em movimento

It's moving day tomorrow!

Hopefully we will have an update for everyone after we get settled in at our new place. (And a video of the dogs in their new pool!)

In other news- I had my first dream in which I had to speak Portuguese last night. Still very basic, but I've never dreamt in another language before.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

o que estamos fazendo aqui?

Its probably time for me to write, probably past time, actually. Here is a question and answer session that I held with myself, hopefully this helps out some?

What are you (two) doing down in Brasilia, Brazil?
Well, I think some(all) of you know that my company was able to land a project down here and I was given the task of bringing the project to fruition. The process went something like this:

Manager -> Entire consulting team: We have an opportunity in Brazil for 6 months let me know if you are interested. 

Brett -> Natalie: Want to move to Brazil for 6 months?

Natlie->Brett: YES! but we need to bring the dogs

Brett -> Manager: I'm interested but I would need to bring my wife.

Manager -> Brett: We are going with someone else

Brett -> Natalie: We didn't get it.

Fast forward almost 2 months.

Manger -> Brett: Are you still interested?

Brett -> Manager: Yes but I will be bringing my wife.

Manger -> Brett: OK.

And there you have it, we packed up and headed to Brazil. You can read about our trip on our other posts. (Start here)

So what exactly is it that you are working on?
I'll try my best to explain. I'm working with another consulting company who helped my company land the deal. As an additional duty for the other consulting company they are helping translate the Portuguese to English for me, which is nice.

We (my company and the other consulting company) are working with the organization that regulates telecommunications in Brazil. The reason the contract came about is because Brazil will be hosting the World Cup next summer (hence the World Cup banner at the top) and FIFA has asked Brazil to meet certain requirements. Some of these requirements are telecommunication based.

Just answer the question! What are you working on?

My job will be to help our customer implement a risk management and network monitoring solution. 

What??

Essentially FIFA wants Brazil to be able to anticipate problems in their telecommunications networks and then when a problem happens, have a resolute way to deal with it. 

Okay, I think I get it... so, how's it going so far?

Good question... since I've been down here, its been rough from a project perspective. The week before we arrived our project went on hold. The primary competitor and the people we beat out to win the contract have essentially sued (my lack of legal knowledge of the Brazilian goverment is going to hinder me here) stating that we cheated? to win the project. This has put a complete stop in communications with our customer and we are really unable to move forward. 

At first we heard the project would resume April 29th, but as of Monday we have heard a decision may come May 29th. The information we got did not sound too enthusiastic about the results... I am hoping that we get a decision soon because we were hoping to have a Proof of Concept (POC) system up for the Confederations Cup. As an asside the Confederations Cup is a small 8 team tournament that takes place the year before the World Cup. It is essentially the "dry run". The first game is June 15th. 

Thankfully this has absolutely nothing to do with me and is a complete legal matter. In fact, the work I have done for this project has received some high praises from my management. 

That sounds like good and bad news all mixed up. Are there any issues if the POC doesn't get completed by the Confederations Cup?

Another good question. I'm not sure. From what I have gathered the focus is really on the World Cup so as long as we can meet the project requirements in time for that, then we should be OK. I secretely dream that this legal dispute lasts for such a long time that it forces FIFA to move the World Cup to the USA. The USA is always the back up country incase something should happen to the host country. I certainly will not do anything to cause this, however.

OK, enough about work, what are your impressions of Brazil?

First impressions, the weather is perfect, every day the same, every day the right temperature. I guess they have a rainy season, but I think we will miss that. Also, Portuguese is very tough and most people don't speak English (which is not surprising). Natalie is doing a much better job of learning than I am. 

How's the traffic?

Actually not bad, we have a rental car and I drive to and from work every day. I would say 90% of traffic are cars, the other 10% being busses and work trucks, etc. Of those cars about 80% are compact cars. There are almost zero SUVs or trucks. There are both aggressive and non aggressive drivers here. I have found if you have confidence in your driving and don't hesitate you can get by just fine.

