When we moved to Brazil, I knew that we would be in the middle of a VUCA storm for a while. I always thought I was resilient but had no idea how resilient I was until my husband and I attempted an international move of a four-bedroom house on our own.

We were dealing with plenty of VUCA as we dealt with the uncertainty of when and if our things would be released and the complexity of all of the moving parts required to make this happen. We were also genuinely concerned about the state of our goods after they took such a long ocean voyage and sat for months in a warehouse. The good news is that our truck finally arrived on Saturday.

The truck’s arrival created the game that we are still playing – Tetris. Our unpacking adventure reminds me of Tetris because we must strategically place items in temporary spaces while clearing room for other belongings. Our house in Brazil is about half the size of our previous house with a different layout and much smaller rooms. Plus, the loaner furniture is still in place. We have a lot to navigate, and it is a challenging Tetris board!

I have been doing my best to adapt to the daily VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity & Ambiguity) that I face when living in a new country. Today I will talk about price disparities. Foreign visitors are often charged higher prices for goods and services compared to locals. This is something that happens in many developing countries; I have also experienced this in China. In this blog post, I will talk about the reasons behind this discrepancy and shed light on the impact it has on foreign visitors in Brazil.

The disparity in pricing experienced by foreigners in Brazil can be observed in various aspects of everyday life, ranging from taxi fares and tourist attractions to marketplaces and restaurants. It even happened to me yesterday when I went to get a gel manicure. While it is important to acknowledge that not every establishment engages in this practice, the problem persists and affects many visitors.

I have been doing my best to adapt to the daily VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity & Ambiguity) that I face when living in a new country. Driving is another big change. Driving in Brazil is quite different from the US. I saw some pretty weird stuff driving in Houston and New York City metro area during my long commutes but nothing quite prepared me for driving in Salvador. Fasten your seatbelt this adventure is about to kick into high gear!

Last weekend, I needed to pick up a few things and Roberto wasn’t in the mood to go out. So, even though I don’t have the best sense of direction and don’t know what most of the signs say, I decided to venture out in our little blue SUV.

Over the last several weeks, I have been doing my best to adapt to the daily VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity & Ambiguity) that I face when living in a new country. Every day presents a new adventure and this was a particularly fun one.

I love live sports and am a diehard fan of American Football. I can’t wait to see my Pittsburgh Steelers win their 7th Super Bowl. Yes, it will happen soon. I introduced my husband to the game and he has done the same for me, exposing me to Brazilian Football, what Americans call soccer. Salvador has more than one professional football team and Bahia is the one that my husband likes. We were watching Bahia play Botafogo, a team from Rio de Janeiro.

These are my observations from my first Brazilian football game.

When living in another country, so many things are different. One thing I’ve learned is that you have to appreciate the humor of the odd things you experience.

Have you ever woken up early in the morning, groggy and barely able to keep your eyes open, stumbled into the bathroom, turned on the shower only to find a lizard staring back at you? No? Is this something that only happens in my house?

One of the most exciting parts of traveling to another country is the opportunity to try new and sometimes exotic foods. Whether it is sampling street food from a bustling market or sitting down to a formal dinner in a local restaurant, trying new foods is an adventure. I’ve found some that I really liked and others that I didn’t, but it is all part of the experience.

When I order food at a restaurant in Brazil, I sometimes get surprised. They have a different take on various well-known dishes and sometimes the result is nothing like what you think it will be like pizza served with a side of ketchup or chicken parmesan served with a layer of ham.

"True leadership is not about showcasing your own abilities, but about unlocking the potential of others." - Indra Nooyi, former CEO of PepsiCo

Since I am now living in Brazil, I am learning Portuguese, but I am still a beginner, so I sometimes have a brain freeze. The other day, we were leaving our housing development and my husband encouraged me to speak Portuguese to the security guard. I blanked and couldn’t remember how to say, “good morning”. There are two ways to say “good” and one goes with morning (“bom”) and the other (“boa”) goes with afternoon and evening. I panicked and said, “boa whatever”. Roberto and the security guard thought this was hilarious.

Over the last several weeks, I have been doing my best to adapt to the daily VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity & Ambiguity) that I face when living in a new country. Speaking another language is a momentous change.

Learning a new language can be an exciting and rewarding experience, but it can also be quite challenging, especially if the language you’re learning is Portuguese. In this blog post, we’ll explore four reasons.

We live in our own cultural bubbles, shaped by our values, norms, and experiences from where and how we grew up. What seems interesting to us might not even register on the radar for someone of another culture.

