Brazil Through Emails - Day 3, Part 2

Hi my dear,

I am glad to be missing the dreary also. The weather here has been fantastic - 75-80 degrees and sunny most of each day. Don't worry, I cherish my 90 second walk to the office in the morning. :) When I leave at night it's already dark, but still warm. I so appreciate the warmth and have liked the walks to and from lunch every day (though frankly I wish we could skip the lunches and leave the office earlier, but alas).

Hang in there - summer is coming. Some people have started planting their "starters" for gardens. I suppose I should start thinking about finishing our yard now, huh? :) We're skipping out on the Europe trip with my family to be able to finish it - I can't hardly wait to have a barbecue.

I'm just hanging in there out here. I slept very poorly last night because I didn't take a sleeping pill. I'm very much on the fence for tonight - I know it causes weight gain, but I'm so desperate for the rest. What's a girl to do?

Guess what? I'm over halfway! I leave Friday afternoon. The airport is only 15 miles from here, but we drove out to the area today for a warehouse visit and it took over 2 hours. It took that long for me to get to the hotel Monday also. Some of my coworkers have sat in traffic for 3-4 hours and others have sat in Customs for that long... So, my flight leaves at 9:30 PM on Friday and Friday is the heavier traffic day. Suggestions on what time to leave? I'm thinking 4:00. Does that just sound insane for an airport the same distance as we live from ours? I can't quite get over it. Seems like I should rent a bicycle, which I'd feel a lot more comfortable doing if I wasn't convinced I'd be killed - these people are CRAZY drivers. Wow.

Anyway, it's nearly 10:30 here and I just am going to call it quits with work. I'm going to get ready for bed, call TJ, and (hopefully) get some sleep. I hope you're doing well.

Lots of love,

Rachel

Brazil by Emails - Day 3

Hi Mama,

Sorry I didn't write last night - I was having internet issues for quite some time and gave up at 10:30 and went to bed.

Wow - what a day today. We left at 10:15 this morning to go visit two facilities located 15 miles away. FIFTEEN MILES. It took just over 2 hours to get to the first place, and we spent 45 minutes there. About 45 minutes. It was not incredible. Then, it took an hour and 15 minutes to go 3 miles to the next location. I thought I was going to die - it was totally miserable. We then walked through their facility for about 40 minutes then I sat in a really hot room wtih everyone (7 people) while they negotiated a contract - entirely in Portuguese. I didn't udnerstand and accidentally kept yawning. I couldn't keep my eyes open! Anyway, I was truly praying in my heart that the traffic back wouldn't be bad and it was a miracle - only an hour and fiften minutes for those 15 miles! Can you imagine if it took an hour and fifteen minutes to get to Fashion Place? That is about the equivalent! My goodness. We were supposed to stop at a third facility and I said it wasn't worth my time - takes way too long. They will come to us tomorrow. :)

So, what am I doing in Brazil? I am looking to implement some new methods of operations to decrease costs. The goal is to have made great progress in 90 days. Well, at this point we have only about 70 days left. So I am here learning as much as I possibly can about operations, issues, challenges, and areas of potential. We are making a list of priorities and then we will execute against the list to see the benefits. It is a difficult job because nobody here will commit to anything: I can get the to agree completely with my proposal one day then the next day when we look at it in writing (my writing!) they say no way. It is very discouraging. But, I will keep working hard.

It's about 7:00 PM now. I am back to the office to work on emails - missed 131 in the hours I was gone, so am trying to catch up. I worked hard this morning to get my Inbox down and now it's filled up again. Anyway, am hopeful that I will get to a better place before I go home. If not, I will just work at home.

My stomach has been having a dickens of a time since arriving here - I've been totally miserable. This morning I barely ate anything for breakfast and that seemed to help. I also ate just my American food last night for dinner (Tuna sandwich, applesauce and pringles). I'll probably do the same again tonight and hope it stays steady. Everyone here takes 60-90 minutes every day for lunch and then stays at the office very late because of it - I would far rather work straight through lunch and leave earlier, but I'm not making the rules here. :) It's hard to change a culture, and that's okay.

