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February 11 One YearIt’s been one year since we moved from Brazil. Looking back now I see that we made the smartest move in our lives. Moving here was and continues to be the most intense and interesting experience for me and Daisy.
In this past year we spent lots of time together (no traffic J - I can return home faster), we learned new sports (roller, snowboarding), we experienced a new way for mountain biking and yes, we learned a lot with our new jobs!
Hope the upcoming years continue to bring good surprises as the last one. January 11 More SnowYesterday we were hit by another storm… by 04:00 pm all the streets were covered by snow. I left building 3 and head to building 88 in order to pick Daisy. The usual 5 minutes drive took me 1:00! After picking up Daisy we headed down 51th street and drove home. The total time was 1:40 to drive 4 miles! It’s amazing how people don’t understand their limitations. In days like yesterday you see lots of cars stuck in the street just because their owner did not realize that in snow conditions you need tire chains or a 4x4 vehicle. Besides the time it took for the commute, we arrived safe at home, cooked dinner and watch a movie. Today I’m working from home but Daisy unfortunately had to go to work. L October 22 USPSIt’s amazing how, in general, the public services in US works amazing! There are many examples that come in my mind like the police, fire department, but the reason of this post is USPS, the United States Post Office. Last month I sent a check to pay the Gym, and to my surprise, last week I received this month’s statement and realized that my last payment was not received. Automatically I thought: “Oh gosh someone got my check!” then I went to online banking and figure out that the check I sent was not cashed. I accepted this fact as a failure in the system and wrote a new check and, at this time, deliver myself at the gym. When I was writing the new check I realized that the envelope provided by the gym did not had a pre-paid stamp and as I posted without a stamp the check was not delivered. Now I had the explanation that proved this to not be a fault in the USPS mail delivery process. So, at this point I was happy that even not having a stamp and also not having the return address in the envelope no one took the check! But the biggest surprise came a couple of days later. I received a letter from USPS saying that as the envelope did not had a stamp and did not have a return address they sent that piece of mail to a processing office were they scan the mail looking for addressee information, and in my case they found my address thru my check. The letter also pointed that all the contents of my mail were destroyed for confidentially reasons. Oh, there was also a copy of the check for my records… I know that Empresa Brasileira de Correios e Telegráfos is one of the most trusted services in Brazil, but they are pretty far way from the reality here. Sad for us August 25 Little differences, big impact!Some people asks what is the biggest differences comparing living in the USA and our life back in Brazil. I should say that the differences are not in the big things. I mean – most of the things we have here are available in Brazil, the main difference is the price, things here are usually cheaper, but that’s not what surprise us every day. As I said, what surprises us are the little things, the ones that you only realize when you live here full time. Most of these things were already mentioned in Daisy’s blog (http://spaces.msn.com/daisymmendes) but over and over new ones just appear and that’s the reason of this post. Today we went to the gym to attend a free personal trainer consultancy, where they basically get your measures and tell you a zillion reasons to pay for personal training sessions, and I had to sign lots of papers to make sure I would not suit them in case I had short breath or other issue J, pretty strange looks like this society is moved by suits and suits and suits. Also, doesn’t expect to have equipment orientation for free as we have in Brazil (miss you Leo, Lú and Eli J), if you want orientation you pay around 60 to 80 bucks for 55 minutes sessions… That’s it! Now is time to go back to work! Cheers |
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