Day 37-39: São Paulo lasts

Thursday morning, we visited Instituto Tomie Ohtake, a cultural center named after a Japanese-Brazilian artist. The current exhibition was Yayoi Kusama's Obsessão infinita (Infinite Obsession). Kusama is one of Japan's most famous artists. One thing she is famous for is her obsession with polka dots. The exhibit was very interesting. Some of her works were intriguing and I found a lot a bit strange. But she had a nice light series and several beautiful paintings.

Photographs of the artist

Some of the paintings

Another special World Cup exhibit

 On the ground floor there was an interactive gallery with a room full of colored sticker dots where the visitors could contribute to the exhibit.

In the afternoon, Caio had some errands to do at his University so he took me around his college. He is currently studying at the Faculty of Medicine in the University of São Paulo.

The courtyard of the Faculty of Medicine

A very simple building. The colleges/faculties of the university are spread around the city.

Afterwards, we took a walk in Parque Ibirapuera, a huge park in the city, with a lot of jogging lanes, biking lanes, open fields, basketball courts, playgrounds and such. 

There is a part of the park with an auditorium, convention center, and museums designed by (you guessed it)... Niemeyer.

The Ibirapuera Auditorium behind the trees

Very cool design

We went inside Oca, a gallery/exhibition space.

Front entrance

They had several exhibits including (another) special World Cup exhibit on balls, circles, round objects (I forgot the exact name of the exhibit). It was pretty cool.

A depiction of Van Gogh's Starry Night

View of Oca from the side

On Saturday we spent the afternoon watching Brasil's game against Chile. It was such an exciting match. After remaining a draw 0-0 even after extra time, the match went on to penalty shoot outs. It was really fun to watch all the Brasilians' reactions after each penalty kick. In the end, Brasil won and everybody in the room went pretty crazy.

For dinner after the match I went out with Caio and two of his friends, and we ate at a small restaurant serving northeastern Brasilian food (which I forgot to snap a picture of). We had some dried beef and a yummy lamb stew.

On Sunday morning we heard mass at the Mosteiro São Bento (Saint Benedict Monastery). The exterior doesn't look like much but the interior was very beautifully decorated. Unfortunately the altar was being restored so I didn't get to see it. But the walls had some very beautiful paintings and the windows had gorgeous mosaics.

The mass we heard was a special one with the monks singing Gregorian chants. I didn't understand anything, but it was an interesting experience. The monks also run a small bakeshop, and after mass Caio's parents bought some delicacies for us to try. Their bread/cake was really sweet and yummy.

In the afternoon I had lunch with his whole family at a delicious meat restaurant (after catching Netherlands and Mexico's exciting game). And in the evening, we went out to one of his friend's party. That's about it for São Paulo! It was really fun hanging out with Caio again and getting to know the city.