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Thursday, December 09, 2010

In search of Christmas

Yesterday I got together with a woman from Chicago that I had met at an InterNations gathering a few weeks ago. InterNations is one of the many great ways to meet other expats and they host monthly events that attract hundreds of people.

Our mission? To find us some "Christmas!" Not that its hard to find around here, almost every condo building has a tree, and a lot of them have strung strands of lights from the entrance door to the top penthouses diagonally to create the effect of one large tree of lights. We however, were homesick for that Michigan Avenue in December feeling so we headed to the core. Avenida Paulista is a very important roadway channel in Sao Paulo, featuring lots of financial buildings, shopping and street-side cafes. It even has it's very own wikipedia site (what doesn't these days)?! We took one turn from the MASP (Sao Paulo Museum of Art) and hit Christmas overload. It was like 'Glee' meets Brazil's Got Talent. Variations on common tunes with a little solo jam here and there. Crowds come for their 12:30 and 7pm shows every night for the whole month.

Holidays lights were everywhere and as night descended upon us so did the people. Cafes spilling over with cheery souls, families out for strolls, teenagers making out per usual... everyone was merry! We saw Santa farming, Elves watering sunflowers and Mrs. Claus tending to her flower garden. The large Christmas trees still had lots of fake snow and one of the popular lighting choices are strands hanging in the trees made to look like icicles or snow falling. One scene had the Claus' on the porch with a very happy Bernese Mt. dog by their side. Santa must be a little confused. Anyone that farms next to sunflowers in the snow while icicles fall off the trees with their Bernese Mt dog full of fur would be!  Shame they don't show him with a bikini clad Mrs. Claus on one knee, the first three buttons undone off his nice white shirt and his red velvet jacket slung over his shoulder, black haviana's instead of boots prepping for some time in the southern hemisphere. Regardless Santa was happy, and so were we when we found a nice spot for a bottle of white wine to cool off from our Christmas adventure.

Christmas was found indeed.













3 comments:

Blakely said...

great post. miss you!

Stephanie said...

I wish I could come and see all the christmas! they do a tiny bit here in ipatinga, but nothing like that!

Jim said...

Wow -- nice!

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