence here in Sao Paulo.

A series of overnight attacks on Sao Paulo police stations left 30 people dead and 29 injured, in apparent reprisal for the transfer of gangsters to a high-security prison, officials said Saturday.

The onslaught began at 7 am and ended early Saturday after 23 police officers, five assailants and two civilians were killed in 55 attacks on installations and individual police officers, authorities said.

Five assailants were killed in the attacks believed to have been organized by the First Capital Commando, Sao Paulo’s biggest mafia organization, sources said. At least 16 suspects were arrested.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, attending a summit of European and Latin American leaders in Vienna, said he asked Justice Minister Marcio Thomaz Bastos “to do everything necessary not only to end the rebellion in Sao Paulo but, moreover, to avoid additional crimes and deaths.”

The gangs were thought to be angered with the transfer of 765 inmates to higher-security prisons. The attacks were carried out against police barracks, militarized police stations and officers on patrol in Sao Paulo and other cities in Sao Paulo state, including Mogi Mirim, Ribeirao Preto, Osasco, Cubatao and Guaruja.

Meanwhile, inmates in at least 22 prisons staged uprisings and took 150 hostages, authorities said. Later, police took control of some prisons, but 98 hostages remained in 16 jails. Brazil’s prisons are notoriously overcrowded and often rocked by violent unrest.

The 55 attacks hit police, firefighters, police vehicles, patrolmen and prison officers. All police vacations and weekend leaves were canceled in Sao Paulo state.

Today in the capital, people left their work earlier fearing the outburst of violence. It caused many miles of traffic jams throughout the whole city.

On the most popular commerce centers, store doors were close early afternoon.

On Sunday and today several buses were burned in by the gangsters. Fortunately no citizen was hurt.

That lead bus companies to hold their buses in parking lots. More than 2 million people didn’t get to their jobs in the largest city in the country.

As I´m writing here, I am listening to the news. Reporters tell of a meeting with our Ministries and Security chiefs to discuss what to do and also to find out how they let convicts carry cell phones into jail and have the chance to organize such a thing even from within prisons.  The numbers of victims and attacs have unfortunately increased since I last read or heard of it.

Now, the Justice Minister is deciding whether to send the Army on the streets or not. Things have happened too  fast. I hope next time I write a  blog on that, I hope all this situation has come to an end.

What happens when you are able to escape to a place like this? Hmmm.. São Paulo city hasn’t got beaches, but this is just 60 minutes away… Wishing you a happy weekend. I know I will!

Sometimes I feel like I am dancing through life. My steps are practised so that there is no more thought to them and I glide through the air like a ballerina on Citalopram, kind of elegant but a little more bulky. And then I think something like “Wow, I’m dancing, I really am dancing, how wonderful.” Then I trip and fall flat on my face, my dress goes everywhere, my pants show and it becomes obvious I haven’t shaved my legs. How awful. Sometimes human beings are like that, they get all happy and forget that they are pursing happiness and for one second they experience bliss. Then they trip up and spend the rest of the time lamenting that second where they lost their peace of mind (I just wrote an interesting typo there, instead of ‘peace’ wrote ‘piece’. Of course that would be a bit messy leaving pieces of your mind here and there, not to mention a health and safety catastrophe.)

People fall flat on their faces every day. It’s how we react to such setbacks that makes a difference. Some people get up smooth their dresses and go on to dance another set. Others get all flustered, upset, maybe they cry, draw some attention to themselves. Others just mope off into a corner and hide, shrinking away from the limelight, hoping the more they minimise themselves the less attention they will attract, the less likely they will be to fall on their face again. But we all know, in the cold light of day, that hiding in a corner does not help. Sure you can sit out a few sets, that’s no a problem, you must attend to injuries including injured egos. But when you do go out again accept this: the minute you step out into the parquet you’re just as likely to slip and do a most wonderful duck dive, heels screeching out in opposite directions, so why not just have a laugh?


Don’t you want, don’t you yearn to get out on the dance floor? Doesn’t your toe tap to the disco beat? Doesn’t the new mambo inferno dance move make you want to shake that body? I know it does. I know the love of life is stronger in you than anyone ever knows. I know you have this in you. And how do I know, because you’re still reading, despite all my crap, all my silly analogies, you want to know about how someone with panic attacks can still have such a spirit. You want to know because you have this spirit too, and you want to find it, to reach down inside yourself and set that spirit free. Am I right? I can see the tears welling in the back of your eyes. I can see I’m right. And you want it as bad as I do. So let’s take this journey together, and proudly don the new name tags I have made for us “buddies”. We know the truth, we are more courageous than many firefighters combined. So let’s take this journey together, and by the end decide what our new names will be.

Question: Why do I have to write, so that I can listen to myself?

There are many things a heart can say to silence
It can say
I love you anyway
This is its main refrain

There are many things a heart can say to anger
It can say
I love you anyway
Like ice cream on a hot day
Anger drips to the pavement

There are many things a heart can say to despair
It can say
I love you anyway
Despair mumbles off to hold hands with another

There are many things a heart can say to greed
It can say
I love you anyway
Greed grumbles down its lonely path

There are many things a heart can say to sorrow
It can say whatever the loss
That soul still lives in the chambers of my walls
That love, thick and honest
Courses through my veins

Always, always
There will always be love
In the mess of a melaleuca melee
Or the ordered one-two of an English country garden
In the rush of city traffic
Or children’s feet swinging to embrace the air

Love only ever has to say
I am
Its abode
Is breath’s eternal moment

My new mirror. I got it from a friend who is an artist. She was the one who painted the red part of my living room. She’s also the one of the persons that makes my life brighter. By the way, when I shot those… i didnt know how to use my 5x zoom… Learning, learning….

Ok. This was the first time I took my new baby camera out. Some close friends and I went out this weekend. Our neighborhood is full of nice places to hang out or hang around. This pub, for instance, I can see from my windows… It´s the  North Beer and we all found it to be a pleasant place to stay, eat and listen to some good music.

We ordered some grilled  meat morsels hot off the grill with onions… Bread and vinaigrette came too… And yes, those,  topped with some good talk, is just delicious!

For desert, guess what! Chocolate and strawberry pizza with vanilla Ice cram!!  Sooo good!

At the entrance, there is this sort of candle sculpture. When we arrived, it was lit. No need to say this next one was taken when we were leaving…

These next two, is just for you to see how I got hooked on. The Dalai Lama is in Brazil now… Let me see if he wants to see the Golden Child with a camera… Well, that’s mostly what I seem like. I’m happy!