I'm really enjoying everything about this experience so far and I'm so glad for the opportunity and the ability to be here!
I worked my half day from the hotel yesterday, and it was lovely! There's a pretty good setup in the room with a desk, pull out shelf for a better keyboard height, and a wired Internet connection that is free and was plenty fast! I made a couple of trips down to the lobby for coffee and it was nice to have an excuse to go for a walk like that! I worked until about 1pm to line up with noon back home which is when my half day usually ends. Once I was logged out, I went down to the front desk to extend our stay another week. There will be someone else from the Peterborough site joining us next week, so we'll stay at the hotel where we have been for an additional week and figure out a plan for after that. It sounds like this is getting to be the busy season down here, so accommmodations will be harder to come by. Already they are almost fully booked for next week.
I also had picked up some items from the breakfast buffet to bring up to the room for lunch. I wound up with a charcuterie style spread with some meats, cheeses, crackers and a pear. Not too shabby (for free!)
I headed down to the gym and pool area after that. I got on the treadmill and went for about a 4km walk while watching Love Is Blind on Netflix using my phone. What a guilty pleasure! At least walking on the treadmill while I watch makes it feel like a productive use of time! LOL I then did a 40 min yoga video from YouTube. I had the gym to myself, which was nice. Early in the morning and in the evenings it is PACKED in there! While I was walking on the treadmill, I had noticed a yellow sign on the first stair into the pool that said it was closed. I was too far away to see the reason, but I was disappointed because I'd hoped for a swim and some time by the pool when I was done in the gym area. By the time I was done my yoga though, the sign had been removed so I put on my bathing suit and headed out. The water was so warm, and also refreshing at the same time. It was 39C/102F here yesterday, and full sun! I got out of the water and hung out in a lounger in partial sun (so it was on my legs but not my face/chest where I tend to burn) and read for about 30 min. Once I was dry, it was getting uncomfortably warm, so I headed back up to the room to shower. By this time, it was around 4pm. Dan, Chris & Steve left the factory and headed back to the hotel shortly after 5pm.
We were meeting a bigger group for dinner last night, there are other employees from out of town (one from Monterrey, Mexico and one from Houston, Texas). They joined us as well as a few additional employees from the offices at the factory. We went to Braz Pizzeria which was also nice and close to the hotel for us. There wound up being 12 of us in the group, and we didn't meet until 7:30pm so it was an extended meal for sure. It was close to 11:00pm before we left the restaurant! It was really enjoyable though! Lots of rounds of beer (an Italian Soda for me), lots of laughs, lots of pizza (and a Caprese Salad for me). I met lots of new people and for once wasn't the only woman at the table! The employee from Monterrey Mexico is a woman as well.
Speaking of which, working in the offices for the factory here it's nice to see so many women. I feel like it's almost 50/50 here, where it's closer to 20% in Peterborough. Mind you, I'm just sitting in one area, there are several other office areas that I haven't been through yet and I suspect Engineering would be male dominated for sure.
It sounds like we'll be going for lunch with more of the Engineering team today, not eating in the cafeteria. Then tonight, they will be taking us to a traditional Brazalian BBQ restaurant which I'm really looking forward to experiencing! I've heard so many good things from co-workers who have been here to Brazil before.
Update: We went for lunch, it was super cool! It was an open air restaurant on the water. It had a salad bar, and then a wood fired hot food station with all kinds of meats, grilled vegetables and savoury pastries. You get a plate, load it up and pay by weight. I'll try and do a post in a bit with a bunch of photos, I'll have to do it later (maybe tomorrow) from my personal laptop. I can't upload anything to the Internet from my work laptop.
We're working on plans for this weekend, we're hoping to do some exploring in the Campinas area where we are. There is a free zoo in walking distance. Dan went there on Sunday with Chris & Steve while I napped but he said I'd really enjoy it. There also was a craft market just closing down when he was there, so we'll make sure we go in time to peruse it as well. We also need to do some laundry, and do want to pay the fees for the hotel to do it for us so I found a laundromat a 10 min walk from the hotel that we'll also take advantage of. I'm also doing some research into a tour of a coffee estate/plantation/farm (I've seen it called all of those terms) because how cool would that be? It's supposed to rain a lot the next few days and into the weekend, and I saw through the hotel's website that there is a 3.5 hour train tour that we can do, which would be a cool way to see more of the countryside and who knows, maybe some other citites? That's as far as I got into researching that. More work to do tomorrow.
happy