My husband, the rockstar

As alluded to about a month ago, we have a million pictures and stories to share about our two week long adventure in Brazil...this is mostly for us to remember for ourselves, so please feel free to totally ignore this post that will be longer and more boring that most would ever want to delve into! All have been warned...continue as desired!

We arrived in Sao Paulo early Thursday morning after more than 24 hours of travel and were driven through crazy,  more than densely populated parts of one of the largest city on earth, to arrive at the home of the Dissenha family. J had met Fernando, principle trumpet of the Sao Paulo Symphony, a few years back at a festival in Brazil and they have stayed good friends since then. They kindly opened their home to us for the week. Here is a view from the bedroom we stayed in- there are not words to express what a small portion of entire city this shows. We kept joking that in this photo, there are more people living than in the whole of our current home city!

Here we are with our wonderful host, the Dissenha family! Many thanks go to them for welcoming us and being so kind and friendly to mostly strangers. We loved being able to have a taste of what like must really be like as a young family in Sao Paulo.

Our first night there, we accompanied Fernando to a concert in the beautiful Sala Sao Paulo. It is a renovated train depot and was very beautiful. The concert was amazing as well. Later on throughout the trip as we told people where we had been and what we had done, everyone across the country from many different regions were all amazed at the fact that we had been to THE Sala. They also have a very well known, ritzy cafe in the Sala, where we experienced the best puddim (very similar to flan). This is saying alot since I do not like flan in the least!

Friday we went to the first of three masterclasses that J taught. This was at the University of Sao Paulo. The size of this university is also larger than our current city, not only in population, but also in acreage I believe. Gigantic! Here, the professor was Sergio Cascapera, another well known trumpet teacher and player in Brazil.

The students had come from as far as 7 hours by bus to hear the all wise Dr. Bergman! His fame surpasses him! They were all so receptive, not only because he had great things to say and play, but because he spoke in Portuguese, which almost never happens in the case of visiting professors. 

The next day, Saturday, we met up with a former missionary from J's mission to go to the Sao Paulo temple. As we were leaving, another young man, Christian, stopped J to introduce himself. Christian said he recognized said 'rockstar' from a photo that was hanging on the wall of the mission office where he was also a missionary (in the very south of Brazil). We then went to the most amazing buffet I've ever had with these former missionaries and wife. 

On Sunday we got up and went to church, about 1/2 a block from the Dissenha's home. Upon returning, we ate lasagna with the Dissenha's (an important detail as the description of the day goes on.) Upon finishing the meal, Sergio picked us up and took us to his home to meet his wife and eat with them. They were very kind and great hosts as well. 

This is the most traditional Brazilian meal called feijoada. Basically it's black beans, and rice with various types of meat mixed in with the beans. On top you sprinkle toasted bread crumbs. Elisete, Sergio's wife, had also made other sides such as collard greens that were amazing. I'd never tried them before, despite the fact that it's a very traditional southern dish as well. After eating at least one plate each of this, they sent us home with leftovers.

Within 10 minutes of arrive back at the Dissenha's, we met up with Paulo Xavier, one of J's companions from his mission. We decided to go for pizza with Paulo (count that...1, 2, 3 big meals in less than 6 hours! We didn't have the heart to tell any of them that we had just eaten, until the pizza came and I couldn't even take a bite!) Luckily, we wandered the streets for more than a mile trying to find a pizzaria we wanted to eat at. Paulo and J had a great time reminiscing and telling embarrasing stories of one another. I've always gotten the glorified version, so it was fun to hear some of the realities of being companions and a missionary in Brazil.

Monday, J went with Fernando to Cantarera, another large university in the city, where he teaches trumpet. J did another masterclass/recital there for another large group of attentive students. I on the other hand went shopping with Susanna, Fernando's wife. Right before all of that, we went to the Mercado Municipal, a large farmer's market basically...but we are talking very large! 

This was at one of the many exotic fruit vendors in the Mercado. Noticing we were obviously tourists, they continued to cut open different fruits that looked like they were straight out of a Dr. Seuss book. My favorite had the texture of mango but tasted like pina colada! 

