São Paulo feels so exotic and yet so familiar. I still find the huge trees everywhere absolutely fascinating but I know my way around, the food is completely different yet I’m craving a few Brazilian classics (pão de queijo, I need you now!), and it just feels normal to be around 12 million people who seem to spend more time outside hanging out together than at home.

I’m so happy to be here.

It’s crazy to think that it took… okay, three flights and two days, but still, to resume both my traveller life and my Brazilian life. From now on, it’s not winter but summer, streets are packed and not weirdly empty, it’s “tudo bom?” not “how are you?” and if I need salt, I have to dig it out of my backpack.

I love it.

São Paulo is the perfect city to start a trip because no matter what you need or what you want, you’ll find it somewhere. Yeah, you may have to walk and look around because it’s a huge city with hundreds of neighbourhoods but I guarantee you “Sampa” won’t disappoint.

We spent the first couple of days reconnecting with Brazil—literally because it involved several visits at Vivo to get our cell phones working again. Then we all got a haircut, and I did some girly stuff I no longer do in Ottawa because it’s way too expensive, like getting my nails done. Surprisingly, Portuguese still makes sense to me and people seem to understand me just fine. It really feels like picking up where I left off.

The city is all decorated for Christmas and stores are packed. It’s gonna be yet another untraditional Christmas for us but I don’t care (and don’t worry about Mark, he got his presents early!). For now, I’m just soaking up the energy and the sun.