As Festas Juninas!

This was outside the Livraria Cultura. It's constructed completely out of recycled materials (from cellphones, to soda cans, and even some legos!). If you can't tell its Don Quixote de la Mancha. Very cool!! What a great week last week was! I learned a lot professionally, as well as culturally about Brazil. First I'll talk a little bit about work, then I will get to the fun stuff :)

I met with Mariza de Souza for about 3 hours on Monday of last week to talk about all the leadership development programs we have available at IBM in Latin America. In addition to the corporate initiatives, many countries have other regional adaptations of leadership development to address local KSA (knowledge skills and abilities) gaps. I didn't think we would take the whole 3 hours, but let me tell you... we needed more than 3 hours!! I had a general idea about the corporate programs, but the regional initiatives were of particular interest to me. I think it's wonderful that IBM permits and approves countries and units to take control on this issue, and innovate their own solutions to local problems, because one size doesn't always fit all.

Mariza and I really hit it off well. Despite our difference in age, we had a lot in common, from interests in modern architecture and philosphy, to shopping! We became great friends right away and went shopping on Wednesday in the local mall, where I got some great gifts for Maya (my niece), Carlos (my brother), Amanda (my sis in law), and David (my bf). We found some great deals (which has now become our inside joke for shopping) and had a really nice meal at a french restaurant. She told me a lot about Brazil, the culture, the idioms, and her life here. I love hearing people's stories, and she is really well traveled, knows several languages, and is overall a really amazing and interesting person. We made another date for the weekend to go shopping on Sunday, which was really fun. During the week I learned a lot about what already exists for people development here at IBM Brasil from my manager, Beto, Mariza, and Felipe. I spent the majority of the week getting used to my new schedule, and communicating in Portuguese. This in itself was pretty exhausting. I did, however, go out on Thursday night to meet Margaret on Avenida Paulista to see some sights there.

Avenida Paulista is one of the main business streets here in Sao Paulo. Additionally, it is home to many churches, shopping centers, and the MASP (the museum of art of Sao Paulo). Margaret asked me to meet her at a bookstore, called the Livraria Cultura. I thought this was interesting, as I am not really a bookstore person, but I gave it a shot. Most books are really really expensive in Latin America, and I figured it would be a tiny shop. Was I wrong! It is the biggest bookstore in the city and puts our little Catherwood Library to shame. They had a fabulous cafe, that was serving wine and hors d'oevres, many many books, and an out of this world childrens section. See pictures below! We then had a nice dinner at a cafe. We sat outside on the street, which was really reminiscent of those wonderful cafes that you find in Paris. Overall it was a lot of fun meeting Margaret, seeing the library and the bustling Avenida Paulista, and enjoying a good meal.

We were at the livraria at around 9 PM-- and it was still packed with people!! This is definately a cool place to hang out during the day and at night.

This is Margaret. This place has about 3 floors and it's really amazing. I'm glad she told me to meet her here! On the ride home I had the most memorable taxi driver thus far in my adventures. He told me that I looked like what sounded like Maria. I asked him, who is Maria? He said, you know Maria Carey. I said.. OooOooh, you mean MARIAH Carey. He said, Oh yes, and then began to sing some of her songs, in terrible English. We sang all the way back to my hotel and he gave me his card. He is now one of my favorite taxi drivers that I call when I need to be picked up from places, his name is Jorge, and he calls me Elisa Carey. Hahaha.

On Friday, I went to the Birmann facility to meet some new managers there. Let me tell you, it was really far from the Tutoia office. It was a 30 minute cab ride out past Brooklin. And for you Manhattenites reading this, it was like going to Brooklyn, inconvieniant and FAR. The people were very nice, and by the end of the afternoon, I was bounding up the learning curve in my spoken Portuguese, even if I did sound like a Colombian trying to speak the language, haha. Many people here, taxi drivers, servers at restaurants, etc, ask me if I'm Colombian because I have a funny Spanish-sounding accent when I try to speak Portuguese. Thats ok. I tell them that I'm American, but I speak Spanish, that's why I sound so funny.

After work, Margaret met me at my hotel and we went to Villa Mariana. This is a neighborhood that was very close to my hotel. It is an up and coming chic (pronounced chic-y here) neighborhood to hang out, eat, and grab some chopps (chopp-ys, which are draft beers). We had a nice meal with some typical Brazilian fried finger foods (which they adore here, and I can't lie, they are DELICIOUS!!) and some chopps. We people watched, as many people were in town for fashion week, and tried to guess who was a model or some famous Brazilian actor. It was a lot of fun. I turned in pretty early on Friday night, by Brazilian standards (around 11:30 PM) for a weekend because I was moving to Jardins the next day.

