Rio

I came across this on the web today, and I realized I don't think I've mentioned our three trips to Rio de Janeiro.

Our first was in February '05, just about 6 months after we moved to Brazil. Our best friends in Brazil (an Austrian and Brazilian couple) had been to Rio numerous times, and were our guides. There was also some big meeting at the plant that week, so there were a bunch of "gringos" in town and, well, when in Brazil it seems to be a requirement to visit Rio. So, we went. What stands out in my memory from this trip is caipirinihas on Ipanema beach, finding the "Top Beer" in Ipanema, and making the Rio to SJC run in record time (about 3-1/2 hours). Of course, the awe of seeing Rio for the first time is indelible. It's a beautiful city. Good times, indeed.

Our second trip was in September '05 when my brother, his wife, and 2-year old son came down for a visit. This time, we drove into Rio ourselves, unescorted. A big step for us. My boss was like a nervous father about us going alone. He called me the night before to make sure I really knew what I was doing. I assured him we'd be fine. You see, even Brazilian's have a fearful respect of Rio's high crime rate. I would say 75% of my co-workers had never been to Rio, and would never go. I guess it's similar to what we might say about visiting Camden or Newark after dark. We hired a tour guide for the day, who showed us the highlights of the city.

Our third trip was in March, 2006, when my friend Brian visited. We hired the same tour guide, and again had a great tour of the city. We spent one afternoon walking the length of Ipanema beach, even past Posto 9, and onto the rocks between Ipanema and Copacabana beaches. (Posto 9 means, basically, block 9 of the beach - it's where all those with the best bodies supposedly hang out) We had a few cervejas along the way, of course.

Rio is beautiful, there's no doubt about it. Someday, I'll go back. For now, I'll just enjoy the memories.

Consular Warning

When you register as an ex-pat with the US Consulate in Brazil, you are placed on their mailing list to receive Consular Warnings. These notices come out from time to time with cautionary advise when trouble is perceived to be imminent. Here's the one I received today:

U.S. Consulate Sao Paulo, Brazil
May 11, 2007

Security Alert Regarding PCC Anniversary

This warden message serves to alert American Citizens resident in Sao Paulo that this Mother's Day, Sunday May 13th will mark the one year anniversary of the First Capitol Command (PCC) violence that plagued Sao Paulo one year ago. The PCC was responsible for three major attacks in Sao Paulo since May 2006. The attacks involved widespread violence throughout the city and the State of Sao Paulo and disrupted public transportation. Public buses, government buildings, banks and gasoline stations were amongst the targets of attack. Although there is no indication at this time that there will be any repeat occurrences of these acts this weekend, the potential and the uncertainty surrounding the PCC's activities continue to exist and the potential to be in the wrong place at the wrong time can occur at any moment.

U.S citizens should be cognizant of potential police activity in their areas with respect to checkpoints and roadblocks and exercise caution especially when using ATM machines. These incidents in particular highlight the importance of insuring that you have good communication at your disposal, including cell-phones.

The incident they are referring to happened just before we left Brazil. It was probably the most notable security-alert situation we encountered during our 2 year stay. The violence erupted when the leader of the PCC (a ruthless Brazilian prison gang - think Bloods or Crypts, only not as nice) was placed in solitary confinement after causing some kind of ruckus - apparently involving a denied request for TVs for the prisoners to watch the upcoming World Cup. The PCC inside, contacted their PCC brethren on the outside (they had cellphones in jail), and what amounted to a mini-war broke out. PCC were shooting police, even off-duty in their homes or out to dinner with their families. Police were shooting PCC members on sight. Tons of buses were burned (they allowed the bus riders to get off first). Burning tire barricades were erected. All the major highways in and out of Sao Paulo were empty - an eerie sight for roads which are normally some of the most congested in the world. Even the malls in SJC were empty.

The violence was mainly centered in Sao Paulo (the city), but it was contagious and soon spread throughout Sao Paulo State. SJC had it's share of incidents as well, and we would all gather around the "Nescafe" espresso machine the next morning to review them. I remember a story of a school teacher in SJC who was killed while walking home from school - just at the wrong place at the wrong time.

We were moderately concerned for a weekend or two. Since we were in a gated community, I think we convinced ourselves the chances were low anything would happen to us, but that was perhaps a bit naive. We limited trips to the Carrefour to a minimum and otherwise kept a low profile.

