Adventures of a Gringa

Dicas para brasileiros em NYC: Moda

Começei a escrever alguns posts para um blog de moda, Amo Muito, já que é o projeto de uma querida amiga minha. Além de ter um desenho muito legal, os posts das duas blogueiras principais são muito bacanas com dicas de moda e coisas realmente muito fofas. A minha amiga me ajuda com as fotos e o texto dos meus posts, e o resultado é muito melhor do que conseguiria sozinha! Na verdade, comprei muita pouca coisa depois de voltar para os EUA, mas as poucas coisas que comprei foram vários pares de sapatos, e por isso resolvi começar meus posts lá com sapatos.

Aqui tem dois trechinhos dos posts que fiz da série "Shoe York":

Sapatilhas:
Uma loja muito legal para comprar sapato é a Century 21. Também tem roupa e acessórios excelentes de marcas que aí no Brasil são caríssimas, mas a loja de sapatos é separada da loja principal; Tem que seguir um caminho dentro da loja ou sair e entrar na entrada da loja dos sapatos. [Como chegar]
Leia mais e veja fotos

Galochas:
Tem várias coisas que eu devia ter comprado antes de me mudar para o Rio de Janeiro, sem dúvida, as galochas ficam no topo da lista. Só quando voltei para New York eu pude perceber o quanto elas me fizeram falta naquelas tardes de chuva do Rio, mas…mesmo não podendo mais usá-las no Rio (porque eu moro em NY), eu não resisti e comprei! Fiquei muito arrependida por não ter feito essa comprinha antes.
Leia mais e veja fotos

Fica ligado aqui e no Amo Muito para mais posts sobre moda e coisas legais em Nova Iorque!

Veja mais da série dicas para brasileiros em Nova Iorque:
1. Dinheiro e turismo geral
2. Compras/lojas e informação gratuita

Rio Gringa Recommends

I haven't done one of these in awhile, so I wanted to devote a post to some great things I've come across recently.

1. The Lost City of Z: A Deadly Tale of Obsession in the Amazon

Written by David Grann, this non-fiction tale is just as compelling, if not more, than a fiction thriller, and I could not put it down. It tells the story of three adventurers who set out to find "El Dorado," the lost city of gold, in the Brazilian Amazon: British explorer Percy Fawcett in 1925, a Brazilian father-son team in the 1990s, and Grann himself a year or two ago. It is a must-read for Brazil-philes, historians, escapists, and bookworms alike. I'd also recommend it to Brazilians, though you may find yourself twitching involuntarily, since the book largely focuses on gringos set on having their way in the Amazon. Though it's basically a historical account, the twists and turns would make for a great movie, and the ending is...well. You'll have to read it.

2. Moo.com

I ordered business cards from here awhile back, and while I've been interviewing and networking in New York, people have really loved them and always ask where I got them. You can get regular or mini-sized, and you pick from a variety of designs. Once you pick a design, you get a certain number of each pattern, so that you have a diverse group of cards that are mostly all different. I happened to love Sarah Green's designs the best, but there are a ton of other beautiful designs that make for really unique and eye-catching business cards. Also, they ship internationally so you can have them sent anywhere.

3. The Real Housewives of New Jersey

Ok, ok hear me out. Though it's definitely a guilty pleasure, this show is highly entertaining and provides a very eye-opening and bone-chilling look into New Money in America. I've never watched the other "Housewives" shows (they've had them in New York City, Orange County, and Atlanta), but I think this one really is the epitome of conspicuous consumption and the nouveau riche in the United States. It shows what people do with their money, what they do to compete with one another to show who has more money, and the sickening things that go on behind closed doors. It's certainly yet another warning sign as to how poorly Americans have handled money and buying habits, driving us into this Crisis. Thankfully, not all Americans are quite as bad as these women, but the show certainly offers some insights as to why we buy the things we do and parts of our culture that wouldn't exactly make our founding fathers proud. And how much more American does "the bigger, the better" mentality get? If you're not stateside or missed this season, you can watch online here. The last episode of the season airs this Tuesday.

Love Affair

It began so innocently.

I had woken up after a nap, the day I got home to New York. I was still in a daze when my mom suggested I go, if I was up for it. I assented, and off I went, in a stupor. But when the doors opened and I set my eyes upon one of the most wonderful things you could ever see, it was love at first sight.

Pirates of the Be-a-Fake-un

One of the things that I suspect foreign businessmen know little about is the ridiculously high number of pirated, black market goods circulating in Brazil, especially in the major cities. Hollywood executives would be especially horrified to see just exactly how much money they're losing in one of Latin America's biggest markets.

