My first glance of Brazil. I would have imagined it greener. But maybe it is and I just don’t see it from the plane.

Today it is stormy and rainy and some plants on the balcony fell down.

I wonder if I will get used to the safety measures everywhere.

4-year-old Lucas does not give up teaching me Portuguese words like piratinha which means little pirate. He seems to be a little exhausted at the end of the day.

Today, I noticed this stone in a car park and it made me laugh. Horst prevents the cars from driving too fast.

This picture shows pretty good the impression I received from São Paulo so far. – So Brazil IS green actually.

I like the living room of my new apartment really much.

My first day at work. The socket seems a little worried, but I am not.

The night starts early in São Paulo. Dusk is approaching around 17:30.

Some flowers are living in this tree. I have never seen something like that before.

There was much rain last night. Because it was so loud that I could’t sleep, I stayed awake and listened carefully.

Today, I planned to go to the opening of Japan House. But the queue was so long that I did something else.

On sunday we went 1x by metro, 3x by uber, 1x by Taxi and 1x by a friend’s car.

Just me snailing by bus on rush hour …

When the weather is nice, I like to go for a walk at lunchtime.

When I came home today, I found this on my desk. It is made of sage and other herbs and smells intensive but good. The rest is a long story.

After work I visited a big bookstore. There were many people around – reading, chatting or having a coffee with friends.

Today I tried to be useful.

My first feijoada. It is a stew of beans with beef and pork that is traditionally served on wednesdays and saturdays here. It looks interesting and tastes delicious.

I had to take a day off for recovering from some stupid virus infection. But with sun and a soft breeze in my room it wasn’t too bad.

I noticed that some people use fresh concrete for communication. You can find it everywhere in the city. I nearly left a trace last week – but by accident.

I like the animals on Brazilian bank notes – especially the turtle. For some reason I’m not able to take a nice photo of it. Maybe it’s too shy.

Mar aberto e livre, não visível, somente o fiorde sinuoso. – I finished my first portuguese book and I am a little proud.

Every evening, I pass this flowershop. It is so white and illuminated that you might see it from the moon. One house further is a second shop that looks exactly the same.

We’re taking a trip to the beach this weekend. During the journey we stopped at a huge supermarket.

Although the weather is not great it feels so good to see the Atlantic.

When you think that you better look out for the three headed monkey …

At some point I must have started eating banana with everything. I just realized that. Find in this picture: salad with scrambled eggs and banana. True story.

Politically, there is much going on at the moment.

In the cultural centre nearby you can watch films for only 2 reais (about 55 cents). Today I saw a French film with Portuguese subtitles: Hiroshima, mon amour.

Tonight I feel like that bamboo scultpure: In pieces but stuck together. Fragile. And transparent. Impressive how you start reflecting yourself in a strange environment. You are everywhere confronted with yourself. I am not sure if I like it. — Oh, and you might have guessed: I finally made it to Japan House.

Under this number you can get some spiritual help from tarot. I am a big fan of the posters. Maybe I should call and tell them, when my Portuguese is better.

When you start to realize how big São Paulo really is.

Ground Control to Major Tom: I went to Parque do Ibirapuera. In future, there will be more posts about it because it is simply amazing. Here I am in Oca Pavilion.

Going by bus is more of a rollercoaster experience: Short way up (with roaring motor) followed by the long way down in high speed and adventurous curves. Hands-up enhances the experience. Unfortunately, whoo-ing is not much appreciated.

I really do.

It’s autumn in Brazil. There is this special light with long shadows. But without cold weather my German november depression seems far away.

Every day when I am waiting for the bus, I watch this guy doing workout in the middle of the street. He often practices something like kickboxing but today he did sit-ups.

For German standards the electrical system here is a little special. Today I walked (again) in an open cable end hanging on the level of my face. Maybe it could be the idea for a great a jump’n’run game?

Tonight, I was at first with bad luck (I queued quite long for a cinema ticket but when there were only five people before me, all tickets were gone) and then I was with good luck (a boy offered me a friend’s ticket). So karma and me enjoyed the film together.

