hello rio.

this weekend, well wednesday to sunday, nicole, lalo and i went to rio de janeiro. we had absolutely the best time. it was amazing. i don't know if it was because i needed it so much or what, but it was fantastic. everything was perfect and worked out in weird ways. everything from flagging down a cab to take us to the cristo and he happens to be a tour guide that gave us a deal for literally half the price to taking a cab to the samba club and the cab driver knows the people at the door so we skipped the two hour wait to me not dying hang gliding. all and all a very, very successful trip. and considering i took over 200 photos. i cant post them all, but here are a few highlights. check out the links to the four facebook albums i posted to see all of the pictures. if there is any reason at all to come to brazil, it's definitely for rio.

Album 1
Album 2
Album 3
Album 4

asa delta. ie hang gliding.
stumbled upon a samba street party in beautiful historic centro.
the cristo.
pao de azucar.
back to work today. sad face. [ps my body physically rejected coming back to sao paulo. i'm quitting advertising and selling balls on the beach in rio.]

happy birthday from the gringas.

today is a very special occasion brings us back. it's anselmo, executive creative director's, birthday. he happened to be in atlanta the day before, so we left him a few surprises in his office for when he returned.

feliz aniversario anselmo.

[he's really quite happy.]

london ice box vs. brazil beaches.

well the verdict is in. i'm going to london next quarter! i'm so excited. bring on the tea and biscuits and beatles. i'm going to be here:

however, amid my excitement is the sad realization that i will be going to london in the winter. [shudder] ive been avoiding winter for the past two years like the plague. but i guess sooner or later i would have to face it after all. maybe miami wasn't all that bad after all. so until i make my voyage to the ice block called europe, i'll be enjoying this:

last weekend we went to camburi beach. it was gorgeous. unfortunately the weather was not, but it we still had an amazing time.

this is the pousada we stayed at. very nice. quaint, free breakfast and a pool, and only one block from the beach.
this is patriota teaching lalo how to do copuera on the beach. [copuera is a mix of dance and fighting.]
we were introduced to the wonderful world of caipirinhas. it's pretty much the national drink of brazil. fresh fruit, sugar, and cacacha [brazilian sugar cane liquor]. until the beach i didnt like the drink, but it seemed fitting. a little too fitting. this is about half of how many we drank. [that's what happens when there's no sun.]
but we swam. sort of.
and i dance, sang shania twain with some new friends i made. and overall had an amazing time. i love brazil. maybe i'll pack this beach in my suitcase to london.
i'm not the only one who had one too many caipirinhas.
loving brazil more and more everyday. and very sad and excited about the news to london. can't believe we have only a month left here. seems like just yesterday we were three crazy Americans in the airport trying to find each other at a McDonalds. however, i feel quite certain brazil will never miss the gringas locas.

My Next Adventure

so yesterday quarter away choices were due. after long, and i mean long deliberation the final line up is london, hamburg, then ny. so we'll see. i maybe in shell shock going from my money being double its worth to half, but hey, its not like we're in an economic crisis or anything.

anyway, where i really want to go is here.it's a new hotel being built in sonyjang, china. it's built into the side of a quarry complete with underwater rooms and an elevator behind the waterfall. i found it on coolhunter. so if i disappear, i've been kidnapped or i'm here.

The Long Awaited Nov. 4th 2008.

It's election day. I have to admit I'm really sad I'm not in the US right now. Everyone here is really into the election as well. We're going to Nicole's friends for lunch so we can watch CNN. Unfortunately with the time difference, we won't know the results until like 3 or 4am here. So the absentee ballots have been cast, and we wait.

In the meantime, a friend of mine from New York, Stefan Haverkamp, is doing this cool project for the election. He's german and he can't vote so he figured out this way to get involved.

in the office.outside the office.
we'll see how today goes. either way, go vote.

Sunday in the City.

this sunday nicole and i went to see a few museums and definitely saw the better side of sao paulo. after taking two metros trains we arrived at the portuguese language museum. while understand portuguese would have been extremely helpful, it was still very interesting to see the evolution of the language including the influence english has had on brazilian portuguese. then across the street was pinacoteca park and museum. we sat at the cutest cafe and had the best coffee. then we visited the three story museum. it was enormous. rooms and rooms of art, from sculptures and 20th century to pop art and 18th century. after a good 2 1/2hrs we still didn't see anything.

the park.

an exhibit on the paint of the teatro en rio de janeiro. including all the underpaintings he compiled to paint the entire thing.
underpaintings:

this entire piece of art is made from...

...numbers.


the main exhibit was of marie bononi. a sao paulo artist most known for creating art using impressions of things like wood and metal. not only are her prints beautiful but the sculptures themselves are works of art.

the seven layers of humanity.

these molds are made from textures throughout the city of sao paulo.


it poured on our way home. the glory of opposite seasons and it being spring here.
the train ie subway here is really efficient. it's also very clean. we were surprised. we used it to go everywhere for only $R2.40.

the language museum. the kiosk that allowed you to explore all the words that have influenced Portuguese.

Like x-burguer.

or, in English, Cheeseburger. [x in portugeuse is shees]

then we hit up Liberdade for the street fair in Japan town. they had the most amazing food for really cheap. shrimp skewers for $R1 and Yakisoba for $R8. complete with meat on a stick and beer.

graffiti in japan town.

the street fair.

it's still no rio, but overall an amazing day that made me fall in love with sao paulo just a little bit more.

halloween gringo style.

halloween is one of my favorite holidays. here they don't really celebrate it. a little bit. so we thought we'd bring halloween to them including costumes and bobbing for apples at the office. followed by a halloween party at our flat.

we're basically just a bunch of bad asses.
our resident unicorn in the office.
elephants and walruses.
and rabbits.
then we bobbed for apples. even one of the creative directors did it. they thought they could get an apple without sticking their head in. they were wrong.




then we had to carve a pumpkin. although pumpkins are hard to find around here, we got this interesting looking one.
then it was party time. i was clearly party police. and lalo, well, he was seamen.
definitely a good holiday. strange thing. because there is no thanksgiving here, it's officially christmas season. complete with bar decorations and a christmas tree in our lobby. last night we ventured to Liberdade. [Japan town.] Definitely one of the cooler places we've been so far. The authentic Japanese was amazing followed by karaoke at a dive bar with the craziest decorations.

laterns down all the streets.crazy decorations at karoake bar.

complete with cheesy 70s christmas decorations. love it.