Eu decidi escrever este blog em português, only kidding. I can't believe it's been since June since I have updated my blog, but time has really flown these past 8 months. Funny after reading that last post how much has changed in my life in such a short time. Our family has been blessed with the birth of our first granddaughter and niece in Madeline Grace and it has been an amazing almost 7 months watching her grow. Each time I see her she is doing something different, but I am still waiting for her to hit a growth spurt so that my dreams of a volleyball dynasty will come true!
I digress.....if you're are taking to following this blog and keeping up with things going on with in my life then you know many of the changes that I am talking about. The past 8 months have been a great opportunity for me professionally as I took on the position of Controller in one of my companies divisions in West Chester, PA (which I am thankfully not in this week as they were hit with over 30 inches of snow). I have received pictures from our office and a few from the roads and restaurants that we frequented and it is just amazing. One of my co-workers there said that all the hotel employees were required to stay at the hotel until the storm blew past the east coast, and he mentioned that he was able to stock up on Chick Fil A as it was actually open for 3 hours but run only by the manager during that time. As these past 8 months have been great for me, a new opportunity has arisen at our joint venture in Brazil, and I recently accepted and began working working down in Brazil this past week.
So far everything has been going well, but it's been pretty tough getting acclimated to the culture, location, and language. I know these things don't come overnight, but everyone that knows me, knows how when I want things, I want them immediately. Patience has never been one of my virtues and something I still struggle with daily. I think making this move will be good for me as this culture seems to do things at a different pace so that will help force me to work on this lacking virtue. Everyone here has been very welcoming to have me on board and starting to work with their team, but one thing I am finding is that once I get outside the office the lack of English speaking people is high. Again, one of the things that will force me out of my comfort zone and into learning a new language and teaching myself something new. I am also starting to learn more about the metric system and do conversions. I ran on the treadmill last night and the writing was all in Portuguese and distance and speed were in kilometers and kilometers per hour. I set the treadmill around 7 which is what I would run pace wise in the states and I was still walking until I realized what was going on. It was a good thing I had my heart rate monitor as I know my what avg HR is when I run time and distance wise.
Carnival begins this weekend and I was invited to go to Rio and experience it, but the hotels still available range from $500 - $800 USD per night. I would love to go but not for $3,000, maybe next year. I was also invited to go to Obra, which is a giant music festival that begins tomorrow and goes until Tuesday of next week, so I am going to look into that as well. Only downside with that is that only one person will speak English and the city it's in is 400km away, and I don't yet have a car. So it is looking like I will be staying in Campinas for the weekend as it stands right now. The hotel is great, people are very nice, they have a great workout room and it will give me a chance to explore the city and some sights so I can familiarize myself places to eat, drink, shop, etc.
I think that's about it for now, but one last thing. If you are able to sign up for Skype then please do so. My username is Hawkvball02 and I would love to video chat and stay close with everyone back home while I am away. I have been using it during this week and it works great. Computer to computer is free and it only costs 2 cents per minute for me to call the states.
I hope everyone back home is doing well. Continue to pray for safety (the city is very safe, but being 6'4", pale white, and unable to speak the language very well makes me stick out), patience in learning yet another new job within my company, and perseverance in learning the language.
Cheers
Adam
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