How's the food?

Decent actually. We have a grocery store right by us and have found a Walmart (mostly food focused) that we shop at. When we go out we usually go to a buffet which is perfect for us because we don't have to order off a menu. I miss breakfast food and mexican food the most. Also, they don't have peanut butter?

How's the apartment?

I think its fine. We have just enough space for everyone. We both wish the pool was opened but that doesn't seem like its going to happen before we move out. We will both be glad when the dogs can just run around outside with out us having to take them up and down the elevator. 

What do you do for fun?

Read Natalie's posts! We are still working on some of that though. Its not exactly a vacation as I'm working full time (actually around 50 hours a week) so weekends are very similar to being back home, they are used as a time to recover from the previous week and prepare for the coming week. After the Confederations Cup is over and we have moved into our new, more permanent, place we will be looking to visit other cities.

Well, I want to thank you for your time, maybe your next post won't be in another 5 weeks.

You are welcome, happy to answer these questions. I make no promises on my next post...

If you have any other questions, feel free to leave them in the comments!

parque nacional de brasília

We haven’t updated in a while, simply because we haven’t really been up to anything exciting!

As South America is rapidly approaching the “northern solstice” the daylight is decreasing each day. Speaking of winter- all of the stores down here have been putting out their sweaters and heavy coats. HAHA. It never gets below 70 here. Funny Brazilians. When Brett gets home it’s usually dark, so we have been catching up on some TV shows and going to the mall. We’ve been eating out a lot because a) the company pays for it, and b) our kitchen is super small and I don’t have my basic pantry supplies! I will eventually buy some more staples, but from what I’ve seen there isn’t a whole lot to buy (they have like four spices at the grocery store. Total).

Our next kitchen should have a bit more counter space, and in addition to an oven we will have a wood-fire oven outside! We’re going to attempt to make a real pizza (don’t get us started on the pizza here) and also do some BBQ. I’m really excited about our next place! I think that the dogs will enjoy it as well. They will have unlimited access to the outside, something I think they really miss. (We don’t miss them ringing their bell every five minutes to be let out in the backyard, though)

Two weekends ago Brett and I went out to the lake and had lunch. We went to a place called “Surf Bar” and they had a buffet (they love their buffets here). They also had a huge sushi buffet. I obviously got after that. We then walked down by the lake. Apparently on Saturday nights they set up a huge open air movie theatre. I think they were showing Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (from what we could translate on the schedule).

a nice view of the JK bridge!

all sushi!

Then we got some acai- a sorbet type dessert. It’s an interesting dish. Definitely a berry type taste, but not tart like you’d expect. It’s similar to if a banana and a blackberry had a baby. Very hard to explain. We got strawberries on ours.

This past weekend we ventured out the Brasilia’s National Park. They have a couple of swimming pools (only one in use) and some neat trails. Apparently they have Giant Anteaters, Maned Wolves, and other native species that live in the park. I realllllly wanted to see a Maned Wolf- look at how cool these are! I might have told Brett that I wanted to stumble upon a litter of puppies and take them home, Game of Thrones style.

We didn’t really see any wildlife except for some monkeys that came down to scour the pool area for scraps of food. They are cute! But to native Brazilians they are probably like giant squirrels. Oh well, we liked them. We walked through a rainforest-y trail that was probably about 1 km long. It was very quiet (no birds) and I joked that a jaguar was probably stalking us.

Brett was overdressed for our hike judging by the number of men in speedos that passed us on the trail.

anyone who watches Finding Bigfoot knows that this is clearly a 'squatch shelter

a Dharma Station. it was filled with water and probably snakes.

