Living intense

DISNEYLAND

2008-02-23T00:13:00.004-06:00

My last adventure in Florida was to go to Orlando, more specifically: DISNEYLAND !!!

I clearly remember when I was fifteen and many girls would decide between do a party or go to Disney. Almost 10 years later I had the opportunity to visit the Land of Fantasy.

Disneyland is huge, there are 7 different parks. As I went just in the weekend I could visit 2 parks only: The Magic Kingdom and MGM Studio.

I liked it very much, I felt like a kid again. Everything is really magic: attractions, shows, rollercoaster, Disney characters and unforgettable movies.

It is definitely a place to go back. I still have a ticket to visit 2 more parks and I want to go again!!!

Another thing that really called my attention was to see the history of Walt Disney. One person, with a dream, could change and impact the life of almost the entire world. It is amazing what he did, what he build, what he created. I was very inspired by his biography.

Key West

2008-01-13T15:12:00.000-06:00

Key West is a paradisiacal island, the southernmost point in the US, just 114 Km (90 miles) from Cuba. We went camping in Key West because hotels there are very expensive. There was a long time that I didn’t go camping, but we didn’t have any problems as the tent was easy to arrange and the place had all the convenience. We also had some nice visitors during the morning: some iguanas.

The funny part is that the island has a very big gay community. You can see the rainbow flag in many stores, the taxis are pink and at night gay’s night club is everywhere.

We had a delightful weekend in the beach !!!

Christmas and New Years Eve

2008-01-13T14:37:00.000-06:00

This was my first Christmas out of

Brazil

, far away from my family. Actually it was very different for usual celebrations: I was not in Jabo, I didn’t go to the “praça”, no family gift exchanges and I didn’t go to Gustavo, Bruno and Marcelo grandfather’s house to celebrate with them after my family goes to sleep. Svitlana and I went to dinner at night in a very nice restaurant with some Brazilians friends and after that we came back home. It was cool but very different.

At New Years we went to Fort Lauderdale beach. There were many Brazilians over there. I believe that the Americans went to the nightclubs and the Brazilians to the beach. We drunk some nice Rum and open the classic champagne at 00:00. It was short and fun.

2007 was an amazing year for me. I lived in many places, visit many countries, achieved many personal and professional objectives, met new friends and found my love. It couldn’t be better. I am very positive about 2008.

I wish you all a amazing 2008 !!!

Morikami garden

2008-01-13T14:08:00.001-06:00

In Florida you can also find one the most famous Japanese gardens in the world: The Morikami Graden. It is a very beautiful place perfect decorated in the Japanese style.

There is a Japanese colony there that arrived in Florida many years ago. The place garden is perfect for meditation, reading and taking pictures. You can feel the peace in the environment.

Svitlana

2008-01-13T13:48:00.000-06:00

After some months without seeing each other we spend 15 days together in Florida, US. I could write many lines expressing what it meant for us but I would prefer share some pictures, you can easily understand just by looking to our faces. I love you Svitlana.

The Everglades

2008-01-13T13:29:00.000-06:00

Florida has a beautiful cost with amazing beaches but in the middle of the state there are the Everglades, a huge swamp with alligators and many other animals.

If you drive 20 minutes west from my house the landscape change for a typical cost style to typical swamp vegetation. I got to know a different side of Florida.

I saw many movies recorded at the swamp with airborne boats chases; being there was quite nice. After the airborne tour they take you to an alligators show and an American Indian does some demonstrations.

Cruise to Bahamas

2008-01-13T10:46:00.000-06:00

It is unbelievable to say that but I went to a Cruise to Bahamas. Many big cruises departure from Miami harbor, what makes the cruise very cheap for local residents. Together with the AIESEC trainees we went for 3 days Cruise in “Carnival Fascination” – the fun ship!!!

The ship is like a city, you have everything you can imagine: many pools, Jacuzzi, casino, many restaurants, party salons, mini golf circuit, games, shows and a lot of people.

The feeling of being in the cruise, in the Caribbean, sun, beaches, clear water good friends, etc… it just awesome, lovely experience.

Bahamas is small and extremely fancy. The resorts are unbelievable and beach great.

You can see all my pictures at facebook: www.facebook.com

New York – Thanksgiving Holiday

2008-01-13T09:49:00.000-06:00

At Thanksgiving holiday I went to visit the famous city of NEW YORK. It was amazing, I have never taken so many pictures in one trip. I went to Statue of Liberty, Empire State, Time Square, Wall Street, the ruins of World Trade Center, Rockefeller center, Central Park, Union Square, Metropolitan museum, Museum of Natural Art, etc… Every single part of New York you have seen in at least one movie.

