Global Entrepreneurship Week

The biggest entrepreneurship movement in the world is on: the Global Entrepreneurship Week!

On November 17th-23rd, various organisations and individuals are promoting activities and putting their ideas into practice, creating a movement to promote ideas, creativity, businesses and the entrepreneurial experience. In Brazil, 500.000 participants, 9.000 organisations and 5.000 activities are expected to happen.

Wanna see videos, list the activity you are promoting or know more about the Global Entrepreneurship Week? Check the Brazilian Entrepreneurship Week website here.

Heading for the future

Lots of people amongst my group of friends are finishing important phases in life and / or taking important decisions. So 10 days ago we organised a friends gathering / heading for the future conference. Objectives:
- self assessment and reflection
- inspiration and next steps planning
- having a good time close to friends and nature!
Cool, isn't it?

Kana, Josh and Lucy were great in leading us through this journey and I need to confess the outcomes were stronger than I could predict. Deep reflections about entrepreneurship and sense of belonging vs. current state are still in my mind.

One of the main insights for me was to realise that the "time in a company before I do something else" might not only not deliver the money, skills or anything else we say we seek, but kill the entrepreneurship spirit, which is probably the most important thing, as we need to be sort of domesticated in those environments.

Celebrating Women's Work for Peace and Justice

Last night, I went to a fantastic panel called "Peace Messengers - A celebration of women's work for Peace Justice", part of a Nobel Prize Exhibition called Beautiful Minds, in UTS.

A little bit about the Nobel Prize:
Established by the inventor of the dynamite Albert Nobel (Sweden 1833-1896), it uses the interests of his fortune to award the year's most outstanding contributors in the world in the fields of Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature, Economics and Peace. What a vision!

Reflections from the women's dialogue:
One of the women participating on the panel was a Masters Law student from Afghanistan, who said a couple of things that stayed in my mind.

First, when she talked to her family about studying abroad (after having her studies interrupted many times), her mother said she'll find her wherever she was and cut her head off. Coming from another woman, that's harsh.

Secondly, talking about the future, she said she wanted to come back to be a teacher, judge or politician. But that would totally depend on the current government, whether they will allow women to study, work and even leave their houses or not. I can understand that people who never had something (freedom, for instance) find it difficult to fight for it. But in the Afghan case, women pass from times when they have rights to times when they don't, depending on the government rules. I sincerely cannot understand how power orientation can vary dramatically and still be unquestionably obeyed. I've been thinking about this social dynamic since then, as it's the very opposite of how I believe(d) social forces worked.

World Press Photo

Last weekend I went to the State Library to watch the World Press Photo prize winners.

World Press Photo is a non profit that organises the world's largest and most prestigious annual press photography contest. Prizewinning photographs are assembled into a traveling exhibition that is visited by over two million people in some 45 countries worldwide. The idea is to develop photojournalism and consequently enlarge people's conscience.

As you can imagine, the exhibition is impacting. Amongst all the very interesting facts and stories featuring news, contemporary dramas, sports, nature and people, one picture called a lot my attention. It was taken by Espen Rasmussen, from Norway, and shows over 3,000 people gather for Friday prayers facing icy winter conditions to pray at the ruins of the main mosque in Balakot, Pakistan, one of the towns worst hit by the Kashmir earthquake.

That picture transmitted a sense of wrong and injust; but also a strength coming from an incredible faith, that makes people pass through one more disaster, overcome another unfairness and pray for a better future. Better than what? Was this dream possible at any point of our history? How do out minds work so unreasonably?

See the picture here (can't publish it here because of the copyright).

And the drinking game winner is…

I know it’s hard to believe. And I’m not sure if I’m proud of this or not. But fact is I did win the vodka drinking game in Sveta’s red housewarming party. And there are proofs. Check it out!

Social events: great company and dancing

Last weekend, two amazing social events took place:

1) My flatmate’s birthday, with a lot of friends from each of the flatmates, good conversations, some drinks and lots of dancing

2) A great Indian day, with 3 hours-long Indian movies, fantastic food, great people and some more dancing.

Good stuff…

Piano Bar and Aussie Songs

Last night, after a great dinner in MC house with shisha and Lucy’s presence after almost 4 months in Thailand, we went to a Piano Bar. I got to know a little more about the Aussie way of enjoying music and obviously learnt some new very Aussie-life-style-description songs. Check it out!

Among The Gum Tree's

I've been around the world a couple of times, or maybe more,
I've seen the sights, I've had delights on every foreign shore,
but when my mates all ask me the place that I adore,
I tell them right away.

Give me a home among the gum trees,
with lots of plum trees, a sheep or two, a ka-kangaroo.
A clothes line out the back, veranda out the front,
and an old rocking chair.

