My Final Blog Post in Brazil

     It is hard to believe that my journey in Brazil is rapidly coming to an end. This Saturday, I will be flying home to Chicago and the reality of graduating college and the ‘real world’ will set in. Until then, I am focusing my mind on enjoying each and every day I have left in Brazil. At the end of this blog post, I will elaborate on what I have done to prepare the next intern to take my place.

     As I mentioned in my last blog post, I visited Iguazu Falls two weekends ago. My flight left on Thursday night from Curitiba and I arrived in Iguazu Falls roughly around midnight. Coincidentally, Joao, the husband of the director of Brazilian Experience (the agency that placed all of the George Mason students in their internships and Portuguese classes) was on my same flight. As a result, I ended up getting a ride from the airport to my colleague Andre's house from my internship, where I would be staying for the weekend. Upon arriving at Andre's family's house, I was mesmerized from the sheer size of the house and property. Within the property, Andre's family's house had eight bedrooms and five bathrooms, a pool, hot tub, soccer field and additional guest house with four more bedrooms. I have truly been lucky throughout my experience in Brazil.

     On Friday, I spent the morning taking in the property and getting to know Andre's family. In addition to his immediate family, some of Andre's cousins from Sao Paolo were also staying on the property to experience the X Games in Brazil. Later on that afternoon, I ventured off with Andre's sister to buy a couple of gifts for friends and family back home. Upon returning, we all drove over to the X Games to watch the BMX and Moto X Big Air Final. My friend Laura from George Mason was staying at a hostel nearby so she was able to tag along. After watching those two events, we stayed to catch a concert from a Brazilian rock band from Rio de Janeiro. We capped off the night enjoying a couple of beers with some of the other international students that were staying at Laura's hostel. I met two guys from France, one guy from Italy and a girl from Mexico. Despite all of our distinct backgrounds, it was a really a cool experience to speak in Portuguese together given the fact that Portuguese was everybody's second or third language.

     On Saturday, Andre's family and I headed to the Iguazu Falls state park to watch the skateboarding half-pipe final, which featured some of the world´s best skateboarders like Bob Burnquist. After catching the end of the half-pipe final, I walked over to the waterfalls to experience one of the seven natural wonders of the world live in person. There are truly no words to describe the natural beauty and power of the waterfalls in Iguazu. The fact that the waterfalls are located in the middle of three countries (Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay) is an experience in itself. On my way back, I coincidentally ran into Mehanna, my boss from my internship at TORO Investimentos, who was also taking in the waterfalls with two of his friends from Curitiba.    

     During my last full day in Iguazu Falls, I decided to relax and spend most of the day talking with Andre's family and experiencing the neighborhood surrounding the property. In the afternoon, I ventured off to Argentina to do some shopping with Andre, his girlfriend, and his sister. Later on that day, I went go-karting with Andre and his brothers which turned out to be a blast. That night, I met up with Daniel and Laura from George Mason at a bar that was hosting a party for all of the X Games athletes and international workers. We ended up meeting Tony Hawk (arguably the world's most famous skateboarder) and sitting with some of the professional skateboarders from the U.S. that were so glad to have finally found friends that spoke English. As a result, we had a myriad of local people come to our table and request to take photos. Later on, these same local people came back to our table asking to sit with us, offering to buy the next round for the table. One of the guys that ended up sitting with us was from Uruguay and didn’t speak Portuguese. Later on, he asked me if I spoke Spanish as he admitted he didn’t speak Portuguese all that well. Upon responding affirmatively, I started talking with him in Spanish while I was simultaneously having conversations with the American skateboarders in English and the other local people in Portuguese. After the fact, my head was spinning but as I look back, it was truly a definitive moment in my ability to speak three languages.

     Getting back to my internship, it is just as hard to wrap my head around the fact that after today, I only have two more days at TORO Investimentos (Wednesday is a federal holiday). In terms of preparing my area and work for the next intern, the fact that there are two interns that are working beside me will significantly aid to the ease of the transition. Augusto and Diego (my fellow Brazilian interns) plan on continuing to intern with TORO for the next few months. As I mentioned previously, Diego works in the morning and Augusto works with me in the afternoons. Whereas Diego and Augusto have done normal intern tasks, like answering the phones, tending to clients for meetings, answering emails and entering data, I have been charged with continually updating the blog that accompanies TORO Investimentos website, enhancing our social media and further developing our marketing materials and strategies.

