There is nothing going on

It's been a week since I wrote my last post. This means that either I don't have anything interesting to say or I'm working a lot.

I would say both things are true. Since I started this new project I've been very busy and arriving home late at night, due to the traffic between Barra and Botafogo. Also, my weekends have been boring, nothing interesting to do, once Marcos has been very busy studying for his MBA.

This weekend will not be different but at least we have two parties on Saturday, I hope to dance a lot!

Ah, and next week we'll go to Marisa Monte's concert, for free! We were invited by Citroen, as VIP customers, hahaha. They don't know that we sold our car and don't intend to by a new one for a long time now...

Just to make this post worthy I would like to register my support to the lady that was beaten by the 5 guys last weekend. I hope that justice is made and these animals stay in jail for a long time. Unfortunatly we know that in our country those who have money are above the law. But I hope that this time they will get what they deserve!

Friday night and no movie

Today we decided to go to the movies with a group of friends and Marcos was responsible for buying the tickets on the Internet. The movie was Ocean's thirteen.

After work, we met with everybody at a restaurant before the movie, the session we would watch was at 9:30PM. We were not in a hurry because now at almost every cinema in Rio we can buy the ticket with the seat defined. After dinner we went to the cinema and what was not my surprise to find our seats already occupied.

I asked the people that were sat at our seats if they were sure about their seats and they answered "YES!". Ok, I was going to ask the management about this problem, thinking that the website application was not working properly when suddenly I remembered that some months ago Marcos had bought some movie tickets on the Internet for the wrong session. Bingo! He bought the tickets for the midnight session!!!

We were so frustrated... No George, or Brad or Matt tonight... We ended up exchanging our tickets for invitations for another session, and maybe we will watch the movie on Sunday...

Now we have to win

Right now it's all about the Pan American games! The city is a mess, constructions all over the place, because as good brazilians, especially cariocas, everything is left for the last time.

I hope everything is ready in time!!! Anyway, we've bought lots of tickets to watch several games, from volleyball to soccer, beach volley and athletism (I don't know if this is right). I'm very happy because we got tickets for the soccer finals!! They started selling it yesterday night on the Pan American games website and we got it!

The only problem is that now the Brazilian team has to be in the finals, otherwise it will be really bad... At least we got tickets for Brazil x Equador.

I have news: I'm not projectless anymore. Tomorrow I'll start a new project. The good news is that it's in Rio. But, it is in TIM. It's karma, there is no other explanation... But I'm ok with it, I have to be. Deep breaths and everything will be fine... The italians follow me everywhere, or I follow them, I'm not sure...

Ready or not, here I come...

Yesterday was a strange day... We woke up and decided to go to the beach. Marcos left earlier because he went running and we were going to meet at the beach. When me and Flavinha arrived there, it was so windy that it was impossible to stay. We were being covered by sand even before stepping on the beach.

So we decided to come back to our place and stay at the pool, but when we got there there was no sun at the pool anymore, so we just gave up. But the day was so beautiful and warm... We just went home, had lasagna for lunch and watched a good movie: Little Children, with Kate Winslet and Jeniffer Connelly. It was a bit depressing but I think that it tells about things that really happens in life, so it was a good choice.

I was excited for the night because we were going to Lauryn Hill's concert. I'm not a huge fan of hers, but I liked Fugees and loved her first solo album. The concert was scheduled to start at 21h with some unknown band that opened for her and Lauryn's concert would start at 21:30h. Considering that it would be delayed we left home at 21:30 and when we got to the place it was crowded and the line to get in was huge. It was so unorganized that we stayed at the line for about 15 min without going forward.

I noticed that it was because people were cutting the line at it's beginning and nobody did anything... I was so pissed, this is so wrong but it was the organizers fault. So we started to be worried about the time and decided to go to the beginning of the line and do the same. It was a shame, I was embarrassed, but unfortunately in that situation there was no other way...

The first show started at 22:30 and it was 00:30 when Lauryn got at the stage. The audience was not happy at all and we were very tired of standing for almost 3h now. But anyway, the concert was really good, I danced a lot and she sang many old songs from Fugees and after she sang Killing me softly we decided to leave.

It is really annoying not to be able to go to a small concert like this with a minimum of organization. I wonder how it will be in a few days when the city will be full of people because of the Pan American games. I'll prepare myself for the chaos.

Keeping Australia close

For those of you who read this blog (me and two more people maybe - thanks Maria and Kim), I have included a new section on the right showing what I'm reading at the moment.

