Rio de Janeiro

Last Saturday I woke up very early, drove to the airport, said goodbye to my family and spent the next 20 hours flying. It was a long trip, getting off one plane, walking to the next gate, and getting directly on the next flight. Twice. Anchorage - Seattle - Atlanta - Rio.

First, about training, because it's what I spent about 50 hours of my week doing and I genuinely enjoyed it. Our class was 38 people coming from 10 different countries. Mostly Latin America, but also two other Americans, a Chinese girl and a Saudi (and a few from Trinidad which doesn't seem very Latin) We were 33% women. Everyone was an engineer, most were assigned to their home country. Being the minority is something that doesn't happen to me often. I felt like the only one not fluent in another language, one of the few for whom English was a first language. If you like diversity, meeting new people, strange, new and exciting experiences, I would definitely apply for a field position with my company!

I thought the training was very well done. They spent the majority of the time focused on health and safety, which I expected. They flew in a French guy (Norbert!) just for our training. Not only did we learn how to (hopefully) not lose a finger, we learned the reasons behind why we should use our bodies the way the company asks us to. In addition to being terrified of losing a finger, I know my body and the way it works better. This is something I enjoy more than simply being told to do something. 'Why' is important to me.

I had many small experiences in Rio. I'll just write about 3 of them and put up pictures!

Steak!
For the first time the company took a training class to a local Brazilian steak house. It was supposed to be one of the nicest steak houses in Rio. I believe it. It was right on the water and we got to drive past the beaches at night and see them all lit up. Beautiful views. We ate first from the salad bar then waiters brought huge skewers of meat out and slices pieces for us at our plate. At first I just said yes to anything then I realized that I was going to have to slow down and wait for the really good pieces to fully appreciate the experience. Simply put it was the best steak I've ever had. They don't give you steak knives because you can cut it with your butter knife. Yum. We also had the strongest caiparinhas I'd had up to that point. It was awesome!

Samba!
On Friday after our training was finished some people had to leave right away to go to the airport. The airport is on the other side of the city and to get there you must travel on the highway that goes through a favella (slum). My company's security policy doesn't allow travel through these areas late at night. Anyway, so our group ended up split up, but prepared for the field as we are, it didn't phase us. At 9 we went and got dinner all together. Steak, beer, French fries (truly the most international food EVER) taken care of we left for a samba club at around 10:30. It was practically empty when we got there and playing American hip-hop. Upstairs was women only with a free drink until midnight. Truly brilliant. That taken care of, and another strong caparinha later the samba music started.

For anyone that's ever seen samba it is VERY fast. In Angola, a friend tried to teach me but I just couldn't keep up. I bravely attempted again. After almost an hour I think i was starting to get it. Apparently the bouncers agreed. The band asked for three girls to go dance on stage, my friend Cecilia ran up immediately as did two other girls. Okay fun. And then my Brazilian friends started explaining that they were asking for me as well. Very specifically. I'm still not sure if it was because I'm American or because of my bad dancing. I think I prefer not to know. Anyway I figured it's not something you do twice so I went. Cecilia is Argentinian and generally can figure out Portuguese so I figured she could help me translate if I needed it. Somewhere out there a video of this exists, but with luck the rest of the world won't be subjected to my bad samba!

Pan de Sucre
Literally translated, this is sugar loaf! A most famous icon of Rio (next to Christ the Redeemer) This is a large jutting mountain with cable car access to the top. From here, all of Rio is visible. After getting back from the club at 4 am and making it to bed around 5 (after many goodbyes), I was agreeable but less than enthusiastic about a 9 am breakfast and 10 am departure to the mountain, but I agreed. I do it for you dear audience. After checking out and leaving my luggage in my friends' room we set out.

We took a taxi to the base of the cable car. The experience is best described in pictures simply because the view was so amazing.



This is sugar loaf mountain! Look at the tiny cable car!


The first stop. You can see a favela!


More of the city.



The very famous Copacabana. Of course it's winter in Rio right now, and the beach is not very appealing. Thus why it's empty.



And my favorite picture from the top. I actually have better ones. Just not anymore awesome ones.

Anyway I have more pictures, I'll be putting them up in a web album is anyone is curious.

Now my interactive question of the week: if dismembered, which finger is worth the most (in terms of company payout)?