Work and Play

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It was early to rise for me on friday morning. Only having arrived the night before, I had my first day of work on friday. Silvestre and Carolina (the father and daughter of the family who I am staying with) and I drove to work only 15 minutes away. Silvestre is one of the owners of TECTRAN and his daughter Carolina (Caro) works in the HR department.

I was introduced to probably 20 people but I can only remember a few names. Louis is a civil engineer who works in the consulting department. He reminds me a lot of my friend Bruno from I-House... just a layed back happy-go-lucky guy who likes to joke a little and have a good time. Next to him sits Andre. Andre has a little trouble speaking english but is trying hard. He is one of Caro´s best friends. Lastly there´s Pedro who is pretty new in the company, also really nice.

They didn´t have any work planned for me that day so they just had me reading some chapters from the road and transportation "bible." Honestly, it was really boring to read especially after travelling all day the day before I was doing the pump jack at my desk.

That night, Caro took me out with her boyfriend, Joao. He is a really nice guy and more than enthusiastic to talk to me and tell me about things in Brazil. We went to this classy bar to meet up with a couple of their friends, and drink a brazillian beer called Chopp (Basically a light refreshing beer served in small glasses). I also tried a traditional drink with sugar-cane alchohol and limes and sugar, but I can´t remember the name. We were talking and laughing the whole night and they really made me feel comfortable and part of the conversation.

The next day I got a chance to walk around a bit and get to know the neighborhood. Belo Horizonte is built on a really hilly landscape. It´s almost impossible to walk or ride a bike any distance because there are so many steep hills to climb. There are many walking/running trails alongside the roads and you always see people using them in the morning. I stopped with Caro to drink fresh coconut water from a stand selling coconuts which was very refreshing.

Later, Joao picked us up and we travelled to Nova Lima, another city adjacent to Belo. There they have a tall tower you can go up and see a view of the whole city. At the top they even have a bungee jumping platform set up, so Í´ll have to test that out before I leave here for about $35. We met up with Joao´s friends at this new trendy lounge called Penguin. It was really nice and there were a lot of beautiful people there. I was talking with a guy called Tibet (real name Louis) who was really nice and I even got a phone number of a beautiful girl named Luciana, so hopefully we can hook up again some time.

Tomorrow Brazil plays Australia in the world cup, so it is going to be a big party all day. Should be fun!!

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Comments

[Odette]

Nice to see that you are having a great time and meeting awesome people. Life is great and enjoy every moment of it.

[Jamie D]

Hey you
Hey Wild.. Just wanted to remind you that drink is a ciparinia.. don't think that is how it is spelt. We had some Soke one's and some Vodka one's when we were there. It is so weird hearing your stories cause I can totally relate. And watch out D.. there are lots of beautiful woman there. I will reply to your email soon. Love JD

[Leanne and baby X]

Uncle Dan
Hey. Sounds like an amazing experience and fun time down there. Explain who are the lovely ladies you are with in the photo. Definitely Steve will want to know details and live vicariously through you. In fact, he may just want a detour visit down there too! all is well up here. Hot at 30degrees, but nice for summer. Heading to Canmore for the long weekend and Canada day parade. you still need to stop on by there. Have a great rest of week and I hear Brazil is in the quarter finals on Friday - wild times, I hope they win. Talk to you soon. and HI to HUGH. I'll check out the cross country check-up/.