On Sunday, we were sitting by our pool in the backyard, and we saw several monkeys in the trees behind our house. As Americans, we were thrilled to see monkeys in their natural habitat. Our dogs were extremely interested in the monkeys and the monkeys seemed to be very curious about our dogs too. I shared videos with friends and family back in the US and everyone was amazed that these little creatures live in our neighborhood. We mentioned this to our Brazilian friend, and he didn’t think anything of it.

Connections are essential personally and professionally. My husband, Roberto, has lived outside his home country of Brazil for more than 20 years but he always maintained a connection with his old friends and extended family. He stayed in touch on social media and made it a point to reach out to folks whenever he planned to be in town.

When living in another country, so many things are different. One thing I’ve learned is that you must appreciate the humor of the odd things you experience. Here’s a conversation I had with my husband last week about a car he rented while we were in Brasilia.

Most cultures are ethnocentric to some degree. We see and interpret things from our cultural point of view. Americans and Brazilians both fit this mold. When we see things from a restricted lens, we often incorrectly interpret information.

This story is a simple example of this.

Shipping Animals Overseas - Part 2

Moving to Brazil has been an adventure full of unanticipated challenges and learning. As I mentioned in our last blog, we will be posting some of our stories about the extreme changes associated with living in another country.

This is the second part of the story...shipping our cats.

My husband, Roberto previously tried to ship our cats in November, but he had trouble catching them. When he finally did, they clawed him up so badly that he ended up going to the emergency room. There is an art to catching cats and getting them into their carriers. We abandoned the mission and determined that it would be best for me to handle this task instead of him.

I booked vet appointments and the flights and thought that everything would happen as planned, I should have known better.

Over the weekend, I went grocery shopping with my husband at a large supermarket. We needed to pick up a few things for a cookout we were hosting at our house. We bought a couple of large steaks (picanha) for the grill.

When we went to check out, Roberto had to take the meat to a special station to have the sensors removed.

Shipping Animals Overseas - Part 1

Moving to Brazil has been an adventure full of unanticipated challenges and learning. As I mentioned in our last blog, we will be posting some of our stories about the extreme changes associated with living in another country.

Anyone who knows me understands how much I love animals. My husband and I always have a houseful of rescued dogs and cats and we love them as if they were our children. When we decided to move to Brazil, it was important for us to find a house or apartment that accepts dogs and cats and to find a way to transport them safely to Brazil.

Where have you been?

I took a 2 week break from posting on social media because of my recent move to Salvador, Bahia in Brazil. I didn’t think that I would be offline for so long, but life happens.

This is my fourth time living in another country. And it was by far the most challenging move. That’s saying something because I lived in China in the 1990’s! My husband and I have faced many obstacles related to this move. I can honestly say that my resilience, tenacity, and problem-solving skills have been frequently tested and I have learned so much in the process.

Today, I thought I would share a brief story about getting to our new home in Brazil with my cat while overcoming challenges along the way.

Stop Spinning and Focus on What You Can Control

Every time that we face a challenge in our lives (personal, family, professional), we have two choices:

✅ To feel overwhelmed and paralyzed or

✅To feel that there is always an opportunity to overcome the challenge

When this challenge involves VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) it becomes more extreme. It is easy to get frustrated when things aren’t going your way.

Read the rest of our blog entry to learn more about controlling your mindsets and behaviors as you face VUCA.

They say that there are only two people in this world that you need to make proud. It's the 8-year-old version of you and the 80-year-old version of you.

Imagine for a moment that you have the opportunity and privilege to travel into the future and meet with your 80-year-old self. What would you share? What would you ask? I am sure that you will be enormously proud to talk about your accomplishments, but you would also want to ask about regrets you would have when you are 80 years old, so you would be able to prevent them. This allows you to capitalize on the learning from when you were 8 years old, and to know when you need to endure the pain of discipline now to avoid the pain of regret later.

We become less competent the more we run away from or avoid challenges. Competence is like a muscle; it requires activity to function.

Unfortunately, many people think that they can coast on their current level of expertise. As a result, they run away from challenges and avoid the unknown, instead focusing their attention on things they believe are tried and proven. Unfortunately, the more they do this, the less competent they become because the value of their knowledge & skills erodes over time. In other words, they over-rely on their strengths and these strengths will end up being a liability.

Change affects people’s behaviors and mindsets. Think of the mindsets as the thought patterns and feelings associated with change while the behaviors are about how people act. The way you think will influence how you act and ultimately, what you do.

Change often causes fear, anxiety, and stress. People spend a lot of time worrying about what will go wrong and focus on the worst-case scenario. Change can feel uncomfortable because you are dealing with new and uncertain situations. It is also quite common to feel like you have no control over the situation.

You can often recognize change resistance by watching how people behave. There are several behaviors that are typical when people fear change.