Happy Birthday Katie Hamilton!

Today is a very very special day indeed.  On this date (some 25 years ago) my GREAT friend Katherine A Hamilton was born.  Little did the world know what just happened.... little did the rest of us.

Katie is awesome... But pictures are worth more than words... so here are a collection of her and I.  Traveling the world and being amazing.

Happy Birthday Katie!  Sorry I cannot be with you to celebrate.  Miss you and Love you!

When Katie and I first met.  RA training Fall 2007

Kaite, me, and Vicky - Power rangers for B-Fast club!

We were still smiling after completing our first full 7 days together, 24 hours each day.  Roatan, Honduras Spring Break 2008

Roatan, Honduras - where we learned how well we traveled together

We did it!!  Katie is an ME, I am a ChemE.  We both got GREAT jobs coming out of school and we both are still very happy.  Lucky for us, Purdue let us go!!

Graduation Trip - Morocco!  Summer 2008

Katie and Nabil... little did we know about Nabil...

I think this might be the wedding photo... We still aren't really sure what happened that night with Nabil and Katie... But Katie got a great magic eye dress out of the deal and we both got Henna tattoos.  Mine was like a gross green blob on my leg, Katie's was nice.  Lucky bride...

Still smiling after another 7 days straight together in Morocco!

Katie and I kissing Humpty Dumpty in Las Vegas (Feb 14th 2009).  Humpty is such a stud for Valentines Day!!

Stipper 101 Class in Vegas!!  We are fully trained in lap dances and completed beginner pole dancing!

When I moved to NYC, Katie and I got to see each other much more frequently.  This might be my favorite weekend though - when we got to play MUD VOLLEYBALL with her coworkers!  Katie, you always do such cool things!

Katie in Peru (Spring 2010) she wasn't doing so well with the elevation. 

On our accent up towards Macchu Picchu (PS Katie - where is my Do the 'Chu shirt??)

We made it!!  And yes - still smiling!!

Next on the docket:  Brazil 2011!!!  Get excited - because I know I am!

Miss you Ms. Hamilton - so lucky to have you in my life!  *Abracos*  

Celebrate the small wins

Starting out here in Brazil, I knew it would take me much longer than normal to dig into the company and factory and really drive change.  I knew that the language barrier and the cultural differences would be road blocks that I normally wouldn't encounter if I were in the same position in the US.  I also knew that a huge portion of my ability to succeed hinges on other people's willingness to be patient with me and help me through the incredibly steep learning curve.  

I've been very fortunate to have found many such people here in Brazil.  People willing to take a little extra time to help me get through the day and to be successful.

My manager gave me a bit of advice the other day which I feel like I already knew, but it was nice to be reminded about:

Celebrate the small wins.   

I am not going to change the world today.  I'm not going to change the world tomorrow.  I'm probably not going to change the world by the time I leave for the US in 11 months.  Thus, we should not wait for world changing events to celebrate; we would be waiting for far too long.

Today I am going to celebrate my small wins by sharing a few key milestones here:

1.  I conducted my first meeting in Portuguese - and everyone confirmed they understood.  

2.  My manager was very impressed with the amount of work I've been able to accomplish considering all my unique challenges. 

3.  I confidently asked a young girl at the academia for her phone number and I think we might have lunch sometime.  I am supremely proud of this actually.  It is step one to maybe making friends. I did it again with my Portuguese teacher, because she is AWESOME.

4.  I let go of a relationship that was hurting more than helping.

These are without a doubt small wins.  However, these small moments in my life felt like huge boulders while I was going through them and I am proud.  These small hurdles, while not world changing have helped to propel me forward and hopefully upward.

Now - time for pictures :)

Christian brought a six pack of Fat Tire from Chicago for Pia, little did he know I love it too!

The group out on the town in Campinas!!

Pia, Sandra, Carlos, me, Christian - out celebrating Carolina's birthday

Pia and Fernanda - Such a cute couple!!

Christian and Rodrigo sharing a moment... and a Caparinha

Pia, Christian, and I - enjoying some nightlife

It says Cookies Chocolate... I cannot think of a more wonderful sounding place!!

I have been changed For Good....

"Who can say if I've been changed for the better
But because I knew you
I have been changed
For Good."

These are the lyrics to a wonderful song in the show Wicked which I thoroughly enjoyed both times I've seen it. It is a delightfully fun play (if you are into plays of course). For some reason it popped into my head and I immediately started thinking about Ms. Lacy Morris and all my wonderful friends back in NYC. As I was on the bus home from work staring out the window, I started to think just how much a year in NYC altered my course.

