.Your new NetCountry Home
 

 

 

    Wellcomes
    Our Think
    Our way of life
    Memories
    How do you look
    Brazilian Body Language
    Offensive expressions
    Opportunities
 The Flag of Brazil International
    Marketeck/SA
    International Food
    & Beverage Consulting
 Services
    Insurance Broker
    Wedding party
    Publisher
    About Us

 

The Flag of Brazil

 

Memories of An Expat on Brazil

 

By Henry C. Whitney — about Whitney, Henry C.

Brazil, specially Rio de Janeiro, must be the best posting that a person could get both, career wise and fun wise.

I went to Brazil as a bachelor with six suitcases and a two year contract, stayed eight years and left with a Swedish wife, a child a container of fantastic furniture and a lifetime supply unforgettable memories.

 

Work

Professionally, Brazil is a must to a successful career. I remember being told that Sao Paulo was Sweden's biggest industrial city. There are more Swedish companies there than in any city in Sweden. What's more, the city has nearly three times as many people as Sweden.

Some German friends commented that to be president of your company back home you had to have worked in Brazil because it was where they had their biggest investment.

An American came up with another truth: You'd be successful in your company if you could be successful in Brazil because if you could handle the problems that arose there, there was no problem in your head office you couldn't handle.

I worked in insurance. In Brazil it was highly regimented. Therefore, even though I handled business of a size I have never again managed, I found it professionally stifling. There was little room for individual rating, creating fantastic insurance solutions for my clients or developing sophisticated loss prevention programs.

Fun: Rio de Janeiro

Nature gave Rio more beauty than any other city in the world. And then added the most charming and fun loving people for good measure.

That is a problem for the expat. Most of us don´t know how to enjoy the good things like the Cariocas, as the natives of Rio are called, do. At first I only mixed with other expats. My few experiences with the locals simply were unsatisfactory because I was too serious and career driven..

Cariocas

have a very different life style. Enjoying themselves is a priority. Sure they worked. Actually, they are better workers, more apt to follow instructions, than is normal in other Latin countries. They simply see going out at eleven every night during the week and getting to bed at two in the morning as a reasonable.

I never fell into the late night habit. I remember friends staying up all night to go and drink champagne at sun up on Corcovado, the mountain with the statue of Christ that overlooks the city.

At first I only had lunch at the American Club every day.. Later I started going out more and more to cheaper and cheaper local restaurants. How the Brazilians cook their own dishes! They are so delicious.

I loved their dried bacalao ( spelled in portuguese, bacalhau ), cod, dishes. All their fish dishes, with their local spices are unforgettable. I enjoyed their calderada de peixe, similar to our New England boiled fish dinner but ten times tastier. All meals began with siri, stuffed crabs. The best meat in Brazil is their grilled pork loin, lombo de porco. I have never eaten pork anywhere in the
world as delicious as that.

All meals are washed down with batidas or caipirinhas, caxasa, fire water, based drinks made with limes and sugar. They taste so good and refreshing that it is all too easy to overdo it. But that´s Rio for you.

 

Clothes was a problem.

I am a large man, six one, two hundred pounds. I never found any dress clothes that I liked.

What was the fascination of Rio?

At first I thought it was the beauty of the city, the beaches, the tropical sun. Later I learned it was the charm and warmth of the Carioca. If you can break with your expat community even a little bit and mix with true Cariocas, not the elites educated in the US or Europe, you will have the time of your life.

The problem is that all too many of us are so tied up with ourselves we can´t break out of shell.

We miss the chance to live one of the most enjoyable experiences of all times: having a Carioca friend.

Mr. Henry C. Whitney is American citizen and now lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina. >> He`s president of Marketeck SA >>

.........................

If you have questions, suggestions or stories you'd like to share with us, send mail to: dominiofeminino@dominiofeminino.com.br

 

Sobe

 

                    

DF
Interativas

Amizade

ClubeDF

CtrlQualidade

Participe
Expatriates

Onça

Amor

Seguros

Socorro

Trabalho&

Negócios

Serviços

Separação

Moda

ElesPorEles

Viagem

Cultura

NetColun@

NetHumor

Brechando

Entrevistas

Mulher

JovensElas

Noivas/Noivos

Perfumes

Lar&Casa

Lojas

Saudável

Internacional

Lazer

Lojas

Temáticos

Editorial
Opinião
Editora
DF

Domínio Feminino © 1998 -2003. Todos os direitos reservados. ] Brasil - Brazil, we speak Brazilian Portuguese