You can see me in the kitchen cooking up a roast,
or Vegemite on toast, just you and me, a cup of tea.
And later on we'll settle down and mull up on the porch,
and watch the possums play.

There's a Safeway up the corner, and a Woolys down the street,
a brand new place they’ve opened up where they regulate the heat,
but I'd trade them all tomorrow for a simple bush retreat
where the kookaburras call.

Some people like their houses with fences all around,
others live in mansions, and some beneath the ground.
But Me, I like the bush, you know with rabbits running 'round,
and a pumpkin vine out the back.

My last AIESEC conference

The purpose of my visit to Adelaide was actually the AIESEC in Australia National Conference, which I had the pleasure to chair. It was quite a different experience to me to be in another country's national conference, at the same time not understanding the whole picture and being responsible for the accomplishment of all objectives, which involved growth in currently processes, introduction of new strategies and elections of the new leadership team.

What can I say? It was great!!! The national team is quite competent and supportive, the participants were very energetic and I felt very comfortable to tell stories, contribute to an inspirational mood and enhance the individual and organisational learning. Besides, it was great to be again in a passionate environment and test my multitask abilities ;o)

One of the most special moments for me was closing plenary. We all took our shoes off and entered a semi dark room, covered by paper. On the paper we could write the special moments, learnings and desired next steps, while a calm music was playing. Then, everyone received a candle and could place it anywhere it made sense. A final message from my side and each one could give the candle to somebody essential in their conference. It was great to create such an unexpected, different and touching environment for each participant in the final responsibility moments of what probably was my last AIESEC conference.

Thanks Ralph, Mel, Ausra, Michael, Kyle and Ruth for the opportunity. Thanks AIESECers for your energy and for the space to interact and learn from you. See you around!

New Year’s Eve

New Year’s Eve was absolutely amazing!

First, we invited all AIESEC interns in the country to come to Sydney. And most of them came! Counting alumni, friends and randoms, we were probably 30 – 40 people!

Second, Jhow and Jerry arrived in the Botanic Gardens at 8 in the morning and found the perfect spot for us to see the fireworks: by the harbour, just in front of both the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.

Third, we were 3/8 of the MC team together: Jhow, Lucy (who flew from Adelaide) and I. Amazing!

Well, the fireworks show was beautiful! It was quite special as well, as it was celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Harbour Bridge.

After watching it, we all headed to my house and did a little bit of a party there. Then, around 4a.m. we took the bus and went to Bondi beach, to see the sun rising from the ocean in the very first day of the year. As a good Brazilian, I jumped 7 waves and asked for a wonderful year!

Carols

There’s something extremely cool happening in Australia before Christmas – the Carols. Carols are events when people get together to sing Christmas songs and enjoy each others’ company.

The first one I went to was the Victoria Park Carols, which happened in the Park in front of where I lived in my first two weeks in Australia. There were around 400 people present, pretty much everybody from the neighbourhood. I really, really liked that! The community feeling was evident and the engagement with the commerce and schools around was part of the ceremony, as well as the presence of families doing a picnic in the park while the show didn’t start.

As I liked the concept very much, I went to a second Carols, this time in the Domain. Very different from the first, it was a huge show, counting with the presence of 100.000 people, some of the best singers in the country, a big charity campaign and TV forecasting. There was a big group of us present and it was amazing, especially the final moments, when everybody gets up, lights candles and sing together for a great Christmas and a peaceful new year.

AIESEC Conference – AWESOME

In December, I chaired the AIESEC in Sydney AWESOME conference. It happened as a result of two entrepreneurial individuals – Jake and Nicky, who wanted to have an experience in running a conference as well as guarantee all members had the right training to accomplish next year’s plan.

Half way through the conference, I re-started enjoying quite a lot the AIESEC environment, especially the innovation in education and the unique team spirit.

Thanks for the invitation, guys!

March Against Global Warming

Hello guys! Sorry for being very late with the posts! As I have many things to tell, you can expect quite a lot of news in the next week.

I’m starting with a very old but extremely relevant one. On November 4th, I joined the March Against Global Warming. This movement (http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/) is happening all around the world and had around 20.000 people marching in Sydney, ironically in a cold and rainy day.

What impressed me the most was the common direction among people from extremely opposite political views. There were liberals, socialists, environmentalists, artists, students, famous personalities and obviously lots of anonymous citizens. Is the union against global warming the new common flag in our world?

Amongst all the participants, the ones that called my attention the most was the family below. Extremely coherent, they are being extremely conscious about their own impact and making the needed efforts to cut their emissions in every way possible: eating, clothing, living and having fun sustainably.

My brother's wedding

Well, the posts that everybody has been waiting for... my trip to Brazil!

