Hello from Brazil
I am on the very slow and free internet at the hotel. I have only two hours free and my husband also works from here some, so I will have limited time to bore you with my drivel. I will try to keep it to the point and entertaining.
The trip was what you would hope for; completely uneventful. The only part that was bad, except for the fact that it was way too long, is that I had to wait at JFK in an airless room with about a million Italians in it. I like Italians, don't get me wrong, but there is one cultural difference that I find very annoying in public spaces. They have little or no personal bubble space and they don't grant you any either. I don't like being bumped into, crowded, have people jump in line in front of me, push me forward in line, slam their bags into me and then not apologize, etc. If you don't like that either, avoid Italy.
The music on my phone is working, but I bought the wrong type plug for the head phones, or rather I should say that the converter supplied with the phone does not fit any normal headphones and I will have to find a converter. Drat. Also, a phone is one of the things banned on planes - I should have thought of that.
I was picked up at the airport by the car service that IBM uses. It's funny here because some things are so cheap and others are way more expensive. The ride in this man's beamer plus his charming conversation in English (really - that was not sarcasm, the guy was really nice and seemed to think his job was to entertain me and educate me about his country) cost about $125 including tip. Of course, it's an hour and a half through Sao Paulo to the smaller suburb of Campinas, but still....that's a hell of a cab ride.
I have been to Central America and did not expect what I found here. This is like Southern Europe. There are more Italians here than in Jersey, and they speak Italian. There are Lebanese, Japanese and Spanish mix. There are huge expanses of beautiful hilly forests, awesome skyscrapers, expensive villas, rows of condos.....and ghettos made of cardboard and plywood with no signs of electricity or running water. An interesting mix.
Campinas, the town I am in, is a rich suburb of only a million people (Sao Paulo is 12 million itself), and it reminds me of some of the rich suburbs of Paris, with little parks and churches, and trendy ittle boutiques and bars all within walking distance. The Tryp hotel is luxurious, although the room is European small and well designed to get everything you need into the least possible cubic footage. The bathroom is 3-D tile, glass and chrome. No bidet, but this scary hose and spray head attached to the toilet - why???? anyway...
Outside the window, there is a large shcool. It looks very Spanish mission with tile roof, formal loggia, courtyards, etc. I can hear kids playing on the little playfield - they seem to be rotating their play periods so that someone is always out there, once again, efficient use of space. The bells are nasty electric buzzers, but other than that it is a pleasant noise.
This is winter and it is nicer weather than Spring at home. Yesterday, it was overcast and about 65 degrees - I had to wear a light sweater, and I wore a knit blouse and a wool shawl and black jeans to dinner last night. Today, with the bright sun, it will probably get up to 75. There is a pleasant cool breeze coming in the window.
Since I had been up for more than 24 hours, with only a short and dubious nap on the plane, I slept about four hours yesterday while my husband worked on his laptop in the room. Today he caught the IBM van into the computer center. He is happy about how the schedule is going and thinks he might get a bonus out of it all. He is not talkative or romantic, but he seemed really happy to see me and was very goofy and grinning a lot. He thinks I'm beautiful. (Thank you, God.)
We went out for a walk last night and ate at an Italian restaurant, which was mostly really Italian. The menu came in Italian, Portugese and English, so I could do three way translation. The English was horrible - I don't care what the Italian is literally, you should not translate anything into 'rotted fatty cheese'. I had an antipasti plate to die for, a half bottle of real chianti, a plate of gnocchi in four cheeses (gnocchi is potatoes, so I took a chance and so far, so good on the allergic reaction - if it had wheat, I would already be sick), and grilled chicken with zucchini. Oh yeah, there was a green salad with bacon and tomato. My husband had, instead of the chicken, a steak with heavy creme sauce with mushrooms and a rice pilaf thing with creme and mushrooms and, of course, the other half a bottle of wine. All of this and our bill came to only about $50. Sort of makes up for the car ride, I guess.
The crochet project for Tiffany is coming along well. I like the way the eyelash yarn looks but it's a bitch to use. And I have already finished one Micheal Jecks novel.
I plan to go walking around before lunch (which will be left over chicken and zucchini), and buy some basics for lunch and breakfast, maybe see the little church and sit in a park. Then this afternoon, I'm going to do a workout in the little spa on the exercise bike. I will probably get dressed and take my crochet and sit in the lobby getting plastered after that and wait for the return of the IBM van. This weekend husband expects to have some time to play (go live is next week, so there will be some work for him this weekend). I hope to go into Sao Paulo with him this weekend and look around. Next weekend there is supposed to be a trip to the beach and a three day holiday weekend. I need to find out about that because I suspect that he has made no arrangements.
