Why is There a Salad on my Pizza? (Day 4 in Brasil)

As always we start the day at the padaria down the street (the real way to spell bakery in Portuguese!) Nancy was more daring today and had cheese bread; the cook added a piece of french toast (very cinnamony) and some fried cheese strips. And of course a glass of fresh papaya orange juice.

Rodizio is Portuguese and roughly translates to "many different kinds". In reference to food (such as at the grilled meat restaurant or even a pizza place) it means all-you-can-eat with many choices. When referring to traffic in Sao Paulo, it means that based on the last number of your license plate, you travel is restricted on certain days. So, as Fred's license plate ends in 3 and today is the 3rd day of the week, he cannot drive the car between 7 and 10 am and 5 and 8 pm (rush hour). That means we have some quiet time around the apartment. And then we're off to Campinus, which is north northeast of Sao Paulo (see map at front of today's photos), about one hour away.

The highways are interesting, lots of trucks. No tunnels this time. First stop is outside of Campinus at the Royal Palm Hotel. It's huge and beautiful -- the site of many conferences (we could see lots of people with their name tags). We lunch at the buffet. Wonderful food, beautifully displayed (see the photos).

The next stop is at a special place -- the Bradesco Foundation. This foundation was started by the founder of the Bradesco bank. We are at it's headquarters, where there is also a k to 12 school and the Bradesco Technology Institute. There are forty schools around Brasil, serving around 112,000 students. These schools are totally free for the students, including uniforms, textbooks, laptops, and food. First priority is given to the children of the bank employees but the rest of the spaces are reserved for poor students. We are given a tour of the school.And then we visit the Technology Institute where Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, several other software companies, and Lego have all joined forces to supply training for students, teachers, and industry.

Then it's back on the highway and we finally find Unicamp, the university at Campinus. Mike is visiting with a professor of geology he met last summer. They ran a teacher training workshop in southern Brasil (at Iguassu Falls) last August. This is his friend's chance to show us their facilities at the university. And then we are invited back to his house where we get to meet their 6 dogs and some of their 14 cats. His wife works with a cat and dog rescue organization.

Fred, Mike, and Nancy join our friend, his wife, her mother, and his son for dinner at a pizza restaurant. There is a huge list of pizzas to choose from and eventually we settle on one large pie that is half four cheeses and half onions and mushrooms and a second large pie that is half pepperoni and half escarole. Needless to say, the pizzas were a bit surprising. There was pepperoni on my slice of pizza, also a huge amount of cheese, no discernible tomato sauce, and some sun-dried tomatoes. And it was completely covered with chopped arugula. You can see it in the photos. It was an interesting dinner -- our friend the geology professor spoke fairly good English, his wife understands some English but doesn't feel comfortable speaking it, the MIL spoke no English, and the 32-year old son (probably moderate Asperger syndrome) spoke some English. I sat across from Fred so I'd have someone to translate for me.

Finally dinner was finished and we were able to leave (around 9:30 pm) and head back to SP. Did I mention that an early dinner here would be around 7 pm, the usual time seems to be 8 pm.

Enjoy day 4 photos.