Adventures of a Gringa

Five Years

I started this blog five years ago today as I prepared to move to Brazil, with the intent to write on a personal level to keep friends and family in the loop about my experiences in Rio. But over time, the blog morphed into something quite different. Since then, I went from being a frustrated English teacher to a full-blown writer, from a girlfriend to a wife, from Rio back to New York.

To mark a new chapter, I've done a couple of things. First, I started a Tumblr to share the lighter side of writing about Brazil, which I'm trying to update daily. I'm also still going strong on Twitter and Facebook, where you can see more of my work and my picks of interesting Brazil news. I did some reorganizing of categories so it should be easier to find content in the archives. I'm hoping to refine the archives even more to make them easier to navigate. And as always, I'm open to suggestions for new posts, guest posts, and interviews.

I also just want to thank everyone who reads the blog, both new and long-time readers. It's through the blog that I've met some of the most amazing people who are now friends, that I've been able to interview some incredible Brazilians and Brazilophile gringos, and that I've had the opportunity to forge a new path for myself. Thank you all so much, and I hope you'll stick around for more exciting things to come.

Jobs in Rio de Janeiro

I still get a steady stream of questions about moving to Rio, and I don't have time to respond to most of them, so I'm sorry about that. But I recently came across a few interesting job postings in Rio, so whether you're a gringo or an English-speaking Brazilian, check out these opportunities, and be sure to note where they come from, namely Idealist, Craigslist, FPA, and Devex. (Craigslist in particular has mostly crap, but once in awhile there will be ok listings) Make sure you check those sites frequently for English language job listings in Brazil, though they're not terribly common. If I wasn't planning on staying in New York, I would be all over the first listing!

Rio de Janeiro Job Listings - April 2010

Program Officer - Media Rights and Access, Ford Foundation

"The Program Officer will be responsible for designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating a portfolio of grants addressing issues relating to media rights and access as well as advancing public media services in Brazil. S/he will strive to promote a media environment that demonstrates balance between freedom of expression and media regulation and that ensures symmetry of opportunities for citizens and groups generating, disseminating, and acquiring information."

Associate of Business Development, Community in Action

"We are currently seeking a Full-Time Business Development Associate to begin in April, 2010 for a one year period (which can be extended). This position entails several responsibilities. As the development associate, you will work directly with the NGO’s founders to seek funds and create partnerships both in Brazil and abroad."

Manager of Operations, Community in Action

"We are currently seeking a Full-Time Manager of Operations to begin in May, 2010 (or shortly thereafter) for a one year period. As the operations manager, you will direct day-to-day activities in Rio de Janeiro."

Freelance Media Analyst, Report International

"We are currently looking to recruit freelance Portuguese-speaking media analysts in Brazil for a new project. We would need you to write an English language summary of each article, and analyse the content against a number of topics."

IT Program Manager, Accion International

"The IT Program Manager will assist ACCION’s microfinance partner in Brazil with deploying and managing technology to support their business strategy.  S/he will have management responsibility for all IT related ACCION project in Brazil."

Foreign Policy Blog!

I'm very excited to announce that I have been chosen as one of two writers who will write for the Foreign Policy Association's brand new Brazil blog! I was humbled, to say the least, when I found out the other blogger is actually a professor who specializes in Brazil and Latin America. Luckily, he focuses on climate change and the environment, which I tend to touch on marginally, so I think we will make a good team.

Back in the summer, I found out a friend of mine was writing their Cuba blog, and I noticed they didn't have one for Brazil. So I bombarded the blog editor with applications and samples, and recently, I was really happy to get a call from my friend, who will now be my blog boss, so to speak. 

So without further ado: check out my first post on the Brazilian education here.

The power of the business card

One of the smartest purchases I made in the past year was a set of personalized business cards from Moo,* an amazing UK-based business card company. It was recommended to me by an American expat in Rio, and I ordered them sometime last January. I bought a set of mini-cards, which are very handy and somewhat smaller than standard business cards, which makes them unique.

Moo allows you to upload your own image or to pick and choose from their wonderful designs to personalize your cards. You can mix and match different designs, or use big text on the graphic side of the card. I chose Sarah Green's minis collection, which has really funky designs in tons of colors. I had my Rio information put on the back, and since I've been home I handwrote in my New York phone number.

I've found that having these particular cards is incredibly helpful. They're small, so they're easy to carry around (I bought the handy mini-card holder, which people for some reason find intriguing, maybe because it's pink). They're really unique cards and people always react well to them, and frequently ask where I got them. I like to think they help me stand out, even if in a small way.

For expats, these are great to have whether you're moving to a new place or hopping back and forth between several places. In Brazil, having cards in English, while obvious for an American, was actually an advantage, literally working the "gringo card" (plus, there's only one line of text besides my name and contact info). When I came back to New York, I didn't order an entire set of new cards because I actually liked having my Rio information on there. I like to think that also helps me stand out.

