Sao Paulo days 5, 6, and 7 (oops)
I'm currently sitting on a bus to Rio de Janiero and this is the first time in the last 3 days when I've had a second to breathe. Granted, I'm breathing while holding back tears from leaving one of the best experiences I've ever had (jk only kinda), but I'm breathing and can finally take a second to fill you all in on what's good.
Thursday (day 5) was our final bootcamp day. We worked all day long on our presentation by breaking into smaller groups and knocking things out. My group was focused on bringing in users to this game that's being created (and I still haven't said what the game is. Dangit. I really have no desire to write anything about it right now! Okay fine: the basic concept is that this guy, Edgard (and I really should know his last name) has invented this game for 8-18 year olds that involves completing mini earth-saving missions. Its called the Call. Pixar is making a video for it, so that's kind of cool. A mission is like...not eating meat on Mondays, cleaning up a park with your friends, planting a garden in an unexpected place...things like that. His goal is for this game to reach 2 billion kids in 4 years. Its a little ambitious! But our brief was to create a communication plan to get, and keep, users for this game.
The problem with our group was that we spent way too long arguing about semantics and other trivial things. We took 4 hours on Wednesday to bicker about using "adventure" vs "game" vs "mystery" to use as part of the tagline for the plan, and then all of a sudden we realized we had basically one day left to throw everything together.
[By the way, as I'm typing this I'm thinking in a British accent thanks to the 3 Brits we had. I can't help it at all and its quite fun!]
We finally did throw things together and we finished, we made the audience laugh and cry, and then it was over and we all got pretty drunk at this club called Bar Secreto in Vila Madalena.
Friday we had the day off, so I visited Anuar's house (he is from Sao Paulo) and got food with him. It was at this restaurant that I think I found nirvana, in the form of a delicious Brazilian snack called a Caxina. Or something. Its a chicken wing covered in a thick layer of mashed potatoes and then fried. TO DIE FOR. I've noticed that if you want to make something Brazilian, just add mashed potatoes. Seriously. They love it on hot dogs, in chicken dishes, in their alcohol, and even mixed with candy. Just kidding about those last two. I asked Anuar about this mashed potato phenomenon and he confirmed it by saying no and then a waiter walked by with 3 mashed potato-y dishes. I win!
Later, about 80 Brazilians came over to watch the Brazil game. I was sort of rooting for Colombia, seeing as how I promised my coworker I would as well as Erika who was with me in the hostel (she promised to root for USA if I rooted for Colombia), but on the way back from lunch I bought a cheap Brazilian flag on the street. I wrapped myself in it and like a dummy, pranced into the hostel with it, and Erika was sitting right in front. I kind of went "Hey everyone-OH crap" as I saw her, and I think she laughed about the way my face looked for about 30 minutes. She laughed about it again today. It was bad. I'm a traitor.
Watching a Brazlian soccer game, surrounded by Brazilians, in Brazil, is fascinating. Its not unlike the Super Bowl, except less (read: none) commercials and lots more screaming. And when Neymar got hurt? We all might as well have gotten hurt. People were on their knees on the floor with their head in the hands just SOBBING. This just delighted Erika, but she did lament with me that its super sad because Neymar is just gorgeous. That hair - I LOVE IT. But now he's gone. You'd think that he was the second coming from the way every single tv channel afterwards replayed it over and over, and then made it CGI and went into his spine and showed how the impact would look if it was someone kicking a wall. Oh Neymar. We barely knew thee.
After the game, we all drank in the hostel and wandered the wild & crazy streets afterwards. Everyone was dancing, beer was flying through the air, I counted more people making out than I did not making out. Truly something crazy to experience. Once we got our full of drunk Brazilians, and just from being exhausted from the long week, the crazy night before, and of course, all the free Skol beer I could handle, we all passed out semi early.
Saturday, a group of us went to a tattoo parlor to get our group's symbol tattooed on us. This was SO fellowship of the rings cast, amiright?! I was also SO in on Thursday night, but by Saturday morning I chickened out. A bunch of other people got it though. I wanted to get the word Beleza instead of the symbol. I think it would be super cool written in cursive on the side of the forearm but its too late. What's not done is not done.
