The End is Near...

I can't believe it, but the time has just flown by and now it's my last night in Brazil. Looking back over the past couple of months, I've had an awesome experience. I got to see a lot of new and exciting places, and I got the chance to learn from the best here at Azul. I've been working in the marketing department doing what is called "guerilla marketing" (which is the sort of thing you've been seeing pictures of when I traveled with Azul promoting at events around the country). I've also been involved with Azul's social media content. I'll even plug it here - check out my handiwork and become Azul's fan on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/AzulLinhasAereas ... even if you can't understand Portuguese, at least check out the photo albums. There's some pretty cool stuff! Yesterday, Azul celebrated its one year anniversary. David Neeleman and co. have done an amazing job, and are setting all kinds of aviation world records. In only a year, they've flown over 2 millions customers and are growing at an incredible rate. It's been awesome to be able to witness it firsthand and to learn from such incredible success. And it's been pretty dang fun, too! Over the last two weeks, we've been doing tons of promotions and giveaways. For the 15 days leading up to Azul's birthday, we were giving away a free ticket on every flight, and all kinds of cool promotions. Then yesterday, there were all kinds of parties on the planes, at the airports, and of course at HQ. Check out the video for some impromptu Azul musical talent...nothin' like a little churrasco and traditional Brazilian music. And for my last day, I went out to dinner one last time with some mission buddies. I finally saw another former comp of mine, Wellington (Elder Silva). He lives here in São Paulo, but on the other side of this huge city, so we haven't been able to meet up until now. We arrived in the MTC in the same group, and we were companions at one point, so he's a really good friend. It's been over 3 years, but as we sat and reminisced about the mission it felt like yesterday. It was great to finally see him again! And of course, we celebrated by going to a churrascaria. And on one final note...SKYPE! Skype is a total life-saver for anyone living or traveling abroad. If you don't have it, get it! You'll thank me later. So thank you, Mr. Skype Inventor Person, I love you. You have made my life in Brazil much easier. Skyping with the goofy fam.... Skyping with the lovely and talented Brittany.... In the immortal words of Kanye West - "I'm comin' home again." PAZ FORA Update 2021: These days I'm traveling with kids via minivan and you can read all about it on The Minivan Bucket List

Floripa!

For my last weekend in Brazil, I decided to spend it in a place I've been hearing about for years - Florianópolis. (Or Floripa for short)...It's a city on an island in the south in the state of Santa Catarina. And what I've been hearing for years is that it is the one of the nicest and richest cities in Brazil, that it has the best beaches, and that is has the hottest women! Well it definitely lived up to the hype, and quickly turned in to my new favorite Brazilian destination. I traveled down with Mark and Marlon, my boss and another guy from Azul, and my former mission companion, Marcus. We stayed at one of Mark's friend's house outside the city and right by the beach. check it out ---->

We arrived Friday night and met up with Mark and his friends, who took us out on the town. After a VERY long night...we were sorely disappointed to wake up to some rain. We went to the beach anyway though. The house we were at was as close as you could get to the beach. We had to hike the rest of the way through some wetlands and then some sand dunes. Even with the rain, the beach was gorgeous. From our vantage point we could see mountains covered with tropical forests, wetlands, sand danes, white sandy beaches, the ocean, and then some more islands off in the distance. It really was paradise!



Later that night, we met up with Paulo, another friend from the mission. We went out and walked around downtown Floripa, checked out the sights, the Christmas decorations, and ate some pizza. We talked for hours remembering mission stories...good times! Then on Sunday, luckily the weather cleared so I could at least come home with something of a tan. We went to the same beach again, except this time walked down to the more-populated end for a little change. And we took a different way home as well, where we discovered a huge, gorgeous fresh water lake in the middle of the island. Apparently that was the place to be. It was lined with cool little shops and restaurants, and on the lake you could kayak, paddle boat, sail, kite surf or whatever...once again, pure paradise! The island life definitely is a tough one.


Downtown Floripa:

And since sometimes pictures aren't enough....