One of the best things was to meet Amber again and spent some time together. We had a lot of fun and very nice conversations besides going to the Latin nightclub that was great.

I also meet Sarah, Arthur and Barbara; friends who were in Argentina some time ago. It was great to see them again. Sarah host me at her apartment in Manhattan, beautiful and very convenient place.

The Thanksgiving dinner with Arthur’s family was the best culture experience so far. We had a great traditional Thanksgiving dinner with a very typical New York family. They explained us the history of Thanksgiving, we talked about US politics, US healthy system and eat a delicious food.

New York is definitely one of the best places to visit in the world.

You can see all my pictures at facebook: www.facebook.com

Paintball

2008-01-13T09:36:00.000-06:00

The amazing advertisements of US army finally convinced us and we decided to go to the war. A group of Chinese, led by our core worker Iping, invited us for a paintball evening at the same day of Elias´s birthday.

Some Kraft AIESEC trainees and some DHL AIESEC trainees joined the group of Chinese and we played Paintball in a very cool real field and in an artificial training field. It was the first time that I played and I enjoyed it very much.

I was really impressed by some people who are fanatic about Paintball and they have all kinds of imitation of real weapons in a paintball version. They even dress like Rambo, it really looks that are in the war.

Learning

2007-11-03T22:40:00.000-05:00

At the end of the day we are living an AIESEC exchange experience so we supposed to have a strong professional experience, a cultural experience in a global learning environment. Unfortunately AIESEC US really sucks and there is no local committee in South Florida to support us on that. So we started to organize some activities by ourselves. Once we went to visit DHL Miami Gateway that was really cool to understand more about the company and create a better network among the interns.

Some weeks ago we had a learning event where we started with a Brazilian lunch and then a discussion about Brazilian culture. After that we had a very cool learning circle about the development model of the countries we had represented: Brazil, Russia, Mexico and Colombia and correlating with the development model of China, India and US. It is always amazing how much you can learn just by sitting and having a structure talk with smart people. We really need to take the opportunity to learn from the bright people we have around. To finish the day we had Russian desert and watched the Brazilian movie: ¨Tropa de Elite¨ all together. The movie shows very much about a big current issue in Brazil: violence. This movie for me is AMAZING !!!

Um dia de patrao !!!

2007-11-03T22:12:00.000-05:00

One of our great friends here, Karina Trujillo, was celebrating her birthday last weekend. She invited all of the AIESEC inters and rented 3 rooms at Sheraton Miami. We went Saturday afternoon, set ourselves in the room and went to the swimming pool to drink some beers. We had almost private beach, beautiful palms around, the moon was full and we decided to go to the Jacuzzi during night before the party. We dressed up and went to a night club at South Beach called Macarena. At Macarena we had dinner, I eat an Argentinean dish and we had ¨free¨sangria for the whole night. After the dinner the party started: salsa, merengue, reggeaton!!! We had a great party !!! The next day, back to Sheraton, we were recovering beside the pool, enjoying the view and the landscape.

The interns here in Florida have a quite hard life… look the pictures!!! I am so happy !!!

Cooking

2007-11-03T21:29:00.000-05:00

After moving from my home city (Belo Horzizonte-Brazil) I was cooking a lot my first months in Sao Paulo. The last two years I have been quite busy having no time for cooking but on these first months here in the US I started to cook again. The main reasons are that I have time and I would like to have a health life here, with is kind of hard in the US. The other big reason is because here I can find all the ingredients to cook Brazilian food, there is a huge Brazilian community and even Brazilian markets. Actually I can even have Açaí, Guaraná, Pao de quiejo, speak Portuguese in some places. There is many ways to be really connect with my country.

But the focus of this post is cooking. I am very proud to show you the picture of my favorite dish ¨Frango com Quiabo¨ or ¨Chinken with Okra¨. I found all the ingredients and I was really excited cooking and of course eating it. I also went to a restaurant called ¨Chico Mineiro¨ once where I could eat this dish at one Sunday watching a Brazilian soccer game from ¨Brasileirao 2007¨ at Globo. It was a very good feeling.

