Working, Running and being a tourist

As you may have noticed, there have been a few long weekends here lately, and I guess this next one coming up is again too. We get Friday off this week. Of the three long weekends in April/May, I really only know why we had one - Easter. The other two are a mystery to me. I'm sure there is a good reason for them and, per my desire to really consumer the culture wherever I am, I should probably know what they are. I'll get right on that.

After posting last week, the weekend took a turn for the more typical weekend at the beach. The partying and slightly foggier mornings came in with full effect. Overall, it was a complete blast. After the post we headed to the beach for a day of fun in the sun. Night one was a fairly standard party at a beach house with 25 people. Beers, music, jump rope, dancing, and more drinks. Day two was pretty similar except Clara and I went exploring at the beach along the rocks - think Tyson and me along the rocks of the Costa Brava (Spain) when we were young, only Clara is easier on the eyes than Tyson. I don't know if I'll ever lose my love of exploring rocky coastlines. Sunday night was a trip - apparently the alcoholic watermelon is a global phenomenon. That said, they certainly know how to do it right here ... we ended up putting quite a few bottles of vodka through Wilson, many more than a typical American application would support.

Below is me doing ... well ... having a deep conversation with Wilson. Check out the photo album for more photos of what Wilson actually looks like.

Although last week was a shortened work week, we still got a lot done and had a major client update. It was an awesome 5-hour marathon. Overall it went well - the client was pretty happy. I got to meet the partner on my case for the first time ... 4 weeks in!

This week I decided to come to Rio on Saturday so I could take in some of the sights that aren't as accessible when you're working. After I landed on Saturday, I had lunch with Alan (Brazilian guy I met last weekend who was also spending the weekend here in Rio). He hadn't done the touristy things of Rio in a while so he offered to do some of them with me. Saturday, we went up to the Christ the Redeemer statue that looks over the whole of Rio. It is a huge statue, that's for sure. The views from up there are amazing even if it was a bit cloudy. The statue is huge, but I don't quite agree with it being one of the 7 New Wonders of the World ... Brazil happens to have a large, online/cell phone owning population which certainly helped when it came to voting for them.

Saturday night I went to a balada which is a disco/bar/danceclub. This one happened to have pretty much all three mixed across the three floors. I met up with three Bainees from the São Paulo office and had a few drinks, did some dancing and called it an early night around 1:30 so I could get up Sunday and continue the role of tourist. I met up with Alan again and we went to Pão de Açucar - another massive rock outcropping that juts out into the ocean and provides for spectactular views of Rio. There is a cable car that makes its way up there - I still haven't figured out how they got the materials up there to build the first one. That trip was pretty cool. The views were unreal. On the cable car, you can see people climbing up the side of the face. I have pictures of that but I didn't bring my camera cables on this trip ... will get those up at some point. The climbing looked really cool.

Sunday afternoon we headed to Maracanã, Brazil's largest soccer stadium. Current capacity is 95,000 but when it was built, it was closer to 200k. The record capacity is ~210k ... the upper deck used to be all open standing room. They've since installed seating which has seriously limited capacity. Safety ... what a crzay concept. The game was the first of two championship games for the Carioca Championship. (Carioca is a name that refers to people from Rio and this was the championship for the state of Rio de Janeiro league.) The game was pretty good - the fans were the best part. Ending in a 2-2 tie means the entire outcome rests on next week's game.

Sunday night we met up with some friends of Alan's. One of them mentioned something about Michigan so of course I asked more questions. Turns out that one of her friends is heading to Ross for her MBA in the fall. We're all having dinner tonight - what a small world, eh?

Overall a pretty good trip to Rio - caught a bunch of touristy things and then hit something a little more local. I woke up Monday and decided to go for a run. I think I ran the farthest I've ever run - 7km (4.4 miles). It felt pretty good ... but running along a beach in Rio always makes it feel better :)

Yesterday we had a decent day at work but I learned that I only have my AC for the balance of this week. I'm on my own to wrap up this case for the last two weeks of work. Very cool opportunity, kinda freaky because the last two weeks will be some content creation but mostly working with the client to get the execution plan locked down. Lots of meetings ... in Portuguese.

We have another long weekend this weekend and I'm contemplating heading back to São Paulo ... Three weekends in a row out of town and my new squash raquet back from repairs make me want to put some time in at home. Of course, 3 days is always an opportunity to travel. Not looking likely this week but I haven't booked a flight anywhere yet!

Apologies for the delay and the overwhelming lack of photos - I'll work on that soon.

It's 10:49 and, yes they think I'm crazy

It is 10:49AM on a Saturday and the people around me think I'm crazy. I, however, am happy as a clam. I'm sitting out by the pool having a plate of leftover spaghetti with meat sauce for breakfast after an early run and hop in the pool. The running part is not so crazy, the leftovers for breakfast is.