Recife/Porto de Galinhas

Last weekend I was able to fly up to Recife where I served my mission again. This time I was able to plan ahead a little bit better since it wasn't so last minute. I finally got a hold of this family I had baptized on my mission but that had since moved away, and was able to meet up with them at the temple. I'll save the story for now, but needless to say to see it come full circle and see them happy and active years later at the temple was an awesome experience! Carlos and his family taught me a lot of life lessons without even knowing it, and this time wasn't any different. I was hungry, so we went across the street to McDonald's. I don't even like McDonald's, but anyone who travels a lot knows how nice it is sometimes when you're sick of strange foreign food...but they had NEVER eaten at McDonald's before. So of course, I had to buy them a combo. But who would've though that we take something like a fast food restaurant for granted...so next time you eat a Big Mac just remember there are millions around the world who can't even afford that $1 menu!
On that same note, while I was waiting for them, I noticed there were about 10 huge buses in the temple parking lot. The next closest temple is all the way in São Paulo (a 3 hour flight). Think of it this way --it's as if the Salt Lake temple served the entire Western US. So no doubt these people had traveled for hours and hours if not days just to get to the temple. We take the temple for granted so much, I don't even know how many we have just in Salt Lake anymore...But if you're bored with the spiritual x-missionary stuff, don't worry I had some fun too! Prepare to be jealous...

PORTO DE GALINHAS!

I also had time to make it to Porto de Galinhas (do a google image search, you won't regret it!), which was voted best beach in Brazil 9 years in a row. And it indeed lived up to its hype. Beautiful crystal clear water, nice white sand, coral reefs, warm (almost hot!) water...it was paradise. I finally put my snorkel gear I packed with me from the US to good use. Porto de Galinhas is famous for its "natural pools".

You can see the fish from the surface because the water is so clear. And when you jump in to swim, the fish start to swim around you, as if you were a natural part of their environment. I bought a disposable water-proof camera, and was able to get some awesome pictures. Can't wait for those to get developed, and you can bet I'll be posting them just to make everyone jealous! Although, the next digital camera I buy will be a waterproof one, since I can't even remember when the last time was I had to get film developed. Anyway, it was an awesome weekend! Enjoy the pictures!

Welcome to the Jungle

One of the things I couldn't leave Brazil without doing was taking a trip up to the Amazon. So I flew up to Manaus for the weekend, where I stayed at the Hotel Tropical Manaus, thanks to the Azul "crew member" discount. The hotel was awesome, and had everything you could ask for including its own zoo. My favorite part was the riverside pool, which was absolutely breathtaking and actually looked like an extension of the river. It was paradise. I was also surprised to learn that during the summer when the water is low, a big white sandy beach appears along the river banks. So that combined with the fact that the Amazon is so big you can barely see the other side, I felt like I was on the coast - in the middle of the jungle! I definitely did not expect a relaxing weekend at the beach...how many people do you know can say that they swam in the Amazon?

I also decided to take a boat trip up to see "The Meeting of the Waters", which is where the Rio Negro and the Rio Solimões meet and where the Amazon technically starts. The two rivers don't mix, just like oil and water, and continue on for miles like that. It was a pretty neat phenomenon to see up close. It was also very cool to sail by downtown Manaus. A lot people think of the Amazon as just primitive Indians and remote jungle lodges, a la Anaconda or Disneyland Jungle Cruise...but Manaus is a huge port city with over a million people.

For the next part of my cruise, they took us to a little Indian community where we ate lunch, and shopped for cheap hand-made trinkets, and took a short hike through the jungle. I was a little disappointed at the lack of wildlife, and was surprised that the jungle wasn't really how I pictured it. Too many Indiana Jones movies, I suppose. I was still impressed by the size and diversity of the plants and trees we saw, and felt a little bit like Owen Wilson in Armageddon, when he says upon arrival in space "and this is only the beginning part of space! This isn't even outer space yet!" Well, I think that's enough movie references for one blog post. Anyway, maybe someday I'll get to come back and go explore a little deeper... see some crocodiles and fish for piranhas...but for now it's back to work.