We are already planning to go back and pack a lunch for a weekday swim! It was super crowded on Sunday afternoon, so a weekday is probably best. So that’s what we’ve been up to! Nothing too terribly exciting! Brett is going to chime in soon and explain what he’s actually doing while we’re down here. (That was my subtle way of reminding him that he has a blog post to write)

at the "meditation" spot 

Small story about this last photo- the trilho de agua cristal (the crystal water trail) was like 5 km long and we started to walk it, but it was so hot and unshaded that we got the car and drove up there. Expecting to get to a lake (as indicated on the map), we got out of the car at about the 2.5 km mark and walked up to the "crystal water". It was really disappointing. Just a drainage area. 

o que somos até

So next week we will hit the one month mark of our arrival in Brazil! We are still in our current apartment until June 1^st, so we are currently looking for our next home. It would be really lovely if our complex would open the pool before then. Hopefully the next place that we stay can be a bit more “permanent”.  We are still slowly learning how to function as acting-Brazilians, for the time being.

We don’t really do a whole lot during the week as there’s not a lot to see here. Brasilia isn’t super tourist-y like, say, Washington D.C. Brasilia is the capital of Brazil. So, naturally, all of the official government buildings are here. Some of them are pretty neat and (I’m assuming) were designed by the same architect that designed most of the city when it was constructed in the 1950’s.

Some of the main, recognizable buildings/monuments are the National Congress, Juscelino Kubitschek (JK) bridge, Planalto Palace, Palácio da Justiça, and the Cathedral of Brasilia. We’ve driven around and seen the exteriors of all of these, and I’m not sure if you’re even allowed to go inside. The ministry buildings look like dorms. In fact, I think that’s what I thought they were at first.

National Congress

JK Bridge

Planalto Palace

Palácio da Justiça

I really want to go inside. The Cathedral of Brasilia.

Because this is the interior. It's all stained glass.

Another interesting thing we’ve noticed is that on Sunday from 7:00 am to 4:00 pm they shut down a major section of road in the middle of the city and it is open for bikers, walkers, etc. We like to see our movies on Sundays since the mall is noticeably less crowded (it’s a Catholic nation, so). I think I’ve mentioned it before but we have a mall right next to our complex. It’s an easy way to grab a quick bite to eat.

We have a favorite place there, mostly because it’s very easy to order since you just weigh your plate. They have a variety of traditional Brazilian foods (which I like) and a selection of Italian-inspired dishes (which Brett likes). I have to mention that okra is a very common vegetable down here. I love it, I just never expected to see it outside of the Southern US cuisine. There is also a little café on the bottom floor of the mall that is situated in the middle of the walkway, European style. We’ve also been to the Outback Steakhouse one time, but it was just an okay experience.

I’ve found that people here are way less forgiving if you can’t understand Portuguese. It doesn’t matter if you’re trying your best to speak as much as you know (we always do). It’s apparently really funny if you can’t speak the language. It made me think back to all of the encounters I’d had with people in the US who didn’t speak English. I think I can honestly say that I treated them with way more understanding than we are getting down here. It’s rare, but it happens. We are getting there!

On Saturday we went out to look at some apartments that we are interested in renting. I loved the first one, it has a small man-made pond in front that the dogs could swim in. It also has an open, airy feel to it and it’s situated on a wooded lot. The owner says that monkeys will sometimes come down and eat mangoes out of the trees, so that’s neat! The second one was okay- it had a pool, but no grassy area or yard for the dogs. It was very Californian in that it was entirely paved beyond the driveway gate. It had a lot of room though, and we would have it all to ourselves. We have a bit more looking to do, but Brett knows I really want the first one. How could you resist this?

Also, last weekend I entered the 8.5 km section of the Maratona de Brasilia (Brasilia Marathon). I don’t think many people knew but I was training for a half-marathon that happened to occur the Saturday that we were driving to Atlanta. That was unfortunate, but when we found out that the trip was a go I pretty much stopped training for it. The race on Sunday was fun; I wasn’t trying to improve any times or anything because I was kind of injured for most of the week leading up to the race.