     As I prepare to end my internship, the majority of my due diligence in terms of the transition will be to explain what I have been doing with our marketing and social media strategies and help partition my duties between Augusto and Diego. I am currently sharing Diego's workspace and as a result, leave my workspace clean at the end of each day so that the area is neat and organized when Diego comes in the next morning. As a result, the majority of my duties to help with the transition will be to clear out all of my files on the computer we share.

     With that being said, this post wraps up my blog about my reflections and experiences while living in Brazil. I appreciate everyone that has taken the time to read my blog and hope that you were able to experience some of my adventures and learning experiences vicariously.

     I wish everyone the best in their future endeavors and encourage everyone to travel and experience new cultures, places and people when given the opportunity.

All the best,
Peter

Fostering Entrepreneurship: Creating a Startup in Brazil

     As I pause to reflect in order to write this post, I am faced with the fact that I will be heading back home to Chicago two weeks from this Saturday. It´s hard to believe that these last few months have gone by as fast as they have and that I only have three more weeks and two more full weekends here. Although from the beginning my mindset has always been to enjoy each and every moment and experience as many things as possible, I have obviously begun to think about how to take advantage of each and every day I have left in this wonderful country.

     Two weeks ago, I participated in a Startup Weekend event located in Curitiba. Startup Weekend is a non-for-profit that was formed in Boulder, Colorado by Andrew Hyde in 2007. Startup Weekend was initially created as an event where a group of individuals would brainstorm a single business idea and work to bring that business to fruition over the course of the weekend. The event has since grown increasingly global and as of this year, Startup Weekend has hosted events in over 300 cities and 100 countries. These events have helped create over 5,000 startup companies all over the world.[i] This, in part, has led companies like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon to sponsor the event and offer every participant signifcant discounts on their products targeted toward startups. The conference was located at SENAI, a fitting location given the fact that SENAI is self-described as an incubator of innovation and entrepreneurship.

     The first day of the conference commenced with a series of lectures given by two general partners of venture capital firms located in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, respectively. After the lectures, there was a short pause in order to give the entrepreneurs, developers and designers an opportunity to meet and share ideas. The night was capped with an opportunity for each and every entrepreneur to give a one minute pitch about their proposed idea for a startup. Afterwards, everyone was allowed to vote for the three ideas they thought were most viable. As the night concluded, 11 teams were formed and the competition was set to begin. I joined in with a team that was centered on an idea for an e-commerce business that centered on fashion, an idea that was admittedly vague but showed legitimate promise if developed correctly.

     On Saturday, everyone gathered at 8 a.m. to begin working on developing their ideas in order to make a final presentation on Sunday evening. The final presentation would ultimately decide who would receive initial investments from local angel investors and consulting services from local technology accelerators.[ii] One of the first things my team did was decide what role each member of our team would play in terms of fostering the development of our idea. My team included two web developers, two web designers, two marketers and myself. Given my background in finance and economics, I played the role of economist and business strategist. Furthermore, I also assisted our marketing department by researching socioeconomic demographics and narrowing down our target niche market.

     Throughout the day, we bounced ideas off of each other and finally narrowed down our idea and target market. We decided to name our company Armario de Macho, which in English translates to something like ´a macho man´s closet.´ The e-commerce site functions as a service for college-educated men between the ages of 25-40 who know they need to continually update their wardrobe but don´t like going out to shop. The site, in theory, will function as a personal stylist for each user and will pick out clothes according to the preferred style of each individual, whether that be for business, leisure, or going out. Each client will develop their own personal profile which will include brands and recent style trends. Furthermore, each user will be shown a series of photos upon logging in that mimics a ´hot or not´ feature that will further help customize each client´s experience. In addition, we will incorporate customized and variable payment and shipping plans to meet the needs of each individual, given budgetary constraints and needs.

     Each individual will subscribe and pay each month, but can choose to receive packages every 1, 3 or 6 months. We will have incentives built in to buy more, i.e. free shipping and quarterly discounts. As we further develop our client base, we will look to develop relationships with local brands in Brazil that want to grow but haven’t found the right avenue to do so. It will be a win-win in that our company will receive a percentage of the sale of each product from these local brands (as we are helping promote and market their brand) and the local brands will gain additional exposure which will undoubtedly open up new markets and opportunities. As we continue to grow, we will look to continue to diversify our revenue streams as much as possible.

