Home Sweet Home

Today is the day! We leave for Atlanta tonight!  I don't even care how long the flight is, we are all just so anxious to be home for the holidays!  We are going to try to get our tree up in time and Liam still needs to visit Santa!  We have a lot we are trying to squeeze in before the big day!

Atlanta

Feliz Natal!

I was honored to be invited to participate in the Sao Paulo office Amigo Secreto gift exchange.  Though the gift exchange was done entirely in Portuguese and I didn't really get any of the jokes that everyone thought was hilarious, I could tell everyone was having a great time and it was fun to watch at least.  It's similar to how it works back home but the fun twist here is you describe the person you bought for and everyone has to guess who it is.  Let me emphasize here... this is a fun office!   Coincidentally my secret amigo turned out to be Paulo!  He bought me a wonderful book about Brazil (in both English and Portuguese) that is encouraging David and I to want to take some weekend side trips out of the city!

 
Most importantly, this office knows how to EAT for a holiday!  Lunch at Fogo de Chao??....sim por favor!!  The guys from the Rio office also flew in to join us.  Honestly, it all felt more like a family get-together than an office holiday party!  Everyone here is so kind and fun! Makes for a great party!

Everyone was also nice enough to let me participate in the christmas raffle for prizes and guess what....I actually WON something!!!  A weekend trip to the mountains - Campos do Jordao!! So now we have to explore outside the city!  Can't wait!!

Rain, rain, go away....

This was the theme song for the weekend, it rained for 3 days straight.... I'm noticing a trend on my weather center app...the forecast is almost always the same.....80% chance of rain

Team Meeting, Brazilian style

Yay! I found a substitute for our team meeting treats!  I'm not gonna lie, I still miss the Chick-fil-A brownie sundae, but this will at least help hold me over!  ....and it's probably healthier too!  (FYI the pronounciation is Ah-Sigh-EE)

acai com morango

Work Update

A few things about working in the DL Sao Paulo Office:
The office is on Avenida Paulista, the main busines street so there are tons of restaurants within a few minutes walk. We are on the 15th floor with a great view.  I had to learn how to say 15 in portuguese because here you can't push your own button on the elevator, you have to tell the elevator operator what floor you want her to push (and by "operator" I mean she sits on a stool in the elevator and pushes the buttons).  Instead of the Kcup machine we have in the atlanta breakroom they have the Nespresso machine which is awesome!! and has made me a daily coffee drinker again. Seriously, I am buying one for christmas for our house :)  Everyone in the office has been really helpful with my attempting to speak Portuguese.  They correct my pronunciation and help with translating words.  This once led to a 20 minute lesson on helping me say the "ao" sound (one of the toughest for non-native speakers to learn).  I also had my first visit with Gol this past week, I met with the flight profitability team and we discussed how our systems are different.  Pretty fascinating discussion!  I will be visiting with them once a week to talk more in-depth.  So that's some of the highlights!



view from the office



Portuguese homework from one of the girls in the office :)



Tastes of Brazil

Alternate post title - "why Kelly is gaining weight".  In case you don't remember, I'm the one who typically eats a SmartOne at my desk for lunch, so given that the pictures below are of my recent lunches you can understand why I might be putting on a few!  Lunch is the main meal of the day here - people eat big lunches.  I just need to stop eating the big dinner too!


Chicken with catupiry (this cheese is amazing!)



Best chocolate of Brazil

Filet with farofa



Japanese




Por Kilo - as random a meal as you want to make it



Photos!...I know, finally!

Mercado Municipal de São Paulo



Proof I can do laundry without a dryer (though thankfully one is coming this week!)



View from bridge in Parque Ibirapuera

Let the fun begin!

Now that the whole family is here and we've worked through the initial shock, mostly from the flight and getting Liam on a new schedule, we were able to get out and have some fun!  We spent an afternoon at Ibirapuera Park (yes we were the only ones throwing a baseball around) and enjoyed a family dinner together at one of my favorite Brazilian things so far - a Por Kilo restaurant.  These are AWESOME!  It's similar to a buffet style where you see the food and pick out what you want for your plate but you only pay for the food by its weight.  The variety of food available varies by restaurant but I have not been disappointed yet!  It makes meals really affordable while still eating great food.  Seriously I wish this was common at home.

My favorite food so far is a pastel.  Brazilians know how to do fried food and as a Southerner I can truly appreciate that.   I'm really enjoying the food more than I thought I would and there are still a lot of things left to try!

I still can't believe how expensive everything is here.  I have already started a list of things I want to bring back next time.  Simple things, like ziplock bags and goldfish.  Oh, and I finally met someone in my building who speaks English!  I'm pretty sure I scared him with my overreaction to meeting him but he was nice enough to play it cool.