What I love about the city is the graphical play of patterns, colors and shadows.

Today, I woke up with the sun. That was quite clever because it started to rain afterwards and still hasn’t stopped.

A guy is selling second-hand books on the bridge that I cross everyday. The row spans the whole bridge.

New discovery: Brazilians use huge umbrellas (maybe because of the tiny summershoes and tanktops underneath). I prefer my tiny umbrella and my huge German jacket and feel a little bourgeois.

On thursday I saw an amazing concert. Afterwards it was so late and I was so tired from dancing that I couldn’t write a blog entry.

I try to impress my Brazilian friends with a German birthday dinner, which is a little adventurous because everything is different and it is not easy to find the right ingredients. Vamos ver …

Every birthday, I feel like the world is staring at me – asking: how is your life going so far? Today, I just smiled gently and gave it a wink.

Today, I am enjoying a creative afternoon in the studio of a friend, who is a jewellery designer. Brazilian music, sun and some cake feel like the right environment for creative work.

I found these magazines on the bridge. The second-hand guy must have left them there. They are from 1973 and full of strange illustrations and images.

I love every aspect of these two magazines lying next to each other.

On my way to the supermarket I pass this graffiti.

I spend the weekend in Rio. It is so beautiful that it feels a little unreal.

Sorry, it is just me with another epic view of Rio, but I had a marvellous short trip with friends. We even saw a monkey (and fortunately no snakes so far).

One picture per day can be really hard – maybe this is the essence: I managed to do nearly nothing that I’ve planned but had the most wonderful day.

This is the Botanical Garden of Rio. Cristo Redentor is hiding in the trees.

The plane landed yesterday, but I needed a day to arrive. Work helps.

Although it is cold and rainy some trees started to bloom.

I had some nice electronical night with Fronte Violeta.

Yesterday I saw this »thing« in the streets. It is made of peanuts and red peppers. A friend told me that it might be related to Macumba, an African-Brazilian religion that is difficult to google.

The mint tea is always greener on the other side.

I love to go to the market every saturday. I eat a pastel and buy fruits and vegetables for the whole week. For about 15 Euro I got all of this.

The couch potato in me hoped that São Paulo would be too dangerous to go for a run. Today, it gave up and admitted that it is not.

My head is too full or too empty to find a good sentence today. So that’s it: This looks nice and I like banana.

With an estimated pulse of 200, me and my Portuguese went to the hairdresser today.

Sometimes I feel like having a mystical connection to the book-selling guy on the bridge. He tends to leave books there that answer my open questions. Today I found an old one about Brazilian traditions and history – there is even some information about that Macumba thing in it.

Once a week Sonia comes to our place to clean and do the laundry. She even orders my desk. It is definitely the best day to come home.

I love it when the day starts with good news. Greetings to Germany (archive image – the weather is great actually).

A really special person gave me three “travel nuts” before I left Munich. You can tell them if you have sorrows or feel alone. They have been a perfect entourage so far.

I cannot stop taking pictures of São Paulo street art.

A mosquito just bit me four times in my leg – in my own living room, through my trousers and without me even noticing. Well played, little friend. You always meet twice.

Today, I took the wrong bus and went to Santa Cruz. I really liked the metro station there – looked like a place Dr. No might choose as a new headquarter.

I try to post something but my computer prefers celebrating some big brazilian glitch party.

In the afternoon I felt so cold that I tried Tiramisu tea.

My Metro station is called “Paraíso” meaning “Paradise”. Others have names like “Liberdade” (Freedom), “Consolação” (Consolation), “Luz” (Light), “Socorro” (Help) or “Saúde” (Health). It’s nice, isn’t it?

I finally made it to another tourist hot spot and found out that it feels more like an open air photo studio there. To be part of it, I took a selfie, too.

In the afternoon I took a long walk in Ibirapuera Park.

Sometimes I am really tired of not understanding and not being able to articulate myself. In these moments I do things like painting faces on bananas. Normally that helps.

Gaby and Fábio did some experiments with spray paint.