The race itself started right in front of the Palácio da Justiça and passed by most of the major political buildings. It started early (I assume because of the heat) and the course was downhill for probably the first half.. I knew that was a bad sign. But- I finished and had a good experience. And I got a lot of stuff just for entering, so that was a plus. The finisher’s medal was also a bonus that I didn’t expect.

Feeling really gross.

So that’s what we are up to! Nothing super exciting really. Missing everyone back home of course (but not the KC weather). Here's a bonus video of Penny & Dessy playing:

dia do trabalho

The first of May is a holiday here in Brazil- it’s their Labor Day, essentially. So with Brett off of work, we took the morning slowly and ate breakfast on the balcony (I did, at least). Then we left for the zoo around noon. The ‘zoologico’ was apparently a very popular place to be on a midweek holiday.

There was a line of cars to get in that stretched well onto the highway. We pulled over on the side of the road to take our place in line. Getting in was the most time consuming part. There were people that were selling their wares along the side of the road (cotton candy, snacks, water bottles, hats, and flags) so it made for some interesting people-watching.

When we finally got to the front gate and paid (R$ 2 each!!) we drove through to find a parking spot. The interesting part about this zoo was that after you got inside, it was basically a big open park. You drove along streets and parked on the side and then got out and walked around. Plenty of families had set up blankets and hammocks and were just camping out for the day. If I had known you could bring in your own food, that’s what we would have done!

We first walked around and found some parrots. They had a lot of parrots! I noticed throughout the day that they often had more of an animal if it was native to South America. Makes sense. Also makes for an interesting zoo experience for North Americans! We don’t get to see a lot of these animals. Oh- they had two blue parrots in a cage, much like the birds in the movie ‘Rio’. We thought that was funny.

the remains of an old aviary 

the bird from rio

Next, we walked down to a lake-type exhibit with islands that housed all sorts of ‘macas’ (monkeys) and capybaras. Capybaras look like really big muskrats/rabbits, but then you see one get in the water and submerge itself completely and it really throws you! I’m also pretty sure that I read somewhere that capybaras are the closest living relative to the elephant. They can swim really well and were on each of the islands.

Marcel from Friends

After the lake monkeys we walked over to some smaller cages that had some more, smaller monkeys. Not very much action here, I think they were all nocturnal. Next we saw the giant anteater. They had a lot of these because- surprise- they’re native to the Amazon/South America in general. Unfortunately they were sleeping also.

'The animals cannot eat popcorn'

We saw the one rhino (you can get pretty close to the animals, it was surprising) and then decided to find a place for lunch. Once we did, we got in line. We had planned on ordering the ‘prato do dia’ which seemed to consist of rice, beans, beef, and a salad. It looked pretty good for R$ 15! Unfortunately, they ran out of it two people ahead of us. That put a kink in our plans to simply say “Dois prato do dia, por favor”. Instead we ordered bread with cheese in it, which is like Brazil’s favorite food. They even have a chain restaurant called “Casa do Pao de Queijo”.

There was a very lucrative popcorn scene at this zoo, so we each got a bag after lunch (because a piece of bread was not going to cut it). We wandered over to the big cat section. They had three jaguars! I think that’s more than I’ve ever seen at one zoo. Surprisingly, all of the cats were out and about. The tigers were sleeping, but still clearly visible. They had one lion, which was kind of sad.

They had two elephants and one of them was super close! The keeper was there doing something, so I think he was interested in that, but it made for some good pictures. I think I liked the elephant the best. Brett said that he liked the weird hawks that we saw near the parrots. After the elephants we walked by the two giraffes (they were far away). And past the one zebra and one wildebeest.

After that we decided to call it a day. The zoo itself looked like it had been built around the same time that the city was built (1950’s) and had not been updated since then. Or rather, they were trying to update it, but would start a project and run out of money.

All in all, I think that we had a pretty good time exploring the zoo here. The animals themselves seemed to be a lot more active than I expected on an 86-degree day.

Adeus!

closed :( 

oh no!

crisis averted.