Videos: 1- River Cruise, 2- Jungle Hike, 3- picture slideshow

THANKSgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This is obviously the time of year when everyone likes to say what they're grateful for, and I'd like to continue the tradition. I have a great family, awesome friends, a bautiful girlfriend...I have this once in a lifetime opportunity to do what I'm doing...but today what I am especially grateful for is PIZZA HUT. Yes, Pizza Hut. One just opened around the corner from me 2 days ago, and so today to "celebrate" I decided to treat myself to some good ol' American style food. It's no homemade turkey, but I'll take my Thanksgiving Pizza.


the nicest Pizza Hut I've ever seen
my Thanksgiving meal! mmmm
cookies and cream brownie. again, mmmm

Then on the way home there was a torrential downpour, and I got soaked to the bone walking back to the apartment...totally worth it. Happy Thanksgiving!


Now I'm watching the Dallas Cowboys game online, and just can't help but think to myself that Brazilian soccer fans have no clue what they're missing. No big hits, half time shows, no marching bands, and worst of all no cheerleaders! Football>futebol. Sorry, Brazil.....

That reminds of one family dinner a few years ago where we all went around in a circle saying what we were thankful for...and in all seriousness I said "I'm thankful for the Cowboy's Cheerleaders." I don't think that's what grandma had in mind.

ranting about rent

I think like most Americans, I assumed that living in Brazil would be at least somewhat cheap. Sadly I was dead wrong! Living in Sao Paulo is probably equivalent to living in LA or New York - especially since the dollar sucks right now and inflation here has driven prices up in the last couple of years. For my first month in Brazil, I was living by myself in a furnished apartment. It was super expensive, but from what I saw on the website I was willing to pay, and didn't really have any other choice. They claimed it had a gym, a pool, maid service, laundry service, cable TV...and from the pictures it looked pretty nice. Here's a list of reasons why I was paying WAY too much money to live there. (this isn't meant to be a list of complaints, but a hopefully funny retrospect)
-my TV was so old I had to turn a knob to turn it on and I couldn't control the volume from the remote
-the gym consisted of a few treadmills and bikes from the 1980s
-the pool was cold and small. No one ever uses it. Not a good sign.
-gross, old, lumpy pillows
-the phone lines were always so staticky you could barely hear
-I had to buy myself a new phone because I couldn't even dial out on their crappy phones
-for as much as I was paying I assumed I would at least have a microwave! Nope.

I'm sure there's more...anyway, my boss and a couple guys from work were also living there, but recently got a new place together. Fortunately, they had a spare room and let me move in for my last month. I got the "maid's room"! haha. Unfortunately, the new place isn't furnished. And that apparently also means "your new apartment doesn't have electricity." When we called the power company, they didn't come the first time. We called again and they said they would come between 8:30 am and 7:00pm on Tuesday OR Wednesday! And you thought American cable companies were annoying. So for the first few days we camped out with air mattresses, an extension cord from the hall, and lots of candles. I was just glad to be out of that extremely over-priced apartment and saving some money! Check out my new, unfurnished digs:



our extra-spacious living room



my improvised closet



my luxurious bedroom

weekend misadventure...

Well this weekend was supposed to be another fun-filled weekend of travels and new adventures...but I have suddenly become super spacey apparently. I took the hour and a half bus ride all the way to the Campinas airport, got to the check-in counter, and realized that I forgot my passport! I couldn't help but laugh at myself for my own idiocy. I did get some in-airport entertainment though as I was waiting for the bus back "home". It started to rain so hard that the airport ceiling started to leak...but leak is such a weak word. It was more like "rain inside" than "leak." Check out the video ----

weekend in São Paulo

Well, I've been living in this city for almost 6 weeks so I figured it was about time I get out and see a little bit of it...



My girlfriend Brittany's aunt also happens to live here with her family. They were nice enough to offer to show me around some sights and take me to a soccer game. We went to a little artesan village called Embu das Artes where I bought some souvenirs, ate a "pastel" (which is kind of like a deep fried taco) and drank sugar cane juice, which was delicious! After that, we watched São Paulo beat Vitória 2-0 and tried not to get lost in the madhouse after the game. Then I got to relax, play some Smash Brothers and eat some good old home-cooked American food!





