Rachel in Brazil – Avenida Paulista

Most of the world assumes that all Americans are what they see in the movies,  but I am from a suburban, southern, capital city that is virtually without any public transportation or urban life. We drive enormous SUV’s everywhere we go. We NEVER walk and we rarely are in large crowds of people. So, you can imagine my shock and amazement as I rode the Green Line in São Paulo for the first time. As I was pushed through the crowd at the Trianon-Masp stop, I flowed out with the stream of commuters and up the escalator until I popped onto Avenida Paulista. There I stopped. I could only look up and up at all the towering buildings. The avenue and the sidewalks bustled with activity. I stood and circled the view. I spun slowly to take it all in. There were buses and taxis and streams of cars and of course the motorcycles zipping in every direction with their boxes of pizzas or deliveries. For a Southern American girl, Paulista Avenue was a new world full of possibilities. I saw well-dressed professionals and undressed beggars sharing the same space. Everyone had some place to go. Then I realized, I had someplace to go too. I was headed to my first day of teaching English at TEG Idiomas. I remembered that this was not a dream but I was a part of this exciting life. I searched for the familiar MASP building so I could head in the right direction and blended into the colorful energy of a working day in São Paulo.