Some language anarchy is going on in my head this week. I started speaking English, Portuguese, German (and once even French) randomly with anyone – most of the time without noticing.

Every evening I find this feather somewhere in our living room and put it on the table. But it never stays there – the day after I find it somewhere else.

I realized that it is much easier for me to focus here. In the last weeks I read a lot about Brazilian design and architecture for example.

I want to do more sports. So I went to a sports club, which is quite in front of our apartment, and asked about courses.

I found some time for drawing this weekend.

You know that it is winter when the flowers start to fall.

Today is too cold, too windy and too monochrome.

When I came home, magical light, japanese curry and Enya waited for me.

Despite little setbacks like mixing up sobretudo (=coat) with sobremesa (=dessert) the language confusion seems to get better.

I enjoyed some nightlife downtown.

All of this is one tree. It is growing in every possible direction – ignoring how a »normal« tree should look.

Today I made some plans.

New friends moved in for keeping an eye on the apartment.

Gaby bought some Philodendron leaves at the market. You can put them in water – like flowers – and they will last for a month.

Every morning I pass the quote of the day. Today it is Bruce Lee: »It’s not what happens that counts. It’s how you react.«

Yesterday I was invited to my first Sauna birthday party.

Some Brazilians claim the title of the world’s best pizza for São Paulo. I don’t know if that is true, but this one was delicious, actually.

Saturday, I visited an exhibition of Chihiro Yoshikawa, a Japanese artist that lived for two weeks in our apartment. We will miss her.

Wide views on the Sampa are rare. Normally there are too much buildings in the way. Today I had the chance to enjoy this one.

One thing I adore is the anarchy of colours in Brazil. Whereas Germany is more about picking a signal colour and combining it with grey scale, lots of strong colours can interact in Brazil. This image shows a detail of a painting from Wanda Pimentel.

A nice contrast to yesterday: Some tiny japanese paper flowers – made with only a sharpener – that I just saw in the exhibition »Subtle«.

I found this drawn map on our table and it remembered me, how often I did things like that at the beginning. Is that already some nostalgia on day 100?

Today, I visited accidentally the end of the world. I did not know that you can go up there by elevator.

Last weekend, I saw an exhibition of Toulouse Lautrec that really impressed me.

On the weekends I try to spend some time learning more about Brazil.

Nice sunday at home with Moqueca, friends and polka dot socks.

To see so many people living on the streets causes me grief every day. I wanted to adress that topic for a long time – but it is hard to find an appropriate picture. Probably the worst is that I start to get used to it.

Today, I had a business meeting.

They have round pizza boxes here. And the pizza fits exactly in there.

Downtown São Paulo is a rather uneasy place – especially at night. At the same time a majority of creative live happens there. Today, I visited this nice co-working space.

How to fix your bike in the bus – question anyone? Special mention for number 4.

Although the city is huge, it took us only one hour to reach this place in the countryside for celebrating »Goodbye« (or »See-you-soon«?) with Helena.

I stared so long at one of our plants that this flower fell down.

The to-do list is long this week. Just »producing chaos« is already done.

Characteristic for São Paulo’s cityscape are »Pixos«, a radical form of urban communication via lettering. You can see an interesting documentation about it on vimeo.

In many Metro stations you can find artworks: Wall paintings, poems and sometimes even temporary exhibitions.

You know that you have worked too much when you dream about triangles.

Today, a friend arrived.

It took me 4 months to see my first samba.

Mood is good although the weather tries to intervene.

Today, we landed in Belo Horizonte.

In Ouro Preto, we visited some mines and found Walter.

Inhotim is a huge open air museum near Belo Horizonte. The mixture of pavilons filled with artworks, nature and breathtaking views gave us a most wonderful day.

Today, we ate just once.

Rio gave us a warm welcome with the first good weather after a week of rain there.

We supported the Association of Brazilian Bagpipers with some money to give them the possibility to attend the South American Championship of Bagpipes in Santiago de Chile.

The way up was rather adventerous but the view from Sugar Loaf was simply marvellous.

