The Return

The flight back home to San Francisco was quiet and solemn. I read. I listened to music. I tried to push out the thought that all I wanted to do was stay in Brazil. There were so many places I hadn't been able to visit - the seaside city of Florianópolis, the breathtaking 272 waterfalls of Iguazu Falls, the island Fernando de Noronha that some say is the most breathtaking beach on Earth. I wasn't ready to go. I wasn't ready but my visa had expired and although it was a close decision, I would rather have kept my job and not take the chance of getting deported.

There's always more places to go, more things to do when you travel. But my main goals had been met. I'd seen some of Brazil and Argentina. I'd done some good work mentoring and training people in the office, and starting a local resource website for my group. I'd had a blast, made great friends, and learned how to get around decently in Portuguese. I'd gotten my heart broken, which is always a traveling plus. Oh did I forget to mention that part? He was drop-dead gorgeous and incredibly sexy in the way he carried himself. I was surprised when he asked me out. When he kissed me on the dance floor it was like a scene in a bad romantic comedy - I forgot about my mojito and slowly spilled the entire contents on the floor. I knew I was signing up for trouble since I wasn't staying, and I didn't care. It was worth it.

I reminisced about this on the plane. Even my body was pissed off about leaving. I napped in my seat and when I woke up my neck muscles were contorted in pain. My legs ached, restless and begging for a Sao Paulo danceclub. But my return that day was inevitable.

When I got back, a funny thing happened. I liked it. I felt that warm fuzz feeling of home, and remembered who I was back there and who surrounded me. After three months of not missing my family or friends, I suddenly missed them. Maybe I had missed them and didn't even know it.

A longtime runner, I felt the urge to run, and far. I ran one block to the pandhandle, through Golden Gate Park, past the DeYoung museum and Stow Lake. The large purple flowers by the stream made me realize just how much beauty there was in this city. I kept going all the way to Ocean Beach. I felt alive, invigorated, and somehow much wiser than I was three months ago.

Now, you may notice the timestamp on this post. It happens to be a while later. I've been busy. Yes, busy for two years. Better late than never.

I still keep in touch with a few friends from Brazil. Luana, Bibiana, Ricardo...I hope I get to visit them again someday. And I realize something: ultimately, it's not the place that you have the best memories of; it's the people.

The Final Night: Karaoke Fever

On my last night in São Paulo  (in early Oct. 2007) some of the girls said goodbye through the language of drunken friendship: karaoke. This was a glorious night to remember. Ligia, Bibiana, Leticia and I rocked it. Behold, Leticia and I in full force, trying not to strain our voices, reading the telepromopter, and hoping that we didn't sound like off-key frogs all at the same time...

Actually I thought we sounded pretty darn good, at least in comparison to the clientele that must frequent the joint. I believe it was the Lorena Hotel Internacional in the Jardins district.

Now, the place wasn't exactly packed...

But did that stop us from giving it our all? Heck no! The one audience member loved us and gave us consistent applause before he'd start up with his own song again. I know what you're thinking; the praise was just by default. Oh no. This guy didn't clap for just anyone. I couldn't really understand what he was saying but I think it was stuff like "Brilliant!," "You should record an album!" and "Best version I've ever heard!"

Our choices were classic:

• To Be With You (Mr. Big)
• Baby One More Time (Britney Spears)
• Total Eclipse of the Heart (Bonnie Tyler - had to look that one up on Google because no one knows that)
• Fire and Rain (James Taylor)
• Zombie (The Cranberries)
• With or Without You (U2)
• You Outta Know (Alanis Morissette)

A nice selection of slow and fast, male and female, 70s to the 2000s. And what made it all the more wonderful was hearing those American songs sung in Brazilian accents. One of those times in my life I wish I had recording device. Just precious.

Crying Is Cool

Our team at work went out to an end of the quarter dinner one night at Tantra Mongolian Grill in Vila Olímpia. The food was incredible.

As everyone finished eating, the new Ambassador to the office, Ben, stood up and presented me with some goodbye gifts. He said he has some very tough shoes to fill. "Speech!" someone shouted. People apparently loved that idea because soon the whole room was yelling "speech!" (Only, whatever the word is in Portuguese.) I got up and said my formal goodbye and thank yous. "It's been such an amazing experience," I said. "You have all been so wonderful. It's really hard for me to leave -" and then I had a hard time pushing the words out. Tears streamed down my cheeks, and when that happens in front of about 30 people who aren't crying, it's a little embarrassing. I did hear a few awwws, and "we'll miss you!" And then from someone - probably Bibi or Ricardo - the most common thing that I spoke in Brazil that got to be a joke with friends: "Muito divertido!" ("really fun").

The gifts were great; I almost felt bad for taking them. They gave me a huge handmade card that looked like the Brazilian flag signed by most of the people in the room (which made me cry again so I had to stop reading), a Brazilian music CD titled "A Arte De Jorge Ben Jor," a live DVD of another popular Brazilian singer, Ana Jorge, and a beautiful coffee table book of the country (appropriately titled Brasil/Brazil) by Alberti Taliani.

