Oi Pessoal! It has been two months since I arrived in São Paulo and here I am, living in an apartment, going to school and doing my internship (with a few caipirinhas on the side). Yes, my internship at Deutsche bank has begun and the days are flying. To give you an idea of the 360 degree turn that my daily routine has gone through I am going to compare the two below.
Before Internship:
11:30: Open eyes to the bright sun streaming into my room accompanied by the chaotic noises of the hustle and bustle on the city streets below. Roll over.
12:00: Acknowledge that it is 12:00 and that I should get up. Roll over.
12:30: Dream about food.
12:33: Wake up very hungry.
12:34: Go into kitchen in search for breakfast.
12:35: Put on water for tea, start slicing and dicing fresh papaya, persimmons, and banana to put with my greek yogurt and granola.
12:40: Sit down to a delicious breakfast alongside a soothing cup of English breakfast tea with a spoonful of honey and a splash of milk.
12:47: Finish breakfast. Move from table to couch where I proceed to spend a ridiculous amount of time Facebook stalking.
1:15: Contemplate if it is too soon to eat all the leftovers in the fridge.
1:15:30: Eat all left overs in fridge.
1:23: Okay now what?
1:24: Hum de dum
1:27: Twiddle my thumbs
1:28: Look at the daily photos my parents have emailed me of our dogs Dwight and Riley.
1:30: Go through all my tagged Facebook pictures starting from Sophomore year in High School.
1:30-4:30: Combination of nothing, eating, doing random things on computer, eating, nothing, blogging, etc.
4:30: Get up from couch, head rush.
4:31: Stare out the window.
4:32: Walk into room to get out clothes for gym.
4:33: Consider not going to the gym.
4:34: Remind myself of my uncontrollable gluttonous behaviors
4:35: Change for gym, get books ready for class
5:00: Saunter out of my apartment building to be greeted by the typical smells of car exhaust, grilled meat and burnt rubber.
5:30-10:30: Gym, shower, class
10:30: Take bus home. Feel oddly protected by the prostitutes I pass on my two block walk home from the bus stop.
10:45: Make dinner with my roommate Domi.
11:00: While eating, catch up on the Brazilian soap opera "Salve Jorge"
11:30: Check what I have missed on Facebook. Nothing
11:30-1:30:Spend next two hours doing god knows what
1:30: Write in journal.
1:45: Drift off to the eerie sounds of the dark streets below.
***Side note: Okay so yes this was my typical day. But I did do some minor things on the side, the best being my excursion to the Museu da Lingua Portuguesa (Portuguese Language Museum). Yes, one of few museums in the whole world dedicated solely to the origin and development of a language. It is incredible how many words in Portuguese come from Indigenous tribes such as the Tupi that were here before Brazil was colonized. And then how many words have African roots due to the immense Brazilian slave trade that lasted almost 3 centuries. Also, did you know that Portuguese is spoken on every continent? That Portuguese Navy sure was busy. And that the word Saudade in Portuguese is classified as one of the most difficult words to translate into other languages especially English. Now I bet you want to know what it means. Well go Google it. Because if I just gave you one word that kind of alludes to its meaning, well that would defeat the purpose of me telling you that it is one of the most difficult words to translate.
Another great thing about the museum is that it really appeals to the student budget since it only costs a mere $1.50. Great. Also, I think that museums are a good thing to do by yourself. Normally I like to have a companion when I go out to explore, but museums are different. You can go at your own pace. You don't have to worry if you are taking to long. Or the opposite, you don't have to awkwardly stand and wait while the other person reads every last word, including the exit signs. Anyways, I felt like a very good exchange student doing this mini trip and also really learned a lot. I think it will be fun to go back two or three more times as my Portuguese gets increasingly better so I can get even more out of the museum.
Okay, now moving on to my new daily routine!
