Web 3.0

It is an overview about how the internet will develop and improve in the future. It's worth to spend 5min watching it.

Future Internet Video from Castemelijn on Vimeo.

I saw this video @ HSM blog.

The Kiwi Experience

I arrived in New Zealand on June 17th 2008, with some goals to reach: take a business course, find a marketing job, apply for a Master in Marketing scholarship, spend some time just Gabi and I and if we were really enjoying living here we would stay for a long period. Well the plane tickets are bought and we are going back to Brazil on August 21st and it’s time to measure what happened this year abroad.

I took an one year long business course, which was focused in general business, an uni review, but in English. So I’ve improved my English a lot! I found a marketing job, after 8 months trying and receiving a lot of “NO’s” I did not give up. In March I started to work at foodfirst, a food distributor cooperative, as a marketing and sales analyst. It was a very good professional experience also a cultural as one of the managers is English, the other German and the Chairman is Kiwi (very nice people).

I did not apply for the scholarship because I think now it’s not the time neither New Zealand the place. In my opinion it’s time to gather more professional experience and to study a little bit more and then take a master degree. And not in New Zealand, I think that there are other places that can offer better courses than here, such as Europe, North America and even Australia.

The time that I’ve spent just Gabi and I was awesome! We know each other much better know this kind of “trial” couldn’t be better. We now think as a couple and not as individuals, we take decisions together, we plan the future together, we control our budget together and we support each other.

Although I am happy reaching these targets an abroad experience can offer you much more than those simply goals. It is an opportunity to improve your self, become more independent, to not worry about people’s opinion (you don’t know anybody), learn to do thing that you already knew how to do in a different way, listen to new music, meet new people, learn how to iron a shirt, how to cook, you learn new things every single day. I also started to see the good things that I left in my country and how they influence to shape who I am. The Brazilian hospitality, and the flexibility, my family background, all are variables that made this experience easier and joyful.

We've decided to go back because New Zealand is a quite small country (4 million people) and now we think it’s time to focus in our careers, and here it’s is not definitely the place. We also are more the city kind of person, and even in Auckland, which is the biggest city in NZ it seems you are in a countryside town. Maybe we come back to retire.

Overall it was a great experience that made me grow, and I recommend it! And the lesson is: diversity is the key to improvement.