I was also finally able to meet up with some of my mission buddies who live in the area. One, Jonas Monte, was in the same group as me at the MTC, so we spent the whole two years working close by. The other, Marcus Torres was my companion for 3 months in a hell-ish place called Guabiraba. We had a great time meeting up at the temple and laughing for hours about mission stories. Good times!

Goo00OO00oollllll!!!

One of the things I really wanted to do while I was here was go to a soccer game. Brazil is obviously known for its futebol, so I had to see firsthand what the fuss is all about. The game itself, at least to me, doesn't seem any different from an RSL game. But what is completely different....the fans. They are CRAZY for soccer. They're loud and obnoxious, they'll sing when they do well and they'll turn on their own team and cuss out the players in unison if they start to suck it up. (Not to mention the often violent rivalries between cities...) Jazz fans have nothing on Brazilian soccer fans! haha

The first game I went to was between a small local team and one of the most followed teams in Brazil - Flamengo, a team from Rio. I went with some people from Azul since it was close to the office. The funny thing was there were literally no home fans - the entire stadium was filled with Flamengo jerseys. Sadly they all made the trip for nothing, 'cause they got embarassed 2-0.

The second game I went to was the extremely popular São Paulo Futebol Clube. They're the frontrunners in the Brazil Cup and were fighting to stay in 1st place. We arrived early, but so did the entire city it seemed. There were songs, chants, street vendors selling everything from flags to shirts, and there were even some riot police on hand in case things got ugly. I hadn't seen a crowd like that since the Inauguration! SPFC won 2-0.

Check out the video to see the cultural experience that is Brazilian soccer...

RECIFE! ~back to the mish~

I was supposed to work at a couple more events last weekend, but after they got canceled I took advantage of the time off and flew up to Recife for the weekend. It was actually kind of a strange feeling being back in my old stomping grounds, but it was a great experience. I stayed with some old friends, got to visit my favorite ward and see a few of the people that I served. I thought I had seen everything in Recife, but I even got to do and see some things I had never done in Recife before, including going to the beach!

Pictures of the "feira" - the flea market

Pictures of the Torreão Ward:

Pictures of the BEACH!:
(beware of sharks...duh nuh...duh nuh....)

Porto Alegre

The best part about this internship with Azul is that it's an awesome way to see the rest of Brazil - all without having to pay for airfare and hotels! Over the weekend, they sent me to Porto Alegre in Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil's southernmost state) to put up a booth at this big temporary outlet mall/flea market kinda thing. Despite not being on vacation and having to work over the weekend, I was pretty excited about going to Porto Alegre though for one reason - churrasco! This is the land of the gaúcho and the birthplace of churrasco (Rodizio Grill style food). So check out my the pics of me exploring the city, checking out the Temple, and watch my video of my traditional churrasco experience -all you can eat dinner AND a show for half the price of Rodizio!


                                         

Back to Rio

I got back from Maringá Monday afternoon, and the next day I was already on my way back to the airport for another flight, this time back to Rio. Azul was participating in a tourism convention there, and I tagged along to help set-up (aka-working for free to lift heavy boxes). I didn't get to check out much of the convention but what I did get to see was pretty cool, and got me excited to go travel around the rest of the country. Instead, I spent the week caravaning around the city on Azul's bus with Greg, another American working for Azul, and some girls they hired to dress up like stewardesses to help us do promos and hand out flyers at restaurants, malls, and, YES, the beach. It doesn't sound like hard work, but I am exhausted!

Check out some pictures...and just to clarify, that's Greg (a former Hinckley intern who got hired on after his internship) handing the flyer to the chick in the bikini, not me. I'm innocent! :)

Maringá Country Festival

UPDATE - I ADDED A NEW VIDEO SO YOU CAN SEE/HEAR WHAT A BRAZILIAN COUNTRY MUSIC CONCERT IS LIKE!