Once we did a Brazilian lunch and Pablo cooked ¨Feijoada¨ for us. Look how beautiful the dish was!!! We also had ¨Caipirinha¨ and some Tequila. Las week I cooked some beef, ¨moela¨, rice, bean, etc…

I am gaining weight J AEEEE

Volunteer experiences

2007-10-14T20:20:00.000-05:00

I had two experiences going to volunteer with some NGOs here in South Florida. Both experiences were through DHL. First we went play and have fun with some kids Saturday morning . It was very cool and I supposed to play with them but the problem was that I don’t know how to play their games (American football, kick ball, baseball) and they don’t like to play our games (soccer, volleyball). I learnt a lot and I had a lot of fun with the kids anyway. They taught me!!!

The other opportunity was when I went to build a house in a poor neighborhood with the NGO “Habitat for humanity”. Our DH group was responsible to cover the roof with an impermeable material. This one was very hard. We need to put the material and stick it hammering some nails through a metal disk. It was very hard and physically demanding but we accomplished the task. Our fingers were hurt after hammering it many times.

Fortunately their concept of poorness is very different from ours. The house that we build would be a very good one in Brazil and here were a supposed poor house in dangerous neighborhood.

This week I subscribed to the disaster team at DHL. When we have some global disaster, like the earthquake in Peru, DHL send some employee offering your core competence: “logistic and transportation¨ to support the people. Let’s see if they will select me.

Love

2007-10-14T19:42:00.000-05:00

Sometimes you need to travel very far to find a true love: Egypt, Argentina, Turkey. But we still have many places to go: USA, Ukraine, Brazil.

The most important is that we are together and in love. The future belongs to us.

Baseball game

2007-10-07T10:10:00.001-05:00

Just to complete the American dream Elias and I got invited to a Florida Marlins baseball game in one of those suites in the stadium that you see on movies: free tickets, free food (hot dog, hamburgers, chicken, etc.), free drinks (beer, juice, wine, champagne, soda) air conditioning and cheerleaders. At the middle of the game the cheerleaders came to visit us and take pictures.

I also understood the rules of baseball. It is a Very interesting game. I am looking forward to go to an American football game.

My new car

2007-10-07T09:54:00.000-05:00

Yes, I am really grateful, last week I realize a general boy’s dream.

I remember when I was a child dreaming about a red Scort XR3 convertible. I bought a Chrysler Sebring red 1999 convertible. Now I, Elias, Marcelo, Pablo and other trainees here can to work and go to Miami Beach felling the fresh air of sunny Florida!!! I am really happy, the feeling of driving a convertible, put your sunglass, look to the beach or take the highway is just amazing.

I couldn’t have a better life in any other place being and intern.

¨Live in South Florida once, but leave before it makes you soft¨ (sunscream)

International Conference in Istanbul – Turkey

2007-09-03T12:54:00.000-05:00

The last 2 weeks of August I went to my 5^th AIESEC International Conference, this time at Istanbul – Turkey playing a completely different role. I was not part of AIESEC anymore; I was company representative… hehehe, very strange. It was the first time that I missed AIESEC and I realized that I am no part of it anymore but it is just the changing processJ.

The best thing about the conference was to see many friends from all over the world that I was not expecting to see them again and be together with Svitlana. The worse part was please those senior people from the company with many silly requirements but the experience was great. I learn a lot about these senior people and I could meet some from different big companies.

Other important chapter of my business trip to Istanbul was going to the FORMULA 1 RACE. It is unbelievable how noisy the cars are, how great is to attend a world sport event as formula 1. We were just in front of the start point with gold tickets. Filipe Massa, the Brazilian from Ferrari, won the race and I bought a t-shirt from Ferrari with his name and the Brazilian flag.

The country is very different from what I was eexpecting. After going to Egypt I was expecting an Islamic conservative country but what I found was a very open and modern country. The city is beautiful and full of people with western clothes, behaviors and mentality. See the golden gate, the bridge which connect the European and Asiatic continent were also very interesting.

The fun part !!!

2007-09-03T12:25:00.001-05:00

I live with 6 people in the house. Elias and his wife Fernanda, Daniel from Colombia, Adela from Czech Republic and I share a room with Marcelo from Brazil, a very good friend. The people are very cool and we have a lot of fun together. We did 2 Brazilian barbecue, one in the house and one the beach that were very successful, we went to the most amazing nightclub complex called Hard Rock, we went to movies, we went to Saw grass Mills many times and of course to the beach !!! We also get together with trainees in Kraft Foods in “bigger social events”. They are very cool people as well.

I can have fun in simple conversations at home, remembers funny stores in MC time in Brazil together with Elias, remember good parties and Carnival in Brazil, and just making jokes from our daily life. The house environment is quite cool and funny.

