8.17.2000
On the road again...8.14.2000Been booted from my pod office (:P) and it looks like I'll be gone to Macaé in a couple of weeks. The pace of things here shifted gears suddenly this week and now I have a hell of a lot to do. First assignment is due on Monday, and then I have to work on pulling two Call Centres together. Oh. That's what I'm doing down here. I thought I was coming to start a new one, but that turned out to be wrong. There's already two of them (Campinas and Macaé) that were originally built under the same process, but they've been incommunicado and independant for some time now, so they've strayed considerably from each other. My job is to make them a cohesive unit. I have other jobs, but that's the main one.
Nothing much to report on the events front. Still no mail from Canada Trust, though I called yesterday and they said they sent the PIN by courrier 10 days ago. (Fun wow.) I went to São Paulo on Tuesday for meetings and took lunch with Brenda at this neato little restauant. That was good. Fun.
posted by The Mo of Space and Death 08:57 (her time) @
Wow. Just wow.So I went on Thursday to Foz do Iguaçu, a city on the border of Brazil near Paraguay. It's named this because the city was built outside a series of 270 independant water falls which range for 2 kilometers. The highest, O Diablo, is 75 metres tall and is a rage of water and mist. The view was absolutely astounding. I'd read about it in my Lonely Planet Guide (Thanks Kirstine!) before I left Toronto, and hoped I'd have a chance to see it, but little did I know that I'd be sent by work! The falls mark the border between Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil and really should be a world wonder. I also met my very frist Brazilian animal -- a Quati -- which has got to be part of the racoon family. It was pretty friendly though I didn't go too near. When I have my pictures developed I'll replace that link with my own shot.
I stayed at the Bourbon hotel. Four pools - two regular, one whirlpool and one with a waterfall and a kid's jungle gym - even though I was an idiot and forgot my suit. Four restaurants. And the best of all... an in-house massage service, which of course I went to. Man-oh-man it was wonderful. I ate a local fish dish called Surubim with a ginger sauce and mantioc paste (which is not unlike mashed potatoes, but not so heavy and with a fruitier taste) and a spinach and rice side. Coffee flan for dessert. Pretty much it was an evening to treat myself. Little victory of the day? When I was checking in, I said "Boa noite" to the girl at the front desk, and from my accent she thought I was Brazilian. Now, have me say anything but Good morning, good evening, thank you or the local expression for How are you?/Fine (Todo Bom? Tudo Bem.) and I'm an obvious foreigner, but just for the moment, it was a good feeling.
Friday morning we went across the bridge to Paraguay and the merchants were out like madness. They traffic on the bridge is horrible, people coming from one side of the other on overloaded trucks, cars, motorbikes, on foot carrying what looks like a ton of goods on their shoulders or heads. People come up to the windows of your car trying to sell you stuff. Everything from sweets to perfume to windshield wipers to those little nodding head dogs.
We went to the consulate, where I said nothing, but handed over documents when I was told to, and then out into the market district of Cuidade Del Este, Paraguay. Zoo doesn't quite cover it. Stores sprang up out of nothing before my very eyes, food vendors, textile vendors, random stuff vendors. There's what they call malls in bunches all over this section of the city that are huge many leveled buildings with masses of little tiny stores all selling the same things - American stuff. Playstations, cell phones, computer games, calculators. Very little inside the mall is Paraguayan - aside from the vendors themselves.
The Brazilians love Cuidade Del Este because the stuff there is really cheap to them, and because their currency is worth more. They take day trips there to make big purchases, just like Ontario dwellers do in Buffalo... but more-so, as if the Merkan and Canuck dollars had switched places. Not so much for me though, as I didn't have much interest in buying American stuff. I can get that at home. I did finally manage to find the textiles section of the market and bought a lovely Paraguayan linen tablecloth and napkins, all handloomed and embroidered and crocheted. There were astoundingly beautiful hammocks too... but I don't really have anywhere to put a hammock, so I didn't get one.
Hard enough being immersed in Portuguese all the time, to suddenly switch gears to Spanish would set the mind to whirl, but I felt less guilty about not trying to speak Spanish as the people I was dealing with were so pushy. One guy followed me for a block and a half trying to sell me samples of American perfume.
Within a couple of hours, 90 day extension visa in hand, I went back across the border to Brazil to catch my flight back to São Paulo to meet my driver to come back to Campinas. Exahusted by the time I got back, sleep was a wonderful thing. Especially exhausted since the flight back was swarmed with a truckload of Merkin seniors on some kind of tour. I of course, manage to sit across the aisle from the most obnoxious of them. This woman who would not shut her mouth for more than three consecutive seconds, and a man who drank enough Johnny Walker to drown a horse.
Saturday after work, I spent the evening putting the finishing touches on the book plan for Dream Pod 9 (Hooray Brand! Hooray Laura! Hooray Me!) and Sunday I didn't do much but go grocery shopping and watch a couple of movies. This reminds me, A Murder of Crows Is a neato little movie. See it for fun.
I have to go to São Paulo tomorrow for back to back meetings, but otherwise nothing else is really newsworthy. I guess I'll sign off here.
posted by The Mo of Space and Death 14:08 (her time) @
Mo is in:
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Weather in:
São Paulo
Campinas
Rio de Janiero
Macaé
Manaus
Guarujá
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Gary Brown: Dain St Live
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