Left with this bunch of hostelites and one Boon Layian amidst the many USP students. Some say membership to our group is even more exclusive
Landed in Dubai after 7 hours to have another 5 hours of transit. Everything went SMOOTHLY
Mini breakfast at this supposedly awesome place but it's too ex to swallow so I had a $9 fries instead
A long long flight later, we arrived!
Day 1
First lecture on the trip: father of Solidarity Economy telling us more about the topic. Pretty cool
Then this cool restaurant to meet the Singapore Embassadors in Brazil
And this fake 算盘子 (gnocchi) that wasn't chewy at all for lunch. Delicious nonetheless (though like every other food found here in Brazil, it's a tad too salty)
And yea, we'll see group photos many more times for unknown reasons
Then visited this amazing company helping kids here with an easily accessible study aid platform using a much sought-after algorithm to personalize individual student's study pace and path. Office was goddam cool as well, with a distinct mimicry of Google's set-up (even the name is an "imitation," or perhaps an inspiration)
Had a small presentation with IE Singapore then a networking session with some bosses of Singapore companies in Brazil in this nice courtyard, where the crew spent most of the time talking to the Brazilians working for IE Singapore instead
And then two more rounds of Happy Hour post-programme where we tried the Caipirinha - Brazil's national cocktail - pretty dope.
Brekkie in hotel is super awesome (but no, that's not Portuguese egg tarts)
Visited another ministry and found round-edged building around the corner... Fancy~ and feels really like Spanish (and probably Portuguese). And yes, the street art is amazing! Though I still prefer a clean and sleek urban outlook like Singapore, versus this haphazardness
And here you go: hourly wefie with the fabulous people. Bet this bunch of narcissists are so gonna love their exposure rate on my blog
Second location is UNESP (Sao Paulo's state university) for a lecture on Brazilian history and culture that turns out to be more of a linguistic lesson. But the more exiting part is this Instituto Confúcio; Chinese learning around the world is really on the rise
And here is Yilin's first attempt for #NUSlife... 孔子's "reaction" makes it pretty hilarious. Pfft
And just to continue the trend of narcissism
头痛 shot (and a lot more other group shots cos waiting time was just too long)
Then on the way back to our free night, more amazballz "vandalism"
I kinda like the feel of the store more than the selection (which sucks for male designs), and it's also nice cos, according to Mayer, it satisfies his OCD in the background. Lol
Dinner is... Jap food. Background info: Brazil has the world's second largest Japanese population, after Japan itself. And here we see a familiar food chain and their famous Gyu-don, with a hint of Brazilian cos of the cheese-spam
And then we walked back to the hotel and ended our first night of "adventure" in the shopping district
And this is my steal. Yilin bought 20 over pairs though
Day 3
Third day started like this, at Batman Alley
And I like this very much! (And many more which I'll not post or it'll be flooded with graffitis)
Then we went into the woods, sort of. A small part of the world's voted best park: Parc Ibirapuera
Many cool installations and graffiti later..
Then some more cool architecture
And even the traffic light is cool!
Patron saint of São Paulo: St Paul (the traffic light is a caricature of the cathedral!)
Another case in point: earlier at the park...
Corresponding to this historical monument! Small things making this city cooler than it appears
Back to the tour: Ground zero for the city
And the next Neymar Jr spotted
And a random winking wall
The famous Brazillian Brigadeiro, not a fan of chocolate, not a fan of this
Then this crowded pasar malam place which made some people pretty uncomfortable and excited lol. Hotspot
And as with every other nice buildings, nice stained glass art
And we went to dr.Consulta for another business visit and it turned out to be the most engaging and interesting talk thus far; for the record, the speaker was really smooth and epitomize what a typical rich young entrepreneur/businessman is like. But that's besides the point: the concept is really interesting as well; renumerations to the doctors are feedback-based which encapsulated a very naked form of capitalism like the sharing economy or the free walking tour in Europe, which has proven time and time again to be effective in getting businesses. But after all the cooperative talks from the solidarity economy side of the story, this "truth" seems a little too brutal/realist. But even more interestingly, dr.Consulta employed many different expertise, from the most obvious business OM, medical experts, to marketing and even computer programming specialist to run algorithms for the booking system that even takes into account non-compliance cases with auto over-subscription calculations. Much impressed.
Day ended pretty late so we found a nice bar/restaurant as recommended by the guide and parked ourselves here through the evening
And they served nice food! Though this photo does it no justice
TBC