A few things that I still do because I lived in NYC with Lacy
1. Drink copious amounts of water
2. Attempt to work out
3. Blow dry my hair (or I plan to once my hair dryer makes it here!)
4. Debate shoe purchases of hundreds of dollars
5. Make veggies in the oven with olive oil, salt, and pepper
6. Consider weather or not I can wear red shoes with a red shirt or if that is too much red (I have been told that is too much red... I tend to disagree)

"And now whatever way our stories end
I know you have rewritten my by being my friend"

Now that I no longer live in NYC (tears!) here are a few things I no longer do:
1. Eat Dove dark chocolate or even buy chocolate
2. Drink wine on the weekends (I've switched to caparinhas)
3. Watch reality TV - I am blissfully unaware of any news relating to the Kardashians, John and Kate, that couple that live in Chicago... I think she works for E or something....
4. Take long walks as a form of exercise - this is a real shame
5. Ride my bike along a glorious waterfront path (despite the pedestrian traffic)

"Who can say if I have been changed for the better
I do believe I have been changed for the better
Because I knew you, I have been changed
For Good."

I've been asked multiple times if I like Brazil and what I miss about home. I do like Brazil, it is different, it is personally challenging in ways I never thought about before coming, and it has given me an opportunity to really work on some self improvement. And yes, I miss home. More specifically I miss my family and my friends. It is always the people and it will always be the people. I'm not very good at keeping in touch with people. It isn't so much the out of sight, out of mind (because I promise you are not out of mind); I'm just bad at it. Perhaps I should add this to the list of self improvement opportunities that I am working on down here.

A weekend away - Curitiba

Last weekend I took the first of what will hopefully be many small weekend getaways. Christian flew in from the US to visit Pia (a mutual friend) and Pia took us both down to the south for the weekend. We visited his uncle's small farm, met his older brother and sister, met his mom and dad, rode horses, took a delightful train ride, ate more food than I care to admit, spent hours in a car listening to America's top 40, discovered a delicious snack I will call Peanut Butter Tater Tots, and managed to not freeze to death over night. We did plenty of laughing and there were plenty of awkward silences when Christian shared some of his Portuguese knowledge. He only knows the bad words (which I avoided learning on purpose) so it made for some wonderful jokes that I totally didn't understand but the rest of the group always were in stitches laughing or being delightfully awkward.

Here are some pictures to help capture the weekend. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and hope to make it back to visit again for more horseback riding, lake swimming, and if I'm really lucky... RIVER TUBING straight into the ocean!!! I have yet to swim in an ocean south of the equator - I think that must be fixed this year!!

I was really excited about getting to ride horses. I love horses.

Pia and Christian plus our wonderful hosts! How lucky they are to live on such a beautiful little farm!

Christian kept asking "which way to Montana" and shouting 'Howdy!' to all the Brazilian ladies. It was hysterical.

Back from our ride!

I went to horsewoman camp growing up - TWICE. Can't you tell. I look so natural on a horse.

Bruno, Christian, and I after we were done with the horses. FUN!

I'm not sure why Christian is wearing a chef's hat. I'm not sure why Christian does a lot of things though, so this isn't that unusual really.

Botanical Gardens in Curitiba

So we wanted to get one of those really fun shots with everyone jumping into the air, but we failed and got this instead. Ado has some wicked vertical though.

Brothers! Pia and Ado. Ado is an amazing musician from what I understand. Pia is good at being bad...

Pia and I leaning out the train window. The dogs may have it right, this is a pretty nice way to travel! Windows down, faces out, smiling...

Sometimes there are no words to share how you feel - there are only expressions

Anyone who is anyone wears North Face

We made it! Beautiful ride!

83.3

We aren't deaf, we just don't understand you.

Ever wonder why non-native speakers of another language always claim they understand you when you are fairly confident that they in fact do not? You know what I mean, when you are talking to a person in a language other than their native one and they keep nodding and saying "Yes. Yes. Ok." And every time you ask them "Do you understand?" They nod and repeat "Yes. Yes. Ok." All the while you're thinking to yourself, this kid is clueless...

I have an explanation.

Now that I am that person down here in Brazil, I have some inside information to share with the rest of you. We in fact DO understand what you are saying - just not 100% of it. We are secretly hoping that in the next sentence you will utter all will become clear. You will use the perfect combination of words that we really do know to explain yourself. If you could just say it one more time a little bit differently, we really will know what you are trying to say. Now, we are trying to be agreeable and not impede conversation flow or decision making processes by hindering the group with such a silly thing as a language barrier.

