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.
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