I changed locations because I wasn't really close to a lot of restaurantes and activities, like shopping or gardens or museums. My hotel is Jardins is pretty nice. It had a sink, microwave, and minifridge, so I can store some food and eat soups at night. It is really close to Oscar Friere, the most famous shopping street in the city, the MASP and Avenida Paulista. I was excited to be in a new place, but still pretty exhausted from all the moving and shaking during the week, so I napped the afternoon away until around 4 PM.

That night I went out with Felipe, his wife, and their daughter to a Festa Junina. This is a typical Northeastern celebration of saints which occurs every weekend in the month of June. At this celebration, you eat typical NE food, like ham (its special ham) sandwiches, and drink quentao (very similar to spiced cider, which a kick of liquor) and vinho quente (mulled wine). Parents dressed their children in cowboy, cowgirl outifts, everyone had cowboy hats, and there were activities and games for children. The music played is country style Brazilian music of all types, but we were treated to some live bands played forro, one specific type of music. I learned how to dance the forro, which is very similar to a salsa step, but a little bit slower. It was fun to participate in this festival and eat/drink some typical things as well as learn a new dance. The cutest event of the night was when two of Felipe's friend's children, both 2 years old and dressed in cowboy/cowgirl outfits, tried to dance the forro together like adults, spinning each other around and holding hands. It was too adorable for words. We stayed at the event from 6 PM-1 AM, listening to music, dancing, and talking. We shared a space with other IBM young couples and families. It was great to meet other people and experience something that was truly very Brazilian.








These, unfortunately, are not the kids we saw dancing, but a picture from the internet. I'm waiting for Felipe to get the pictures from his friend's camera from the Festa. I had a lot of fun there and it was probably the coolest thing I have done thus far. Once I get the pictures, I will post them up here.

Stay tuned for more to come! Ate mais!

A Great Ending to a Great First Week!

Hey all! Another week has flown by here in Brazil. The weather has been beautiful-- ~75 degrees and sunny everyday, with some nice cool breezes. Hopefully the great weather will hold up for the weekend, so I can enjoy some of the outdoor activities here in Sao Paulo. Before I start telling you about what I have done this week, let me finish telling you about what I did last week.

Thursday was a holiday here, the celebration of Corpus Christi, which is a Catholic holiday. Honestly, how lucky could I be-- coming to Brazil, getting to see different offices for IBM, treated to a happy hour my first day because some execs from the US and Scotland were visiting, AND a holiday!! Amazing!! I slept really late, exercised, then met David's babysitter and neighbor from when he was growing up in Minneapolis, for dinner at one of the most famous Italian restaurants in the city, Famiglia Mancini. Apparently, this family/restaurant group owns an entire street with different concepts of Italian restaurants. We ate at the family style restaurant, but they had a pizza restaurant, piano bar, chic upscale Italian, and an art gallery. Margaret and I walked around and checked out each of the places after dinner and planned to return in the near future. We had a blast eating all kinds of treats from grilled eggplant and fresh mozzarella, to pasta quatro formaggi and of course dessert. Margaret has been teaching English in Brazil for the past year and a half. She was previously teaching in a town west of Sao Paulo, called Londrinhas, but moved here at the beginning of the new year to teach at a different school. She clued me in on some of the key phrases that I would hear a lot, the Brazilian's love affair with salt (there is never any pepper on the tables, only salt!), and some great places that I must visit in SP before I leave. We became fast friends and made plans for next week. It was great to meet her!

Last Friday was Valentine's Day here in Sao Paulo. My prediction is that these days of love are a function of winter, or cold weather (at least Paulistos think this weather is cold). Cold weather --> need for cuddling --> lots of retail opportunities --> Valentine's Day. This is my theory, accept it or reject it. Unfortunately, my Valentine or non Valentine, since it wasn't V-day in the US, was not here. So I treated myself to a lovely dinner at my hotel. The hotel restaurant is fairly good, and the manager is quite nice. After eating there a few times during the week, we had become friendly and he offered to serve me some fish that wasn't on the menu. I, of course, agreed and had some delicious sea bass with roasted veggies. Healthy and devine!!

Saturday I explored the park around my hotel, Parque Ibirapuera. It is the equivalent to Central Park in NYC. You can see a picture in my last post of the obelisk in the middle of the park. Unfortunately, I left my camera in the US and had not received my borrowed camera from my manager yet, so I will have to go back to the park to take more pictures another day. They had some beautiful gardens and statues, but you will get more descriptions of this with images when I return :).