Santa Teresa is a bohemian neighbourhood in central Rio. You can reach it with an old cable car.

During our arrival on Ilha Grande, I realized that this is probably my first time in Brazil without the sound of cars.

Within 2.5h you can hike to the other side of the island and visit the ruins of an old prison.

The day started rainy, so we had the beach for ourselves.

In the morning we travelled with the »Aquaholic« from Ilha Grande to Paraty.

Today, we climbed barefoot through the jungle, took a bath in a natural pool and I ignored a snake.

Before we went to the bus station, we enjoyed a calm sunday morning in Paraty.

Getting back to work was hard.

People keep asking me which part of the travel I liked tho most. I cannot really say – but maybe it was this morning in the hammock with a little bird.

The portions tend to be a little bigger in Brazil.

One of the strangest experiences is that – while my germanness expects the autumn – it is getting warmer here every day.

I am still struggling with finding back to my everyday life. Meanwhile here is a cat picture.

I tried to put myself into some vacuum. I hope it will keep me fresh for the next 31 years.

I really liked this blindfolded drawing performance on saturday night. Later we went to a Karaoke bar.

Although I walk the same way home every day, I keep recognizing new details.

Some things are everywhere in the world the same. Like there will always be the two tallest guys in the room between you and Devendra.

My new project is going by bike. Considering the traffic I haven’t decided if it is more or less healthy than going by bus though.

Because Brazilian winter keeps ignoring its own existence, we enjoy a week of sunshine and over 30 degrees.

First client of the day waited already on my desk this morning.

In quiet moments, like when I was running this morning, I cannot believe that I live in a city with over 12 million people.

One of the best things in São Paulo are the free concerts in Auditório Ibirapuera. The stage opens towards the parc and everyone can sit down, enjoy the warm night and listen. Maybe he won’t even realize that Philip Glass is playing.

During a bike tour on saturday I found some nice new spots downtown.

I am a big fan of my neighbourhood’s shop decoration.

The end boss on my way home is Rua Dr Rafael de Barros. It leads about 800 metres all the way up to Paulista. Due to my standard handycap (rental bike) I need all of my new superpower (sweating behind the ears) to succeed.

Lesson for today: Fresh kurkuma looks like ginger and colors your finger really yellow.

For a new project I started to learn more about Brazilian modernistic architecture.

Even prohibition signs seem to be a little relaxter here.

Looking from the distance, the only big winner seems to be separation today. The question for the future might be, what happens to the space in between.

I think what I miss the most at the moment is some nice grey dark rainy day. Strange German soul …

One of my São Paulo favourites is this strange no smoking sign. You can find it at many public places: buildings, buses, parking lots. The form comes from the logo of São Paulo state’s government.

This is a sculpture made of soapy bubbles.

I refuse to call it rain, let’s say the air is wetter than usual today.

I started to see squares and triangles everywhere this week.

As usual, the saturday started with a visit on the market. Even here the graphical patters keep following me.

My sunday ended with Radiohead and some quiet evening colors.

I think about hijacking this name.

My computer was not only incredible slow today – some cruel glitch kept showing me all the time two loading wheels.

I bought a folder for work to fulfil my secret desire of organising documents.

I fell in love with this play of light at lunchtime.

The week ended with music, flowers and friends.

This place looks like art but is not art.

I have no idea what happened in my camera here, but I like it.

I love old elevator button panels.

SESC Pompéia is a former industrial area that was rebuilt by Brazilian/Italian architect Lina Bo Bardi. Nowadays it is a cultural and sports centre.

I have the flu this week. My head feels not that great.

I was really impressed by this green tea’s grade of greenness.

Riviera bar is a São Paulo classic – with nice drinks and the right amount of 60s vibe.

My favourite Brazilian beer is called »Eisenbahn«. Does that sound strange?

I am finally realizing that summer is coming. Also because we need to get up an hour earlier now.

Another new spot in Avenida Paulista is Instituto Moreira Salles.

The lamp above my desk stays constantly optimistic.

As there is still daylight when I return from work, I keep discovering new views this week.

