Hustling in Sao Paulo

The first thing that I want to say about this blog is that I have not written much for it in a while. I was just trying to settle down in Sao Paulo. In the last blog, I said I was going to Rio de Janeiro but I changed my mind because I already had friends here and it was almost December which meant a lot of people weren't hiring until after Carnaval. Since then, I met a girl and went out with her and lived with her for a while but she was crazy so we have now broken up. We were actually going to get married so that I could get residency, but that didn't happen. I am annoyed that I can't just work at any job but I am staying in Brazil. I think that I won't return to the U.S. until we have a single payer healthcare system paid for by the government cutting its military budgets and ending the drug war and all wars that are overseas. A cynic, or perhaps a realist, might say humans will be slaves to super-intelligent cockroaches before that happens.

Living as an illegal immigrant in Sao Paulo has its disadvantages. I can't legally work, rent, open bank accounts, or sign contracts. That doesn't mean that I can't find jobs or places to live, it just means that they rely on handshakes and cash rather than contracts and checks. I should be able to reach my goal of falling off the grid completely in short time as I have already began to get students who pay me in cash and have weekly classes with me. This is in an addition to the work that my pimps give me. I am not really a hooker, I just like to imagine that my bosses are pimps laying down the law and collecting the money. My bosses deal with bill collection and contracts and all the other headaches. I just teach English. I only accept cash when I am working for myself because I don't relish the idea of having debtors and having to hunt the money down each month. I make about 40 Reals an hour which is actually a very good hourly rate at almost $23 an hour. In comparison to the U.S., Sao Paulo is a pretty cheap city to live in so I work an enviably small amount of hours each week. Working just seven hours a week, I make just enough to survive. Fortunately, I have just began to work about 15 hours a week plus a Saturday night bartending gig at an illegal bar on the street where I live. The bartending job is for fun more than money. If I can keep working 15 hours a week, or add to that, I should be able to go from having the problem of not having any fun money to having too much cash to spend. The first thing I will buy is a new computer so I can type the accent marks used in Portuguese (I am using a free internet computer and beggars can't be choosers). I am also thinking about opening my own illegal bar or another cash-only businesses.

Cycling in Sao Paulo is not for the meek, the metropolitan area of Sao Paulo has over twenty million people so, as one might imagine, it is filled with millions of cars, taxis, and busses. Fortunately for me, I have hardened my nerves by riding on the streets of some of the largest cities in the world so I have no problem getting around. When I am in my ciclofaixa or 'bike lane', as I like to call the lane that is formed between gridlocked traffic going in one direction, I always have to look over my shoulders and make sure the motoboys aren't coming up behind me. There are probably millions of motorcycles in Sao Paulo. The difference between the motoboys and the cyclist is that cyclist ignore all transit laws and motorcyclist have to wait at the lights. The police in Sao Paulo don't really care about cyclists running red lights and going the wrong way. I think they are too busy shooting people in the periphery of Sao Paulo for that. Anyway, on my bicycle, I am invisible to both police and thieves, despite my white skin and obvious gringoness. In addition to dealing with all of the traffic, one's willpower to ride a bicycle is challenged by large hills in inconvenient places and a lot of rain. With that said, there are flat spots and downhills all over the city where I am significantly faster than traffic. With my bicycle, I am the most punctual man in Sao Paulo.

There are a lot of things that a poor person can do in Sao Paulo to keep themselves entertained and intellectually stimulated. All of the museums, some of which are world class, are free on Tuesdays. There are always free music shows all around town on the weekends. Sao Paulo's Critical Mass is large, rowdy, and free. It is super cheap and fun to go to the samba schools when they are practicing for Carnaval. One can always go to Avenida Paulista or the Galeria do Rock if you want to people-watch. Sao Paulo is blessed with a lot of semi-legal street vendors selling food, too. I am completely addicted to the noodle stir-fry called yakisoba that a Chinese immigrant makes on the street every day, probably for the last twenty years. A large container costs about $3 and is large enough for two or three people with normal appetites to share. I, on the other hand, find a large container of yakisoba to be quite satisfying, capable of sating any hunger pangs I might have.Once you get to know the terrain, you can figure out who is selling fresh coconut juice or other fruit juices for cheap. I may be poor, but the city is filled with lots of sensual pleasures that don't cost too much to indulge in.

In the short time I have spent in Sao Paulo, I have managed to both live in and hear music in buildings designed by Oscar Niemeyer. When I was living with my ex-girlfriend, we lived in Copan (http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM1BQZ_Oscar_Niemeyer_Edificio_Copan_Sao_Paulo_Brazil) which was named after a Mayan temple in Honduras. It is still the largest apartment building in all of Latin America with 1,160 apartments and 5,000 residents. Located in the central part of Sao Paulo, it is hard to imagine a more convenient location. Just downstairs, I could find bakeries and video stores. I really enjoyed living there. I live in the most bohemian neighborhood in Sao Paulo right now so I really can't complain.

A friend of mine plays for the Sao Paulo Jazz Philharmonic so that is how I got tickets to go see them play in the theater designed by Oscar Niemeyer in Parque Ibirapuera which is the big park in the central area of Sao Paulo. It is an interesting building shaped like a white right triangle that is expanded out three-dimensionally. The entrance is formed by a red curvy plane jutting out from the 45 degree end of the triangle. Standing in the entrance has an arresting visual effect because the bichromatic effect of the red of white exterior continues into the interior of the building with what looks like a large red ribbon interrupting the pristine white walls. As cool as the theater was, I didn't care too much for the music which I can only describe as samba wearing a suit and tie. I just feel that samba is a music meant to be danced and not to be watched passively while wearing a tuxedo.

I am still continuing to discover the secrets of Sao Paulo. Hopefully, I will soon be working just the right amount so as to not be working much at all but to make enough money to have some fun and continue to live outside of the Matrix.