São João in Salvador and São Paulo

Finally, I have a few more minutes on me to sit down and update you all on what I´ve been up to since I left Chicago almost a week ago. It´s been a pretty crazy and full week and now I´m feeling completely beat. I think I´ll go grab a guarana soda after this. I have a capoeira class in just a bit more than an hour amd after that I promised to go listen to my friends' band play some forro. That´s the only kind of music you can hear here now. Like carnival everything else but the parties pretty much stop in the city, but this time instead of axe and samba, its all about Brazilian country music. The kids are dressed in straw hats and checkered shirts or floral dresses and the food is delicious; corn, peanuts and all kinds of sweet cakes.

My friends with the forro band picked me up at the airport here in Salvador- a wonderful surprise - took me to their house and have been taking me around the city for the past three days almost now. It´s been great just hanging out with them, sitting in small neighborhood bars in the evenings and listening to them play their guitars and sing.

Sao Paulo, where I stopped over last weekend was a lot of fun too. My friend Lissu and her friends really showed me a great time. In only four days we went to a Sao Joao party at the University of Sao Paulo, shopped at a fair, went out to a pretty wild gay club and saw Manu Chao perform live in a park for $1.50. And we got to meet Manu Chao in person, which was pretty incredible. Me and my friend Lissu even got to take a photo with him. So as soon as I find an internet cafe that has a computer with a USB port I´ll put it on here along with some other photos.