Ambush Marketing At It’s Finest

Here in Brazil, there is a very large jewlrey chain called H. Stern… or at least it seems very large, because their brand is promoted everywhere.  And I mean everywhere.  In hotels, on the back of room keys, on the side of busses…  In fact, if I didn’t know any better I would think H. [...]

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Sightseeing in Brazil

Continuing my previous blog post, of course I must talk about our fabulous time sightseeing.  When visiting Rio, there is typically one of two things tourists must do during their stay – visit the Jesus statue, and take a tram up to Sugarloaf.  So naturally, we did both.  First we went to see Christ the [...]

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The Brazilian Spectator

Wow, I don’t even know where to begin when blogging about the last couple of days here in Rio de Janeiro.  To the 2 or 3 of you who have been reading my blog posts religiously (hi mom and dad!) you have probably been thinking, “OK, awesome, Andrea’s getting 3 school credits for drinking coconut [...]

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MEAT!

Not being a huge fan of steak, I, for one, am glad that Brazil has such a wide variety of options available.  last night, for example, a few of us went out to a really nice gourmet pizza dinner. Since Brazil is known for its meat, however, of course I couldn’t pass up the opportunity [...]

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Rio2016 Olympic Venue Tours

Checking in again from Rio de Janeiro!  Where were we… Two nights ago, our IRP group enjoyed a wonderful GW alumni reception on the roof deck of our hotel.  Many alumni were in attendance, including some who we had previously met with in meetings the day before, so it was great to meet and mingle [...]

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Getting Down To Business

After two sun-filled days of play, our IRP group finally got down to some business.  We awoke and met in the lobby bright and early (well, 9am, which is “bright and early” in Brazilian time) and hopped on a bus to Barra, where our first meeting was to be held.  On our way to Barra, [...]

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Fat Americans

I suppose you can say we were forewarned prior to selecting our IRP destination cities, but man, Brazil is expensive! At prices of at least 20 – 30R for a simple sandwich (think a slab of meat and somewhat stale bread) or salad, and upwards of 50R (31USD) for a decent Brazilian meat or fish dish [...]

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It’s Something About Rio

It’s official – we’re finally here in Brazil! The weather’s gorgeous, and despite our extreme jet lag, as soon as we arrived at the hotel we dropped our stuff and hit the beach. Our flight was pretty easy, too. Left at 10pm, watched a highly-censored, “plane appropriate” (???) version of It’s Something About Mary, and [...]

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Leavin’ On a Jet Plane

OK, well, it’s more like “leavin’ on a Boeing 777,” but you get the idea.  I’ve got my bags packed, and I’m ready to head out to Rio de Janeiro!  Of course, due to recent events I had expected the airport to be an absolute zoo, so I decided I should probably arrive at least [...]

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A Microscopic Look at One of the World’s Fastest-Growing Economies

It is no secret that Brazil’s economy is rapidly growing.  With an annual GDP growth of more than 5% the past several years (7.5% in 2010), Brazil is one of the fastest-growing major economies, and in recent years, Brazil has become the poster child for emerging market economic reorg.  Well, I think it’s safe to [...]

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