     My team worked extremely hard throughout the weekend. We worked together for 15 hours on Saturday, from 8 a.m. until 11 o´clock at night and for 9 hours, from 8 a.m. until 5 o´clock in the afternoon on Sunday. Throughout the weekend, we developed our website´s landing page (http://armariodemacho.com.br/), completed our business plan and developed our marketing strategy. Upon conclusion of the final presentations, my team was awarded 2nd place. Our price included an initial investment of 6,000 reais (approximately $3,000) and offers from local technology accelerators to help further cultivate our idea, company and brand. Among the myriad of experiences I have had in Brazil, I can now add being a silent partner and an economic consultant to an e-commerce startup. Not a bad result given the fact that I was participating in my first startup conference in my third language. In addition to working individually with my team, I got to meet a multitude of major players in the private equity and venture capital world in Brazil. It served to be an invaluable learning experience for me and will surely be a story I will tell for the rest of my life.

     This Thursday, I am heading to Iguazu Falls with two of my fellow colleagues from TORO Investimentos and two of my fellow students from George Mason. Iguazu Falls sits on the border of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil so I will be able to experience three countries in one weekend. In addition to experiencing one of the seven natural wonders of the world, I will be able to experience the first ever X Games event in Brazil. For my final blog post, I will discuss my experience in Iguazu Falls and will elaborate on my final reflections about my four months in Brazil.

Chao for now,

Peter

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[i] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Startup_Weekend

[ii] An angel investor is an individual who provides capital for a startup, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. An accelerator is a type of consulting firm that helps newly formed companies in their early stage development initiatives, e.g. developing a brand and marketing strategy.

Easter in Sao Paulo

     As I sit down to write this blog post on Easter Sunday, I do so in hoping that it will help pass the time as I wait for my bus to arrive in São Paulo.  Being overly optimistic, I waited until arriving at the bus terminal on Sunday night to book my bus ticket to return to Curitiba.  When I arrived at roughly 8:30 at night on Sunday, the station was already completely packed and each line to buy a ticket at literally every bus company was completely saturated.  When I finally made my way to the ticket counter, the earliest bus that had availability was scheduled to depart at 12:30 in the morning.  Having thoroughly enjoyed the weekend and spending a good amount of money in the process, I really wasn’t in a place to go back to the heart of the city and enjoy my last couple of hours.  In other words, I was stuck with one option; sit and wait.

                

     I ventured off to Sao Paulo on Friday night, traveling alone, in order to meet up with my friend Pat and his friend Stephanie.  Pat and Stephanie are both part of a group from Middlebury College in Vermont who are exchange students at the Universidade Federal do Santa Catarina.  I initially met Pat back in high school in Chicago and as we were catching up last semester we realized we would both be studying abroad in Brazil, just a few hours apart. Pat and Stephanie are studying at the main campus of the Universidade Federal do Santa Catarina, which is located in Florianópolis, an island right off the coast in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina.  To give some perspective, Florianópolis is roughly the same distance away from Curitiba as São Paulo, albeit in the opposite direction, which means it´s about a five hour bus ride each way. 

                

     When I stepped off of the bus early Saturday morning, I´d be lying if I didn’t admit to being just a little nervous, as I was in fact traveling alone in the largest city in South America.  Did I mention that Sao Paulo has a notoriously high rate of crime?  With that being said, I felt at ease as soon as I stepped onto their metro (subway) system.  Having grown up in the city of Chicago, I was comfortable using public transportation and found Sao Paulo´s public transportation system to be extremely user-friendly which in fact made getting around the city fast, efficient and enjoyable.  In addition, I came away with a sense of security upon leaving because police officers were visible at all times and appeared to have sufficient control of the neighborhoods I visited in Sao Paulo.

