brasil - here i come!!!

i am still waiting for the final offer letter this week, and well guess i should be wary of visa procedures (a-la swiss fiasco ;) but....it was agreed in the last week that i will transfer with the bank from amsterdam to sao paulo to work in the diversity + inclusion department in Brazil for two years!!!

it is about two months now since i first got a phone call from the head of diversity in brazil (where the bank has 30 000 employees) and she asked me to join her team....and after receiving lots of great advice from good friends (thanks Ade, Marcelo, Patrice, Brenda, Maria, Mazzy, Lara especially!) and my family, and trying to maintain my patience...it seems it is all coming together and i will be starting my first day of work in brazil on 24 july

i managed to negotiate with my new manager and i will have two weeks in amsterdam doing intensive portuguese classes and then go to portugal, not just to test out portuguese, but for pita and anya's wedding

personally i'm really excited about this chance to live and work in latin america which from my brief exposure so far is a region filled with passion and teeming with life and energy...and also there is pretty strong expectation for me to become fluent in portuguese (giving me 300 hours of classes to get through!) and i've always dreamt of moving to a country and becoming fluent in the local language through real interaction with the people around me....also gives me chance to keep to my "home by 30" plan :)

professionally i think it is also a good move because the bank in brazil is more advanced in their d+i journey and it will put me on a different learning edge...also will be great to be closer to the business and working more "on the ground" compared to headquarters...

so looking forward to this move very much, so for next couple of months trying to get the most out of amsterdam and europe (trips booked to london, paris, prague, egypt and slovakia!), make sure i pass my final uni subject to graduate, start to prepare my portuguese skills and enjoy lots of special moments with my friends here.