RIP Michael Jackson

It was with some sadness and shock that I heard today about Michael Jackson's death. I was really expecting his comeback tour and hoping for him to have better days, and finally put his musical career back in a good tone. Sadly that won't happen!

The Apollo Theater, in the Harlem, was the place where many of his fans and admirers stopped to pay tribute on his final day. I was there too, and it was a beautiful celebration.

Update

Hey folks, sorry for the lack of posts.
I started my internship at PepsiCo, and now I have been pretty busy working. In addition, topics about work are not as fun to post :)
I will try to keep you guys updated with stuff that happens during the next week...

Cheers,
Rui

Jane and Avantha in Portugal

Hey everyone!
Sorry for the last of posts, but since the end of April I was in exams, and now I have been in Portugal enjoying some days of holidays.
Jane Yoo and Avantha visited me here in Portugal for a week. I think they really enjoyed their time here. In a week we visited Porto, Peso da Regua, Leiria, Obidos, Nazare, Lisboa, Sintra and Fatima.
Here are some pictures from the week of travelling in Portugal.

Foz do Arelho beach

Castle in Obidos

Monastry in Batalha

Avantha at Pena Palace

Jane at Seteais

Stepping stones at Quinta da Regaleira in Sintra

Quinta da Regaleira being dominated by Avantha


Palace at Quinta da Regaleira

Nazare beach

Ben & Jerry's

I hope all of you like Ben & Jerry's ice cream.

The first time I heard about his ice cream brand was not in a super market or in a restaurant, but actually in a Financial Restructuring class that I took during my undergraduate degree at Universidade Nova in Lisbon. The case analyzed the acquisition of Ben & Jerry's by Unilever.


Around that time, Jeronimo Martins/Unilever started selling Ben & Jerry's ice-cream in Portugal, and I had the chance of trying them. The concept of the ice-cream is really interesting and fun: Ben & Jerry's has a strong social mission and sells "fun" ice creams with creative flavor combinations. Among best sellers are Cherry Garcia, Chocolate Therapy, Mission to Marzipan, Chunky Monkey and Yes Pecan (a reference to Obama's "Yes we can" slogan). There is even a "Flavor Graveyard" for ice-cream flavors that have been discontinued (Economic Crunch and Peanut Butter & Jelly rest in peace there).

This week, Jerry Greenfield (the Jerry from Ben & Jerry's) came to Columbia Business School to talk about the history of Ben & Jerry's, its social mission and the acquisition by Unilever (he seemed sad about the sale of the company to Unilever)

Jerry Greenfield at Columbia Business School

Easter in Canada

Like last Christmas, this Easter I decided to go to Canada and spend the weekend there with my family. This time my parents, grandparents and brother and sister-in-law, also joined us.
It was nice to see my father and grandparents again after 8 months! Yeah....a long time.

My grandfather celebrated his 80th birthday there! What a milestone...

Besides eating a lot, I also went on a plane ride over Toronto with my cousin, who is a pilot.


All the family around the table. It's where we spent most of the weekend.

Enjoying the sunset with Tio Rui, in Tia Mila's backyard.

The birthday boy celebrating his 80th birthday. The marks and bruises on his face are from a fight with a bear.

Grandma with the two oldest grandsons

Aerial view of Toronto

My cousin Nuno flying the plane over Toronto

Joao and Diana in the backseat of the plane



Movie of us going to the plane, with a very appropriate Top Gun's song in the background.



Landing in Burlington airport, after flying over Toronto

More interesting people

Some months ago I wrote a posting about some people in my MBA class that have non-traditional backgrounds, or that have done something very interesting and not usual in their careers.

Today I will post about two more people.

The first one is John Wolff.
John is part of the accelerated MBA program, and just started it last January. He was in the cluster that I was Peer Advising (organizing their orientation week).
John was a baseball player for the New York Mets.



The second person is Garen Thomas.
Garen has worked as an editor for children's books for many years, and is part of the MBA class that started in September (the same time I started).
Garen is the author of two books: Santa's Kwanzaa, and more recently a biography of Barack Obama entitled "Yes We Can".

Art Garfunkel in Concert

If I had to name my top 3 musical groups of all time, they would probably be: Queen, The Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel.
It's interesting that they are all old stuff. Because time does not forgive, it gets harder to see old musical groups as they get even older, and what has happened to me is that I have only been able to see remains of the complete groups.

Concerning Queen, because the vocalist Freddie Mercury died in 1991, I was only able to see the remaining members (Brian May and Roger Taylor) in a tour with Paul Rodgers back in 2005. It was still a great concert (one of my favorites ever) and I managed to get some backstage passes so i met Brian, Roger and Paul :)
The Beatles have the same problem of not being complete, both John and George have died, and only Paul and Ringo remain. I saw Paul McCartney in concert in 2004 in the Rock in Rio festival in Lisbon.
I was only missing seeing some "remain" of Simon & Garfunkel, and it happened yesterday.

Both Garfunkel and Simon are still alive. However, they haven't been performing much, and when they do it is not together, so it is hard to seem them nowadays playing as a duo.
Garfunkel schedule a couple of concerts here in the States, and yesterday he played in Staten Island (one of the 5 boroughs of New York City) and I was there.
It was a great concert: the venue was small and cozy and he played some of the biggest Simon & Garfunkel hits (The Boxer, Sound of Silence, Bridge Over Troubled Water, among others).
Garfunkel also seems like a very simple and humble person, and he managed to connect well with the audience.
It will be a night to remember!

Spring Break in Brazil

Hello all!!

Last week I didn't have classes, it was our Spring Break (I know, it's not Spring yet, but that's what they call it!).

I went to Brazil to work on a project for school. I was basically helping an American organization create a network of companies in Brazil that in their business strategy engage with people of low income.
I had meetings there at banks, at a cosmetics production and distribution company and at a pulp and paper company. These meetings were all in Sao Paulo.

Of course I had some time to have some fun. For that I got out of Sao Paulo, and went to Rio de Janeiro and to Santos.

Night out at the Sky Bar in Sao Paulo, with the people from the class "Brazil Global Immersion" from our school - these guys had classes about the Brazilian economy, and then went there on a field trip

Me at the Christ Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro

Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro

By coincidence my friend Ibrahim from Lisbon was working in Rio, my friends Sanja and Dragana from Croatia were also there on holidays so we all went out together for dinner

Rashi and Mara from my working team at the Sao Paulo market


The highlight of the trip was going to Santos (on the coast of Sao Paulo) and meeting the family I have there. I had only seen them once and it was 17 years ago in 1992.
On my side is my cousin Chico (he is a 1st degree cousin of my mother). On his left hand side is his wife, Rosemary. The two other girls are their daughters and my cousins. On the left side is Mariana and on her right is Luciana. Luciana is pregnant and is having her baby Luisa in June.

Skiing in Vermont

Two weekends ago, me and some friends went out north of NY, to Killington in Vermont for a great weekend of skiing.
I had only skied twice in my life before, and the last time was four years ago. I was not sure if I would be able to put the skis on and go down the slopes without killing myself. Although all the fears, everything turned out alright and it was a great weekend.

Me and Gal at the top!

This is the Chalet where we stayed. Although we are 8 in the picture, we were 22 people there.

Winter doesn't want to got away

Two weeks ago we saw some signs that Winter could be on its way out, and the cold weather would go with it.

Well, it just got back this week!
Outside, right now, the temperature is at -8C, but with the wind and humidity it feels like -17C.