                

     My main rationale for traveling to Sao Paulo this past weekend was to experience Lollapalooza Brasil, a now infamous music festival.  Experiencing Lollapalooza in Brazil was definitely a once in a lifetime experience and definitely a day I will never forget.  Lollapalooza originated in my hometown of Chicago but has since grown internationally, having annual events in Santiago, Chile and Sao Paulo, Brazil.  In fact, 2013 marked only the second time that Sao Paulo has hosted Lollapalooza.  I watched live music all day from a mixture of American, Brazilian and Canadian bands, hip-hop artists and DJs.  The highlights of the day for me personally were The Black Keys (an American rock band from Ohio), Nas (an American hip-hop artist from New York City), Alabama Shakes (an American rock band from Alabama) and Criollo (a hip-hop artist from Sao Paulo).  The music festival took place at the Jockey Club in Sao Paulo, which means the stages were located in the middle of a horse race track.  It lasted 10 hours, from 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. and I´d be lying if I didn’t say I didn’t savor every minute of it.

                

     On Sunday morning, Pat and Stephanie headed off to the airport to catch their 12:00 p.m. flight back to Florianópolis and I was once again on my own.  After getting to the closest metro station, I proceeded to ask one of the employees about the main sites in Sao Paulo and which were worth going to, given the fact that I only had one day.  After discussing the pros and cons of each attraction, I narrowed down my list to three stops, one of which offered a free tour provided by the Sao Paulo Metro Association.  When I headed off to the train, I knew which stops I was going to get off, but I didn’t necessarily know what was around each stop only that there were sites were visiting walking distance from each stop. 

     When I walked out of the station at Luz Avenue, my first stop, I thought that the agent who appeared to be genuine had given me disingenuous advice.  The first two or three blocks away from the station was filled with abandoned buildings, sidewalks filled with the less fortunate and abundant illicit drug use.  However, after a few more blocks of walking, I found myself in front of a national museum that focused on major social and political themes in Sao Paulo.  These stories of political and social persecution were represented visually through various forms of art.  Most of the art featured was produced in the 1950s and 1960s and told the story of the most significant social and political issues during that same era.  Afterwards, I ventured into a park across the street that was littered with sculptures and local bands.  Next, I visited another art museum down the street that featured classic paintings and sculptures primarily from South America but also contained some art from European artists as well.

     I then made my way to the Se Avenue metro stop where I participated in a free tour offered by the staff at the Sao Paulo Metro.  We toured a Japanese neighborhood in Sao Paulo, briefly visited a Japanese-Brazilian museum, and even sampled some sushi at a local market.  After the trip, I ventured back to the Metro and took the train into the historic center of town to see the biggest cathedral in Sao Paulo, some of the major government buildings, and the financial district.  Running out of daylight, I made my way over to Avenida Paulista, arguably the most iconic avenue in Sao Paulo.  In a lot of ways, it reminded me of Michigan Avenue in Chicago, home of the ´Magnificent Mile.´ Avenida Paulista was filled with skyscrapers, a multitude of shops for the fashionistas, and local restaurants offering some of Brazilian´s finest food.  Given all that I did in one weekend, I have definitely put Sao Paulo on the list of place I want to further explore in the future.

     Everything on the home-front back in Curitiba is running smoothly.  My internship continues to be a learning experience each and every day.  In fact, last week my boss introduced me to an event that I am going to attend this upcoming weekend in Curitiba.  The name of the event is, "Startup Curitiba" and the three day conference is focused on offering lectures and materials that provide aspiring entrepreneurs every opportunity to succeed.  Most of the lectures are being taught by entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and other consultants focused on startups and entrepreneurship in Brazil.  It will be an interesting conference to say the least.

Until next time,

Peter

Confessions of a 2nd Semester Senior: Reflections about Brazil and Beyond

     As my time in Brazil dwindles down, I am starting to plan all of my remaining weekend voyages to various Brazilian cities.  I am planning on visiting my friend Pat from high school who just so happens to be studying in Florianópolis, an island located in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina.  Before settling down in his apartment in Florianópolis, he was backpacking for three weeks in Argentina and Brazil.  Just before starting school, he visited Curitiba for three days.  My host mother graciously allowed Pat to stay at her house for 2 nights.  While he was here, I worked in the morning which allowed me to come home in the early afternoon in order to show my friend around Curitiba.  We had a great time and my host mother really took to my friend, in part because he is fluent in Portuguese, having studied the language all throughout college.

