Bom Dia!

Bom Dia ( pronounced Bon Gia) - Good Day or Hello!

It would have been more profound if I was currently still in Brazil, but alas, I didn't get to the blog until now. I was in Sao Paulo, from the 18th - 28th of January, for a global workshop for my job. We had people from Thailand, S. Africa, Mercosur (Brazil, etc.), Andean (Ecuador, etc.), and Dubai.

It was mostly a work trip, and we got a lot of work done. But we did get out and had wonderful authentic Brazilian dinners every night. Claudio, the portfolio planner, and his wife took me out for dinner on Friday. And this place was amazing, the restaurant had huge palm trees growing through it. It was part outside and part inside. It was like a jungle treehouse, but really classy, with excellent food.

Sao Paulo is HUGE - 23 million people live in the metropolitan area. 18 million in the city itself. That is just tough for us Americanos to wrap our heads around. Especially since NYC is only like 8 million. I must say I was a little intimidated, and having heard about all the crime. But we did get out every evening. The hotel was really nice, Rennaisance Marriot. The service in general was great, although, I felt a lot of it had to do with the social issues. The hotel was in the "Wall Street", nice area of Sao Paulo, but on the fringes there were people living in 3rd world conditions - shocking.

We went to the Beach, in Guarinja, on last Saturday, and that was definitely the highlight of the trip. It was like 90 degrees, sunny, and beautiful! Claudio and his family took myself and a couple other guys from the workshop.

Well gotta run, but anyway enjoy the pics:)

God Bless,

Josh