After it was all over with and the burning busses were extinguished, by the following weekend, things seemed pretty much back to normal. We even ventured our to Sao Paulo a few more times.

More information:
What is the PCC?
News article from May, 2006

Dream Job?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,270603,00.html

To some, a dream job. To others, the road to dependency. You decide.

Centro do Brasil

I received 3-month "Netflix" subscription and I've finally started catching up on some movies I haven't seen over the past decade or so. I used to go to movies quite regularly, but I guess with travelling so much and working a hectic schedule, it's been tough. My fist rentals were "Babel" (4 of 5 stars) and "Rushmore" (4 of 5 stars). "Rushmore" has been on my list for years. just never got around to getting it. This was Bill Murray's prototype for his character in "Lost in Translation", which ranks as one of the top movies I remember seeing during all my flights to Brazil and back. I saw "Office Space" (4 of 5) this weekend, another one I hadn't gotten around to, and I can see now why people consider it a classic. The sorta "Beastie-Boy-video-esqe" scene of them smashing the fax machine is hysterical.

I rented "Central Station" the other weekend. I had not heard of it previously, but it received high marks in the foreign film section on Netflix. It's a Brazilian film which won a bunch of international film awards in 1998 when it came out. It's a good story, and not what exactly what I expected. I recommend it if you're looking for a good drama, and want to see some of the more rural areas of Brazil.

Click for movie preview.

The movie follows the main characters from Rio de Janeiro to the some of the poorest regions of Brazil in the Northeast. This is an entirely different Brazil than we were exposed to. Let's face it, we lived a somewhat sheltered and a very comfortable life there. The town we lived in was rated one of the top best in Brazil, was relatively safe, and was in the most affluent state in Brazil. By contrast, the Northeast is the Third World. It's eye-opening to get a glimpse into the lives of the people that live there through this movie. Although extremely poor and struggling at every turn just to get their next meal, they keep a nearly fanatical devotion to God and family. I guess in those circumstances, you need to have something else to focus on rather than reality. See it and you'll know what I mean.

Marsalis the Hutt?

This. Is. Awesome.

A video mashup of two of my favorite movies. Congrats to whoever made this:



As a director, producer, videographer, key grip (whatever that is), and editor at zip1010productions, I wish I had the time and a vision to put one of these together.

7 Minutes

Summary of first six Sopranos' seasons in 7 minutes. Excellent work. Congratulations to whoever made this. It will no doubt soon be everywhere on the net. No, not just 'cause I linked it...




Then again, this isn't so bad either...
Click here for FULL SCREEN.

France

The past couple of weekends, I was in France. One of the projects I am involved with at work required a weeklong visit to a client's site in Grenoble, France. Travel is one of the perks I have in my job, but the chance to travel internationally has been unfortunately rare as of late. So, I jumped at this chance, even taking my wife along for some vacation time. We wound up spending about 11 days total in France - starting with three days in Paris, about a week in Grenoble, then a weekend in Lyon. The trip was great - we saw the famous sites of Paris, ate a lot of fantastic food, and had the chance to explore a bit on our own. Our vacation style can be best described as "active self-guided exploration". Prior to the trip, we scoped out the places we wanted to see on the internets, and then found our way once we got there.

What surprised us the most about travelling across France might surprise you too. Rude French people? No. Actually, we felt like we busted that myth. We found the folks there to be downright pleasant and helpful. The shocking thing was that there is graffiti everywhere. Finding it in the cities was not shocking, but looking out the train window for three hours en route from Paris to Grenoble, it seemed every brick wall, overpass, and stationary object was decorated with some type of "street art". Somehow, now I don't feel as bad about the tagging I see in Jersey.

Here's a travel tip: When driving lost in a city, for instance Lyon, find yourself a bus-stop and check out the little kiosk. You will often find a map of the city with a "you are here" (vous êtes ici) indicator which you can use to adjust your route. Worked for us. Perhaps it was fortunate we found our way safely to our hotel. As you can tell from this photo I snapped, it appears that Lyon has some fairly liberal gun laws.

Out of the Office, Part Deux

Just to clarify my general whereabouts last week:

Out of the Office

Guess where I was today...

