Bijoux

Today I only had morning Portuguese class so at eleven I went home for lunch ( which included a DELICIOUS Moroccan chicken dish and the most perfect mango my lips have ever touched) and then I decided to take a little outing on my own. The destination was Rua 25 de Marzo, a street famous for being a place where you can buy anything and everything for cheap. Apparently around Christmas it's so packed that cars cant even drive through.
I went in search of a bag smaller than my backpack and bigger than my purse to put my school stuff in. In order to get there I first walk 15 minutes to the subway, transfer lines and it took my straight there. Once at Rua 25 de Marzo,(after a bit of walking to find the exact street) I paced the streets for hours. It was weird, there were hundreds of vendors selling more or less the same things. I can't tell you how many stores with "Bijoux" in the name and millions of rhinestone accessories inside I found. Imagine if every single dollar store in the world was put on one street.

Also, a lot of stores had a minimum purchase rule. So there would be a sign saying that you had to spend a minimum of 50 Reais, for example.
I mean, really? Why would I want 27 dollars worth of lame hair clips and cheap bracelets?

All in all, there was a lot of stuff but nothing that I wanted. It was very difficult to find a classic and practical bag among so many jeweled and patent leather accessories. Also, things were cheaper than at the mall, but not necessarily a good buy. I've found this to be mostly true everywhere here. Today in class we learned about how filthy rich Sao Paulo is. Really. Filthy rich. Somewhere in this city someone is bathing nude in blood diamonds.
That's probably why nothing is a good buy. Because most of the people here don't care about deals.
After I left Rua 25 de Marzo(several hours later) I got on the subway and headed back home. I decided to try a different route from the subway and ended up very lost and having to catch a cab(he actually ended up driving like a block too far up from where I needed to get off, so I had to walk a ways to my house anyway.)
I told my host mom and Sophia that I went to Rua 25 de Marzo and they were all, "You went by yourself?!" Which is interesting considering it's the only place where I wasn't hit on by an old creeper.
I told them that It wasn't crowded or scary. Just tacky. I have quite a bit of homework tonight so I'll be starting that. I'm pretty exhausted from the day. I can't say it was great, but it was definitely worthwhile. Beijos.