Warm Dry Weather

Last I wrote, I was leaving Wall Street, getting excited about the new job at Media Contacts and still having a good time and meeting new people, right? K, good recap. I’ve added another post today talking about the new job. I figured it would be an unbearably long post if I did both in one, so I decided to split the two… you know, not mixing business with pleasure type stuff.

I’m sitting here writing to you with an ice pack between my left shoulder and chin. This morning I had my wisdom tooth pulled (the other one I was too chicken to do when I got the first one out). The whole procedure went much better here than when I did it in the US (no offense to your boss, Bruna). Service, in general is 100 times better here than anywhere in the world, I’ve heard, and so far I’ve seen that this include medical attention as well. My dentist here is a nice 40 something Japanese man, Dr. Marius. I made sure to ask him for as many drugs as possible and he told me it was procedure. So right now I’m on pain medication, antibiotics, and an anti-inflammatory medication. Pretty sweet, huh? I’ve also been given strict orders to only eat cold, soft foods, so I just had ice cream for lunch and vanilla pudding for dessert. This was also in the midst of everyone making fun of me for not being able to have the delicious lunch they were having, and my uncle asked if I was going to the movies with them tomorrow. The movies = the cookout we’re supposed to go to at my (3^rd) cousin’s house, and it’s going to be “the movies” for me because I’m only going to be able to watch! … He thinks he’s so funny …

Anyway, other than being swollen in the face, I’ve had a pretty fun past couple of weeks. My going away party from Wall Street was quite fun but also sad. I was so happy to see how many students and staff showed up and it made me feel quite loved! It also made me really happy to see how many great people I’d met in the few months I worked there and definitely realizing that I have made friends, a handful, but actual friends in such a short amount of time here in São Paulo. It kind of reminded me of the last weekend I spent in DC, only this time I get to stay in the same city. I don’t know if that’s any consolation living in this city, but it helps, I suppose. After the going away festivities at this adorable restaurant called Pão Com Manteiga (Bread & Butter), I headed to a bar with a couple of my students, Dave, some of Thiago’s friends whom I’d met at his house, and Dave’s other gringo friends from his Portuguese classes. Needless to say, it was a pretty good time and the bar was tons of fun. There were a couple of guys playing music – everything from pagode to forró, to what I guess could be classified as the Brazilian equivalent to classic rock/bar music type stuff. We topped the night off buying loaded hot dogs from the stand near the bar at 5 AM... yum. Speaking of forró, I went to a forró with patricia, my coworker (see SEO Nerds post) on Wednesday which was a good time too! One of my students came and I danced the night away!

I took it easy the rest of that weekend and continued to drink that following Tuesday, on my second day of work at a company happy hour courtesy of Media Contacts! It was an integration/celebration because the company had just bought an offline marketing agency, so both agencies were there for a mini celebration at this gorgeous bar/restaurant/event place. That Friday, the 25^th, I left work and went to Paula’s going away and birthday with the people from Wall Street. It was nice to see everyone, especially people like Paula and Thi who I was so used to talking to everyday! The next day, I interviewed a girl for private classes (and I got the job!) and then had lunch at Habib’s (Brazilian/Lebanese fast food.. it’s quite wonderful) with Eder who then accompanied me on a venture to find Priscila’s house across town, but on the way to his house, sort of. I was going to Priscila’s because she had invited me to go to her friend’s farm for the weekend which was pretty wonderful because I needed to get away from the city pollution and noise. A lot of people here in Brazil do this… buy land a little ways away from the city just for the weekends. The place was absolutely gorrgeeouusss (see pictures) and was in the first town in Minas, called Extrema (“Extreme”).

A note on pollution: It sucks and São Paulo has a lot of it. Especially now with you know, 13 million people, 7 million cars, and like, 30% of the population smoking, and to top it all off, it hasn’t rained in over a month! The air gets super dry and this is going to sound gross, but even when I blow my nose, I feel like my mucus is blackish… which is even grosser than it sounds. Today looked like it was going to rain, but not a drop yet. Keep your fingers crossed! The worst part is that it’s supposed to be cold and rainy but it’s been gorgeous and not, which we’re dreading and people like you probably think is odd. I suppose it’s one of those ‘You had to be there,’ type situations.

Okay, I think that’s it for things I’ve done. I haven’t enlightened/entertained you enough in this blog. So here’s yet another list of things because I like lists. This list is random Paulistano things I’ve been picking up on and have been deciding whether or not I love/hate this. I’m losing my mineira accent and gaining paulista slang and phrases, but not completely the accent yet – I’m technically in a no man’s land. When I first got to SP, everyone would say, “You’re from Minas, right?” now people say, “You’re not from São Paulo, are you?” k, here goes:

1. Meu – I’ve been avoiding this as much as I avoided “Wicked” at PC… but it slips every once in a while… and there’s no need to use it, “Meu” literally means, “mine,” but people use it to say things like, “Hey,” “yo,” “so,” and “listen,”… it’s super multifunctional.