Alemeda dos Acarás, 23

I miss our house in Brazil. As you can see in the pictures, it was a good looking place, and the perfect size for the three of us. Actually, it was spacious for us - it had 4 bedrooms, 4-1/2 baths with a jacuzzi in the master bath, large den, huge kitchen, maid's quarters, pool, sauna, deck, attached patio BBQ area (my favorite spot in the house), and was easily 3x as large as our house here. The details were top of the line too - exotic hardwood floors and tons of closet space. The living room had slider doors to the deck, and with the doors open, it had a great "bringing the outdoors in" feeling.


Like all the other houses in the development, it was walled off on three sides, the only open side was to the street. This gave the backyard a more private feel, but considering the house next door had bedroom windows that directly overlooked our pool area, and the incessant barking of their pack of dogs, you couldn't completely block out the rest of the world. We were lucky though to have no neighbors behind us - behind us was the common park, tennis courts, BBQ area, and playground - so I believe it was one of the best locations in the development.

The pool and sauna were great. My wife took care of the pool cleaning and chlorinating duties; she liked the challenge. There were plenty of palm trees and other exotic flora around to make the backyard a great place to hang out. In the mornings, hummingbirds were usually drinking from the birds-of-paradise plants. Little lizards were everywhere.





Other houses in the neighborhood were just as nice. Our friends lived across the street in this house. We spent a lot of time over there, enjoying some of Brazil, Chile, and Austria's finest beverages.


Having a comfortable house to live in made the Brazilian expat experience all the more enjoyable for us.

Finally

Well, I finally made the update I said was on it's way. There's still some tweaking to be done around the edges, but it'll be ok like this for a while. What started all this was that I liked the 3-column layout better than the two, but it quickly became a game of "well, if I'm going to change this, I might as well change that too", and so the project grew. There are a ton of resources out there on the net for this kind of a conversion, and it was a good chance to dust-off my old coding skills.

It's not recommended to be viewed at resolutions less than 1024 x 768, and best at higher rates.

I have a few more ideas up my sleave, but I am not going to promise any timetables.

Update

Just a quick note that I'm still here. I've clearly fallen off the wagon in terms of my weekly posting schedule for FLFB. I have a pretty big change coming for the look of the blog, but I haven't been able to work on it lately. I'm still interested in sharing my Brazilian experiences, and I've been going through a ton a photos and videos I made during our time in South America, so there is enough fodder to keep the site going. I just need to get to it.

Below are a few pictures (not mine) of places I'll eventually be discussing.

Here's a shot from Sao Jose dos Campos, near the mall, about 2km from where our house was:


Here's a scenic shot from Iguazu Falls. About 1 year ago today, we took a 14 hour road trip across Brazil to visit these falls. They were spectacular beyond words, and beyond all concept of what you probably think of when you think of waterfalls. (You're probably picturing Niagara Falls). The place puts Niagara Falls to shame. For some perspective, in the middle of the left edge of the picture, you can see a footbridge. This footbridge was about 1km long, and the picture is probably showing about a third of it. The picture shows only a few of the 275 falls that are in this area.

Almost there...

Ok. So, I didn't quite hit my self-described deadline of getting the new and improved FLFB up and running over the Holidays. Sure, I had time off, but I was running around quite a bit to family affairs and the like. And, it takes time to redesign the site, and a lot of research on how to program in Blogger script. I'm getting there. Be patient if you can.

Also, I'm still having some nagging issues even logging into Blogger. It seems since they went from Blogger Beta to Blogger 2.0, I somehow lost my ability to login directly. So, even logging in to make the changes takes a little longer.

While you wait, here are some happy scenarios to ponder. Happy Thoughts.

Feliz Natal!

The weather has been unusually warm the past few weeks - yesterday it was near 60°F (about 16°C). 16°C is considered cool, borderline cold there. I used to keep my office at about 20°C, and my staff would literally bring jackets with them for meetings. For easy conversions of °C to °F, here's the trick I found: double then add 30°. It's approximate, of course, but close enough to know if you need to wear short or long sleeves. Converting weights and measures took some getting used to, and the English system sure is challenging compared to metric. It's no wonder that 99% of the world uses metric.

Here's hoping everyone has a Merry Christmas and a safe New Year. I'm off next week, and plan to make an overhaul to the blog, so stay tuned...

Someone caught Santa chillin' in Rio:

Still here...

I've been a little slow posting the past few weeks, what with the upcoming Holidays and all. I've been having some rather frustrating log-on issues with Blogger which has kept me off pace. In the meantime, I've been organizing our various pictures and videos from the past few years, and working on a few upgrades for FLFB, which you should be seeing in a few weeks. Stay tuned...