Like every other moment of my life, I was starving, so Anuar and I went to get food (notice a trend here) and we ended up watching the whole Argentina v Belgium game. I was rooting so hard for Belgium, due to me hating Argentinian guys, but I couldn't root enough I suppose.
Since the actual program ended on Thursday, we all had such strange goodbyes, in the way that I mean I said goodbye to almost no one. People trickled out whenever they had to and suddenly I realized I didn't say bye to Felipe or Patrick or Ming or Fernanda or hardly anyone else that you all don't know! So sad. And what's more sad is that its over and it can never be recreated. We can all meet in the US or London or back in Brazil but it can never be the same. I had a long talk about this with some people and we determined that that's what was so beautiful about it all - its ephemeral. If it lasted longer, it wouldn't be as special or as great. Maybe its good that things have to end, it gives them meaning and purpose.
I've been on this bus now for an hour and a half - 3 more to go! Woohoo! I have plans tonight to go to some party at a hotel in Rio with Mellie, from the hostel. Its kind of fun to make plans here - it was so casual ("tryna go to a party tonight?") but its in Rio!
Come back soon to see what this week has in store for me. Will I make friends? Will I wander the beach alone every day???? WILL I FIND TRUE HAPPINESS???? STAY TUNED!
The group after the presentation.
Thursday (day 5) was our final bootcamp day. We worked all day long on our presentation by breaking into smaller groups and knocking things out. My group was focused on bringing in users to this game that's being created (and I still haven't said what the game is. Dangit. I really have no desire to write anything about it right now! Okay fine: the basic concept is that this guy, Edgard (and I really should know his last name) has invented this game for 8-18 year olds that involves completing mini earth-saving missions. Its called the Call. Pixar is making a video for it, so that's kind of cool. A mission is like...not eating meat on Mondays, cleaning up a park with your friends, planting a garden in an unexpected place...things like that. His goal is for this game to reach 2 billion kids in 4 years. Its a little ambitious! But our brief was to create a communication plan to get, and keep, users for this game.
The problem with our group was that we spent way too long arguing about semantics and other trivial things. We took 4 hours on Wednesday to bicker about using "adventure" vs "game" vs "mystery" to use as part of the tagline for the plan, and then all of a sudden we realized we had basically one day left to throw everything together.
SelfieZ after the presentation
[By the way, as I'm typing this I'm thinking in a British accent thanks to the 3 Brits we had. I can't help it at all and its quite fun!]
Patrick (England) and Filipe (Brazil)
We finally did throw things together and we finished, we made the audience laugh and cry, and then it was over and we all got pretty drunk at this club called Bar Secreto in Vila Madalena.
Friday we had the day off, so I visited Anuar's house (he is from Sao Paulo) and got food with him. It was at this restaurant that I think I found nirvana, in the form of a delicious Brazilian snack called a Caxina. Or something. Its a chicken wing covered in a thick layer of mashed potatoes and then fried. TO DIE FOR. I've noticed that if you want to make something Brazilian, just add mashed potatoes. Seriously. They love it on hot dogs, in chicken dishes, in their alcohol, and even mixed with candy. Just kidding about those last two. I asked Anuar about this mashed potato phenomenon and he confirmed it by saying no and then a waiter walked by with 3 mashed potato-y dishes. I win!
A caxina...or...heaven.
Later, about 80 Brazilians came over to watch the Brazil game. I was sort of rooting for Colombia, seeing as how I promised my coworker I would as well as Erika who was with me in the hostel (she promised to root for USA if I rooted for Colombia), but on the way back from lunch I bought a cheap Brazilian flag on the street. I wrapped myself in it and like a dummy, pranced into the hostel with it, and Erika was sitting right in front. I kind of went "Hey everyone-OH crap" as I saw her, and I think she laughed about the way my face looked for about 30 minutes. She laughed about it again today. It was bad. I'm a traitor.