Oh and in case any of you were wondering, yes we were able to watch the SEC championship game, but man I could have gone without seeing that one.  What a heart breaker.....

Week one recap

As someone who is always attached to my iphone and obsessed with my apps, it has been a very strange and sometimes lonely experience this week not having data service or internet.  I only had a handful of english channels to choose from on the TV, However, this was entirely user error as I had not been able to figure out how to convert American programming back into english.  Once I stumbled upon the correct buttons to accomplish this (not until thursday! - that is 3 days of watching nothing but bloomberg news, BBC, and E!) I literally stood up and cheered every time I found a new channel I could convert to english!!!

Since this week has been a random mix of events and experiences here is a random list to highlight a few:
1) Taxi drivers that speak a little english are a lot of fun to talk to - they are trying to practice their english in preparation for World Cup visitors so they are willing to let you practice your Portuguese as well.
2) This city is so big and complicated, I've even had a taxi driver using his GPS and a paper map at the same time to find my destination.
3) Even if a Brazilian doesn't speak english, if you tell them you are American they often respond by saying "Obama!" and giving a thumbs up!
4) In the grocery store, despite the initial excitement of seeing brands you recognize, you quickly realize the portion is much smaller while the price is much higher than what you are used to.
5) As in all other travels abroad, if you get too overwhelmed and need a break, find a Starbucks!  Free wifi and cafe mocha in Portuguese is still cafe mocha!
6) Google translate app is my new best friend, if only I had data service and could use it anywhere.
7) Sao Paulo is a vibrant, unique city but if I had to try to describe it in terms of others cities, I would say its like a Miami-esque version of New York, but spread out and huge like London.
8) My flat overlooks the landing path for the domestic airport so even when I'm home I can't get away from planes.   :) (this is actually really cool, reminds me of San Diego where the planes come in so close to the city buildings it looks like you're going to land on them).

Though language is going to continue to be a struggle, I am REALLY excited and think I will LOVE it here.  Can't wait to get out and do some tourist-y things!

Classic Brazilian Welcome

After a 10 hour flight in coach (middle seat), I arrived to a rainy Sao Paulo.  Didn't think much of it until I quickly learned that rain (just like in Atlanta) makes traffic worse, only much much worse here.  It was over 3 hours before I arrived at my apartment ("Post Sao Paulo"), it was a rough ride,  jerky stop and go driving that made me motion sick and annoying music (not Brazilian music by the way some kind of early 90's American soul music cover band).   Despite the ride, I was just SO THANKFUL to be able to finally stand on my own two feet and walk around.  A WONDERFUL lady named Daniela was at the apartment to greet me and basically spend the day helping me out.  She was AMAZING, seriously could not have survived the day without her.  I stopped into the office for a little bit to meet everyone and take care of some administrative stuff but then left to go home and get some sleep (since I didn't sleep well on the flight and still felt sick).   Still too overwhelmed to get into any of the details yet so for now I'll leave you with -

 Lessons learned from Day 1:
1)When people say traffic is horrendous in Sao Paulo, what they really mean is traffic is truly indescribable, a word doesn't exist to convey the horror of it.
2)Learning how to say "excuse me do you speak english" was a complete waste of time since 98% of the time the answer is "no speak english" or just a stare.
3)I am convinced I will be fluent in Portuguese before I leave because there is no way to survive without learning it.
4)You will be the joke of the day if you ask why you have a washing machine and not a dryer.  Seriously, I think every one in the entire office was told the story.
5) Delta people are nice everywhere!  Everyone in the office here is sooo friendly, they are mostly sales people.  One could argue they are nicer than finance :)

I miss Atlanta already, definitely looking forward to going home next weekend :)  I have already developed a new found appreciation for all things American!

Countdown to Departure - 2 days

So I finally nailed down a few details of the impending 6 month move to Sao Paulo.  Of which most importantly was that my departure date is in 2 DAYS!!   The rest of the family will wait till after thanksgiving to move down.  We will be living in Moema, a neighborhood close to the office. (And also conveniently close to the main park in the city!)  I'm still only on lesson 4 of Pimsleur's conversational Portuguese so I suppose I will be pointing a lot and drawing pictures to communicate when I can't find an English speaker.

I haven't packed a single thing, in fact my luggage is currently still residing in the attic.  My goal for the next 24 hours is to make an extensive list of all the things I will need to take with me with the hopes that I can get everything packed on Saturday (while watching college football of course).   Unfortunately this means we will not be attending the wedding of Lawdog and Callie, which I'm sure will be both beautiful and a lot of fun! (Shout out to the rest of the FPS crew that will be attending, I hope you behave yourselves! And if you don't I better be copied on the evidence that circulates next week.)

Wish me good luck - I seriously need all I can get!

Oh and here's an article I will be referencing this weekend- packing tips from Deltalina.