is it the pollution or am i getting allergies? i have a runny nose, my eyes hurt, and my throat is a little sore.

masp

today we walked down avenida paulista to museu de arte de são paulo (masp). the building is famous for its design. the whole museum is elevated so that underneath is free space that is used as a flea market on sundays and well, today is sunday so we got to check that out too. we paid for admission and then took the elevator up to the museum. there are 2 levels in the museum and we wandered around to see each artwork on display and checked out the bookstore. in the modern brasil exhibit, i found the work of cândido portinari to be intriguing as what was on display covered several different styles and they were all well done and notable somehow. twiddle thumbs also liked ernesto de fiori.

we went back down below and looked at the antiques for sale, not so interesting, so we went across the street to the park where there were more souvenir type things. one of things i wanted to get during this trip were braceleted made from string, not beads. i'd really like a brasil bracelet with the colors of the flag, optional to have the word brasil on it. i found one but it was blue with "brasil" on it in white. not exactly the colors of the flag so i passed. instead, i got some t-shirts 'cos i'm a t-shirt fiend.

lunch at lagoa tropical

it was still the time when the restaurants are open for lunch, so we took the metro to santa cruz station to try again for the lagao restaurant for some vegan feijoada. this time we didn't make a wrong turn. when we got there, i was quite hungry and thought i wasn't going to be able to eat for awhile as it looked quite popular with the amount of people waiting outside. they had some bread and juice for those waiting so we snacked on that and after 10-15 minutes, we were inside. we had a buffet lunch R$15 each. the food was mostly vegan except only 2 desserts were vegan. the juice was a choice of with sugar or without. i had some sort of pizza (with hummus on it? not quite sure), saffron pilaf rice thing, gnocchi, meatballs, steak tofu that looked like dog food, fried hearts of palm, beans and rice, and salad.

mam

after eating, we tried to walk to parque do ibirapuera but can't cross freeways. seriously, we ran into some major streets that looked like freeways and it would have taken forever to go around it in the wrong direction so we so took a cab. then we headed toward the museu de arte moderna de são paulo (mam), walking under a covered walkway that seemed to go on forever, passing by all these kids on wheels. whatever kind of wheels exist, they were there. skateboards, roller skates, bicycles, etc. i really wanted to see the obelisk up close, the monument to bandeiras, and the japanese pavilion but the sun would set soon and there just wasn't enough time so we only went to the museum. sundays are free, for which our wallets were grateful. brasil isn't as cheap as i thought it might be and expenses add up quickly, especially when you eat out for every meal and each time you ride a taxi. the museum was having an exhibition on marcel deschamps, which i'm not really a fan of. on the way back to the hostel, we went to a huge grocery store since dani had been complaining he has not seen a huge super market like in america. we bought some things, including hummus and pita bread to see how it tastes over here. (not so good) i had heard there are a lot of lebanese people in the city but so far i haven't seen any trace of them. the only thing we've seen is a chain of fast food restaurant's called habib's which is burgers and crap.