2. Sussa - ~ chill, tranquilo, relaxed.

3. Pagar pau – This one’s good. Literally “Pay wood.” It’s like, “to suck up to,” “to be attracted to,” “to admire”…. But not. Haha – you would say something like, “Pago mo pau pra ele, acho ele um gato.” = “I’d hit that.” J

4. Osso – “difficult,” “annoying.”

5. Pronouncing vowels – Paulistanos say “ô,” mineiros say, “ó”; Paulistanos say “ê,” mineiros say “é”

6. Mano – I hate this. It’s like, saying, “Dude,” or “Buddy,” or quite literally, “Bro,” or “Brah,” haha

7. Catraca – Turnstile… but mineiros say “Roleta”

8. Guarda chuva – Umbrella… mineiros say “Sombrinha”

9. Moedas – Coins – I say “Pratinhas” (I’m still convinced I say it right and they say it wrong – which is why i say that “I” say and not just mineiros – the other two I’ve adapted my vocabulary for.

10. … there is no 10, but one thing I have been working on is saying English words in Portuguese. People get a kick out of the way I say “e-mail,” and “manhattan,” and “club soda,” etc…

That’s it. I’ve written enough and I’m going to go watch a movie with my cousin now.

Talk to most of you soon I hope! Beijoossss.

More Beginnings.

Hey hey hey!

I told you I'd update sooner this time around :-) So remember that job offer I told you about in the previous blog entry? I accepted it! I start on Monday (21st), and am super excited to get started. I am going to be working at Media Contacts, an international internet marketing company in the SEO department. This means I'm going to help big clients optimize their websites for search engines (i.e., I have a lot to learn). I'm starting off at an assistant position, but my contract has clauses for guaranteed growth with my abilities and how fast I learn being the only indicators of when promotions will happen, so that's good to know. I'll also be learning Spanish in-company since a lot of our clients are in Latin America. This is a big YAY for not having to pay for Spanish classes!! haha

Other than that significant occurence, I've also been apartment/house shopping with Marina and trying to get "day time" things such as doctor appt's etc. done before I start working normal people hours. Working nights has pretty much spoiled me. It has allowed me to lounge around at home during the day, go out for lunch and random coffee dates with other friends who are either unemployed or work sporadically, go shopping, and get my nails done in the middle of the afternoon (I got a sexy red yesterday!)... therefore, I think I'll be saving some money since I'll have less free time to do so from now on. Sorry Phoebs...

I have also been meeting a lot of really cool people recently!! A couple of weekends ago I went out with a student of mine and her friends to a club in Pinheiros, a neighborhood that has a bunch of little bars and clubs here in SP. Needless to say, it was a good time, and we had an especially good time laughing at a number of different characters at the bar :-) My friend Thiago also had a little get together/late festa junina (see last post) at his house this past weekend which was a GREAT time - and I'll post pictures with this post once I get back on my computer. Also, another "highlight" of this past week was meeting a friend of a few of my friends, Dave! He went to school with Vim, Louis & Anuj @ BU and is living in Brazil to work with poor cheese farmers in the south of Minas with a sort of non-profit/microbusiness. Needless to say, he's just as cool as the mutual friends of ours I just listed, went to lunch with us last Wednesday and Thiago's party, and has become BFF's with a few of mine and Thiago's friends in the past week as well, so definitely look forward to stories with all of these crazy and good people I've come across lately!

Ok, now for another personal discussion with myself on the developing world, and by this I mean things that I see here in Brazil that are unheard of in the States. STRIKES and Protests. Strikes is in CAPS because they've been bothering me, whereas the Protests, not so much, haha. I didn't mention this, but a couple of months back the Receita Federal was on strike. This is a Federal department that takes care of all sorts of things ... kind of like Social Security + Homeland Security type things and a few things in between. Needless to say, things got messy, including something that happened to me that hasn't been resolved to this day! In JANUARY, my mother and I shipped a box filled with all sorts of my belongings and since there was a strike and (this is where homeland security comes in) you need people to make sure things on ships are legit and not counterfeit, yadda yadda, it's been stuck in the port of Santos for... oh, 4 months. So it was supposed to be released last week, but still no news. I'll keep you updated. The next strike hasn't affected me as much, but the postal service is on strike, and has been for the past couple of weeks, and some people are going crazy because they have bills to pay and are being charged late fines because they haven't paid because they haven't gotten their bills! And granted, most of the things you can see and pay online, but what about the folks who don't have internet?!?!?! This kind of thing drives me crazy... but on the other hand...

