Não sabia que comprar carro nos EUA era tão fácil: meus irmãos compraram um toyota por 400 doletas, pra vender quando voltar. Dizem que tá baleado, mas dá pra andar e quebra um puta galhão, uma vez que o hotel onde trabalham é longe da cidade.

o fim da saga da jabiraca:

meus irmãos chegaram ontem dos latisleites - 3 meses de Wisconsin e 1 semana de Chicago - e contaram o fim da saga da jabiraca, o Toyota que eles compraram por 400 doletas.
pois bem: por uma série de motivos, a porcaria andava só aos tranquinhos, e eles usavam-na muito pouco, pra ir ao Wal Mart basicamente. Um belo dia, meu irmão proto-arquiteto resolve ir a Madison, capital do estado, distante uns 80 km de Wisconsin Dells, onde eles estavam trabalhando. Apesar dos conselhos do meu irmão mais novo, mais sábio (e melhor aluno da família), de que não fizesse isso, é óbvio que o gordinho foi pra capitar.
Chegou. Mas não conseguiu voltar. O carro não pegava mais. Então ele simplesmente abandonou o carro na rua, voltou pra Dells e, um belo dial, quinze dias depois, recebe a notificação de que a polícia havia guinchado a jabiraca, vendido a porcaria e estava mandando 15 dias de multa, a 15 dólares por dia, por ter abandonado o carro. Se não pagasse, corria o risco de não sair do país. Morreram mais 225 doletas...
Agora, imagina se por aqui a polícia pega seu carro e VENDE...

Eu já coisa parecida no Simpsons... episódio “A Cidade de NY vs. Homer Simpson” (Homer recebe uma carta de NY falando que seu carro está parado ilegalmente entre as torres do World Trade Center)!

The Next Latin Wave: Grub From Ipanema
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
By KATY MCLAUGHLIN
March 11, 2006; Page P5

The recent explosion of interest in Latin cuisine, from Mexican flavors on McDonald's sandwiches to mojitos, has largely bypassed Brazil. Now more Americans are getting a taste for Brazilian staples. Importers and retailers are finding an increasing market here for guaraná soft drinks made from an exotic fruit; palmitos or coracões de palma, Brazilian varieties of hearts of palm; and pão de queijo, a kind of cheesy bread puff sold in Brazil as snacks in bakeries and coffee shops.

Triunfo Food, an importer based in Newark, N.J., says it is selling 40% more frozen pão de queijo than last year. Whole Foods carries a pão mix in some stores in New Jersey, Massachusetts and Connecticut, and Publix supermarkets in Florida have ready-to-bake frozen pão de queijo. There's even a seven-month-old bakery in New York called Puff & Pao that specializes in homemade pão with gourmet cheeses.


Guaraná, a tropical-fruit soft drink known for its stimulant properties, is now being sold at some Wal-Mart stores in Miami and Salt Lake City, at 80 Stop & Shop stores in New England and at A&P Super Food Marts in Connecticut, as well as on Brazilian food Web sites. Guaraná is the active ingredient in Bawls Guarana, an energy drink made in the U.S. that's being marketed to videogame aficionados through contests and events; sales by volume in 2005 went up 34% from 2004 results, according to the company. One importer says he's bringing in 50% more canned hearts of palm from Brazil than he did last year. Overall, the value of Brazilian agricultural exports, which include commodity crops such as coffee and orange juice, rose by nearly 25% in 2004, according to the Embassy of Brazil.

Some of this growth is because of an influx of Brazilian immigrants looking for a taste of home. Until the 1980s, few Brazilians moved to the U.S., according to the Brazilian Embassy, but the pace has picked up. Annual immigration doubled to 350,000 from March 2002 to March 2005, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. When Brazilianshop.com, a Web site that sells foods such as açaí berry juice and guaraná soda, launched four years ago, about 95% of customers were expatriate Brazilians, says Chief Executive Marcelo Gomez. But now these products are crossing over. Today, about half of the site's patrons are non-Brazilian Americans, Mr. Gomez says.

One reason: More Americans are vacationing in Brazil -- in excess of 700,000 Americans in 2004, four times the number 10 years ago, according to Brazilian tourism officials.

Most observers put more emphasis on the arrival -- and proliferation -- of the churrascaria restaurant, where diners pay an all-you-can-eat price for various cuts of skewered meat. While there's no exact count of churrascarias in the U.S., Zagat Surveys lists 67 Brazilian restaurants in its top-10 largest market guides, up from 37 three years ago. Fogo de Chão, which launched its first churrascaria in Dallas in 1997, now has six units throughout the country, while Texas de Brazil has opened eight places since 1998. These restaurants "are very important in terms of positioning our products" to American diners, says Leonardo Burgos, sales director at Brex America, a Miami Brazilian-food importer. Most churrascarias serve hearts of palm in the salad bar, pão de queijo in the bread basket and guaraná soft drinks.

Cachaça, the Brazilian rum used in the popular caipirinha cocktails, is also coming into the U.S. in ever-greater amounts; imports went up by 20% in 2005. The spirit has even gotten its first high-end brand for the U.S. market, Leblon, which sells for $29.99 for 750 milliliters, about twice as much as other brands. Steven Luttman, a former marketing executive in LVMH Möet Hennessy Louis Vuitton's wine and spirits division who launched Leblon in September, says he believes the popularity of Brazilian music, models and sandals indicates a taste for all things Brazilian. In the past three months, he says he has sold 1,500 cases and opened 850 accounts. "Cachaça is the next tequila," he says.