37000

I flew over the Amazon many, many times over the last few years, and never realized there was air-traffic control no coverage zone there. Apparently, it’s widely known within the air controller circles, and probably the kind of thing they talk about when they get together for picanha and Brahma on the weekends. You’ve all no doubt heard about the mid-air collision that occurred over the Amazon a few months ago involving a passenger jet and a corporate jet. The collision occurred at 37,000 feet. Here’s a link to a blog of one of the passenger’s on board the corporate jet who is writing to clear the names of the pilots. Reading through the stories of alleged corruption, cover-ups, worker strikes, and death threats for the two pilots, I can’t help but be reminded of “A Death in Brazil” (the book I told you about in a previous post). The situation is different, but the web of intrigue and drama seems straight out of a novela.

Following the continuing story here:
http://joesharkeyat.blogspot.com/

Cultural Learnings

Here's another funny Skol beer commercial. The last few seconds are the funniest.



It might seem odd that this commercial would be shown in Brazil - it could be misinterpreted that Brazil couldn't win any other way than cheating. Clearly, if that was the true message, the commercial writers and producers would not be able to show themselves on the streets anywhere in Brazil for fear of reprisals. So, I believe this is an example of a cultural perception bias. Here in the US, we tend to follow rules more strictly than in Brazil, for instance, so we would view this commercials as an outrageous act. But, I believe in Brazil this is probably perceived as a creative way to humiliate the Argentinians (their arch-rivals in soccer - think Yankees/Red Sox times 100).

Believe it or not, this concept of cultural differences towards following rules was a lesson we learned from our Cross-Cultural Trainer before we left for Brazil (more about this in another post). In anthropological terms, it's known as Trompenaars' laws of Universalism vs. Particularism. According to the class, Germans and the Scandinavians tend to be the strictest rule followers; The Chinese, Russians, and certain Latin American cultures tend to be less driven by the means, and more focused on the results. I really enjoyed our CC training class - I find these kinds of differences fascinating, which is probably one reason I enjoyed my time in Brazil so much. I looked forward to discovering these cultural differences or linguistic differences. (Overview article here, more in-depth cultural differences discussion here).

Generalizing here a bit... My perception was that the people in Brazil tended to find creative and unique solutions to problems; solutions which may somewhat push the boundaries of "the rules"; the kind of solutions that once the result was achieved - the rule that was overcome was re-written to match the newly developed solution. The solutions were often based on superior negotiation skills, interpersonal relationships, or just overwhelming personal commitment to finding a way.

In Brazil, they have a word for this: "jeito" (or "jeitinho" diminutive form). Basically, it means finding a way around your problem. Here's an article explaining a little more, although the author tends to focus on illegal activities - this is not what I'm implying about my experience. In my case, I saw this spirit in action at work overcoming challenges or, at times, when my boss's executive assistant would find ways to make things happen for us - like getting certain government paperwork rushed through or dealing with disputes with our cell-phone service provider.

This is an aspect of the culture that really left an impression on me. It's a filter for me now when I'm watching the news, dealing with the crisis of the week at work, or just life in general. I think I'm more apt to try to view a situation from the otherside as a means to finding a win-win solution.

This could also explain why Borat was probably one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time. See it if you haven't, and you will appreciate cultural differences, even if they are made up.

Happy Seniors

A loyal FLFB reader sent me the following link.

"They're much happier"

The article speaks for itself.

Turkey

Here in the US, it's Thanksgiving. This is our first Thanksgiving in the States since 2003. One year ago today we were exploring Macchu Picchu, Peru. Perhaps ironically, "peru" in Portuguese means turkey.

Two years ago, we celebrated Thanksgiving at our home in Sao Jose dos Campos. For probably the first time in my career, I was working on Thanksgiving day. I followed the Brazilian holiday schedule while working there of course, which turns out to me more lucrative in terms of days out of the office compared to the US schedule. My Brazilian co-workers often refered to Thanksgiving as "the most important holiday for the US". It's hard to say if it's the most important, but certainly does signify a time where familes and friends get together, eat copious amounts of food, and generally enjoy a few days off from work.