It makes me wonder if this will help the employees' situations or not. I mean, they're probably on strike because of ridiculously low salaries and bad work situations, yadda yadda, the usch. But they eventually go back, right? There are constantly protests on Av. Paulista, near where I work... one day security guards, the next teachers, sometimes busses stop running... but these guys are just out of work for a few hours or so. And the students must <3 style="font-style: italic;">não é? Thoughts on this are welcome, because I've been having internal conflicts with myself on this. :-)
I think I'll leave you there for now. There will be a Farewell Wall Street/Congrats on the New Job shindig for me this Friday, so I'll definitely post pictures from that and sometime next week I'll write about my first impressions on the job at Media Contacts, etc.

I'm not going to say I miss you all, because I think you all know that by now :-/ Looking forward to your updates though and hope life is treating anyone reading this well. :-)

besitosssss y abrazosss.

Entrevistas.

So I'm sitting at work doing little to nothing because my boss doesn't know how to designate, so I decided to update and fill everyone in on life over the past few weeks :-)



I just realized that I haven't delved into the whole interview/job search culture here in Brazil yet. For the past few months I've been trying to learn what I've been doing right and wrong in the whole search process. So here's a little example of the typical interview I've been attending.

For starters, the person will call today at saayyy... 5 PM and say, "Can you be here tomorrow at 10?" And I'll obviously say, "Sure, no problem, who are you again and where did you get my resumé from?" - I'm registered on like, 80 different job search websites, so it's important to know which ones are working and which aren't.

So then there's the adventure over there. Like I've mentioned before, it takes at least an hour and a half to get anywhere in São Paulo, and sometimes it's required to take a bus, train, and metro. So usually I'll leave home in a suit and sneakers and/or flip flops with some pumps in my bag just in case I get lost and/or have to walk kilometers upon kilometers to get places (yes, kilometers).

Once I get there, usually a few minutes early, I'll be offered coffee or water and then wait around for approximately 15-30 minutes for someone to talk to me (but this isn't ALL the time. Apparently not every Brazilian company runs on LT - Latino Time). I'm usually greeting by a sweet, young (no older than 30), HR person who takes me to a conference room or her office. I say sweet young girl, because literally, I've been interviewed by 2 men so far - and neither are in HR in their respective companies.

Ok, so the interview starts with "Let's have a little chat," and then proceeds to questions about my personal life such as "Why did you return to Brazil? If your parents are in the United States, who do you live with? Do you have a boyfriend? Did you leave a boyfriend in the United States? What do your parents do? What does your aunt who you live with do? How old are you?" .. and the list goes on.

And then come the professional questions and I have to explain the whole why my internships were only 3 months long, or randomly from September to May. I have to explain my major and how the whole college selection process works in the US. Needless to say, interviews are quite educational for whomever is interviewing me.

The BEST is when they bust out in English at the very beginning expecting to take me off guard, and then casually move into Portuguese once they realize I'm more fluent than they are... hehehehe.

The WORST is when they question my experience with Excel (which, let's be honest about honesty here... IS questionable...), and then ask me to write a one page essay in Portuguese in place of an essay in English which they would have asked of any other candidate. The good news is, I passed on to second interviews with the whole essay writing spiel. The bad news is, I officially need to take an Excel class!

So all in all I've gotten a couple of job offers for not so interesting positions, and some places were way too out of my league (i.e., in the Portuguese/Excel/Experience departments)... untilll..... I got a verbal job offer today at an interview for an internet marketing company for a position that sounds super interesting! The pay isn't great, but they're guaranteeing growth if I do well (which, you all know I'm going to try my best to do!! haha), so let's see how that plays out and I'll keep you all updated :-)

As for other news, a quick rundown of the past couple of weeks: I've taken on a couple of private students to bring in some extra income - one is preparing to be an au pair in the US, the other I'm preparing for a business meeting in Paris; I went to a wedding in Rio, the state, not city, a few weeks ago (lost all of my pictures when trying to transfer them to my computer which I'm still bitter about) of some friends of the family who used to live in the States, which was a lot of fun; last weekend I went out on Friday night with some people from work and that was bad news all over the place - especially since I worked last Saturday, haha; and then Saturday night I went to a Festa Junina with the familia which is a typical festival here that takes place in June (you know the big party I always danced in over the summer in D-Block? That kind of party!).

I'm taking it easy tonight (even easier than this night at work -I think I've broken some kind of record - I didn't teach any classes!) and probably just grabbing a drink after work because tomorrow I'm going shopping on one of the cheapo yet high fashiony type streets here in São Paulo early in the morning, and then playing it by ear for the rest of the weekend.

I think that's it. Sorry I've been neglectful. I will update more often, I PROMISE! (did I say that last time? ... hope not.)

BEIJOKAS.