they got an awful lot of coffee in brazil....

oh yes they do and its gooooooood, and did you know mr. sinatra did a song about coffee in brazil? well I didnt and I feel silly and one of my best friends shared it with me.. because its a great little song

my favorite sunday ritual

Vila Madalena Street Fair this weekend!!

´´About 500 exhibitors will offer crafts, food, sculptures, paintings and fashion to the public. In addition, there will be a bike ride sponsored by the local group "Pedal da Vila Madalena." The street Mourato Coelho will host a pool table, basketball games, soccer games, and skateboarding activities.``

Read more here 

Looking forward to it...I love a good street fair!

puppy time

Recently I've been craving a furry friend at my feet during some of these wintery evenings. I attempt a pat on every hairy animal head I pass on the street and have a coffee as close to the pet store in the mall as possible. Short of throwing a 3 year old tantrum, I've begged and pleaded my husband for a dog. I'd rescue one tomorrow at a shelter but I can't go near those places because I'd sleep on the couch just to fit them all in my apartment. In fact, I would be relegated to the couch anyways because I would be in so much trouble.

Anyways enough whining, I finally got my golden chance and it had a bit of a different outcome that I had imagined. A girl at work just got a Shih Tzu puppy from her parents a week before she had a planned a weekend in Argentina. Obviously the little guy was too young to go to the kennel without his proper shots so before it was even a question I had volunteered to borrow him for the weekend. With a smile ear to ear I took him home and created a little puppy perfect area in the laundry room. Fast forward 48 hours and many pees and poos throughout the apartment and under the bed later... I again with a smile ear to ear was happy to return him to his owner. Some might say it was because he is a little dog, and I am a big dog person or that I am a bit of a clean freak and puppies don't fit that mold whatsoever, but deep down I realized we just aren't ready. We like to run off to the beach at the drop of a hat, travel back to the US over breaks for weeks and we don't have a park or even a praca where I can let the dog just be a dog. Not to mention the guilt I got every time I was annoyed at his lack of potty training and put him in his bed so I could just have some piece of mind. It was a fun little experiment, and freedom and clean floors won for now. 

Of course I had to take a few glamour shots before he headed back home....he sure was a cutie!

Hall Pass: Natura

Natura Cosmeticos is one of the most recognized brands in Brazil. Started over 40 years ago, they pride themselves on sustainability and that is evident from start to finish in the manufacturing of their naturally aromatic products. From the packaging to the ingredients everything is harvested and executed with Brazil's ecology in mind. The suppliers typically live in small areas within the amazon and it is an important part of Natura's business that even if they abandon a specific material they do their best to ensure that the community can sustain without them. Known for always giving back, be it through k-12 educational funding or environmental charity, the company is a poster child for sustainable marketing and business strategy. Their motto, "bem estar bem," means to live well, with yourself, your relationships, nature and the world around. The company is set up as a direct sales model only, so to purchase their products you either have to have a consultant in the same way that Avon and Mary Kay operate or you can pick them up at Duty free in the airport as well as at their first ever store in Paris, designed by a distinguished Sao Paulo architect, Arthur Casas.

I recently got a tour of their plant and central offices in Cajamar, which is about 40 minutes from downtown Sao Paulo.  It was a beautiful campus where people truly work, play, eat and nurse in nature! Nurse? Yes, there is a nursery and a children's day care on site next to the restaurant and cafe, as well as a large gym with a pool nestled into the hills. The building itself is completely open air with offices surrounded by windows for great daylighting. If LEED was around in Brazil at the time of design, this would surely be at least LEED Silver. If only everyone could work in an environment like this...

the pearly white halls...

boxes = furniture! 

employee store

educational wing

the picking area.... 7 days a week its rolling

move, eat, learn: incredible watch

"3 guys, 44 days, 11 countries, 18 flights, 38 thousand miles, an exploding volcano, 2 cameras and almost a terabyte of footage... all to turn 3 ambitious linear concepts based on movement, learning and food ....into 3 beautiful and hopefully compelling short films.....

= a trip of a lifetime.

move, eat, learn"



MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.




LEARN from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.




EAT from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.




*picture from their flickr site

Reliving my childhood....Sao Paulo Style

I was a kid with an architect for a dad. No complaints, that just meant we got to travel a lot with one consistent caveat, it was always in search of some building. I remember arguing over an 8 hour drive on our way to some random house in the middle of nowhere that dad planned as a, "family outing." The moment I was old enough to compile a decent strategy to avoid such adventures, my mom finally chimed as well, as if she had needed reinforcements all those years and the architect lost his battle. But only briefly as I came to find it was hard to discover a new city without knowing its architectural bones.

The past few weeks my parents have been visting and guess what we spent our time doing?

