Welcome to "A Vida Gringo"

Hello everyone and bem vindo to "A Vida Gringo"!  For anyone not familiar with me, my name is Evan May, and this blog will be used to keep up with my adventures as I spend the next year working in Brazil and Mexico.

Who Am I?

Before I get started, I want to provide a bit of background information about myself.  I am currently 22 years old, and I graduated from the University of South Carolina as a part of the Class of 2016. I studied International Business, Global Supply Chain and Operations Management and Marketing during my four years.

During that time, I studied abroad in Helsinki, Finland and maintained a blog for USC's Moore School of Business.  If you want to check that out and get a feel for how this blog will be set up, follow this link: http://finnishjourney.blogspot.com.br/2014/12/about-me.html


What Do I Do?

Since graduation, I have been working with a company called GKN Driveline, which is a supplier in the automotive industry and supplies customers like GM, Ford, FCA, Volkswagen and others.  I work a member of our Graduate Rotational and Development Program (or GRAD for short).  The GRAD program is essentially a two-year program that rotates its members through various locations and functions (i.e. Logistics, Engineering, Commercial, etc.) in our America's division.

When I began the program, I started as a member of our Purchasing division at our headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan where I spent six months.  Following my rotation there, I was assigned to our manufacturing facility in Newton, North Carolina for eight months.

After completing two rotations in the United States, members of GRAD in the U.S complete two rotations abroad: one in Porto Alegre, Brazil and another in Celaya, Mexico, with each lasting six months.

Why Am I Writing this Blog?

The reason for this blog to exist is so I can catalog my experiences and travels over the next year, and hopefully provide you, the reader, with a good resource for anyone potentially traveling or working in these areas.

During the next six months, I will be based in Porto Alegre, Brazil, which is the state capital of Rio Grande Do Sul in Southern Brazil.  While I will be providing commentary on life in Porto Alegre, I will be traveling to other countries in South America and in Brazil itself, and I will also provide information about those trips.

In my next post, I will provide some background information about Brazil and Porto Alegre, and what my experiences applying for a visa were like, so stay tuned for my next post!


Thank you all for reading!

Sunset in Porto Alegre