Brazil Biz Trip (July 2019) - Daily Activities after Work

I start work at 7:45am daily, so we usually left the hotel at around 7am after having a quick breakfast at the restaurant. Work ends usually around 3pm or 4pm, and we would either head back to the hotel, and head to a hypermarket to do some shopping. My boss loves shopping, so I managed to visit a lot of hypermarket while I was in Sao Paulo, some I didn't even know existing in South America. Like Walmart, I always though Walmart can only be found in America. I was wrong. Anyway, we are usually back in our hotel by 7pm. And the above position is my usual position for the rest of the evening. 

Tea is extremely relaxing for me, and extremely nice in cool weather. I was so glad I took those tea bags with me cause I really enjoyed drinking them every evening. 

Here are some of the flavoured tea I managed to get. My favourite was surprisingly the Vanilla Bourbon because of the scent of Vanilla that is so comforting. The Emperor Sencha was quite a disappointment as I was expecting a strong green tea, but it was anything but that. 

For the first few days, I was still suffering from jet leg. Most morning I am up by 3am or 4am, and breakfast isn't served until 630am. So I make do with some comforting coffee which I brought along, and some local peanut snacks that my ex colleagues recommended me. I would usually work and prepare for the day's material from 4am - 6am, and then get ready for breakfast and work. 

As a true blue Asian, I also packed some instant noodle with me. You have no idea how comforting it is when you are just craving simple MSG-filled noodles. We have to settle dinner by ourselves, and since my boss is an Indian vegetarian, he have some pre-packed food he brought along too. So for dinner, we usually eat by ourselves in our room. I accompanied the above meal with a Corona Extra from the nearby hypermarket. 

I also tried some local alcohol. These are made of fermented sugar cane water. I have tried it before in Singapore, but when I try to make it on my own by adding just lime, goodness, it was so bitter and strong that I couldn't finish it! The version I had in Singapore was a lot sweeter and diluted. And I guess it goes better if you add in more herbs. 

As I spend a lot of time in the super market accompanying my boss, I got really bored since I don't really shop much. I started wondering into the frozen food section and one day, it just hit me, I have a microwave in my apartment! So I started buying microwave meals to try. I wanted something more local, but all I could find was lagsana and pasta. And although the packaging says For One, I could never really finish a whole pack because the serving was just to huge! And they don't look very appetising either. But I remember one of them actually tasted not too bad and full of cheese and pasta. 

I did started to enjoy the lighter beer there and bought different variety to try daily. They were very cheap, maybe just 1 SGD each can or bottle. I also found some Nissan noodles there, but they came in Brazilian flavours. So I got two to try. MSG approved!