Back from Brazil

My tan is slowly fading from my days on Ipanema Beach. Back in Wisconsin, the temperatures are below freezing and the snow is piled up wherever you look. My tank tops and shorts, pulled out for a few brief days in the sun are packed away in the dark regions of my closet. It's a sad time.

The highlight of my MBA program is an international trip to an emerging market. Ours was to Brazil in January, when Wisconsin is locked in the depths of winter and Brazil is in the midst of sunny summer.

It turns out Brazil isn't so easy to get to. We flew all night to get to Rio de Janeiro. We stayed off Ipanema Beach and one day I ran along the beach from Ipanema to Copacabana. We took a cable car to the top of Sugar Loaf mountain and then visited the Christ the Redeemer statue. Apparently we chose to do this on the same day as everyone else in South America.

 We visited the Sambadrome where Carnaval takes place, and I felt like I fit right in.

After the fun in Rio, it was on to business in Sao Paulo, and the real point of our trip. We visited several businesses and heard speakers from others. 



This was a stop at Natura, a natural cosmetics company that sells its products in a direct-sale model, similar to Mary Kay. The campus was beautiful.









Another day I went on a city tour with a small group. Sao Paulo is a massive city with the world's highest number of buildings over 25 stories. The skyline went on as far as the eye could see.




                    




In contrast to the towering buildings and pockets of great wealth were the ubiquitous slums called favelas. These were clinging to the hillsides in Rio and tucked amongst the urban areas in Sao Paulo. They were made up of small, bright-colored blocks haphazardly stacked on top of one another. Satellite dishes and clotheslines dotted the rooftops. We made one interesting but awkward stop to a favela in Sao Paulo.








Brazil is not the most vegetarian-friendly country in the world. Its traditional barbecue restaurants feature waiters offering various animal parts on skewers. They will slice off a chunk for you if you give the OK. Chicken hearts were one interesting option. 
                                                                                        

 

The soccer season is over in Brazil, but we did get the chance to go to a soccer scrimmage. There weren't many people there, as apparently the game didn't count and it was pouring rain, but the fans who did attend were amazing. I've never seen anything like it. They stood the entire game and constantly cheered and unfurled banners and beat drums.

 

Toward the end of the trip, we visited the Port of Santos, the largest port in Latin America. We took a boat tour of the huge shipping operations. After a late night previously, I woke up just ten minutes before the bus had to leave. That might sound terrible, but four people missed the bus entirely and had to make the two-hour trip by cab, so I didn't feel so bad.

 

Santos was also something of a Mecca for me, as it featured the Coffee Museum. This building used to be like the stock market for coffee where they graded the coffee and bought and sold it. The cappuccino I had there was heavenly.

We flew all night again to get back to Miami, then Chicago, and then Madison. It was a quick turnaround, back to work on Monday and a new semester of classes Monday night. It was a ten-day trip, so I was ready to come home and really missed my family. I've never been away that long!

I still feel a bit discombobulated and exhausted. It will be a long slog to the end of the MBA program now that the midpoint highlight is behind me. Brazil was a marvelous place though, and I am so glad I had the chance to visit. I wish I would have had a chance to explore the Amazon areas of the country, but there's always next time.

--MM

July Favorites: St. Louis Edition

We just returned from our first family vacation road trip. We chose to go to St. Louis to see the sights, visit my college friends, and stop by my Alma mater, the University of Missouri. So for the month of July, my favorites are Show Me State inspired.


1. Seat-back DVD players

The drive to Missouri isn't terrible. It's about six hours (stretched to eight or so with frequent kid-related stops), but that can feel like an eternity with small children. T bought a two-screen seat-back DVD player and checked out a stack of DVDs from the library. It was our savior. They were zoned into those things and mostly peaceful. We also relied on DVDs in a laptop to keep them entertained at night as we were all crammed into one hotel room.The boys were on a hide-a-bed and Lena was in a crib in the bathroom. It wasn't the most relaxing set-up.

2. The City Museum

The City Museum in St. Louis is pretty incredible. It is several floors of mazes, slides and other activities. The kids were in heaven. Everything in the museum from the lighted walls made of bottles to wooden caves and a bank vault are constructed from recycled materials. It is hard to adequately explain. You really have to see it if you are in St. Louis.

3. Cheese-ology

                                                                                                             This is an ingenious concept for a restaurant: all different types of macaroni and cheese! T got bacon macaroni and cheese, I got Mediterranean (with feta, mozzarella, Kalamata olives, and sun-dried tomatoes), and the boys got macaroni and cheese with broccoli and hot dogs and chicken. 

 

Even Lena got a taste.

4. Free Beer                                                            Wisconsin is the real beer state of course, but St. Louis has a strong brewing heritage with Anheuser-Busch everywhere you look. Despite having three small children in tow, T and I made sure we hit every locale with free Budweiser. This included the Anheuser-Busch brewery tour but also Grant's Farm that includes Ulysses S Grant's cabin and a menagerie of animals. The boys had a blast feeding goats, looking at elephants, and slurping Sno-Cones.

5.  Everything Else in St. Louis

There is a ton to do in St. Louis, and we crammed in as much as possible.

It was crazy-hot, but we did make it to the Arch, and managed to take some oddly-angled pictures.

The Museum of Transportation was a hit with our train-obsessed boys, as was the Magic House. We also checked out the St. Louis Basilica. The next time we go, when the kids are older, we will actually go up in the Arch, and we will visit the St. Louis Science Center. That place looks really neat, but not quite right for littler kids.

6. Memories from College

Besides visiting St. Louis, we also went to Columbia, Missouri, where I went to college at the University of Missouri. It is the first time I have been back since I graduated in December 2000. It felt like a million years ago and just yesterday at the same time. Pushing my third child around campus in a stroller was quite different from the last time I was on those grounds. Many things were the same, but my dorm had been demolished, a new business school built, and an impressive student center constructed. I enjoyed pointing out the locations of my happy and humiliating memories. We had to take a picture by the hallowed Mizzou columns of course.

The last time I posed in front of the columns, my parents were snapping the picture, and I was in my cap and gown holding my diploma. My how things have changed.  

The second day we were in Missouri we gathered for a barbecue with old college friends and their many children. Our last night in town, we stayed with my friend Lisa in St. Louis. It was a blast reliving old times and watching our kids getting to know each other. (Even if it resulted in my boys dressed in tutus and fancy hats.)

 
7. Family Vacations

Your idea of what a vacation is changes over time. When I was a kid, family vacations were thrilling, anticipated occasions. As a teenager, they became another chore of forced family togetherness. Then vacations became trips with friends to Panama City or New Orleans for drunken debauchery. As a couple, vacations were romantic weekend getaways. Now vacations have returned to being family-oriented. All of our stops were entirely kid-oriented (except for the free beer of course). Our meal choices and hotel accommodations all had to be family-friendly. The drive there and back included frequent stops and impatient questioning. But for all the challenges a family vacation brings and the aspects I miss from the before-kids trips, it is a joy to see experiences through their eyes and to create memories they will hold on to until the days they are taking their own family vacations.

--MM