     In addition to visiting my friend in Florianópolis, one of my colleagues at TORO Investimentos has amiably invited me to go with his family to Iguazu Falls, one of the seven natural wonders of the world.  Furthermore, I want to visit Sao Paolo, Brazil´s largest city in terms of population, because it is only a short bus ride away and is the financial center of Brazil.  Brazil has many wonderful cities that are definitely worth a visit, so I will definitely be visiting Brazil again in the future to explore Rio de Janeiro and Recife, among others. 

     My host family continues to support me in every possible way and I have to say I have been extremely lucky in terms of my family and internship placement.  I have bonded with my family here in Brazil and continue to learn Portuguese inside and outside of the classroom.  I celebrated St. Patrick´s Day this past weekend with Mariah, one of my Brazilian host sisters, and her boyfriend.  We went out to Sheridan´s Irish Pub, one of two Irish bars in Curitiba, and celebrated the holiday as it should be celebrated.  I happened to meet a guy at the bar who was from Boston originally, but has lived in Curitiba for the past six years working for an international investment firm.  After explaining my rationale for interning in Curitiba, he indicated that I was ahead of the curve and that his time in Brazil has greatly added to his resume and his chances for sustained success.  He also understood the challenges of learning Portuguese, as he indicated that when he first arrived in Brazil, he didn’t speak a word of Portuguese. 

     Since my last blog post, TORO has added two new interns that are both currently studying at FAE Centro Universitário, located in downtown Curitiba.  Diego works in the morning and Augusto works in the afternoon with me.  Diego is studying Economics and Augusto is studying Management.  They are both unsure of their career plans after graduation but are enjoying interning at TORO and learning the day to day life of a financial advisor in Brazil.  After discussing life after interning with TORO with my fellow interns, I understood the realities of working for a relatively new financial firm without an established client base or marketing strategy.  TORO Investimentos is a dynamic and collaborative environment to work in, but they cannot offer the same benefits as an established bank or broker can offer here in Brazil.

     As I start to begin my own search for employment after graduating in May, I have come across similar situations within financial advisory firms in the United States.  Put simply, I have an option to either work at a relatively new advisory firm that has plans to expand rapidly or work at an established brokerage.  The differences between the two are clear.  If I choose to work at a relatively young firm, I will receive practically nothing to start and have to work arduously in order to pass all of the required tests.  Upon passing, I will be paired with a senior advisor who will work with me individually to help me with marketing and obtaining my first few clients.  After my first interview, I was impressed with this prospective firm´s marketing strategy and firmly believe it would be easier to land clients initially with a proven marketing strategy that goes after a niche market.  In addition, they are offering significantly more commission then any established brokerage would offer to a new advisor. 

     If I choose to work at a more established firm, I will be given significantly more compensation initially while I study for the appropriate tests to be certified as a financial advisor.  That being said, each additional year I work for that brokerage I will receive less and less in base salary because in the end, financial consultants are paid as a percentage of the money they manage for their clients.  In addition, larger firms require their new consultants to be highly self-motivated, because after the first few months of studying and training to be an advisor, you are pretty much on your own.  Long-time advisors already have their own clients and are paid individually based on the money they bring in.  In other words, these established advisors have no incentive to help out a new advisor bring in additional clients.  Given the fact that I am moving to a new city to start my professional career, I have to give some serious thought into which option is best for me.

     As I continue to explore my options, my experiences at TORO Investimentos have allowed me to gain a perspective in terms of understanding the challenges and opportunities when working for a young and independent firm.  Before coming to Brazil, I had interned for MassMutual Financial which gave me a glimpse of what it is like to work for a larger and established firm.  That being said, I will continue to enjoy each and every day I have left in Brazil because once I return to the U.S. and graduate in May, the real world will begin and I will be on my own.    

Nearing the Half Way Point

     As I sat down earlier today to reflect upon my last two weeks in Curitiba, I came to the stark realization that I am nearly half way done with my semester in Brazil.  To be honest, writing this blog helps to put events and time in perspective while abroad.  I have got so accustomed to my schedule that time is nearly going as fast as it would back in the states.  During both of my study abroad experiences in Argentina and Brazil, I have realized that time goes by much slower then usual the first couple weeks after entering a new country and a totally different culture.  However, after getting accustomed to a new schedule and being relatively comfortable in your knowledge of the area and language, time begins to accelerate rapidly back to the pace you are accustomed to back home.

