Thursday, May 3, 2012
Graduation
Oh yeah - tomorrow is graduation. I'm walking, receiving my MBA. Maybe earning would be the better word. Either way, it's kind of exciting - I am ecstatic about having merited a hood and am looking forward to celebrating the day. For me it's a pretty big deal.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Our Neighborhood Now
These pictures show what our neighborhood looks like now. In the past two years, since we've lived here, we've probably seen 30 homes go up. I realized that if we're still here in thirty years, it would be fun to reminisce about how things looked now. So here are some pictures to show how things look now: trust me, they're changing every day.
I love where we live.
Hopeful
Is there anything in this world more hopeful than seeing the trees you planted last fall come into bloom in the spring?
Friday, March 2, 2012
Brazil Through Pictures
The hotel - floor eleven, room 1110 
Turn 90 degrees from the hotel and...ta da! The office - the tall building. Just a very quick walk past all the beer-drinkers (this restaurant is always open) and, at night, a good 30 sets of eyes staring at me.
The front doors to the store/showroom of the office. We don't work here - the office staff is on the first and third floors.
The office I work in - Leonardo, Joao, Carol and William. Elias and Marcio are missing.
My little work station, the filing cabinets, the fridge, water and coffee (they have a person that works in the building that just brings pitchers of coffee and water and washes everyone's glasses - very interesting) and the bathrooms behind.
And...that's about all I saw of Brazil. :) Oh, and traffic - lots and lots of traffic (which the first two pictures don't show - this was the best part of the traffic. :))
Dear Sao Paulo, I'm really happy to go home to my family. But I will miss your sunshine and your 75 degree weather.
Brazil Through Emails - Day 4
Hi Mama,
It's nearly 11 - I'm still up working. Not enough hours in the day.
My flight leaves at 9:30. To make it in time, I'm leaving between 4 and 4:30 - people at the office said 2 hours to get there and allow 4 hours for Customs. That means I need to cut an hour somewhere. :) I hope I don't have any issues - I just want to come home.
I love you,
Rachel
It's nearly 11 - I'm still up working. Not enough hours in the day.
My flight leaves at 9:30. To make it in time, I'm leaving between 4 and 4:30 - people at the office said 2 hours to get there and allow 4 hours for Customs. That means I need to cut an hour somewhere. :) I hope I don't have any issues - I just want to come home.
I love you,
Rachel
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
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
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
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