Monday after the masterclass with Fernando, we took a bus, (a very popular method of travel) to Piracicaba, a town about 2.5 hours northwest of Sao Paulo, where we connected with Paulo, a director of a music school in that city. He and his girlfriend, and the trumpet teacher and his family took us to the most serene riverside outdoor restaurant. J was so excited to try fresh regional fish and meet the chefs! It was so calm and quiet that upon arrival I was actually pretty spooked thinking it might not be a safe place to be!

Tuesday, J prepared for and taught his 3rd masterclass/recital to yet another group of trumpet and brass players from all over the region. They loved him! 

Eliazar, (the trumet teacher), Paulo (director) and rockstar, post masterclass. I can't tell you how many pictures (and autographs!) these students and professionals wanted! 

Post masterclass (and photo session) we went to the best bakery where we had great sandwiches and sampled various desserts- one of my new favorites is mousse de maracuja, passion fruit mousse- It's pictured on the bottom row, second from the left- that was may stand by dessert choice, along with passion fruit juice at almost every meal! so hard to leave!

Note: Professional rockstar portion of trip done, now on to rockstar-of-a-person portion of the trip.

Wednesday morning we took a bus back to the main bus terminal in Sao Paulo (literally the size of some smaller airports) to then grab a taxi, so we could take a plane to Puerto Allegre, rent a car (one of the craziest parts of the whole trip...driving a stick shift (after 10 years of only driving automatics) in a major city whose signs are difficult to understand if at all there with a GPS whose screen is too dark to read at any time of day or night) and drive 4 hours west of the coast to a city named Santa Maria. This was the hub city for J's mission. 

Thursday morning we woke up and continued our drive 5 additional hours to the west to Uruguiana, a city that borders Argentina on the river. As we pulled out of our hotel that morning, this was what we saw on each side of the road that our hotel was on...awesome to have random horses tied up in a dumpy lot, directly across from a nice apartment building! So cool! Only in Brazil!

Photo break during our long scenic drive west. The first 2.5 hours were beautiful, very lush and lots of hills and mesas, the second 2.5 was just like west Texas...nothing!

We arrived about lunch time and walked around a few shops in Uruguiana, ate and walked through their plaza, which overall was very nice. 

Our favorite part of the plaza here was their tribute to Snow White complete with Disney's Snow White and all 7 dwarves statues. So awesome and again, only in Brazil! After we took this photo, we turned to walk back to the car to see a very rickety, plywood horse drawn carriage cruising down the middle of the main street!

We then went on a hunt of various families J had helped as a missionary. The first family was Maritza and her children. With a little guidance from a local taxi driver, we located the neighborhood where she lived. Imagine the poorest of situations. Homes put together out of gathered plywood, tin roofing, sheet metal, etc. We went to her old home to discover that she didn't live there anymore. I could see visibly how dissappointed he was that she wasn't there and asked the girl who came to the door if she knew where she had moved. Of course! She just lived around the corner and down the hill (surrounded by sketchy wild dogs). And so we descended. J called out her name, and peeked out her window. In almost total shock she came out her front door at which point both J and Maritza embraced and became choked up. 

Great action shot of kid in front of us who was filling up his car with gas he was carrying in a 2 liter coke bottle! So practical in problem solving. Too bad it wasn't just an empty tank that stopped him!

The second family we went to was Caco, Patricia and Diego. They had recently joined been baptized when Jason was assigned to that area and they were so excited to always have missionaries in their home and help in any way possible. 

That night we took Maritza and her children out to dinner at a local pizzaria. We also took with us another friend and her son, all in one little Jetta! Brazilian pizza is very different than anything else you have ever tried. They put toppings on pizzas that would make me laugh at because it sounds so awkward to put tuna fish and olives, or beef stroganoff on a pizza. Needless to say, I was not bold enough to try such toppings and stuck to what looked familiar- I'm just no fun or adventurous about somethings. 

Saturday we drove back to Santa Maria and had time to wander around the shopping district and go to their plaza again. This accordian player was dressed very traditionally, however the picture doesn't show the gaucho pants and boots.

