School has started!

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School has started! Finally!

Attending a Portuguese course in Salvador was interesting, but still not the most exciting subject in the world. So I am hoping that one of the courses at GV (Fundacao Getulio Vargas) might sweep me off my feet. My half year here in Sao Paulo is split into 2 modules, in between there is a 2 week vacation. In my first module I am doing a finance-class on Monday, leadership on Wednesday and a international strategy course plus Brazilian economy on Thursday. Overall an okay schedule with Tuesdays and Fridays off, but with a long and intense Thursday.

But unfortunately the week also started with being hit by the classic flue. Not optimal considering I was looking at first week of class, apartment searching, police station registration and a lot of other stuff. Now after having attended the courses I have to admit they look good, but my gains from the class weren't that good since I had a hard time concentrating at all... So more information about how real school is later!

This week has been intense as mentioned. Everyday we didn't find an apartment we had to book another night on the hotel we were staying at. Instead of going through my week day by day, I'll sum up the achievements.

I am now registered as a student in Brazil. After a mandatory 5 hours on the federal police station my fingerprints were registered, and I could walk out the place.

We have found an apartment! It has only one bedroom, but it is located very close to school and has a swimming pool, gym, sauna and Jacuzzi on the top floor. Kristian and I will during this semester switch between sleeping in the twin bed in the bedroom and the single bed in the "living-room", of course one in each bed! The price was of course more than we had planned, as all our other expenses here in Brazil, but we just got too tired of looking around for apartments. We now live in the building "Paulista Wall Street", please feel welcome to stop by! Here's the link to the place:
http://www.wallstreet.com.br/

Clothes have been delivered at the laundry service. Not easy finding a relatively cheap place!!!

Thursday we joined a party at IBMAC, FGV's big rival (same as NHH vs. BI in Norway). Fun experiencing a student party, but I could notice that I most likely was one of the oldest at the party(Brazilians start university when they are 18). Not sure if that's a good thing or not..... Was certainly wasn't a good thing was going out with a cold! But, I couldn't let Kristian go all by himself!!!

I still struggle with the language barriers here. The other day I bought a can of Coca-cola from a classic vending machine. I then enter the small kiosk/cafeteria at school to buy some water. We are talking about a place you point at what you want and they find what you want behind the counter. I bought my water and a snack, paid, turned around and could suddenly hear somebody yelling at me in Portuguese. I didn't really understand what he wanted, but after a minute I understood that he wanted me to pay for the Cola. By the time I understood, I had 5 people from the kiosk standing around me talking very loudly in Portuguese. The louder they spoke, the less I understood. After several tries of gesticulating how a vending machine works; "money inn=cola out" with large hand movements a Brazilian viewer of this big "case" comes over and helps me translate. This whole incident was a 5 minute séance that I could have been without, but it still explains how a normal day can be....

We have also spent time with some people from school, friendly and nice people, but we can also see that many of them represent the upper-class here in Brazil. The big class differences become more and more apparent.

Now I am looking forward to some lazy days before we take the bus to Rio de Janeiro for Carnival on Sunday evening! I'll try to post some more pictures on facebook before i leave!!!!

Take care everybody!!!!

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