And I'm reading a book about Australia (thanks Kim again!). I started reading it quite a while ago, while I was in Melbourne and it seems that I don't want to finish it. In some sense it's like it keeps me close to there. So, I'm almost at the end but I keep reading just a few pages each day, and this is weird. Usually I'm a fast reader and like to start thinking about the next book to read.

Also it's kind of sad, because as I move forwad in the book and the author talks about places I didn't go, I get the feeling that it will take a while before I will have another chance to actually be there. Anyways...

But I already have a list of books to read after this one, some of them I got from friends and others we bought. Here are some examples:

- The Bookseller of Kabul (Asne Seirstad)
- When Nietzsche wept (Irvin D. Yalom)
- O homem que conhecia as mulheres (Marcelo Rubens Paiva)

The only problem is that I already bought the 7th Harry Potter book, which will be released in July 21st, so I better read these books until then, otherwise they will keep waiting on the shelf...

Valentine's day?

Today is June 12th and here in Brazil we celebrate Valentine's day. I think that the real one is celebrated in February, right (a little help from my friends from the north hemisphere is appreciated!)?

Well, last year we tried to go out for dinner and it was terrible: all good restaurants were booked, we went from one to another and there was no place, until we finally ended in a really bad restaurant. So this year I decided to cook dinner for Marcos at home. Actually for Marcos and Flavinha, because we will adopt her tonight - that's what friends are for :)

But the reason for this post is because this afternoon, while I was going to the supermarket, I was listening to the radio and they were explaining how this date started being celebrated in Brazil. And there is no romantic reason behind it.

It seems that by the end of the 40's, a store asked for a marketing campaign in June, in order to improve the sales during the worst month of the year, by that time. The campaign theme was related to what in Brazil we call Namorados (boyfriend/girlfriend) and was a huge success. Since then, June 12th is Valentine's day in Brazil. Isn't it awful???

So tonight we will celebrate it having dinner at home with our good friend Flavinha and maybe watching a good movie, while thousands of other people will wait on huge lines to go to a restaurant and satisfy this commercial date.

It's all about fashion

This week in Rio is all about Fashion Rio, the main fashion event that happens here. I'm not very into the fashion world but I like to follow the news and watch the especialized TV shows. And I definetly love to buy clothes!

Gisele Bundchen is in town, because she is the main model for Colcci, and their fashion show was yesterday. So today's newspaper had some articles about the party for Gisele. They had an area for the vips and I laughed so much this morning when I read that there was this guy trying to get into the vip area and the promoter was saying "No way! Never heard this name before!". The guy was the editor of Vanity Fair. Hilarious...

But this year the Fashion Rio has a different meaning for us because Marcos's sister Julia is working for a brand that will do a fashion show tomorrow. She'll be there, being part of it and we are all very proud of her.

The vacation is over

So, my holiday is over. Today I was assigned to an strategic planning activity for an area I have never worked at. But that's ok, this is part of the challenge. I'll will be working on it only for a few days. From June 14th on, it seems that I'll be working for a huge cosmetics company in São Paulo. I don't have many details, but I like their products, they have a similar business plan as The Body Shop and I think it'll be really good to work with a different industry from Telecom.

The sad part is that it's not in Rio. I really hoped that I could be home for a while but because I had to come back earlier, I did not have time to find a project here and right now I just can't say: "sorry but I want to stay in Rio...". So, São Paulo here I go!

It is not thaaaat bad. Ok, SP is bad, no beach, lots of pollution, crazy traffic jams, etc... But at least it is only 40 min flight from Rio and I have some friends there! And, I hope it will not be for a long time. Let's see.

I'm still missing my Melbourne life so much... It is not that I didn't want to come back home, honestly I'm really happy to be home: I will not mention that I missed my husband because it is obvious, but now I can meet and talk to Flavinha whenever I want, I can hold my Ping all the time, I can sleep in my bed and have Brazilian food!!! So it's perfect. But I can't deny I miss my Melbournian life... And I started feeling really sad about it this weekend.

With the sadness came the guilt. But thanks to my dear sister-in-law Maria now I know that this is perfectly normal. After spending a long time away from home and kind of having "another" life, it is normal to miss it. She said she felt the same after she came back from her one year experience in Belgium. And at that time there was no Internet that could make possible for her to keep in touch with her family in Brazil or her friends in Belgium, whe she came back. She's a psychologist so I guess she knows what she's saying.

So now I don't feel that guilty anymore, but still a little bit sad... Hope it will get better with time.