The main reason why I went was my brother's wedding. Quite a special date, isn't it? The whole "wedding process" was great! We arrived in the city where my brother is living some days in advance (it's 10 hours away from Porto Alegre), went to the civil wedding and had great conversations.

On the wedding day, a bus and 7 cars arrived with the whole family and many friends. Seriously, I don't remember the last time I had so many people from my family together. Even some cousins I don't see very often, but with whom I have some strong emotional connections. Awesome!!!

In total, there were almost 400 people in the celebration and absolutely everything was thought in its details. Great party!

Lots of happiness to Ju and Pati!

Below some pictures from the civil wedding. Religious ceremony and party to come.

Punk House Party

Certainly, the most successful party we’ve done so far. Just like the previous one, we picked a theme and invited the friends of the 4 of us. This time, we put some more effort on the decoration (there were punk bands posters around the house), the weather helped a lot and people really got into the theme (I dyed my hair green, by the way ;o)). In the end, we counted around 100 people in the party!

Cool, isn’t it? What was not that cool was to sleep about 2 hours and wake up to go to the airport. But it is for a great reason: going to Brazil for my brother's wedding!!! And I’ll be confused about “what time it is” anyway soon…

Melbourne Cup

Also known as “a celebration that stops a nation”, this horse racing is happens in the first Tuesday of November, is extremely traditional and really stops Australia.

In my work, we worked until 12 and then went to a restaurant in Darling Harbour, a very nice place. The company sponsored the day, the food was great, free drinks and some betting. Many races went on during the whole day, but the most important one started punctually at 3 p.m. Everybody stopped, ran to a big screen and cheered all through the 3 minutes race. And then? Then the laid back atmosphere returned and people continued enjoying the day and drinking.

The whole experience was quite strange and interesting to me, but what called my attention the most was that people really dressed up for the occasion, buying new dresses and even wearing hats. I can understand that people dress fancily to watch the race in the stadium, but to watch it on a TV in a bar?!?

For the ones wondering if I was lucky, I need to say that… I was! Even knowing nothing about horses, I kept the tradition and won a non important third prize, which allowed me to pay the betting!

Unexpectedly tiring but fantastic weekend!

Last weekend was great! But quite busy! So the post might be a little long…

Colombian Lunch

On Saturday, Liz invited a couple of people to have lunch with a Colombian family in the south of Sydney. As the network worked, soon we were 16 people, from 11 different countries, confirmed to such a fantastic program!

We arrived there around 1:30p.m. And it was just great! Apparently all the family is living is Australia for the last years (I think at least 7 people) and we can feel Colombia in all moments, seeing the objects, looking at people faces, listening to the music and especially feeling the Latin American warmth.

The food was amazing! I had a big Bandeja costena (fish, coconut rice, fried platanos and salad) and lulo juice! No words…

After eating, singing and dancing. It’s hard to describe how much I enjoyed the environment, especially to feel the Latin receptive spirit around. Si, si, Colombia!





Foosball

In order to continue enjoying the great company, he headed to Jhow’s new house, which was quite close. There were some good conversation and bad films going on, but the funniest part was to play foosball (pebolin – the “soccer table” – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foosball). We literally played for hours! And the only team who never lost was… the Brazilians! Oh yeah, Jhow and I are accepting challenging rivals.


Movie Marathon

When we were in the bus to go home (11p.m. already), Sid was thanking Anna for insisting on leaving, which meant we would sleep comfortably in our beds and not in Jhow's floor after some more hours of foosball. Then I sais that I actually liked those sorts of stories, because they were the ones we'd remember afterwards. Sid, then, looked at me and said: by the way, what are you doing tonight?

As he just came back from China with 29 new DVDs, the 5 of us decided to go to his place and watch a couple of them. In the end, we watched 3 movies, until 8 in the morning!


Coffee

After the marathon, a little bit of sleep and we woke up about 10. Completely tired, we decided to go home, but before we stopped in the city for a coffee. Not only the coffee was great, but the conversations, inspired in some of the films we just watched, especially "The interpreter". We talked about how people face unfair situations, the economy in Norway and even how the brilliant people from Atlantis didn't use all their knowledge to survive. As you see, we were extremely inspired!


Seven Bridges Walk

At this point, it was already 1p.m. and the girls decided to go home. Martin and I, taking advantage of the sun and the rest of our energy, preferred to go for the Seven Bridges Walk (http://www.7bridgeswalk.com.au/).

The event was created to promote a heatlhy life style in the beautiful city of Sydney, while you help some social projects. This means that you walk 22 km, passing through 7 bridges and once in a while there is a check point, with sunscreen, water and voluntary toll box. There are quite a lot of volunteers working, many sponsors and around 7.000 walking.