Two more days. The airport is the same place as the warehouses we visited today and Friday's traffic is supposed to be worst so...I think I'll be leaving like 5 hours early on Friday. That gives me 2 hours for traffic and 2 hours for Customs - I have coworkers that have taken 3-4 hours for each before, so I hope I won't have any issues. I really, really hope....

Can't wait to be home.

Rachel

Brazil Through Emails - Day 1

Hi Mama,

The hotel is fine – costs a fortune (ie $1500 for 4 nights) but is not what you’d get in the US for such a price. :) The hotel is really just across the street from the office, which I feel very glad about. It is overcast but very warm and humid (ie 75 degrees) so that’s been nice, though I haven’t been able to spend much time out there.

I did sleep some on the plane – more than I ever have before, but one only sleeps so well on a flight. :) I’m exhausted, but will be alright. I’m not sure what I’ll do for dinner, maybe Room Service, and just work/relax at the hotel. I do have some homework that’s due tomorrow that I need to get in.

The drive from the airport to the hotel was miserable – 40 kilometers (about 20 miles) and took 2 hours! I kept falling asleep in the most awful position for my neck. There was not a whole lot to do on the drive because my driver didn’t speak any English and very little Spanish. We exchanged conversation for maybe a total of 3 minutes, and I was very glad when we arrived at the hotel.

I am on the 11th floor of the Mercure Hotel in Sao Paulo. I arrived here this morning at about 9:00 (5:00 your time) and got a hold of TJ right away: I tried calling him 3 or 4 times before but couldn’t get it to go through. I was very relieved to finally hear his voice. I spoke with him for just a couple minutes then jumped in the shower and got ready for the day. I got to the office around 10 and we spent a couple hours working before going to lunch with a group from the office. Lunch is their biggest meal so we had a lot of food, but I was full after 1 plate (we went to a buffet). We went back to the office and I worked until 7: others stayed later.

I came back to the hotel and ate a delicious sandwich downstairs (Panini with cheese and tomato) which was quite an adventure since they didn’t speak a lick of English. :) They would carry me out things to show me and I would point. It was, in the end, a good sandwich. Now I am back to my room. I’m going to do some more work, talk with TJ once he’s off work, and get my homework done for tomorrow. Then I’ll hit the sack!

All in all, I’m doing well. Having flashbacks of being in Spain and feverishly writing you every day, wishing I was there – funny, I still feel the same way.

I love you,

Rachel

Grandma's 84!

Yesterday was Grandma Savage's birthday - 84 years old! What a woman. :) Over the past 2-3 years I've become especially close to my sweet grandma and talk with her at least once a week. She is wonderful. She wore a stunnine red velvet sweat suit with a bow on front. We ate pizza, brownies, pumpkin roll, and carrot cake to celebrate (all her favorites). What a day! What a celebration!

I just have to ask...

I confess - I blog stalk. During my average 12-14 hours at work/school each day, glancing at blog updates provides me a few moments of distraction. But I just have to ask - are people really like that? Am I the only person that reads blogs and sees smiling families with stories about how wonderful every day is and how much they love their lives? I don't want to tear any of that down, and deep inside I hope they are sincere, but I just have to ask... do people really live like that?

Give Me Sweet Virginia for the Fireworks of Fall

This time of the year I can't help but think about Emily. I don't hear from her much lately, but my thoughts are with her more than ever. The last post she put up before John died was titled "Give Me Sweet Virginia for the Fireworks of Fall" and had beautiful pictures of John and little Lizzie enjoying the beautiful fall leaves of Virginia.

TJ and I took the chidwinks and Buddy up the canyon on Sunday - an awful lot like two years ago - to take pictures. I suppose those girls will probably never know just how much I miss them, and spending time with them as much as I used to. I miss our weekly Friday night dates and am so grateful for the memories we made each week.

One Year Older...

Decorating the mantle - a Milar tradition that I've gladly carried on. Thanks to Moo and Maddi for rescuing me last night and helping. PS Got that scarecrow girl for free. :)
Took our primary kids cupcakes. Couldn't believe how much frosting ended up on their faces.

In his pajamas, right after waking up -he just wanted to open his presents. :) That shirt was a whopping $6.

I asked Gem to take this picture of us because "we're not well documented! :)"

Family effort to light the candles -

I'm always more excited for TJ's birthday than he is; this one was no exception. :) It was a great day.