Azul was sponsoring a country music festival in Maringá, Paraná and needed someone to go set up our material so they sent me. When I landed, I just chuckled to myself, laughing at the fact that I was in the middle of nowhere, by myself in Brazil…going to a country concert. I hate country music. Anyway, the festival organizers paid for my hotel this time. During the day, I was treated to a delicious traditional feijoada lunch and some acoustic performances from the bands. Then at night, I got to hangout backstage with the bands –unfortunately I had no idea who anyone was, or it would have been even better. We got free drinks, free dinner, and VIP front-row seats. I had never heard Brazilian country music before, and had no clue as to who these bands were, but I actually had a pretty good time!

An added bonus to the trip was that one of my good friends from the mission lived about an hour from there in a city called Londrina. So on Sunday I took a bus to his house, and ate a little churrasco with his family. He showed me around town, then we just went back to his house and reminisced about the mission and looked at all his pictures. It was great to see him again after 3 years, and to swap battle stories from the mission field. I always love being reminded of my mission, and it’s one of the main reasons why I wanted to come back to Brazil.



The bus ride back to Maringá turned out to be kind of an ordeal though, but that is starting to becoming sort of commonplace in my travels… It had rained so hard in Londrina that tons of tress had fallen all over the city, and the power had been knocked out. So when I got to the bus station, the whole place was completely dark. I had to wait until 8:00 at night to get the next bus, and it wasn’t even a direct bus. So because of the rain, and the indirect route, a 1 hour drive turned into a 4 hour bus ride. Blah! All I wanted to do was get back to the hotel, Skype with my family and girlfriend and get in the jacuzzi. But no! I didn’t get to Maringá until midnight. On top of that, I was stranded at the bus station because I had used all my cash to buy my bus ticket since there was no power for my debit card to work. I figured I would just be able to find an ATM to withdraw money to pay for a taxi back to the hotel. But since I was in the middle of freaking nowhere Brazil I couldn’t find an ATM that accepted my card. Luckily, I remembered that I had grabbed a card with the hotel’s number on it in case of emergencies, and they sent a cab for me. I made it back to the hotel at 1am. Did I mention I had to wake up at 4am for a 5:40 flight??? As bad as it sucked, I just had to laugh at the whole experience. Just one more story to tell!

I slept for about an hour and a half. I was pissed I had to wake up so dang early. Then as I ws flying back to Sao Paulo, I watched the sunrise over the cloud cover, and it was one of the prettiest things I have ever seen. Suddenly I forgot about how upset and tired I was, and was just glad to be alive. But, now I’m sitting in the Campinas airport, back to being pissed off again. I get off the plane only to find out that Azul’s bus back to Alphaville just left, and the next one isn’t until 9:30. Great, 3 hours in the tiny Campinas airport is exactly how I wanted to spend my morning after sleeping for an hour and a half….awesome.

MY FIRST BUSINESS TRIP

Three days before my trip, I saw on the news that some druglords in the slums of Rio shot down a police helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade. How crazy is that?! It's like something out of a movie...but it's real life. It freaked me out a little, but I was assured that I would be safe if I stayed near the beach.

Azul was sponsoring a surfing competition called the Rio Surf Pro Internatioanl, and I was asked to go help at the event. So basically I got a free trip to Rio de Janeiro for wearing an Azul baseball cap while watching people surf. It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it! The competition was on Praia do Arpoador which is right in between the famous Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, which was pretty sweet. Saturday it rained all day, and the beach was completely deserted. But on Sunday, the sun came out and so did the entire population of Rio. I have never seen such a crowded beach! Not to mention the massive amounts of gross, old men in speedos and women wearing bikinis way too small for their body type. Sick. Monday, before I flew home I went for a ride up Corcovado, where the famous Cristo Redentor statue is. That was very cool – easily one of the most dramatic and stunning views I’ve ever seen. The trip to Rio was worth it just for that!

CULTURE SHOCKED!

Since I had previously spent two years in Brazil, I definitely did not think I would experience culture shock at all. But São Paulo is a totally different world, and now that I’m involved with the business culture instead of the everyday culture, I’ve had a lot of changes to get used to. Back on the mission, whenever my comps and I would see something out of the ordinary (which, honestly was almost every day!) we would hum the first couple of lines of the Brazilian national anthem. It was kind of like that movie Blood Diamond where they say “T.I.A. – this is Africa.” It wasn’t the most subtle or polite thing ever, but it helped us to stay in a good mood!