          

     My internship continues to be a learning experience each and every day.  Over the past couple weeks, I have been focusing my time and attention on promoting our financial education seminars.  In addition, I have been aiding my colleagues in the research of new developments within their individual presentations on various financial instruments within the Brazilian capital market.  Last week, we had a lecture on graphical analysis, i.e. how to analyze financial graphs and statements to guide your investment strategies.  We had a relatively good turn out and as a result we were able to secure a couple of new clients.  This week, we have a lecture on Brazilian real estate funds and we will be showcasing our top picks for 2013.  As part of my daily tasks, I am charged with advertising and marketing for the firm, which at the moment constitutes promoting our financial education seminars on Facebook.  My goal is to continuously increase interest in our lectures to the point at which we will need to schedule more in order to facilitate our growing list of prospective investors.

     Furthermore, my knowledge of the Portuguese language continues to expand on a daily basis.  Despite the fact that I only have class once a week, I still continue to add to my vocabulary through every day experiences.  Whether that is by interacting with someone at a bus stop, a client at my internship or a conversation at dinner, I am picking up a part of the language I didn’t know previously on a daily basis.  One of my greatest initial challenges was learning the different local accents and vocabulary that Brazilians use.  Much like any other language, the way people speak in practice does not exactly mimic how a textbook suggests it should. 

     This past weekend, I was invited to my second graduation commencement ceremony.  The ceremony was for my host mother’s nephew, who recently graduated from law school.  It was a great learning experience to watch a Brazilian graduation ceremony, especially in terms of observing how the crowd reacted to the various segments.  As an American, it was only natural for me to compare the ceremony to a traditional graduation ceremony in the U.S.  Graduation ceremonies in the U.S. are formal, sentimental and to the point.  On the other hand, Brazilian ceremonies are formatted so that they represent a celebration of accomplishment.  After each graduate was presented with their diploma, each family let out an exclamation of joy, naturally accompanied by loud horns, signs, and confetti that you would usually find at a New Years Eve party.  It was truly an experience I will never forget.  In addition, I was invited to the formal dinner party following the ceremony and the formal dance the next day.  I had a great time getting to know my host family’s extended family and partaking in a wonderful and joyous celebration of hard work and accomplishment. 

My First Brazilian Carnival

     The last time I blogged, I was focusing on my adjustment period at my internship, TORO Investimentos.  I can say to date that I have successfully adjusted and feel at home and integrated with my team of consultants at TORO.  I have a weekly task list of things to do, which keeps me busy but also gives me freedom to do my assignments as I see fit.  In other words, they have given me a sufficient amount of tasks to do while giving me enough freedom to engage in work I find most relevant to getting the most out of my internship.  For example, on days where the market is excessively volatile, I can sit in with one of my colleagues and observe how he engages in options trading.  In doing so, I have gained invaluable experience in terms of understanding the decision making of financial consultants.  Moreover, I have come to understand how financial consultants interject principles of finance and economics into their decision-making.  In addition, on days when my fellow consultants have meetings with clients, I occasionally help out in terms of putting all of the correct paperwork together.  Unfortunately, this constitutes a lot of filling in blanks in PDF files but I know the experience will only serve me well for the future.

     Furthermore, the Brazilian holiday Carnival (February 8-12) has come and gone since my last blog post.  For my first Carnival experience, I decided to go to a beach on the coast of Parana (the same state Curitiba is located in) with one of my host sisters, her boyfriend, and four of their friends.  On the night of February 8^th, we all packed our things and headed to the supermarket to buy all of the necessary food and beverage for the holiday weekend.  We decided to leave Curitiba at midnight in order to avoid the inordinate amount of traffic on the highway during a typical rush hour during the weekend of Carnival.  We made it safely in great time, put our things away, and rested up for the weekend ahead.  The next morning, everyone else arrived and the celebrations began. 

     Unfortunately, the weather did not serve us well and it rained off and on during our first two days on Matinhos beach.  As a result, we only went to the beach off and on during the first two days when the weather allowed it.  Luckily, our beach house was only three blocks from the beach so it was only a 5-minute walk, which came in handy especially when it started raining.  My host sister’s boyfriend, Eduardo, brought his fishing gear so we went out fishing a couple times and that was an experience to say the least.  It was my first time literally fishing off of a beach, a concept I could only laugh at when I first encountered fisherman casting off from the sand.  I had gone fishing before, usually on a boat but occasionally off a pier, so the concept of literally fishing from the beach left me in a bit of a quandary.  Having nothing else to do, I willingly went with Eduardo to fish off the coast, and even tried my hand it.  To nobody’s surprise, we came up empty handed and in all honestly I don’t think we had a chance from the get-go, but it definitely is a story I will be telling over the foreseeable future.