Javier (USA) and I LERVING LERF
Watching a Brazlian soccer game, surrounded by Brazilians, in Brazil, is fascinating. Its not unlike the Super Bowl, except less (read: none) commercials and lots more screaming. And when Neymar got hurt? We all might as well have gotten hurt. People were on their knees on the floor with their head in the hands just SOBBING. This just delighted Erika, but she did lament with me that its super sad because Neymar is just gorgeous. That hair - I LOVE IT. But now he's gone. You'd think that he was the second coming from the way every single tv channel afterwards replayed it over and over, and then made it CGI and went into his spine and showed how the impact would look if it was someone kicking a wall. Oh Neymar. We barely knew thee.
After the game, we all drank in the hostel and wandered the wild & crazy streets afterwards. Everyone was dancing, beer was flying through the air, I counted more people making out than I did not making out. Truly something crazy to experience. Once we got our full of drunk Brazilians, and just from being exhausted from the long week, the crazy night before, and of course, all the free Skol beer I could handle, we all passed out semi early.
Skol. Drink of champions.
Saturday, a group of us went to a tattoo parlor to get our group's symbol tattooed on us. This was SO fellowship of the rings cast, amiright?! I was also SO in on Thursday night, but by Saturday morning I chickened out. A bunch of other people got it though. I wanted to get the word Beleza instead of the symbol. I think it would be super cool written in cursive on the side of the forearm but its too late. What's not done is not done.
This is not temporary tat-Tuesday, this was very permanent Saturday.
The tattoo to rule them all
Like every other moment of my life, I was starving, so Anuar and I went to get food (notice a trend here) and we ended up watching the whole Argentina v Belgium game. I was rooting so hard for Belgium, due to me hating Argentinian guys, but I couldn't root enough I suppose.
Since the actual program ended on Thursday, we all had such strange goodbyes, in the way that I mean I said goodbye to almost no one. People trickled out whenever they had to and suddenly I realized I didn't say bye to Felipe or Patrick or Ming or Fernanda or hardly anyone else that you all don't know! So sad. And what's more sad is that its over and it can never be recreated. We can all meet in the US or London or back in Brazil but it can never be the same. I had a long talk about this with some people and we determined that that's what was so beautiful about it all - its ephemeral. If it lasted longer, it wouldn't be as special or as great. Maybe its good that things have to end, it gives them meaning and purpose.
The group in the streets after the Brazil Colombia game.
I definitely found purpose this week. There's just so much out there in the world to do and see. There's also so many people to meet! I can't count how many times we'd be out at a bar or just walking along the street and I'd think "when else in my whole life will I be chilling with (for instance) 2 Colombians, 3 Brits, 4 Brazilians and a Filipino, all joking and understanding each other, in Brazil, for free?" Never. We all got along so well and really meshed as a group. It would've been an interesting case study in group dynamics because no one was super bossy, everyone had their niche, and at the end of the day we laughed more than we argued. Truly something special. Yesterday I was chatting with my American friend Javier about who we'd vote off the island if we had to and we were truly stumped. Then we decided it probably had to be this one kid because he snored like a mother ferker. (Also we were totally just kidding. We wouldn't vote off anyone!) The impressions of him snoring are priceless and had me in tears. Basically, he would snort REALLY loud a few times in a row, and then he'd almost hold his breath. During this time, we discovered the whole hostel was laying in their bunks, imagining that he had died. He was just so quiet! Suddenly, he would let out this chaotic exhale and make everyone jump. And it happened all.night.long. (We also wondered if maybe the whole thing was a case study to see how people reacted to crazy snoring. It wasn't just him...it was actually everyone - sorry boys, you all snore)
Anuar finding his inner peace.
I've been on this bus now for an hour and a half - 3 more to go! Woohoo! I have plans tonight to go to some party at a hotel in Rio with Mellie, from the hostel. Its kind of fun to make plans here - it was so casual ("tryna go to a party tonight?") but its in Rio!
Come back soon to see what this week has in store for me. Will I make friends? Will I wander the beach alone every day???? WILL I FIND TRUE HAPPINESS???? STAY TUNED!
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