Speaking of details – I really like the painted tiles everywhere around.

I really enjoy the rainy days here. The water cleans the air and brings a fresh breeze.

I used this saturday to see some things from another point of view.

The eggs we bought at the market were wrapped in a Korean Brazilian newspaper.

I really like this record.

My living room is going through some really relaxed times lately.

Lunch was surprisingly sunny.

I had some nearly German dinner today. Although I was sure that I did not miss the bread, I think I missed the bread.

When the weather is nice I take my breakfast in the hammock.

I am a big fan of restroom poetry. This wall kept me reading for a while.

Every sunday, one of the biggest avenues, Av Paulista, gets closed for cars and some big street festival takes place.

I saw some exhibitions on the weekend.

Input of the day from David, Teresinha, Bob, John, George, Paul and Ringo.

My roommate brought these stones from a special waterfall. He says they give the apartment a good energy.

Today was holiday in Brasil and I made nothing but plans.

I had some nearly private jet experience on friday.

Dia 194 – Brazil still surprises me sometimes. Like with this quiet parc in Rio’s crowdy Zona Norte.

There are a lot of good reasons to spend a spontaneous weekend in Rio but some feel better than others.

»Literatura de Cordel« is typical for Brazil’s north east. The booklets contain various contents – from short stories to comments on current events.

On the flight back, I saw sun, moon and stars all together.

I fell in love with this huge amount of balloons lying alone on the floor.

In front of Brazilian passport authority, a guy helps people to complete the webforms offline: He uses printed blank copies and fills in the information with a typewriter.

A whole world of new ice cream flavours to discover in Brazil – I tried pitanga this time.

I prepared some colour print tests this week.

The big advantage of a sunday morning run in Brazil is that there is always a coco nut waiting at the end of the way.

Most of the buildings have not only a number, but also a name.

Oscar Niemeyer is watching over Avenida Paulista. He seems to enjoy the sun today.

The neighbours have already decorated for christmas.

The visa authority is located in a lonely industrial area at the end of an one hour bus drive.

I do not know who started to paint the sidewalk.

It keeps feeling weird to see winter Christmas decoration, when there is actually summer.

I recently found a favourite brand for toothpicks.

This indoor garden is part of an exhibition in Museu de Arte Moderna.

Caio sorted his crayons for therapeutic reasons and I made a picture of it for aestethic reasons.

The interesting thing about these trees is that not the flowers but the leafs are pink.

Speaking of colored leafs: I also like these really much.

These trees are also fascinating: The trunk is covered with thorns.

A hole appeared in the middle of the street behind my house. I think I saw something moving in there.

Somehow this graffiti wall feels »cosier« than others.

Today was incredibly wet.

This flower is totally ignoring the safety measures.

It is beautiful that every egg has a slightly different color, size and shape.

I have not decided yet if burocracy in Brazil is worse or just different. Let’s say it is burocracy.

This mango is tiny.

Going by bike in São Paulo is different from going by bike in Europe. Bikers have to fight for their rights a lot, but I have the impression that it is slowly improving.

On sundays is sometimes a parrot trainer in the parc.

I might have found the end of the rainbow. Lots of pots here, but where is my gold?

It sometimes irritates me really much to see German »artefacts« in Brazil.

I am not sure about this.

Today’s rain was soft and warm.

I learned that – after four hours of waiting – even famous Brazilian patience comes to an end.

This place used to be a casino. Nowadays there is a design school in the renovated part and the ruins for art installations.

I am really lacking christmas feeling this year.

Because of the bright floodlight Copacabana beach is easy to identify from the air.

Let’s say the bridge leading to Congonhas airport is adventurous.

I am nearly sure that the universe sent me secret messages through this jacket, because I had a bad day.

I try to completely charge the manioc batteries before I travel to Europe.

There is this magical madness in last working days.

I woke up at 6 o’clock and had a coffee on the balcony.

On the way to the airport, I remembered the day when I arrived.

I had such a nice conversation with the belly next to me that I missed the moment when we left Brazil. But it doesn’t make a difference – in two weeks I’ll be back.