Exhibit A.

And so somewhere in between all the trips to various pieces of architecture, I realized that I actually enjoyed it and probably took for granted all those years as a juvenile student of the modern american landscape. I feel like I could lead a tour now on all the prolific design spots in this city as my dad made a detailed map of everything we saw! I had a planned to check out a few before their visit and while at the the Building Museum (Museu de Casa Brasileira) on Faria Lima a few months ago, I met an architect couple setting up a wonderful exhibit on wood in architecture. Turned out they spent 2 years in Chicago living three streets from where my husband grew up. We've stayed in touch and they offered to have my family over to their beautiful home one evening.  Thanks to their gracious hospitality we filled in the missing pieces we hadn't yet found, and forged a global building friendship!

- SESC Pompeia

- Oscar Niemeyer's Latin American Memorial Campus

- MUBE (Museum of Brazilian Sculpture)

- MASP (Museum of Art Sao Paulo)

- Parque Burle Marx

- Niemeyer in Parque Ibirapuera

- Paulo Mendes da Rocha's addition to the Pinacoteca (he is a Pritzker Prize winner)

- Architecture School at University of Sao Paulo

- Centro Cultural (+sweet green roof)

- Home of our dear friends, Marta and Marcelo

And there are plenty more places. I didn't take my nice camera around the city as we criss crossed around but I managed to document those with a point and shoot and my phone.  It was a great trip; I enjoyed Sao Paulo's extensive collection of interesting buildings and I feel like I really know the city now (from a concrete perspective!) and....in the end good ole dad won. 

A Golden Pet...

But not a retriever. This lion lives in Sao Paulo and from what I gather... as a pet. Its a bit of a confusing article in that it doesn't get into how Ms. Borges acquired the lion and whether or not its possible to have a lion as a pet in your apartment here? All I know is this guy is pretty cute and it brought back teary memories of ole Christian the Lion. If you aren't one of the 5 million plus animal lovers that have watched this... well here you go...



Just a thought.... its probably a tad easier to keep him in a city apartment paralyzed no?  

Now thats more like it...

CNN posted this article 

and I am like wait, whaaaaa t? Where is Sao Paulo or Rio on this list? I was in Shanghai in 2007 and while that was a few years ago I know I never felt that rush of expensive steam there quite the same way I did here. So then I was relieved to see this article in Bloomberg which, when it comes to this subject, I trust over CNN (even though they spelled Sao Paulo wrong... we'll just let that one slide...oppsies).

How is it that two mainstream articles are written within days of each other and ohh so different? I was shell shocked to see Brazil not even mentioned in the first article. Am I crazy? Is it normal to see $40 salmon dishes and $50 steaks at most of the restaurants nearby? Sure, there are exceptions and they are basing a lot of this off the cost of items like bread or cigarettes which are still very reasonable in Sao Paulo (actually not sure about cigarettes) but EVERYTHING else isn't! Jim wrote a great article that gets to the bottom of it, purchasing power. Economies are all very different but the most important factor wherever you are is how much does it cost to maintain your standard of living.

Take for instance the other day at the mall, I spy the EXACT same George Foreman grill for sale for a whopping 400R ($250)! I had literally just bought that same grill at Target in the US for $35... thats a 700% markup! Now I understand a markup on imported goods but I am sorry, you have to be a CEO to 'college kid' cook your chicken? I told a cab driver about it, he knew all about George Foreman grills, put it on the same level as acquiring a Louis Vuitton bag!  In the US you get a forman grill for your dorm room because you dont have a place to cook your food. Its cheap and probably embarrassing that I just bought one and was super excited to use it (less dishes when you have to handwash everything)! But c'mon!?! Even my old space heater I had at my desk at work in Chicago was $18.99 ....and $75 at the Sao Paulo Wal-Mart! Forget how you cook your chicken, freezing in this winter weather for that price just isn't fair!

So yea, how many times can I say it, its expensive here!  From $7 ice cream cones to $70,000 mini coopers... we feel it all around us and I am glad that Bloomberg finally legitimized it. Now... about those beaches.....

Cheapest Greatest Thing in Sao Paulo

A Sinfonia...

It was our first anniversary and since I am married to the most wonderful old soul in a young body, he suprised me with a trip to the Sao Paulo Symphony. I was almost dissappointed to find out our balcony second row tickets were only... yes... wait for it... 10 Reals a ticket!!!!!! Thats six US dollars and 31 cents! Cheaper than valet parking at the pizza parlor, or anywhere for that matter. After enjoying such talent, that is the last thing I wish was the greatest cheapest thing I have found here. They deserved to be 50R or much much more... but I´ll take it! It was stunning inside, a well done modern updo to a beautifully ornate classic style building. Please, don´t walk, run to see and support it!

pic from my phone...