There are back-to-back long weekends here in Brazil which is why I'm back at the beach this weekend. This time with a different group of friends. Carla, who organized it, apparently rents this house with some frequency. It is lining up to be a pretty awesome weekend. We've rented a house and I think by the end of today, we'll have 16 people here. It is a beautiful setup made much more convenient by having a cook/cleaning lady. As my obsession with media continues, here's a video that I took with my BlackBerry Pearl Flip that's a brief tour of the house (really just walking down the stairs and out to the pool)



Of course, I can't travel without a requisite minimum number of cables to connect to various speaker systems etc. Last night, we were able to watch a movie from my iPod using one cable and then we went old-school with the radio adapter to connect to a radio/speaker set. My camera has a bulky cable connecting setup so I didn't bring it... then I realized that I have my charging cable for my Pearl Flip. I can take photos and videos with it and upload them pretty quickly (I should have brought the Flip video recorder that my sister gave me ... better video quality and no cables needed! but you can only carry so much tech stuff, right?).

Shockingly, we're listening to Jack Johnson again. Such a great option for hanging by the pool, and also an easy option when you have too much music to pick from and no easy playlist set up.

Alright, back to being social and enjoying the sun.

Jack Johnson

They really like Jack Johnson down here. I'm OK with that because I like Jack Johnson too. In fact, I really like Jack Johnson. I didn't know him well until I saw him perform with Ben Harper at the Gorge. What a great venue, and especially for someone like him.

When we arrived in Maresias this weekend, Hernan set up his Bose SoundDock so we could listen to some music. Of course, I was excited to see a way to listen to music. To get into the vibe of being at a beach in a surf town, someone suggested Jack Johnson. I couldn't have agreed more with the selection.

Throughout the weekend I kept catching Jack throughout the weekend from bars as I walked down the beach, playing in cars that drove by and in bars during the evening. I heard Jack today while I was running along (and on) the beach, or while I was lunch. Maybe it was in the cab? Can't remember, but the point stands. Jack Johnson gets a lot of air time here - oh yeah, it was while getting ice cream after lunch - and the music really suits parts of this country. It suits the parts that you think about when you think of Brazil as a destination. Relaxing, beautiful times by the beach.

Expats anyone? And why won't my shoulder stop hurting?

Expats:
Recently I've started to feel the desire to meet some expats down here. As you may have noticed, I spend most of my time with Portuguese- or Spanish-speaking people down here. That is important to me because that's really the only way to learn Portuguese and to keep up my comfort in Spanish. I really enjoy the people down here and the friends I'm making, but I would like to make some friends of expats down here so I can have the occasional conversation with North Americans who share more than just the language with me.

A big part of our experience in Spain was involving ourselves in the culture. I have carried that with me wherever I go because I think that's how you get the most out of it. Sometimes I wonder if having the family (namely Mom) along gave Dad that core of familiarity while exploring something new? Perhaps a conversation for another time.

My shoulder:
I screwed my shoulder up wakeboarding the first weekend I was here in my awesome fall. I didn't think too much of it at the time because... well I'm getting old and things hurt after I do fun things like wakeboarding. Unfortunately, I think I aggravated my should where I hurt it a couple years ago playing squash. 5 weeks on, it is still in rough shape. I can't put on a shirt on or wash my hair without wincing. I'm still on US insurance and I'm not really sure how that all works down here. If I were in Chicago, I'd definitely go to the doctor. I'm not sure I should keep playing squash as that will keep it aggravated and possibly damage it further. Any educated thoughts?

Off to pack for another week in Rio!

Now there's a beach, now there's not

We had beautiful weather on Saturday in Maresia. Unfortunately, we didn't have a beach!
It was apparently a once-per-year happening where the waves kick up something fierce and they end up crashing all the way up the beach, leaving none of the beach dry. When we got there, it must have just gotten up that high because people were still sitting out on lawn chairs and vendors were still toting their carts. The crashing waves were pretty intense and they were dragging pretty much everything not heavy or attached back into the water. Flip flops, tables, chairs, small pets. If you click the Maresia link, you can see that there normally is a sizeable beach there. From the pictures, you can see that the water was coming right up to the restaurant where we spent most of the day.


The most amazing part was the surfers - later in the day, some dudes ended up out on the waves surfing! The waves were huge, as you can see from the photos. I don't have the world's best zoom lens on my camera so you'll have to look hard to find the dudes on their boards. That'll give you some perspective on the size of the waves. (FYI - click on the images to see larger versions where you can actually see the surfers)


Both nights we went out to a really great bar. It had live music and the band just made absolutely awesome song choices. It was a ton of fun to get out to the beach with friends. One of the most fun parts of the group dynamic was answering the question, "Where are you guys from?" The five of us are from five different countries: Peru, Argentina, Uruguay, Costa Rica and, of course, Canada.