I think I don't need to say I was completely dead in the end. But it was completely worthed. Greatest sleep ever after the intense weekend!

Global Village

After some frustrated organisation efforts, our global village finally happened! And it was great! Stands for Romania, Bulgaria, Brazil, Norway, Turkey, Russia and Czech Republic, with pictures, souvenirs, food and drinks; cultural presentations; and lots of dance and fun.

Some learnings:
- Czech Republic had the biggest consumption per capita of beer in the world;
- Romania is the most important country in the world, as the pencil investor is Romanian;
- Not all Brazilians can play capoeira properly;
- Russians sing a very sad song about an orphan mamut to kids;
- Dancing is an universal gathering instrument!

Russian Night

Oh yeah, babe! We had a Russian night! But before you think we got smashed, I should say that no drinks were served.

In total, there were 4 Russian, around 10 other internationals and 10 Aussies. The atmosphere was great and we had lots of fun.

Talking about the food, the cooks – Serge, Marina and lots of helpers – really did a good job. We had a cucumbers’ salad, beetroot soup (Bourscht), dumplings and sweets. Great! For the ones interested, here comes the Bourscht recipe: http://www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1-0,russian_borscht,FF.html

Check some pictures:





Well, as people are quite strange, check the best faces of the night:

Thanks, guys!

Now the Brazilian colony is getting ready for a Brazilian night! News in some weeks…

Full moon festival

Back in Sydney, I continue learning about Asia. Last Monday, Joey invited us to play Mahjong, a very popular Chinese game which mixture some elements of dominos and poker. It was quite fun, but the first challenge was to read the pieces, as the symbols were in Mandarin. In the picture beside you can see SuSu with the symbols of good luck.

After playing, we ate full moon cakes, a very, very, very (can’t say very enough) dense cake, made of lotus seeds, with a yolk inside, not salty, not sweet. At this point of the year, Chinese people give each other this sort of cakes as part of the celebration of the full moon festival.

This festival happens because of the following legend:

“The earth once had ten suns circling over it, each taking turn to illuminate the earth. One day, however, all ten suns appeared together, scorching the earth with their heat. Hou Yi, a strong and tyrannical archer, saved the earth by shooting down nine of the suns. He eventually became King, but grew to become a despot.

One day, Yi stole the elixir of life from a goddess. However, his beautiful wife, Chang'e, drank it in order to save the people from her husband’s tyrannical rule. After drinking it, she found herself floating, and flew to the moon. Yi loved his divinely beautiful wife so much he did not shoot down the moon.”

My birthday

For the "gauchos" reading the blog, happy Gaucho Day! Here, in the other side of the world, it's not holidays. But everybody around me have heard a little bit about Brazilian history and the "Farroupilha" Revolution already ;o)

“Mostremos valor, constância
Nesta ímpia e injusta guerra
Sirvam nossas façanhas
De modelo a toda a terra”
Hino Rio Grandense

Talking about my birthday, it's always good to feel more mature, experienced and serene than last year, especially recapturing how much has happened in the last 12 months.

But besides the good feeling, my birthday couldn't pass without some sort of celebration, right? Even not counting with the famous strawberry cake, the party was quite joyful! Around 20 people showed up last Wednesday evening, amongst foreign interns, AIESEC members, neighbours, flatmates and work colleagues. Neighbours brought cake and, with Jhow's help, we had a good amount of Brazilian music and some caipirinha (by the way, these were the most expensive limes I have ever bought!). There was even a "chão, chão, chão"!

Another very nice thing was to be surprised by lovely emails and calls from everywhere. Thanks a lot for that, my friends!!!

House warming

With the theme “Trashbag Clubber Chic”, the party brought friends from 4 different people (Duncan, Alex, Chris and I) together in a raining Saturday.

In the beginning, everybody was quite shy. But with some introductions, drinks and Italian kiss, everybody starting interacting. And the resistant ones enjoyed and danced like never in the 1 to 4 a.m. trash music selection!


A true party, to warm up the new house!!!

Frustrated Brazilian Party

In the first week I was in Sydney, I was forwarded an email about a Brazilian party. As time passed, I got excited and so did many of my new friends, and we bought the tickets to go.

As I was going to the party, took a bus and there was at least half of it (about 15 people) who were Brazilians. Thee were speaking Portuguese, making jokes, singing, etc, and I was quite nice to feel this spirit again, of a lot of joy.

Unfortunately, the organizers sold more tickets than the capacity of the place and some of us didn’t get in. I don’t need to say that I was very, very disappointed. Anyway, we went to another place, which was quite good: club, good music and beautiful people having fun. And took a Brazilian with us, as his friends had gone home with all the confusion.