Need your advice!

Rose, my wonderful faxineira (once a week cleaner) is getting married in November. I started thinking about her wedding and while my Portuguese limits our ability to really talk about how happy and excited she must be, I would like to do something for her special day. My first thought was of course various gift ideas but then I wondered if she had a photographer. I don't want to sound snotty, but they are so expensive I doubt that would be a luxury she could afford. So I thought I could offer to take pictures for her. I am totally amateur but I really enjoy it and hope to someday take pictures more professionally. To do that, I need practice and diversity of occasions. So I could take her pictures for free, give her a CD and use them as portfolio pieces if they turn out well. Do you think thats fair for her though? I don't want to ask her without understanding better a few dynamics of brazilians and their maids.

Is it crossing the line? Would she feel obligated once I asked thinking that turning down my offer might hurt her job? Might she be uncomfortable showing me her lifestyle? Would she even have access to a computer to use the CD of pictures? I don't want to assume she wouldn't have someone already taking pictures, or would she even care to have them at all? But the big question is, am I overstepping a boundary here?

Thanks for your help!

Welcome to the modern world!

Its like the 80s and I am finally getting a colored TV! I got a kindle from my MIL as a anniversary gift (1 year = paper = books = welcome to the modern world) and its literally all I do. Its on the bus with me, at work with me... dull moment? I'm prepared... think I am scared to go to the Policia Federal and wait three days for my resident fingerprinting?  Nope bring it on, I've got my kindle!

I protested against this technology because I love the feeling of books, underlining the pages of my favorite lines and passing them along for others to do the same, lining my book shelves by subject and dreaming of a one day room with a moving ladder and a big leather chair!  But unfortunately when I want a new book amazon sometimes takes months and depending on the title it may not even hit the big bookstores here. I haven't sold out to my inky white paged leather friends but our dates together are few and farther between.

These days wherever my day takes me, my kindle is there.  I'm not pushing it on you, just saying my blog life is a little less consistent these days. I'll find my stride again sometime soon...

Emotional eating and the crock pot

It felt like forever in Brazilian time but I went to the US for what felt like a very short 2 weeks. I landed and played a part in my mom's successful surprise 60th birthday party, played golf with dad for fathers day, met up with all my high school buddies for a weekend of debauchery thanks to a good friends wedding, shopped a bunch at target, drove around the state a bit to see some friends... and it was over. Not before coming down with an infection on my finger that made it swell up so bad I had to go to the firestation the day before I left so they could split open my engagement ring since I always leave it in the US. That was a tad emotional since the swelling had gotten so bad they couldn't just snap it, they had to rip it apart. I thought after that experience I was a due a smooth flight back to life down south.

I was so excited to get home and see my husband and get back to my routine that I paid so little attention at the airport when they decided that the box of wine glasses I was carrying on "HAD" to be my large bag and not my personal item (grrrrr) that I had to last minute check my carryon. Well of course it never showed up in Sao Paulo. Inside were lots of new clothes my mom had purchased for me (tear, as that is a very rare event), new shoes, all my jewelry including a necklace my parents gave me for graduation that has a LOT of meaning, my wedding earrings, pieces for my large camera, my point and shoot camera, all my purses I had finally decided to bring to Brazil, all my tax information and basically everything that meant anything to me that I stupidly traveled with. I ALWAYS pack that stuff in my carryon, not leaving it out of my sight but for some reason I had a brain lapse and forgot all that was in there when I checked it without locks.....IDIOT. The worst part is the american airlines employees at the baggage claim in Sao Paulo are amazing and are doing everything they can to help (they know me by name after my sliiiight meltdown) which to me tells me its really missing since they are probably sick of me calling them 35 times a day. Yes, I've cried myself to sleep wishing I wasn't so attached to things, wishing I just hadn't packed that stuff and wishing I could just go back in time for a re-do.  So I decided to use my new crock pot that made it back in perfect shape at the bottom of my duffle bag to drown out my tears.

While home I mentioned to several people I came across a blog, "A Year of Slow Cooking," to aid in my new adventure along with a few of my friends recipes from her cooking blog. If I can manage to put the same amount of energy into using my crock pot that I have with Roberto and Luciana at American Airlines baggage claim, Alex is in for a treat!

So to the crock pot and its mental health assistance... may the baggage god please forgive my prior sins and come through for me this one time!

not mine... but will be soon! 

