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
Peter
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