Working in Brazil has given me an insider view in this exciting, fast-growing country and allowed me to get somewhat immersed in its culture. Through this post, I try to capture the things that stand out most to me. These observations are purely personal and I can’t guarantee they reflect the real Brasileiro/a life.
Coffee and lunch are sacred
Coffee is at the center of Brazilian life. Having a meeting — let’s get some coffee. Finished lunch — let’s enjoy some coffee. It’s 4pm? — anyone up for coffee?
The coffee experience in Brazil is very similar to the Italian coffee experience. Portions are small, but very strong.
Like most Southern American and Southern European countries, Brazilians take their lunch very seriously. People will often go out for lunch in groups and take their time to eat the biggest meal of their day. Eating at your desk at work is not done very often… although I’m guilty of it sometimes.
Parking in style
Everyone knows about ‘Valet parking’. It’s what you do in larger cities when you want to be fancy and have the money to spare. Not so in Sao Paulo — everyone does it. Going for drinks with your friends? Simply drive up to your favorite drinking hole, turn on your emergency lights, throw your keys to any of the waiting “estacionamento” guys, and you’re good to go. Your car will end up somewhere in the middle of a packed parking lot, squeezed between hundreds of other cars. It is still a mystery how to disassemble this car puzzle when people return home.
Dare to drive? Traffic jams await you
Roads in Brazil are in pretty bad shape. Add to that overpopulated cities and way too many cars on the road, and you have crazy traffic jams. It also doesn’t help that everyone wants to go to the beach at the same time on Friday evening, or wants to return home on Sunday evenings.
For comparison, consider this: driving to Sao Paulo’s closest beach town is supposed to take just about 1.5hrs. On weekends, this can easily run up to 5-8hrs.
On the road, Brazilians are damn good drivers. However, they sometimes get a bit ambitious and dare themselves to some pretty crazy maneuvers. My top 3:
Functional hippies
You know those cool ‘flower power’ cars they used to have in the 70s. They still build them in Brazil and they are use them for heavy-duty utility work, just like the Americans rely on pickup trucks
Actually, since VW Kombi’s don’t come with Airbags, they discontinued production in December 2013.
On the topic of cars: cars are super expensive in Brazil, and no-one really questions the price(yet). This also means that when you rent an entry-level car, you get exactly that: an uber-basic car without AC, Power Steering, ABS brakes, Airbags, or Automatic Transmission. You need to upgrade to a luxury version to get all of the above.
The lady and her parrot
So, Brazilians are major TV watchers. TVs are playing all. the. time. (restaurants, shops, at work,…). What I find most amusing though, is the nationwide morning show, Mais Voce. Contrary to mornings shows elsewhere in the world, this one is quite entertaining even when you don’t speak Portuguese. The host is your typical blond TV host, but what makes the show most entertaining is her co-host, Louro. Oh, did I mention that Louro is a parrot? Yes, 200 million Brazilian watch a talking parrot every morning. I used to watch a talking dog when I was a kid and never thought I’d be watching a talking parrot as an adult.
Beaches, bikinis, and sungas
The first thing that comes to mind when you think about Brazil are of course its beaches and tanned bums. And it is all true. Go to any beach and you’ll see those famous, revealing bikinis.
What I find more interesting, though, is the fact that everyone wears them. Brazilians are proud of their bodies and overweight Brasileiras will wear those same revealing bikini bottoms. I’m not saying they are necessarily a delight for the eye, but it does raise an interesting question. In a country where people, esp. women, are so conscious of their bodies, how come that they rightfully feel so comfortable wearing those bikinis? I find this quite amazing and empowering, esp. in a world where appearances are so overrated and people are made to feel bad about the way they look. Not so in Brazil.
Guys love to wear sungas, also known as Speedos in the rest of the world. Not only that, some guys get adventurous and go for white sungas. Not sure what the appeal is, but it’s entertaining to say the least.
On the topic of bodies. There are so many gyms in Sao Paulo and new ones seem to be popping up every day. And they are full too, with people lining up to use the equipment.
Confused flyer
I fly a lot and don’t get confused often. Brazil is a whole different ball-game, though. Upon arrival at the (international) airport, you are greeted by a VERY long line. Once you have conquered the line (and pushed away any line-cutters), you have to find your gate. I use the word ‘find’ because gates change a lot. Often times, especially for domestic flights, gates will change half an hour before departure and the change will be announced of the PA system in Portuguese. TV screens don’t necessarily update. I have boarded flights at gates where the TV screen next to the gate was showing a different destination then what was boarding.
This resulted in disaster once already. I ended up on the wrong flight and was hushed off the plane, only to find the right plane myself.
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