Luckily, in Sao Paulo things aren’t so strange. It’s an enormous city, and has almost everything American I could want. A medium pepperoni pizza from Domino’s may cost me $20 instead of $5, but at least I can get one! The part of the city I live in, Alphaville, is just as nice as any big city in the States. Despite that fact, I was still surprised to realize that I was experiencing culture shock.

Case and point -grocery shopping! I’ve lived on my own before, but always relied on canned chili and easy-to-make sandwiches. Even in 1st world Brazil I don’t have that luxury, but I never thought grocery shopping would be so hard! I walked around the block and went into three grocery stores without buying a single thing. Nothing looked appetizing, and I didn’t know how to cook any of it. It was a little overwhelming! My mom reminded me that she felt the same way when we first arrived in France. I finally settled on soda, bread and butter, rice and a roast chicken. But I never thought grocery shopping could be so hard!

Luckily after a few days I finally had some time to explore my neighborhood, and I found a ‘centro commercial’ and a mall that has a bunch of restaurants, juice bars, gelato, and a food court. My savior! I was especially happy to discover a place called Taco Villa that serves traditional Mexican food. But apparently traditional Mexican food includes enchiladas topped with ketchup and a side of fries. Later on I found some legitimate restaurants, like an Outback Steakhouse –I’ve never enjoyed a steak so much in my life!

ARRIVING IN BRAZIL

The last time I was in Brazil, my Dad was picking me up from my mission in Recife, a city on the Northeast coast. This time around, I’ve found myself in São Paulo working as an intern in the marketing department for Azul Airlines, a brand new Brazilian airline founded by legendary JetBlue founder David Neeleman. I graduated in May from the University of Utah with degrees in Political Science and International Studies. As a political science major, I had the great opportunity to get involved with the Hinckley Institute of Politics. I spent my last winter interning in Washington DC, and spent the summer with Attorney General Mark Shurtleff’s U.S. Senate campaign. The HIP also happens to have connections at Azul, and since I had recently decided to go to business school to get an MBA in international business this was the perfect opportunity to help me get in to the grad school of my dreams!

My journey, and I do mean journey – or maybe ordeal is a better word – began at 8am as I left my parent’s house. I then flew to JFK where I had a 5 hour layover, and those are NEVER fun. I finally got on the plane at 9pm, and promptly sat on the runway for another TWO hours before taking off. Azul had arranged for a taxi to pick me up at the airport, and two of my former mission companions were going to meet me at the airport in Sao Paulo. Well, since my flight was two hours late, the cab driver gave up waiting for me. One comp didn’t make it because of his sick, pregnant wife and the other didn’t get the flight information in time. AGH! It reminded me of my mission, when after telling us that it wouldn’t be like The Other Side of Heaven and that someone would be there to pick us up, we were stranded in the Sao Paulo airport clueless and alone for an hour before some weird-looking guy with no ID told us he was here to pick us up. Fortunately, this time around I was an experienced traveler and I spoke the language fluently! So I found myself a cab – and then began my fantastic, two hour cab ride through rush hour traffic in a city with a 20million+ population and a terrible highway infrastructure. Finally, 26 hours after I left my house in Salt Lake I arrived at my new apartment in Alphaville.

Just when I thought my ordeal was over, the receptionist tells me that there was a misunderstanding and that my apartment wasn’t ready! So I waited around for another hour or so for my new boss to show up, then we drove over to a hotel and I slept the day away. The next day I started work, and got settled in to my apartment only to realize that my cell phone was about to die and I left my charger at the hotel the night before. On top of that my new apartment didn’t come equipped with wi-fi like I expected, so I felt completely disconnected without my cell phone or an internet connection. Luckily when I went back in the morning, they still had it. NOW my ordeal was finally over. It totally sucked while it was going on, but I already am looking back and laughing, so it’s all good!