     Carnival turned into a much bigger learning experience then I had initially anticipated.  Despite the fact that my host sister and her boyfriend spoke a bit of English, their friends did not and as a result, I didn’t speak a word of English throughout the duration of the holiday.  There were moments in the various conversations we engaged in where I knowingly had no idea what was being talked about nor what was going on.  At the time, I felt as if I was in over my head but as I look back and reflect on those experiences, I realize that my Portuguese has gotten infinitely better as a result.  I didn’t experience the glamour of the festivities of Carnival, as one would expect to see on television emanating from Sao Paolo or Rio de Janeiro, but I am totally okay with that.  I experienced Carnival through the eyes of normal, hard-working Brazilians who just wanted to get away for the weekend and enjoy their time together on and off of the beach.

     After the first couple of days, the weather got much better and we had two fun-filled days at Caioba beach, just a few kilometers away from Matinhos.  At night, there were countless festivities on the streets in Matinhos and Caioba, celebrating Carnival, the holiday that celebrates the last few days Brazilians can consume meat before Lent commences.  We ended up driving home on Tuesday the 18^th, and I needed a whole day to recover on that Wednesday before returning to work on Thursday.  It was truly an experience I will cherish for the rest of my life.  In all honesty, I hope to return to experience Carnival in the future to experience the lavishness of the festivities in Rio de Janeiro.

Reflections after Week 1 at Toro Investimentos

     Today I commence my second week at Toro Investimentos.  Thus far, my transition into working at Toro has been seamless.  Toro Investimentos is a small financial consulting firm that is located in Batel, near the center of the city of Curitiba.  There are only six consultants that work in the office beside me, which makes for an intimate environment to learn and work.  I have felt welcomed and wanted from the start and have been provided the proper tools to succeed and continue to learn the financial consulting business.  Upon arrival, I was given various literature from Toro about the various financial products that Toro sells.  In addition, my boss gave me additional literature to read about the firms overall strategy in investing for their clients and for their own personal portfolios.  One of my ongoing assignments at Toro is to read “The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America”, which is a collaboration of letters that Warren Buffet wrote to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway.  I have found the content to be extremely helpful in terms of understanding the mindset and thinking processes of arguably the greatest investor of all time.

     One of the biggest obstacles I faced in my first few days at Toro was to understand financial terms and phrases in Brazilian Portuguese.   Luckily, one of my fellow consultants provided me with a website that contained an English to Portuguese dictionary of financial terms and their appropriate definitions.  Although I still have a lot to learn in terms of both the language and business, I feel as though I will be given every opportunity to succeed and learn throughout the duration of my tenure at Toro Investimentos.  Furthermore, after I became familiar with the products and strategy of Toro, I was given additional tasks at the office.  One of my fellow consultants gave me a series of PDF files with the names of various clients with information about their accounts that I had to input into a series of Excel files.  In addition, I have been given tasks that must be completed on a weekly basis, mainly in terms of writing articles and blog posts on their website and a financial blog that accompanies their main website.  Last week I wrote a brief essay about the ten richest cities in the world, with accompanying photos and videos.  I initially wrote the essay in English and then worked with one of my fellow consultants to translate it into Portuguese.

     Furthermore, another one of my tasks during my first week at Toro was to compose and present a Powerpoint presentation about myself.  I initially composed the presentation in English and then subsequently translated the text into Portuguese.  The presentation provided a brief background of my education, past work experience, goals and objectives for my tenure at Toro, and my future professional goals.  I tried my best to speak in Portuguese throughout the presentation and my colleagues appreciated my effort and always corrected me when I made a grammatical or contextual error in Portuguese. 

     To date, I cannot complain one bit about my time in Brazil thus far.  I have been blessed with a wonderful and caring host family and a working environment conducive to learning.  My colleagues at work have been very helpful and understanding of the challenges I have faced initially linguistically and have given me every opportunity to succeed thus far.