In retrospect I should have given the group something in return. But the fact that this had turned into a goodbye dinner for me was a total surprise. I thought we were just going to a regular team dinner.

Carla & Carlos, who I worked closely with on optimization projects in the office. Constantly had a positive attitude, despite having more work than I think I've seen anyone have, ever.

Our smiley team Managers, Michel and Rapha

The next Ambassador, Ben

Trio of Sweethearts: Raquel, Alexandre and Beth
















This is Franqui, leaning away from me. Proof that I must have just generally scared him.


Just the girls! From left: Katia, me, Ligia and Beth
















The awesome Helio smiles! (I told him to smile BIG, because he rarely does.)


Felipe cracked me up. He's one of these people who gets really excited about everything you say.
















Robertina, me, Talita


João gives me a nice big hug.

I miss everyone!

The AdWords Relationship Theory

Google AdWords, the company's online advertising system, is one my international co-workers and I know well. If you're not familiar with it and you own a business, well, you should. And I hope you don't have kids under college age.

One night when a group of girls were out to pizza, Ligia started cracking me up with her analogies of AdWords and men. It made so much sense. (Of course, if you don't understand online marketing, it probably won't make any sense.) Other girls started chiming in with additional definitions and analogies. It became so complex that I requested Ligia document this by email. She did. And so I now present to you:

The AdWords Relationship Theory

Many clients complain that AdWords is too complicated. We also know that most people (advertisers or not, single or committed) complain that relationships are too complicated.
The following descriptions can help you understand how to run a successful AdWords campaign and/or relationship. Therefore, it can potentially help anyone.

Impressions:
Impressions are crucial, especially first impressions. Do your best to not act mentally insane during your first date, even if you are. Do not share immediately that you love to cross-dress on the weekends, dissect living butterflies, or worse, own a Celine Dion CD.

Clicks:
If things go well, there there should be a 'click'. Congratulations! But it's not over yet - now you have to work hard to keep your rejection rate at low levels.

Quality Score:
Quality score plays a very important role in where you stand in relation to the others. Nobody knows exactly how it's calculated, but many factors are taken into consideration: age, height, attractiveness, career, intelligence, humor, overlapping interests, kindness, and general cleanliness.

Search & Content:
Active searching is good, but only reaches 10% of all inventory. Therefore, you have to trust the power of the content network. We all know other people that can put us in contact with relevant audience. Hopefully some of these partners or friends are high-quality. If you don't have any high-quality direct connections, that's ok – you can rely on contextual targeting. This works by choosing to appear on a theme that relates your audience. If you go to the Reserva Cultural book store on a Sunday afternoon, for example, you're targeting intellectual types. On the other hand, if you go to a soccer game, you're destined to meet sports fans.

Phone Support:
Men always request phone support, but getting the number may not be easy. It's certainly not given away freely. But should the two people have a connection, he will be promptly greeted by a friendly voice that will be happy to answer any questions he may have. A guy may also try to get information about other products, the most common being Gmail.

Monthly Budget:
Your budget basically defines how often you can go out to look for your "ads". Our system can recommend a budget, but you won't be able to change it – unless you are promoted or win the lottery.

With standard delivery, the monthly budget will be distributed evenly over the month. If you have $400 to spend per month, you will spend approximately $100 per week. In contrast, you can also go with the accelerated delivery and spend the entire budget in one single night. The choice of accelerated delivery increases with alcohol.

Image Ads:

You want a good-looking ad. Image matters. And, oh, so does the size.

Editorial Policy - Inaccurate Ad Text:
Unfortunately, the information given in the ad text can be completely wrong. He said he was 29 years old, a successful neurosurgeon who graduated from MED-USP (top medical school in Brazil), and loves to play tennis. After a couple of days, you find out that he is in fact not quite old enough to legally drink, still in college but planning on applying to med school, and the only thing he plays is beer pong and video games.

Ad Rotation:
Since the start date of your marketing campaign, you have always used the same ad. You think it's good. Actually, you think it's perfect for you. But how can you be so sure, if you have never tried a different one? Therefore, it's better to test different ad text to see which one performs better. Over time, you'll automatically see the one with better performance more often.

Seasonal Campaigns:
Dating can be considered a seasonal business. There are times of the year that are naturally more conducive to this purpose, like wild New Year's Eve or Carnaval. With that said, you might want to save some money for a seasonal campaign, targeted to party-central areas like Rio de Janeiro or Bahia.

Specific Keywords:
To increase your chances of finding exactly what you're looking for and increasing your ROI (return-on-investment), use specific keywords. If you search for "interesting" guys, you may find broad interpretations of interesting. You're likely to get many prospects, but no conversions. Therefore, we recommend using more targeted, multi-word keywords, such as "interested in arts and literature" or "enjoys traveling on his yacht."