Saturday night, my IBM buddy, another HR employee here at IBM that they assign to give you advice and teach you about the company, Felipe, called me to go to a birthday party for another IBM employee. We went to a bar in Moema to enjoy some ciapirinhas, a local drink made with cachaca, a liquor made in Brazil with sugar cane, similar to rum with lots lime juice and sugar (kind of like a mojito minus the mint) and some live music. I had fun conversing with the other people there, learning a lot about the city, IBM, and what young people do on the weekends here. Not surpisingly, they spend a lot of time out with friends going to dinner, dancing, bars, movies, and the like. It was a lot of fun listening to the live band which played just about every American bar song, except for Living on a Prayer (my personal fav). Sunday, I spent the day sleeping off the lingering headache of a few too many caipirinhas, and watching season 1 of The Wire.

No, Frieda is not here. This is a picture of me sleeping in my apt in Ithaca, but it's pretty indicative of how I spent my Sunday.

Week 2.... or maybe Week 1 for you. Who knows!

What a week it has been!

I have officially been in Sao Paulo for one whole week. To start the experience off right I made sure to make another huge change--- physically. I cut about 5 inches off my hair. Now for anyone who knows me, I love my hair, maybe almost as much as my dog. I religiously deep condition, brush, and caress it. I was a little frightened when I saw all the hair on the floor, but I knew Adam Broderick (or the AB as my niece Maya calls it) would not do me wrong. Thanks AB!

My flight was actually pretty great! I usually despise flying, but my dad, bless his heart, upgraded me to business class. For those of you who don't know, this is the difference between sitting smashed next to a bunch of strangers and laying flat, like you are in a bed. I value my beauty rest and the flight did me right. Decent airplane food was served, a few glasses of wine, some comfy socks (per the suggestions of my US manager), and eye covers made the difference. When I awoke, I saw the sprawling city below--- and boy was I ready!

My manager, Beto, met me at the airport. Yes, he was holding one of those signs that had my name on it. This was the first time something like that happened to me, so I chuckled to myself and rushed over. I enthusiastically hugged him and we began our ride into the city.

He attempted to talk to me in Portuguese, but my brain was still groggy from the flight and completely overstimulated. When I travel, I tend to become a 5 year-old when I first arrive. Everything---signs, people, trash cans-- is new and exciting and picture worthy. Did I mention I forgot my camera? Don't worry folks, Beto saved me by loaning me one of his cameras for the duration of my time here (thank you!! or obrigado!). He gave me some insight on the city as we whirred past people, houses, favelas, and other cars, until--- dead stop.

The other day we were having a lunch at Hortolandia, one of the big Global Delivery Centers for IBM and one of the kariokas (people from Rio) made a great point about the difference between Sao Paulo and Rio.

"People from Sao Paulo think that we get nothing done in Rio because we are at the beach all day. I think people in Sao Paulo don't get anything done because they spend most of the day in traffic." Great point and very true! This was my first experience with the HORRIFIC Sao Paulo traffic. Sorry LA, you got nothing on Sao Paulo.

The rest of the day was a blur, from checking in to visiting the Tutoia office, to meeting every Brazilian HR employee, maybe ever. One thing I can distinctly remember about meeting all these people, is that every one greeted me openly with a kiss and hug. I have never felt so welcome and so awkward all at once--- not being able to aptly communicate, but feeling like part of something more than a team, like a big family. I don't know what it is about IBM, but no matter what office I go to (and before I came here, I feel like I was in every office in the tri-state area), I feel welcome, wanted, and valued.

Once I could finally breath--- I realized what a gorgeous view I had from my room. Again this was thanks to Beto. He requested I have a view of Parque Iberapuera, the largest park in the city. For all you New Yorkites, this is like their central park, but cooler because its in Brazil. Sorry I do love central park, but this is way cooler... at least for me.


Over my first few days I met a million and one people. I also got to go to the Hortolandia site, which is one of our Global Delivery Centers. We had a presentation of the local labor market (thanks Gary Fields !! What you taught us in class really has come in handy!!). The next part was like a movie, they were talking and talking about integrated service solutions. This is how IBM serves our many customers with application solutions. The screen rose slowly and they flicked on a light, and on the other side was approximately 1,000 people working together on computers trouble shooting and designing these integrated solutions. My jaw dropped. I have never seen so many people, let alone so many computers in one room. Everyone was flittering from one pair to another, trying to problem solve and build giant technological infrastructures. Very cool! I was really impressed.


Of course, my first question to the presenter was "if we can see them, can they see us?"


"Oh yes of course," he replied matter of factly.


"Isn't this..... a little strange for them? You know to be in a fishbowl?" I probed.


"They are used to it," he answered.


I was in awe. Just like the thousand application services people behind the glass, I was another fish, another piece of the puzzle that fit to serve our customers and make the world think a little bit smarter.

Don't worry this was only the first two days... the holiday and the weekend will be posted tomorrow.