While the past seven months were rough in terms of job hunting, having these cards has given me a little bit of extra confidence. There are so many factors that go into an interview, but having something high-quality and memorable for people to remember you by is really helpful.

*Note: I was not paid or compensated to write this! I just love the cards that much.

Out of my mind

Awhile back, when I went to Floripa on my first totally solo vacation, an idea came to me for a fiction book. It wasn't much, but I started forming some concepts as I sat alone on the beach. For some reason, I didn't do anything with them, even as more ideas came along after I went home and as they festered at the back of my mind ever since. It's not that I didn't have time; I didn't really have the desire to do anything about it. (Plus, the Internet is eternally distracting.) Also, being that I work best on deadlines and put existing commitments above personal projects, it never made it to the top of my to-do list.

But then, by way of Brazen Careerist, I came across a little event called National Novel Writing Month, run by a small non-profit in San Francisco. The idea is to write a 50,000 word noel in a month. As the website describes:

"Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly."

Now this is not at all my style - I'm a perfectionist - but I was also notorious in high school and college for writing obscenely long papers, sometimes longer than necessary. So in theory, it's doable, though I have no realistic expectations of finishing, nor of coming out with a decent end result.

In any event, I'm going to give it a try, for nothing more than to force myself to at least give it a shot and see what I come up with. Being that I now have a part-time job, freelance work, job hunting, and a possible second part-time job, I won't have much time. But I figure that if I force myself to join a huge group of people doing the same thing (peer pressure always works), then I will at least start. You can track my progress here, and I would gladly welcome any friends to join and try this ridiculous feat with me.

Silver Lining

It's hard not to get down with the economy and the challenges I'm facing, the same ones a lot of friends and peers are dealing with, too. For a long time, I was all *headdesk* *facepalm* lie-in-bed-eating-candy corn-and-watching-all-three-seasons-of-Arrested-Development down.

But now that I started temping, I realize that there's a definite silver lining to the job market fiasco, at least for me. After being out of the country for two years and doing very different jobs than I was used to, I'm using this time to get back into the groove of the American workplace and the office, which is enormously helpful to me. It's things like dusting off skills with certain computer programs, or something as simple as re-learning how to sit in an office chair for eight hours. Plus, I'm getting new and extremely valuable experience that's hopefully going to make me more valuable as I continue to look for full-time jobs. I'm learning new programs and skills, which is fun and incredibly useful.

Eli, for his part, got his employment authorization very quickly (thank you USCIS!) and started working as a bartender, since he'd taken a course this summer. While he eventually wants to work in something like marketing or business, he was well aware of the job market and on top of that, the reality of being a new immigrant, and he really did the right thing, considering how fast he managed to find a job. He's working really hard, about 45 hours a week. And even though it's not always rainbows and sunshine there (to put it mildly), he's getting New York experience, learning new skills and seeing how the industry works.

The point is that while it's really difficult not to get blue, especially if you're completely unemployed, this terrible time is in its own way giving us opportunities--or rather, forcing us--to do something different. Whether it's traveling, or volunteering, or trying out a part-time or temp job in something you might not have otherwise considered, it's all going to work out in the long run, and we might as well take advantage of this strange time to get something out of it.

Why temp?

I've come quite a long way in my job hunt since I first started looking back in April, even before I came back to New York. Initially, I had a rather narrow set of criteria for job openings I would apply to, and since I initially got three interviews right off the bat, I was lured into a very false sense of security.

Well, sure enough, it became abundantly clear that a job wasn't going to come easy, so I gradually expanded my search, until it became much broader. I applied for some short term jobs, but decided against temping, since my rationale went that I had no idea when I would get a full time job and wouldn't want to be caught in between a temporary, part-time job and the goal of a full-time, long-term job.

That ship has sailed, and I recently began pursuing temping opportunities. The two most important factors are that I managed to pull myself out of a sad little unemployment funk and that it has been five whole months since I got back to the States and have not been able to get a full time job. I still shudder at that number. Five. Nearly half a year. It's mind boggling.

So I went ahead and got myself set up with a non-profit temping agency, which turned out to be really great, and also applied for a temporary position I found on a job board. I was called in for an interview at both places, making me eligible for the agency's temp positions and a candidate at the company looking for a short-term consultant. But amazingly, I was hired for the temp position I had applied for on my own just a few days later, and I start next week. I'm excited about it because it involves a lot of Portuguese translation and using my knowledge of Brazilian culture and current events to help the company try to break into the Brazilian market.

Oh yeah, that's the other thing. I'm going private sector! At least temporarily.

I realize that it's possible an opportunity will come along for a full-time job (I'm still applying to openings almost every day), but it will likely not be right away. In the meantime, I've found something to get myself back on my feet and back into the American workplace, which will be a great way to prepare me for the (hopeful) long-term position I will find somewhere down the road.