I am doing many things that I really like that I didn’t have time before. I am reading a lot, have time to reflect, time to write a blog and communicating with friends, call my family, taking care of my personal life.

Everything is exactly what I was looking for in this experience !!!

How does it look like living and working in the US, specifically in Florida

2007-09-03T10:35:00.000-05:00

The place is everything I have dreamed about in terms quality life. First of all the work culture is quite different from Latin America and from the one I used to have in AIESEC. Before I used to work between 10 to 12 hours a days, lead an average of 150 to 200 people, work at almost all weekends, do not have time to eat and sleep properly.

In the US people really respect the 8 daily work hours and if you stay more than that you are seem as not competent enough to finish your task on time, unfocused or workaholic. So I work 8 hours a day, I never work at weekends, I sleep minimum 8 hour a day and I have breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday !!!! I have much less amount of task and I can go to the swimming pool after work at home.

So in the first month I was 4 kilos more and all people that saw me was really impressed how I was recovered, looking more healthy after jut one month. I am doing acne treatment, using professional shampoo and when I buy my car I will start the gym with a personal trainer. But it doesn’t mean that I am becoming a metro sexual.

The life is very convenient and the prices and incredible good. So you can do less effort because you have machines to do everything for you in a very accessible price. Also all the fancy branded clothes are very accessible so after more then 2 years without buying clothes I am changing my closet.

The weather is very hot as I really like, the sun is always shining, the beach is close and you have air conditioning in every place. The palms and lakes are everywhere, the houses are beautiful and everything is clean and organized. These are specificities from Florida, the Caribbean in the developed world !!!

My profesional internship experience at DHL US

2007-09-02T09:31:00.000-05:00

After almost 5 years working at AIESEC aiming to provide leadership experience, a learning environment and professional exchange opportunities to young talented people I went to my next step: go for a professional exchange experience myself !!!

I was planning to go to Europe but a very important person in my life, my mentor Elias, was the one who called me on Friday to talk about other issue and mentioned the opportunity at DHL in the US. It was not Europe but it was in Miami, in the beach, living in a house with a swimming pool, big and very interesting company, HR, I would still be somehow related to AIESEC and go to International Conference. So I decided to apply on Sunday as many people decided but fortunately I got the job.

I am responsible to coordinate the internship programs in the US that are four: the local internship (estagio normal), the MBA program, the Coop program and I am also responsible to coordinate the AIESEC program in the whole Americas region.

Until now I love the job role, the company, the people from my department and specially my boss. People are very suportative and very welcoming. Together with corporate responsibility HR is the subject I most like in business administration so I am sure this experience will be very rewarding and decisive to my future.

Bellow you can find some pictures that illustrate my professional experience.

The building that I work and me going to work in front of my new house !!!

The first step

2007-08-13T20:21:00.000-05:00

I did not imagine how hard it would be to create a simple weblog. I am mixture of two profiles called "hurry up", which means that I want to do things very fast in less time possible, and also "be perfect", which means that I need to have things fast and very well done. It is hard to find this profiles but these are one among others thousands definitions that you can find about me.

Just to have an idea how hard was it, to decide the name it would show in the blog I took a while. I was trying to identify which groups of friends would be the "target" of my blog. I could be called Boca, Jussy, Marcelao, Marce, Marcelinho, Celo, BH, etc.... I am a mixture of many things, many experiences.

Maybe you could say that I have many different faces, I am not one person, I am Geminis. Actually it can be true. Is true in the sense I am very adaptable and flexible to deal with many different group of people, to live different situations, in different countries. Some of you know me going to the budist spiritual retirement, some you may know me enjoying the best of Carnival in Brazil, some of you may know me as the funny most extroverted guy in the group, some of you may know the serious team leader, some of you may know the workaholic team player, some of you know the smart strategist, some of you the tireless implementer, some of you the soccer player, some of you the dancer, some the poor guy from Ipanemao, some of you the no-immigrant citizen living in South Florida in a house with swimming pool, some of you know me speaking Portuguese, portuñol or funny English, etc....

It was always hard for me to define myself or use this mass communication channels as orkut, linked in, facebook, mailing list or blog because of the different "target groups". But I am pretty sure about my essence, the core that do not change, the values that is the base of my been, my beliefs, my goals, my opinion and step by step I am shaping my mission that contributes to a better world.

So let´s start this new virtual communication experience and exercise myself reflecting while writing in this blog.