Internship:
5:50: First alarm goes off. Snooze
6:00: Second alarm goes off: Snooze
6:10: Third alarm goes off: Snooze
6:12: Wake up panicked from a deep sleep: "CRAP, what time is it. Did I oversleep?"
6:13: Turn on water for coffee (yes, English Breakfast just doesn't do the trick at 6:15 in the morning). Get out fruit and yogurt for morning breakfast.
6:15: Sit down for breakfast while reading up on the daily news. Pictures of dogs from parents have not been sent yet.
6:20: Contemplate if wearing my pink flowery shirt on the first day of work is too El Woods from Legally Blond.
6:21: Decide to go with navy blue skirt and white blouse to be on the safe side. (Don't worry pink shirt was worn the next day. #ElWoodsismygirl)
6:25-7: Get ready for work, organize materials for class, put together gym bag-don't forget socks
7:00: Select snacks to bring to work: banana granola bar, figs, apple, really yummy mini cake with chocolate filling.
7:15: Leave apartment to make the 7:35 bus to the office.
7:35-7:55: Crowded, sweaty bus ride with grumpy Paulistans.
7:55-7:58: Make a pit stop in McDonald's next to my office to take a bath in their sink after sweating through my clothes. Thanks for the free paper towels.
8:00: Begin my day.
9:00: Brazilian Market opens. The next four hours pass without even looking at the clock.
1:30: Lunch time. Lunch time in the office is really quite an experience. One where soggy tuna sandwiches brought from home in a Tupperware are unheard of, and pieces of steak hanging over the plate with rice, beans and french fries are the norm. Its hard to go out to lunch because when the market is open its go time. There is no lunch break. Especially because you are not dealing with just the Brazilian Market. You have London and NYC too which are on different time zones. Not to worry though, because around 11:30 a very nice guy (whose name I am forgetting but will fill in) comes around with the equivalent of an Oxford Dictionary full of different menus that include every food group/category from every region in the world. I could probably spend a good three hours going through the whole thing. Where do you even start when there is salmon with a maracujá sauce; filet mignon; slowly roasted chicken over a coal five; seared tuna; nioki in a garlic cream sauce; thin crust pizza with prosciutto, arugula and slivers of parmesan cheese; every salad you could imagine salad; veal; risotto; a whole Brazilian Churrasco; sushi; cheese plates; duck. Its like okay, first day of work you are trying to get a grip on how the market operates, all the different systems, bonds, currencies, interest rates, central banks, the phones don't stop ringing, some random bell keeps going off, the office is a mixture of Portuguese, Spanish, English. Your head is about to explode. And then you are supposed to choose between salmon, filet mignon and a wild mushroom risotto for lunch? I mean this really almost put me over the top. I'm thinking, yeah i'll have one of every thing, a tasting menu if you will. Do interns get to do that? No? Crap. After what seemed like the most difficult decision of my life, I went with the salmon in a maracujá sauce over a bed of mixed greens with tomatoes, artichoke hearts, sauteed zucchini, some unbelievable cheese and avocado for my first lunch as an Intern at Deutsche Bank. It was delicious. But my relationship with the these meals is very touch and go. As soon as I'm finished I am ready to try the next best thing. Think of any college male, like that, but with food.
2:30: Lunch time winds down and the office picks back up. Phones, bells, chats, emails, speakers, videos. And me? Well I am a deer in the headlights. My brain is a sponge that is quickly begining to get heavier and heavier. Swaps, spots, outrights, forwards, options. Oh sorry, is that jiberish?
3:15: The afternoon sun streams through the gigantic glass windows. I feel like I am in the sky as I sit and gaze out at the view of the concrete jungle from our fourteenth floor office. A helicopter comes and lands on top of the building across the street. Woah. Thats when you know you are really high up.
