I’m in Sao Paulo, Brazil on a business trip this week. I haven’t been able to get out and explore much yet, but I did walk over to the nearby mall today (it was expensive) and found a grocery store filled with all manner of things I can’t buy in a typical American store. For me, that was almost worth the trip. Sandi will tell you that this is probably the most annoying thing about traveling with me — I always like to visit the grocery stores. I think it gives an interesting insight into how people live.

I’ve noticed a few oddities in my hotel today. Some strange design choices and some weird legal requirements. For example, my room is on the 13th floor, and the window opens up wide enough to fall out. It’s pretty scary because it’s a long way down. Here’s the picture I took out the window:

The room itself is pretty strange. It’s a suite with a decent size bedroom with a king bed. There’s also a really small room with a desk, TV and couch in it. The couch could probably be used as a bed for a small child, but not much else. But get this: The room has two full bathrooms. Seriously. That seems like overkill.

The strangest thing I’ve seen here, though, is the sign on the outside of the elevator.

I’m pretty sure this is how Dr. Drake Ramoray died. I asked one of the locals about the sign and confirmed that there had been a spate of deaths several years ago from people walking into open elevator shafts in Brazil. The government passed a law to legally require the sign as a result. This seems like a problem that we solved in the the rest of the world in another way (doors that won’t open if the elevator is not behind them), but Brazil settled on this sign as the best choice to prevent future deaths. Wow. At least it was translated into English so I was warned! :)

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