"Welcome to the Jungle" and first impressions of Samba land

First of all, thank you to all of you for your messages of support for my transfer to Brazil! :-)

Somehow, as soon as I started saying that “Brazil” might be on the cards for my next assignment, people’s eyes just lit up. The effect seems to be a bit of a combination of the unhinged exhilaration you might get when France scores an equaliser in the fourth minute of extra time against Spain (and if you’re French, naturally), and the pang of envy you feel when you see photos of friends’ trips to the Seychelles, Maldives, or wherever else you fancy people go.

Where I am NOT living

Having just spent a week in Sao Paulo, I can imagine that most people’s perception of Brazil is probably NOT based on Sao Paulo however. Apologies Paulistanos, but I’d rather be upfront so that anyone who visits this city knows what to expect. Your mind picture of Brazil is probably triggered by images of the beach in Copacabana, ladies dancing the samba, or random clips of Pele dancing on the football pitch. That is, unless images of traffic jams, sky scrapers, and heightened security is what makes you grin cheekily in jealous anticipation. No? I thought not.

Where I AM living

So of course, I have literally seen nothing of this city, but hey, I am not writing the next Lonely Planet intro to Sampa (short for Sao Paulo, obviously). I just wanted to share a couple of insights of my first few days here because many of you have been asking for news. And of course the vast majority haven’t been asking and couldn't care less, but hey, if you've read this far, then I'm onto a winner. And it’s either reading this or the latest analysis on the US election, which while much better for dinner table chat in the coming weeks, may also lead to collective yawns. So, on we go.

First realisation: this city is massive, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and in the Americas, and the world's seventh largest city by population with around 20 million brave souls in greater SP. The middle class has apparently grown so fast in recent years that the typical pyramid structure of socio-economic classes has bulged out to form a diamond, with this “Class C” representing more than 50% of the population already. What this means is that – whether you like it or not – you are very quickly hit by traffic congestion as more and more people can afford cars (on two year credits, but still). Locals so far have actually been somewhat apologetic about the nightmare of the city, as one of my colleagues said with a massive grin: “welcome to the jungle”. So a jungle it is. If you are lucky and your flight arrives outside of peak hours, then you might be able to avoid it. I arrived on a bank holiday, which was a complete fluke, but meant that I arrived in my new home / flat reasonably quickly. Bonus.

I am staying with family friends who have recently moved to SP to start up a new company, and who have kindly agreed to sublet a maisonette at the end of their garden. It was originally designed as the housekeeper’s quarters, but it’s been decorated and furnished really nicely by my lovely hosts so within a couple of hours I already felt very much at home. It is also in a super nice location in the Jardim Paulista neighbourhood. So all in all, I am extremely happy not to have followed HR’s advice to stay by the office which is 30km out of town.

Somewhere in that jungle is my new home

Living in SP rather than by the office has meant that I have had to rent a car, which has been an interesting adventure in itself. This is not the sort of city where you just randomly take the car out for a spin without knowing where you are going so I managed after a few days to get hold of a GPS and the experience of purchasing it was legendary in itself… I went into a mall by the office at lunchtime, and as none of the salesmen spoke English or Spanish, and I couldn't understand the difference between three different models of GPS, four salesmen provided a helping hand via Google Translate to explain the main difference: voice recognition. I couldn't explain that I very much doubted my Portuguese accent could be understood by anyone, let alone a trained device, but in any case, they didn't need any further confirmation that I was an alien.  So the second realisation has been one relating to language… While most people at work speak English, they only do so if they have to, and for the moment 2 out of my 3 meetings in larger groups were entirely in Portuguese. I understood more than I expected (thanks Marilia!!) but there is still a long way to go before I can contribute in such settings.

Working on the 2014 World Cup Team... bliss!!!

After traffic and language, the third and final realisation so far is that relationships matter in this country. People are generally extremely friendly, people kiss to greet each other at work (I know we do that in France, but not when you first meet someone in a professional context, unless it is a DSK-type context). There is a very entertaining greeting exchange process which is much more developed than the usual “Hello”, followed by the equally original response of “hello” in the English speaking world. It goes something like this, and happens approximately 68 times a day, each time you encounter someone:

“Bom dia! Tudo bem?”

“Tudo bem. E você?”

 “Tudo joia / Tudo beleza / Tudo legal”

And as far as the relationships go, I am extremely lucky to have wonderful hosts at home, the lovely Nazia & Joel in the hood, as well as the INSEAD crew who have all provided fantastic introductions to this insane jungle.