A Year in Provence, a great book for the expat or the vicarious one

Reading this book at the gym has become quite a scene since I seem to burst out laughing every other paragraph, miss my pedal on the bike and nearly fall off. Before I moved to Brazil I had this dream of writing some short story collection about all the crazy adventures we might cross until I started reading Peter Mayle's account of his own expatriate tales from France. First off, I am not even a writer and second of all not nearly as funny as I wish and not even close to Mayle's lyrical prose. His words are like a pencil drawing a character, incredibly visual and almost cartoon like. So while that idea takes a timeout break, I continue to enjoy reading about other people's fortuities.

I am not even finished with this book yet, but I thought I would spread the word in case you hadn't come across it and you were looking for a back pocket friend to help justify the glory and the pain of living in another country. Its also fun to discover the common threads of lazy workers, unbelievable little restaurants that change your life and the "jeitinho's"that make it all work out someway or another. "Jeitinho's" being those people errr.. little angles that make it happen regardless of the law. Miss Sarah in her cozy Le Petit Village writes very similar and reminds me of a modern day Mayle and I think if he were writing his story today blogstyle, he would have just as popular of a following as she does. Mayle and his wife may have moved to Provence in 1987, but his monthly chapters are timeless accounts that really marked the beginning of humorous travel writing as a genre (according to "The Guardian").

So I encourage you to check it out and partake in the fun, even if you still live in your home country. It might even inspire you either begin chronicling your own circumstance or better yet map out a new one!

Peter Mayle

moqueca tears

For lunch I usually try and eat inexpensively to save for the other expensivities (is that word? well it is today) of this city. Most days I pack my lunch to work, however every once in a while I treat myself to ´subway´ or the grocery store deli. So today, I went to the deli for a little gnochi and carne. They were out of their usual tasty meat selections so I went with a teeny tiny container of moqueca (like teeny the size of a cocktail napkin). I never read the price because this little meal never costs more than 7 or 8R (5$). I quickly read the tag as shrimp moqueca, which is typical here and headed to the cash register. She rang me up at 34R and so still in my basic portuguese I asked what in the world cost 25.91R on the screen and she pointed to my very obvious priced LOBSTER moqueca. So I tried to politely ask to put it back and she sternly said no. So I politely asked again, and she even more sternly said no!!! And the line was growing as was my red face so I gave up and accepted defeat.  I know I need to take this as a little lesson in knowing what you are buying because yeah, it was my fault, there is no one else to blame it on but come on, she could easily take the plastic off and dump that 25R back into the other 1000R sitting at the deli right?! Right!

Either way the worst part? It wasn´t that good. I am sure most brazilians would tell you never to get moqueca at the grocery store... duh! And lagosta = shrimp? I know! But I am still upset.

Goodnight to you O

Oprah has brought stories to my living room that shake me, break me and then put me back together again by the end of an hour. She exposed hardship I would have never known about in this world and provided faith when it was needed most. Thanks to her I know a small bit about the Freedom Riders, the child rape epidemic around the world, the history of AIDS and how in the beginning some people thought you could get it from touching someone, that they may appear perfect but everybody struggles with something, to give back, to chase your dreams, that girls can run the world...

She's one of the last long standing people in media today, so there is a comfort to turning on her show knowing she will always be there on her couch showing you something new wherever you are in the world. When I first moved to Brazil besides all the Law and Order on all the time, she was syndicated on GNT in the afternoons. I didn't know anyone yet, have a job or anything to do so I would wander the neighborhood and organize my day around her show because it was my little piece of home. I could connect back to my friends at home that watched and we shared a common thread even though I was thousands of miles away. 

In Chicago, our old apartment was in the west loop about 3 blocks from her studio. I used to watch the crowds gather for her shows sometimes and submit requests for tickets over and over to no avail.  Its hard to imagine how that neighborhood has changed in the last few decades from meat packing to trendy, how the world as changed from big 80s pouf hair to ipads while she held court. 

Tomorrow we say goodbye to a legend, a voice and a smile. You may not love her or care that she's gone from the daily routine but either way she's made an impact on your world in some facet. Be it through books, charity or important discussions that needed to be public opening the minds of the world to better understand. I dont know where else you can witness a old KKK member apologize to the black man he nearly beat to death some 50 years ago, it was the first apology that man had ever received. Or where you can witness 200 men in one room all admit to surviving childhood sexual abuse, sometimes for the first time to their wife of 20 years. Or how one little 12 year old named Mattie who spent his life in a wheelchair, worked to change the world into a better place before he left. 

Oprah, here's to the millions of lives you have touched thus far, may your best days still be yet to come! 

Ill leave you with some of the memorable things she said over the years:

"Turn your wounds into wisdom"

"The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate." 

"True forgiveness is when you can say, "Thank you for that experience." 

"Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not." 

"You get in life what you have the courage to ask for."

"Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment"  

(west loop by her studio in chicago)