Once we arrived back in the plaza, J decided that he wanted to get a caricature drawn because, well, we never do anything like that, and that in reis (Brazilian currency) it is super cheap to splurge on something silly.  

I wandered the plaza for the 20 minutes the sketch artist was working. I was so surprised by how resourceful the Brazilians were in decorating the plaza for their celebrations. All of the flowers, banners, etc were all made from recycled pop bottles. I'm still not sure how they came up with the idea, but I can tell you no one drinks water, so there are plenty of bottles available!

My silly splurge was a mechanical bull ride, which was awesome for a few reasons. One, only little kids were doing it originally, two because I already looked like a total tourist, and three, what 30 year old mama hops up on a mechanical bull! As my seasoned traveler grandmother Barbara always said, "I'm never going to see these people again!" Live it up!

Sunday morning came and since the ward where J had spent 9 months of his 2 years had divided into two congregations, we decided to attend the first portion of one, and then drive across town to attend the last of the second. At both there were multiple people who came up so excited to see, "Elder Bergman!" Incredible that people not only recognized him, but remembered his name 10 years, and 100's of missionaries later.

That afternoon we went to visit a few families that he had spent lots of time with and we had a great time catching up. The family pictured above still had our wedding announcement!

We also went to eat dinner with Fernando and his aunt and uncle, and their two daughters. They were a very faithful family and extremely inviting and gracious, not to mention amazing cooks! Chicken lasagna and strawberry dessert that we have since come home to recreate! Thank you Vargas family!

That night we went with Fernando and some of the missionaries back to the plaza where they play music and contact people walking by answering questions. There were many people gathered to listen and speak with the missionaries. When the idea of doing this on a weekly basis was first pitched to the Mission President, he was hesitant and thought it would waste time. However, in the 4 months they have done this on Sunday evenings, multiple families have decided to join the church and hundreds of people have allowed the missionaries to visit them in their homes. The missionary playing the violin is from Sao Paulo and wants to be a musician professionaly, so he and J spent a good 30 minutes talking about how to make that dream a reality. The young man holding the music is Fernando. We actually spend the day the entire morning and afternoon with him. J was the missionary that taught and baptized him. Fernando is an amazing young man that went on to serve a mission himself and has since taught seminary for 8 years as well as serve in the Young Men's organization. It was wonderful to meet him and for J to catch up with someone with whom his entire life has been made better because of the time they spent together and the decisions he began to make at that time of his life. 

Once it got dark we made our way over to Tais and Antonio home where we visited with them, and ate a slightly crispy but delicious stromboli! It was such a funny memorable moment as Antonio, the cook, was quite the comic all night long. J had been a missionary in their ward right when Antonio had returned from his own mission and right at the time when Tais was deciding to serve a mission herself. She got quite choked up when she recounted how J had been the only person who encouraged her to serve a mission when so many others couldn't understand her decision. She even had a book that he had gifted her with a personalized message expressing his faith in her decision. If only we lived closer and my Portuguese was better we would be great friends with this family!

Monday was got up and drove back to Porto Allegre and walked around the beautiful city, however we didn't feel safe taking the camera with us around. Lots of walking, lots of unique and European architecture.

Tuesday we began our trip home via Sao Paulo, (where we had a 7 hour layover and where we met up with 3 missionaries returning to the states as well as the funniest older couple, Lois and  , who reminded us from the moment we saw her of J's paternal grandmother. By the time we finished eating pastries with them, we had exchanged emails, and addresses as well as invitations to stay if we are ever in their area!)

These were just funny memories! Charlie Chaplin carved into the dining area door of our hotel in Santa Maria! How awesome is that!

The walkway in our Santa Maria hotel in and out of the reception area. 

One of our gracious servers as a churrascaria, or brazilian steak house, that J frequented during his 2 years in Brazil.

Whew! So, there it is...the really long (but really not extremely detailed) travelog of how I married a wish-he-was-Brazilian rockstar, professionaly and in spiritual matters. Rock on!