In Brazil, pirated DVDs, CDs, and video games are the most common, and millions of reais are lost each year to these black market goods. DVDs of new movies not yet in theaters or even in the country are often released beforehand (Eli's cousin watched the Wolverine movie weeks before it was released, and it was even missing some of the final editing), and you can find nearly every film currently in theaters out on a pirated DVD. In fact, for every 10 DVDs purchased in Brazil, 6 are sold illegally.

In recent years, the most notorious incident involving pirated DVDs was the Tropa de Elite debacle, since the movie was seen by millions of people (including myself) on leaked, pirated DVDs months before the film was released in theaters (it was still the highest grossing Brazilian of the movie of the year, though).

The Brazilian government has half-heartedly tried to bring attention to the problem with a series of public service announcements trying to show the link between drug trafficking, violence, and pirated goods, as well as emphasizing the illegal nature of purchasing black market goods, shown below. The third is a very funny parody of the most famous commercial.

Another solution has been to invent a new CD and DVD technology that's cheaper to make and sell so they can compete with pirated prices, but I personally have never come across them.

But when you put things into perspective, it makes sense. It costs between R$10 and R$20 for a movie ticket, in a country where minimum wage is R$465 (US$232) a month. There has been a lot of abuse of student IDs to get into cinemas, so theater companies have made it increasing difficult to get a discount (to ensure that people are using real IDs). Legal DVDs cost somewhere between R$20 and R$40. Video games are prohibitively expensive, and cost between R$100 and R$300, depending on the game system. Not to mention that the Brazilian middle class supposedly has the highest tax burden in the world.

Meanwhile, pirated CDs and DVDs cost between R$5 and R$10 (in Rio, DVDs are generally R$5), and pirated video games cost around R$10.

So what's a consumer to do?

Mine

I really should give some of these away as gifts, but I doubt that's going to happen. I'm stocking up, because I won't know what to do when I run out. Where on earth will I find Granado castanha do Brasil lotion in New York?

Guest Post: O Shopping

Shopping malls are popping up all over Brazil now, and have become an important new social space, especially in big cities with high crime rates. Today I'm featuring a post about the mall, called shopping in Portuguese, from Brazilian chaos, a blog written by an American woman who used to live in Salvador.

The mall

The mall in Brazil has a different function than the mall in the US does. Of course in the US there are folks who like to go to the mall to just "hang out". But in my experience most people go to the mall with the purpose of buying something, maybe getting a snack and then leaving. The social experience of walking around, seeing and being seen, is left mostly to adolescents who like to use the mall as a place to check each other out. Adults and families don't really use the mall in this way.

Here in Brazil, at least in Salvador, the mall serves an important social function. It's a place where people can go, in security, to walk around, hang out, socialize and as an added bonus buy something that they might need. But it appears that the primary purpose of the mall is not to consume or buy, but to offer a safe place to socialize.

In the mall people can walk around wearing fancy clothes, watches and jewelry without fear of mugging like there is on the street here. They can talk on their expensive cell phones without having to look over their shoulder to see if there is a thief close by, waiting to run and snatch the phone from their hand. It offers peace of mind not found on the street. This is why on the weekend the mall is totally packed with people.

When you go to the mall here, it's a place where people are checking you out to see what you are wearing and what you look like. Most people get all dressed up and made up to go to the mall. You can't just go in your casual wear like we do in the US (well you can, but you get a lot of weird looks!). It's a full on event and you have to be ready for it.

Another thing is the word for "the mall" in Portuguese: "Shopping". It's often difficult for Brazilians learning English to fully incorporate into their second language that in English shopping is a verb, and not a mall. Many folks, even advanced English speakers here will still say, "I'm going to the shopping" when they really want to say, "I'm going to the mall".

So the next time you run over to the mall to get some new socks, think about these differences as you are waiting in line in your pajama bottoms to pay, excited by the thought of getting the hell out of there as quickly as possible! It's a different experience. - Cheryl S.

Confessions of a Consumer

Eli and I went to see Confessions of a Shopaholic, (aptly but incompletely released as Os delirios de consumo de Becky Bloom) which came out here nearly two months after its US release. It's about Rebecca Bloomwood, a New York girl who ends up in debt due to her shopping habit. Becky practices what I consider hyperconsumerism, which may seem exaggerated in the movie but isn't that uncommon in real life: she spends more than she makes, living beyond her means. The movie isn't exactly Oscar material, but it's sweet and funny, and the wonderful Isla Fisher was incredibly entertaining. 

But what really struck me was how the movie was received in the US and Brazil. I felt the movie was a wake-up call and a warning, respectively, though few reviewers seem to agree.