Brazil...phew...just got back from a wonderful spring break from my first visit south of the equator. The actual reason to go there was for the Global Business Experience (GBE), a week long exchange program with Darden's partner school IBMEC that seeks to give us a sense of the business climate in those countries. But lets talk about that some other time.
I had a lot of fun in Brazil, and the best way to get a sense of it is to run into me sometime and you will find me gloating about that place. Sao Paulo is alive and the city gets you pumping. It might have been so because I was surrounded by undergrad students and guys from Darden who thought they were on spring break (we actually were) or the fact that I got to see an active night life and other nice places there. What really boded well with me was that people were laid back, liked to have a nice time and were forthcoming in helping me, even though my language skills were limited to a few words of Portuguese and a lot of hand signals. Maybe the fact that I was there with 30 people I know helped he have more fun.
I got to see the art scene in Sao Paulo, visit their corporate giants (Abril, Azul, Embraer) and see Ronaldo in action in his comeback game (he scored a gooooooooooooool). All this meant that I am glad I decided to go to Brazil as part of the GBE. My first visit down under,at least from the equator if not Oz, was a huge blast. Look forward to seeing another part of the world next year.
