On the first day of our trip we met in Chicago to start our journey to travel to the most populous city in South America: Sao Paulo!  After a 10 hour flight, where one of our flight attendants fell in the aisle (due to an IBIP student's backpack in the way) while serving us breakfast, we finally arrived. After meeting with our travel guides, Felipe, Daniel, and Brenda of Campus Brasil, we took a bus to the hotel. They shared with us that the population in the Sao Paulo (+ surrounding metropolitan area) is 20 million people, which makes it the 7th largest city in the world. 

After arriving at our hotel we took a walk down Avenida Paulista, the busiest street in Sao Paulo, equivalent to Fifth Avenue in New York City. Our walk led us to a little art market near a tropical forested park. After perusing the market, we headed to a grocery store to pick up some items for our picnic in Ibirapuera Park. After lunch, the group split into two.  One group headed to a local pub to watch the big championship soccer game of Sao Paulo state, while others stayed in the park to wander. 

However, this picnic in a beautiful park wasn't yet the highlight of our day.  It was dinner at an-all-you-can-eat Brazilian steakhouse (churrascaria).  This was a new experience for many of us as we were endlessly served varieties of meat of all grades and flavors.  This was complemented by an extensive salad bar and dessert buffet which we also promptly swarmed after dinner.  It was a truly unique experience to try Brazilian cuisine.  Each bite was a glimpse into a new world of food and ideology about the Brazilian culture. 

This was then followed by a trip to a local samba bar.  The entire party was composed of our International Business Immersion Program (IBIP) class and the James Scholars freshman students from the College of Business at the University of Illinois.  We sambaed the night away;  It was truly a joy to experience the culture in this way as many of us took the opportunity to dance and learn from the locals.  Each of us had a fun experience at the bar, and we each are beginning to form many great memories from Brazil.  This first day will last in our memories forever as we begin our adventure learning about different facets of the Brazilian business environment.

Bookmark this link for photos throughout the trip.