Monday 22 April 2013

Essential reading: American Exbrat in Sao Paulo




My fellow blogger Ms Foxhole aka Born Again Brazilian has just published a book about moving to / living in Sao Paulo .. A great read for anyone moving here! Also great for those who are already living here, I laughed so much because it's all so true and every week you will have similar experiences. I was just living one particular experience (being asked for documents on a weekly basis instead of just being sent the list of required documents all at once). 

It's one thing learning about a new culture, but actually adapting to it is another. I don't know if the stress of being late for an appointment will ever go away (I absolutely hate being late), making plans last minute, doing things in not orderly fashion, or wearing a thong bikini will ever come naturally to me... 

Here's one of my favourite excerpts from the book:

"I had one of my Brazilian graduate business students explain it (process) to me this way.

Our American counterparts want us to follow a timeline of A, B, C, D and E, in that order, to get the project done. But we think B should go first, then we'll do A, then E and wrap it all up with C. Forget D all together. And the Americans get very upset.

That gave me an instant migraine." 

Thank god for caiprinhas that make those migraines go away!

Ms Foxhole will also be attending the SP Night Connect this Wednesday evening at PJ Clarkes. Come and meet her, have a few drinks (and buffalo wings and nachos, mmm!) give her great reviews of her book, share SP experiences (if you've already been living here for awhile) or learn from her experiences (if you've just moved here). 


Buy her book for kindle here.

Check our her Facebook page here.

No comments:

Post a Comment