I thought this picture was funny at 4am ...

Hammocks

Although I don't always find hammocks to be the most comfortable of seating choices, I usually find myself really enjoying it when I'm in one. Take right now, for example. I'm sitting in a hammock at the end of a Friday spent at the beach in April. (Although I just pushed off the chair next to me to get some rocking going and that my have been a mistake while typing.) We had the day off for Easter in Brazil so a group of 5 of us headed to Maresia for a few days at the beach. I brought my camera but have yet to take a picture - I'll work on that.

The drive down this morning was pretty uneventful - took about 3.5 hours and we didn't hit too much traffic. It was a beautiful day pretty much until we got here, at which point some clouds rolled in. With only a few days here, that wasn't going to stop us. Four of us headed to the beach while one, who got home at 6 am and was in the car with us at 7:45, stayed behind for a nap. I fell asleep on the beach :)

We're all back just relaxing tonight before we head out for, what looks like is going to be, a big night tonight. Hanging in a hammock listening to Jack Johnson. Ahh.

Had a good week in Rio this week. Still enjoying my team and my case. We made some really good progress on the work we're doing and the team dynamic seems to be working well still. Rio is a really beautiful city, though I realized this week that I'm only seeing a pretty small portion of it. Our hotel is in Ipanema and the office is in Jadim Botanico - they're only a couple kilometers apart and Rio is a pretty big city. If we manage to secure a flat for me in Rio (an extended stay type deal where I'd have the place for a month) I will end up spending a weekend or two up there which will give me a chance to explore the city a little more. Looking forward to that for sure.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but I've been getting into the habit of jotting notes in my BlackBerry of things that I find interesting, funny or entertaining. I'm glad I'm getting into that because some of my observations provide a lot of entertainment. Either the moment was genuinely funny and I'm happy I captured it or I read it the next day and laugh/wonder what I was thinking writing that down.

One in particular that is very much the former and borderline the latter is:

• "It is like the fifth or sixth gait of an icelandic horse. I just don't have it." I wrote this down in reference to Brazilian dancing.

Although there are other notables from the week, I don't want to get out of the hammock yet to pick up my BlackBerry. Nap time so I can make it through the evening awake.

Work-oriented update

I wrote the basis for this for someone in the Chicago office. I realize that it captures a bunch of what I want to say, so why not share it more broadly?

I am really enjoying the city of São Paulo. I think my experiences in and enjoyment of Mexico City really helps. Yes, it is big, lots of concrete and less safe than the US, but life is so vibrant down here. I guess the tradeoffs work for me.

The office has been amazing at welcoming me and looking out for me. The ACs/CONs have all been great at including me in things and becoming friends (not just a tag-along). I have gelled quickly with the Spanish-speakers (Argentina, Peru, Columbia etc.) because I can integrate seamlessly into their scene. I am less comfortable with the Brazilians (by no fault of theirs, but because of the language) but they have been equally welcoming.

I've had limited exposure to partners, but the couple I have dealt with have been good. CM, the staffing partner, really impressed me with how considerate he was being to a transfer. He was quite busy and had appendicitis the 2nd week I was here so I didn't get to meet with him for a couple weeks. They were clearly looking for the right opportunity for me to maximize value add to our firm, the client and my experience. (I was a little surprised how much my interests were considered). Example: There's a project coming up in Chile and, although it would be easier for me, CM was leaning against it because of how far it would be from São Paulo and the office. After we spoke and I mentioned I like media and tech, it was less than 2 business days before I was working on a great project supporting an IT group at an interesting media company in Brazil!

I'm staffed in Rio de Janeiro which is a 40-minute flight from SP. CM spoke the partner and made it clear I was supposed to be able to make to the office on Fridays and that seems to be the intent. Most people in the office have been happy/surprised by my Portuguese, which makes the classes worth it all the more. Unfortunately, my internal bar is my level of Spanish, which is a bit unrealistic at this point. Working in the language will really help. I had a few client meetings over the last week and they've gone well - understanding the majority of them and actually getting into the conversation. Of course, every once in a while I have one where I either struggle to say something (before my AC steps in and graciously helps out) or where I miss more than I'd like to.

Great example of the difference between Sampa and Chicago

This morning, I got an email to the whole Chicago office that we'd have cake in the office today at 3 to celebrate April birthdays. Very exciting - I was sad to miss it.

I just got an email to the whole São Paulo office announcing that we were having cake at 4:30 (just 30 minutes before when cake will start in Chicago). Very exciting. The primary difference, here we're celebrating the March birthdays...


(Humour about the pace of life aside, there is apparently a cultural reason to explain it. It is considered bad luck to celebrate your birthday before it actually happens. A lot less funny when there's a logical explanation to it.)