Another week

Remember how excited I was to play squash? Remember how excited I was about my new racquet? I broke it during my first game. I'm pretty sure we didn't get 20 minutes into the first game. I was losing 8-1 (and you play to 9) so breaking it saved me losing my first match 9-1, although I may have broken it on the 9th point. Fortunately, we were so distracted that neither of us are sure. On a bright note, when Andres bought his new racquet, he was left with a backup in his old racquet. It may weigh 2-3 times as much as my new racquet, but it will get me playing and strengthen my arm for when I get my racquet back. On a very bright, and quite surprising note, the store where I bought it said they work with Wilson enough to know that they should admit it is a defective racquet and replace it. It should take about a month, but I have a loaner from Andres so I can keep playing.

Good week overall - still unstaffed but keeping occupied. Went out Wednesday to a pretty cool bar called Skye Bar at the Unique Hotel. It is a bar on the roof of the hotel with great windows and a huge deck. Unfortunately, it had been raining so the deck was damp and most people didn't want to spend much time outside. The view is gorgeous and the drinks were good. Was out a little later than planned, but had a good time. My buddy Mateo invited me to join him in meeting up with some IESE buddies. (Mateo is also the squash buddy who was kicking my butt when I broke my racquet earlier that evening). When I ran into a fellow consultant, Esther, who lives in the same building as me the next morning, she told me I looked tired. I did have some decent sized bags under my eyes. I'm glad she's a friend already!

Friday, I was invited to a birthday party by a co-worker who has been at Bain SP about a week longer than I have. The party was held in the rooftop party room of the birthday boy's apartment building. Very cool setup with a DJ and bartenders - one of whom was quite good at the flare. Had a great time and met some cool people, including a Bainie from the SP office that I hadn't met yet (he too wants to play squash because his girlfriend is into it and keeps beating him). At around 2:30 I thought I might take off. When I told Fernando, he said no worries, they were heading out soon and they'd give me a ride. As you can imagine, one thing led to another and I got home at 4:30. Oops. Amazingly, however, I felt OK Saturday and woke up at 9:45. I did, however, feel the night's activities when I played a tough squash match with Andres. Looking forward to playing him as he and I are quite well matched.

Today, I took a cab to a well-known market Mercado Municipal in SP. Starting there, I made my way through the city hitting various of the sights, including the famous cathedral and central plaza, the Japanese Sunday crafts fair and the Japanese district. I walked for ~8 miles (13Km) all the way back here. With no map, no less. I'm a pretty terrible tourist ... I took zero pictures. I thought about occasionally taking a photo, but none of them felt like they'd be that interesting. I'm going to need to get better at that.

Time for the weekly observations:

• It is awesome to be at a patio party in March
• Doormen laugh when you come home handcuffed in glowsticks
• There must be a lot of TV remote theft or abuse here because the number of vendors that sell replacement TV remotes is staggering
• I'm still struggling to see the complimentary nature of selling DVDs and toothbrushes together
• Awesome mullet of the day: Short in the front dreadlocks in the back

Till next time.