3:17: Coffee. It is important for the bank not to have all their employees take a nap on their keyboards after eating such a ginormous lunch. How do they hedge this risk? (new bank lingo). Well, how would you like a delicious café com leite in an adorable pocka dotted cup with just the push of a button? Or an espresso from the fancy Nespresso machine that George Clooney uses? I don't consider myself an avid coffee drinker. I really do prefer tea in terms of a stimulant. However, the coffee from these machines is really something remarkable. And having such fun little cups to drink it out of makes it all the better.
3:30-5:30: In general, the office in the afternoon slows down. The London Market is closed at this point, the market in NYC has calmed down, everyone gets to take a deep breath. I like this period because I can ask a lot of questions and clarify things that have gone on during the day.
5:30: Run out of the office to get the bus to school.
5:35-6:25: Another hot, not as sweaty bus ride, with grumpy Paulistans to the FAAP (my university).
7-10:30: Class, gym, shower
10:30: Take bus home. Again, feel oddly protected by prostitutes on the street. With two or three on every corner, no one pays attention to me as I scurry by in the shadows behind them.
10:45: Make dinner with Domi.
11:00: While eating, look at daily pictures my parents have sent of our dogs.
11:10: Check out what I have missed on Facebook. Nothing.
11:20: Barely keeping my eyes open, change into my PJs and brush my teeth.
11:30: Dead to the world.
So as you can you can see everyone, things have really picked up down here in São Paulo! And I will have you know, that I absolutely love my internship. I like to think of my college studies as a puzzle and this internship is the last piece: The first piece is International Economics that then attaches to Spanish. My Caribbean and Latin American studies minor slides in below. My Portuguese is the next piece. Then comes my study abroad experience here in São Paulo with my different classes in finance/international relations. And then to bring it all together into one big melting pot is my internship. That is how perfect it is. I am speaking English, Portuguese and Spanish. Our region is the Caribbean and Latin America so all day I am researching and reading up about everything that is going on regarding the economy and politics. But then the coolest part is that I get to see how these political and economic factors/changes affect the market. And it is right there in front of me! I watch it happen. It is seriously so cool. Sometimes I get goosebumps. Am I a total nerd? Furthermore, the team I work with could not be more supportive and patient in terms of getting me on board, explaining concepts I dont understand, including me in conference calls/emails. Finance is not rocket science. It just takes your brain and twists it in ways your brain has never been twisted before. I think if I were to have a cat scan right now my brain would look like a towel being wrung out to dry. You know that motion of squeezing and scrunching?
My brilliant Mother, before my first day of work, told me not to think of it all as some big scary beast that is impossible to conquer, but rather to compare it to working in a restaurant. You arrive on your first day barely knowing anything. You recognize you're dealing with food but you don't know how all the different ingredients mix together to make bacon carbonara, seafood scampi or tomato bruschetta. It is all very fast paced because people are hungry and don't want to wait around. There is so much to learn and at some points you doubt your ability to master it all. But then you make a little breakthrough that leads to another baby step. Someone asks you a question and you know the answer. Soon enough everything is clicking. You can explain the differences between the bacon carbonara and seafood scampi without thinking twice. People are coming to you for help. And before you know it, you have grasped every last detail about the restaurant.
Yes, these wise words from my Moma really helped get my mentality properly situated as I walked through the big glass door that first Monday morning. And now, two weeks later, I am still in the making-baby-steps stage. Little tiny ones. But things are sinking in. Instead of learning pasta dishes, its learning to differentiate between a spot trade and a swap. Yes, okay a bit less appetizing but hey, at least I get to gnaw on a big piece of steak as the figures and stats settle in. It is all very surreal but I am happy and feel like I am finally beginning to fit into this Paulistan metropolis as I bustle through the streets in my work clothes and Brazilian leather flats.
P.S. If you want to see the street view of my office building go ahead and copy the address into
https://maps.google.com/
Deutsche Bank - Av. Brg. Faria Lima, 3900 - São Paulo, Brazil
Oh and yes there is a helicopter pad on top of the building. And yes my goal is to land on it.
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