We were able to have a mostly authentic Thanksgiving day dinner in Brazil - the only table standard we were not able to find was cranberry sauce. There are no cranberries in Brazil as far as I was able to ascertain. (Blueberries were equally hard to come by, although someone did once tell me they spotted them in Sao Paulo) Beyond this realitively minor setback, we had just about everything else you probably had, or are going to have, today.

As for the turkey, we cooked what is known in Brazil as a "chester", which is either the same as turkey or some subspecies of turkey, I could never quite figure that out. But, it tastes like turkey nonetheless. Regular turkey is called "peru", but this bird they called "chester". Either way, it was tasty, and when cooked just right, comes out looking like this.
We had all the other standards: mashed potatoes, corn and other assorted veggies; I made some bread in our "Breadman" bread maker; salad; and a good bottle of Chilean wine.


Happy Thanksgiving.

Rio 22 - Restaurant Review

It's time for a new feature of Formerly Live from Brazil: Restaurant Reviews. In particular, you guessed it, Brazilian-themed restaurants. This past weekend, we found out about a Brazilian BBQ-style restaurant that recently opened up in Union NJ, off of Route 22. It's called Rio 22. Having been to quite a few authentic Brazilian BBQ restaurants (I've been meaning to post about these churrascaria restaurants as a topic here on FLFB, but haven't had the chance yet), my review will be based on comparing this restaurant to the real thing.

Atmosphere: Rio 22 has an upscale setting, very comfortable, clearly the kind of place to which you can bring a bunch friends, family, or co-workers and not have to worry about being too loud. This is similar to the ones I remember from Brazil. In some ways, it reminded me of "Porcão" from Rio de Janeiro, so I guess their name fits. Rio22 even had the red/green coasters on the tables to alert your waiter about your receptiveness to more meat.

Salad Bar: Conceptually, very similar. In fact, the layout of the salad bar was nearly identical, with various salads and plates of side-dishes arrayed around the circumference of a large table. The majority of the dishes were not the same as in Brazil, they were more reflective of local favorites. They did have a few fish-dishes (cod fish salad, and something with little octopuses), rice and beans, and chicken strogonoff which can be found in every Brazilian BBQ. I missed the sushi rolls, although Rio 22 has an entire Sushi bar to choose from - just not included with the salad bar (at least that I saw).

Appetizers: Every Brazilian BBQ lays out some appetizers on the table to go with the meal, typically fried bananas, Pão de queijo , french fries, bread, yams, small salgados stuffed with meat, and rice. Rio 22 had similar - french fries, onion rings, fried bananas, and I was happy to see pão de queijo . Very authentic pao de qeuijo, I might add. I hadn't had one of these in a while. Yum.

Drinks: They had imported Brahma. (See "Cervejas" below). I had a couple, but not a bucket. We didn't get any caipirinhas, but I imagine you could get a good one here.

Meat: Mmmmm. Meat. That about says it all. The never-ending, table-served meat included: top sirloin, filet mignon wrapped in bacon, roast beef, flank steak, chicken, lamb, and picanha. A real Atkins lover's dream, and your cardiologist's nightmare. I have been craving picanha ever since my BBQ post. I even stopped in at a local butchershop to ask for it, and they looked at me like I was from Mars. I just saw on Wikipedia that it's called "rump cover" in the US, so maybe I'll try that next time, although, if that's not what it's called, I'll get strange looks asking for that too. Rio 22's was a real treat, and it was excellent. It was really, really good to have this again. Another authentic touch was having farofa and vinaigrette salsa at the table for dipping or topping the meat, respectively.

Coffee: I had a good expresso after the meal, which tasted authentic.

Price. This is the most noteable difference. In Brazil, dinner for two at the local Rodizio always wound up costing about R$100 - including drinks and dessert. (roughly US$35 - US$50, depending on the exchange rate at the time). Here, it was about that much for 1 person. So, roughly 2x-3x the price. It's a bit of an unfair comparison though since meat, fish, and the going rate for cooks and waiters is less expensive in Brazil. For the price, the value you get is more than comparable to a night out at a good restaurant, if not more so given that it's all you can eat.

Recommendation: If you are curious about Brazilian BBQ, definately check Rio 22 out. If you know me, and would like to go, let me know and we'll plan a night. We went on a Sunday afternoon, so I didn't experience the nightlife. I have the feeling Friday or Saturday night would be a fun time to go, judging at least by the size and layout of the bar, and the drink specials.

If you go, let me know if you agree with my recommendation.