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!