I'm Becoming Quite the Sports Buff

So, though I've had some good times here in Sao Paulo, I think last night was my favorite time of all. Even better then the time I went shopping which is hard to beat.

Last night one of the guys on the team took me to a Brazilian Steakhouse called Fogo de Chao. It was absolutely DELICIOUS and quite overwhelming at the same time. For those of you who haven't been to one of these steakhouses before, basically you have this little card that's red on one side and green on the other. If it's green, then the waiters will constantly bring around these giant hunks of meet on spears and offer you slices. They also put little snacks in the middle but I only ate one piece of polenta and one cheese ball (which was also amazing) because really the meat is the best part. Sometimes they bring you stuff so fast that you don't even have time to eat what's already on your plate!
Some of the things I tried included meat from the hump of an ox (which I didn't know oxes had humps), ribs (which I've never had before b/c usually you see pork ribs), and I tried an ox heart which oddly enough has the same consistency as liver...and it's extremely small. I liked all except the heart. I probably could have done without that. They also have locations in Minneapolis, Houston, Chicago, and a new one coming to Indy!! Needless to say, my friends in those cities, you'll know where we'll be going when I come visit-but really, Ben if you're reading this, you're the only one of my friends in one of those cities who I think would actually go.

After eating an abundance of the delicious meats, we still found room for this delicious dessert. It was this papaya cream thing and it tasted heavenly. I don't know if they have that in the U.S. branches of this restaurant because it's apparently very Brazilian but I highly recommend it.

After dinner, we went to a soccer game for the Latin American Cup. It was at the Sao Paulo Futebol Club which is a huge stadium! Don't worry, I took pictures. I also took some videos but really, soccer on video is just as boring as soccer on tv. I prefer to watch it in person. The state of Sao Paulo's team played a team from Columbia and we won! I say "we" because I am officially of a supporter of the Sao Paulo team. I even have a jersey (although, I'm so confused with all this city of Sao Paulo, state of Sao Paulo things that I'm not sure who my jersey actually supports). But it does say my name on the back which I think is pretty sweet. I was very surprised that 90 minutes of soccer actually passed by really quickly and I actually had a lot of fun! The fans are pretty intense here. They have their own cheers and anything and unfortunately the only one I really caught on to was "Sao Paul-o!" The guy behind me was a hard core fan and was yelling things left and right! It was quite amusing. Unfortunately, he was also a spitter and I got sprayed a few times. Ew.


Other stories...

I think my hotel thinks they're pulling one over on me. A lot of times when I order stuff off the menu, they bring me something close to what it says but not quite. For instance, the other day I ordered onion soup and they brought me soup...but it had chicken and vegetables and rice in it. Monday night I ordered this meat thing with rice and mushrooms and it ended up a meat thing with mashed potatoes. I don't know if they think I don't notice or what exactly. And it's not that I'm messing up my order because when you eat at the same restaurant about 15 times you start to memorize what's on the menu. I've actually gotten so good that I actually know what's on the room service menu that's not on the normal menu and vice versa. Mad skills.

It's my last night in Sao Paulo! At 4pm tomorrow I'll be on my way to the airport, God willingly. Keep your fingers crossed that I end up next to a young, attractive, entrepreneur...and not another investment banker from California!