A Short Week and A Beautiful Barbecue

After another relaxing, do-nothing weekend (I think my coworkers all think I’m really lame whenever I describe my weekend), I started what was only a three day work week.  Due to Corpus Christi, Thursday was a holiday and HP also took Friday off.

In addition to HP’s general partnership with PUCRS, they also have a specific partnership with a lab in the Informatics building at PUCRS.  The students in the lab work on projects related to the software going on in this smart conference room project, but during the large group meeting last week, two of the students expressed interest in the hardware aspects of the LED and microphones going into the module I’m working on.  Lucky for me, Franco specifically brought them in to partner with me, which means I no longer need to stress about software for microphones–people who actually understand coding can handle that, and I can focus on mechanical aspects.

Monday morning I continued my CAD edits and in the afternoon the group specifically working on this module met to discuss ideas and start the brainstorming and question forming process, with the intent of another meeting the following Monday.  I spent the rest of the week CADing and 3D printing more prototypes of the module case, as well as trying to stop my computer from spontaneously restarting on me.

For Thursday, the holiday, Allie’s boss was hosting a barbecue for all the people who work at Toth, and we were invited as well.  This barbecue was parilla, which is the Uruguay style, as opposed to the gaucho churrasco we had enjoyed on our first night in Porto Alegre.  The barbecue consisted of four hours of continuous eating followed by more socializing.  What could be abetter way to spend a day off from work??  As pieces of food were cooked, Eduardo, Allie’s boss and master barbecuer, would put them out onto a special cutting board and cut them into bite size pieces for guests to walk up and take a piece.  This is why the eating process took so long, as it makes for a very social meal.  I’m a big fan!

Parilla Grill

During the meal, we enjoyed sausage, hamburger patty like things that were seasoned to perfection, cheese stuffed bell peppers, batata doce (sweet potato, but not the same orange sweet potato I am used to), lamb ribs, lamb chops, beef, and pão de alho (Brazilian garlic bread).  Not to mention dessert: bananas cut in half and cooked on the grill, smothered in Uruguayan doce de leite (the Portuguese phrase for what we normally use the Spanish dulce de leche for in the USA).  As the feast finished and a few people headed out, we thought we should also leave, but Eduardo’s girlfriend stopped us and convinced us to stay, asking “What are you going to do at home?  Nothing?  Then stay!!” (my translation from her Portuguese).  It ended up being a great decision, because she and another lady, neither of whom spoke any English, engaged Allie and I in a conversation in Portuguese.  They slowed down a lot for us and beared with our slow, broken Portuguese, smiling and encouraging us to continue–it was by far the best speaking practice I have gotten all trip.  Meanwhile, Allie’s boss taught Latané how to DJ.  I should also mention that there was a great view from the patio of this apartment.

The View

Friday through Sunday I relaxed around Casa do Campus, the place that we are staying.  It is a privately run off campus dorm, although it mostly houses study abroad students (lots of Spanish, Mexican, French, and American students, but also many other countries) and Brazilian students from other states.  Due to the variety of nationalities, there are a number of other English speakers so I was able to interact with a group of students and joined them to walk to PUCRS to sit on the grass and enjoy the nice weather Friday.

After a long, calm weekend, I’m all set for the next week!

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