So here is some advice if you ever find yourself in this type of a situation where you are very convinced the other person has NO idea what you are saying.
1. Speak slowly - this does not mean speak louder. We can hear you, we just can't separate the words that are coming out of your mouth because you talklikethishardlyevenbreathingorpausingbeforeyouarejumpingtoadifferentpoint.
2. Say the same thing more than once in a different way.
3. Use small phrases and avoid slang. I have no idea what it means to be 'half mouth' (it mean's you are just okay, like 50%, you are meia boca)
4. And please - stop asking us every 2 seconds if we understand. At some point we are going to start screaming at you in OUR native language and then who will feel awkward?!

So, to that end - good luck communicating! Don't forget a smile and a laugh go thousands of miles (or kilometers) with people even if you can't figure anything else out!

Also - watch this video - it's awesome!

Shawn Frost - This post is for you

Shawn Frost - Thank you for the delightful recommendation of Bar Da Cachoeira. It proved to be a very nice Sunday afternoon activity and you are correct, we kept going until we had the "I think we missed a turn" conversation and kept at it until we stumbled upon this secluded (albeit quite busy) gem of a bar!! Thanks Shawn!!!

We made it!! Just as described to us!

The bar was this delightful outdoor, rustic retreat. It had a little fountain and tons of tables with a live band and everything!

Enjoying a nice cold Brahma beer! Brazil always serves beer in this strange insulated container to insure the beer is always very very cold. Typically you order a bottle or two (they are big 600ml I think) and share with the table. So they bring tiny little glasses that you constantly refill.

Carolina, Sandra and I at Bar de Cachoeira we always have a good time together!

Cachoeira means waterfall - this is their waterfall... It's a bit disappointing but there were also horses that were available for the kids to ride, so in my opinion that made up for it!

This picture is just for a good laugh. I sent my clothes out to be washed because I don't have a machine in my apartment and Brazil is not familiar with the laundry mat concept. Everything came back very neat and folded into separate plastic pouches. This is not how I intend to do my laundry all the time (as they charge almost $4 per pair of underwear - and I have 24 pairs according to the package) but my hotel mistakenly sent my clothes to the super chic place vs the "pay by the kilo" place I had asked for.

Speaking of kilos.... I'm not sure I'm every going to get used to this measurement system. I'm very well versed in all things metric from my chemical engineering degree (hello unit conversion - what do you mean you want this in pound-force? I only speak newtons) but when it comes to my personal weight and height, I'm all pounds and feet. And I have no idea if 15C is hot or cold. I know 0 is freezing and 100 is boiling... and 40 is what I felt in India sometimes during the summer. But... 23C? Do I need a jacket?? Oh... that place is 7km from here huh? Can I walk that?? (Ok, not that bad w/ the distance, I have run a 5K so I know walkable) But people tell me how far cities are in km... like oh that is 150km from here. I speak in hours of driving when it comes to distance... I have no idea how far Colorado Springs is from Denver in miles. I just know it takes about 1:30-1:45 minutes to get from my dad's house to Gram's house.

Portuguese class tonight - should be fun!! I didn't do my homework... so bad...

A few upgrades to the blog

So I've discovered two new fun features on Blogger since I've started blogging with more regularity. One is the 'follow' option which I LOVE. I have a few other friends who keep blogs and it is awesome to have one place to go to check all their updates at once. Also, I enjoy knowing who is keeping up with me! So if you are so inclined, I would appreciate if you would follow my blog too! The second fun feature is the "Reactions" tally at the bottom of my posts now. After you read you can decided if you Liked or Disliked the post. (I can customize them to be anything I want, but I thought sticking to simple was best). Of course these are only valuable if people actually use them. So, after reading a post - I'd love if you'd comment and let me know if you liked the post or not.

In other news - I finally have work to do at work. My six sigma classes are starting next week and I am very stoked for them! I'm thinking about joining a gym here in Campinas as a way to meet other people and for something to do after work beyond just hanging in my apartment. I'm still waiting on my things to be shipped from the US. I desperately need to do laundry but just my luck no places are open on Sundays and they all close before I get home from work - rough life let me tell you!

Lastly - I am looking for new music recommendations. My collection has gotten a little stale as of late and it needs some new life blood. That being said, here are a few bands/singers that I enjoy to give you an idea of what I like:

The Clarks
Augustana
Owl City
Sister Hazel
Rascal Flatts
Taylor Swift
The Fray
The Heyday
U2
The Goo Goo Dolls
Mellisa Ethridge

I'm also interested in a getting a few Brazilian/Portuguese artists on my Ipod if you know any!