Later!
The trip was what you would hope for; completely uneventful. The only part that was bad, except for the fact that it was way too long, is that I had to wait at JFK in an airless room with about a million Italians in it. I like Italians, don't get me wrong, but there is one cultural difference that I find very annoying in public spaces. They have little or no personal bubble space and they don't grant you any either. I don't like being bumped into, crowded, have people jump in line in front of me, push me forward in line, slam their bags into me and then not apologize, etc. If you don't like that either, avoid Italy.
The music on my phone is working, but I bought the wrong type plug for the head phones, or rather I should say that the converter supplied with the phone does not fit any normal headphones and I will have to find a converter. Drat. Also, a phone is one of the things banned on planes - I should have thought of that.
I was picked up at the airport by the car service that IBM uses. It's funny here because some things are so cheap and others are way more expensive. The ride in this man's beamer plus his charming conversation in English (really - that was not sarcasm, the guy was really nice and seemed to think his job was to entertain me and educate me about his country) cost about $125 including tip. Of course, it's an hour and a half through Sao Paulo to the smaller suburb of Campinas, but still....that's a hell of a cab ride.
I have been to Central America and did not expect what I found here. This is like Southern Europe. There are more Italians here than in Jersey, and they speak Italian. There are Lebanese, Japanese and Spanish mix. There are huge expanses of beautiful hilly forests, awesome skyscrapers, expensive villas, rows of condos.....and ghettos made of cardboard and plywood with no signs of electricity or running water. An interesting mix.
Campinas, the town I am in, is a rich suburb of only a million people (Sao Paulo is 12 million itself), and it reminds me of some of the rich suburbs of Paris, with little parks and churches, and trendy ittle boutiques and bars all within walking distance. The Tryp hotel is luxurious, although the room is European small and well designed to get everything you need into the least possible cubic footage. The bathroom is 3-D tile, glass and chrome. No bidet, but this scary hose and spray head attached to the toilet - why???? anyway...
Outside the window, there is a large shcool. It looks very Spanish mission with tile roof, formal loggia, courtyards, etc. I can hear kids playing on the little playfield - they seem to be rotating their play periods so that someone is always out there, once again, efficient use of space. The bells are nasty electric buzzers, but other than that it is a pleasant noise.
This is winter and it is nicer weather than Spring at home. Yesterday, it was overcast and about 65 degrees - I had to wear a light sweater, and I wore a knit blouse and a wool shawl and black jeans to dinner last night. Today, with the bright sun, it will probably get up to 75. There is a pleasant cool breeze coming in the window.
Since I had been up for more than 24 hours, with only a short and dubious nap on the plane, I slept about four hours yesterday while my husband worked on his laptop in the room. Today he caught the IBM van into the computer center. He is happy about how the schedule is going and thinks he might get a bonus out of it all. He is not talkative or romantic, but he seemed really happy to see me and was very goofy and grinning a lot. He thinks I'm beautiful. (Thank you, God.)
We went out for a walk last night and ate at an Italian restaurant, which was mostly really Italian. The menu came in Italian, Portugese and English, so I could do three way translation. The English was horrible - I don't care what the Italian is literally, you should not translate anything into 'rotted fatty cheese'. I had an antipasti plate to die for, a half bottle of real chianti, a plate of gnocchi in four cheeses (gnocchi is potatoes, so I took a chance and so far, so good on the allergic reaction - if it had wheat, I would already be sick), and grilled chicken with zucchini. Oh yeah, there was a green salad with bacon and tomato. My husband had, instead of the chicken, a steak with heavy creme sauce with mushrooms and a rice pilaf thing with creme and mushrooms and, of course, the other half a bottle of wine. All of this and our bill came to only about $50. Sort of makes up for the car ride, I guess.
The crochet project for Tiffany is coming along well. I like the way the eyelash yarn looks but it's a bitch to use. And I have already finished one Micheal Jecks novel.
I plan to go walking around before lunch (which will be left over chicken and zucchini), and buy some basics for lunch and breakfast, maybe see the little church and sit in a park. Then this afternoon, I'm going to do a workout in the little spa on the exercise bike. I will probably get dressed and take my crochet and sit in the lobby getting plastered after that and wait for the return of the IBM van. This weekend husband expects to have some time to play (go live is next week, so there will be some work for him this weekend). I hope to go into Sao Paulo with him this weekend and look around. Next weekend there is supposed to be a trip to the beach and a three day holiday weekend. I need to find out about that because I suspect that he has made no arrangements.
Later!