Specific Keywords:
You can benefit from including negative keywords to avoid matches that are irrelevant or unlikely to convert, such as:
–smoker

–drug addict

–gay

–married

–emotionally unavailable

Editorial Policy - Superlatives and Comparative Claims:
If the guy says he is the best in this or better than someone else in that, look for third-party support immediately. Believe it or not, guys lie…

Invalid Clicks:
Our advanced system will automatically filter out users with unethical behavior. However, if you discover that the same IP address has clicked multiple times on your ad, but the motive is suspect, feel free to use the IP exclusion tool.

And there you have it. We agreed we should could make tons of money by writing a book...using AdWords to market it, of course.

A Real Live Reader

Someone I was talking to the other day mentioned he had read my travel blog. And what was more surprising, he liked it. A real live fan (outside of my family circle, which doesn't count). This justified the final documentation of my story. I can't leave my readers hanging - it's just cruel.

More From Buenos Aires

Back to the Buenos Aires trip. As the photo album I posted earlier proves, Betsy dragged me into doing a bus tour. I felt like an old lady. A lesbian old lady, actually, since the tour bus driver originally seemed to think Betsy & I were a couple. Each family or couple is given one souvenir book about the lovely cosmopolitan city to share. Our driver yelled back at us, in front of everyone, "They told me you're separate, so you get two books." Why she felt like she had to make a point of this I don't know.

So we passed the metal flower sculpture that closes at night and opens in the morning, the beautiful Santo Domingo church in San Telmo, and the cathedral of Buenos Aires. This cathedral was especially interesting because it bore graffitti all over the front, sprayed there by people protesting the 30,000 people who disappeared. The church didn't kidnap them, but apparently they didn't do anything about it either. It reminded me of Martin Luther King Jr.'s stance in his Letter From a Birmingham jail: if you're not doing something to help, you're part of the problem. The church said wait, change will come, and he said "action delayed is action denied."

We also enjoyed the La Boca district, with its colorful houses and street musicians. The 9th of July Ave. is another must-see attraction. Although it's just a street, it happens to be the widest one in the world, forcing you wait in the middle and walk two rounds of pedestrian lights before safely crossing.

So while I wasn't thrilled about the bus tour initially, it was certainly educational and I was glad I did it. How else would I have known that the colors of the Argentina flag are inspired by the sky?

But my favorite education was the liquid kind - the most delicious drink ever created, thanks to the Hilton. I like beer, love wine and cherish mojitios, but this...this was magical. I wanted my Moon Bay drink to never end. According to the bartender, it was just Baileys, cinnamon, & citric syrup. Seems a little too simple. But singer Tristan Prettyman would say, "simple as it should be."

And so it ends...

Alright, the blog might be called Three Months in Brazil, but that doesn't mean I can't write about it later. Much later, in this case. I returned in October 2007, and here we are in June 2008. So I'm a little behind. But better late than never.

And now, the exciting conclusion of my Brazilian adventures...

Get a Visa

You should know that to enter Brazil you need a visa. At least you do if you're from the United States. This is because the U.S. did it to Brazil and pissed off their government. So don't forget to apply for one well in advance. Betsy didn't realize she needed one until less than two weeks before her departure. She raced over to the Brazilian embassy and encountered a very bitchy secretary who asked why she was going to Brazil and where she's staying. When Betsy said just for fun, and she's staying with me, the secretary loooked at her straight in the eye, leaned in, and dared to say, "I don't believe you. I think you're going to work there." Betsy denied it, but became extremely nervous about not getting a visa. She ended up having no problems after that, but they do turn people down often.

Carrie Bradshaw

Helio, after watching an episode of Sex in the City, tells me I remind him of Carrie Bradshaw, Sarah Jessica Parker's character. Not just her looks, but also her personality and manner of speaking. I take this as a compliment. She's a cool cat. She's definitely more fashionable than me - I could care less what brand of shoes I'm wearing. But we're both outgoing, independent, and have biggish noses.

There are worse people I could be compared to as a visiting American.

Lula The President

One thing that surprised me was the public's view of their current President. The President of Brazil is Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, more commonly referred to as Lula. When he was elected in 2002, he was a symbol of hope for the common man, as he founded and led groups for workers for years beforehand and came from a meager background.

But I was shocked to hear that this was a man who never graduated high school. (He later received his high school equivalency.) Person after person I spoke with disliked Lula, and I asked why. He is considered a sell-out, a traitor, a liar. They say he takes from everyone to fatten his own pocket. I hate to admit it, but in a way it gave me a small sense of satisfaction, that Americans are not the only ones in modern day to hate their leader.

Shouldn't they have known not to trust a man whose nickname means squid?

Rio - Part 2 & Buenos Aires

My friend Betsy from home visited me for one week. She was my only visitor the entire three months. Everyone else is a loser because you could have had a free place to stay and a local tour guide. She had one and half days in São Paulo before we headed to Buenos Aires in Argentina and then Rio.


Although Betsy and I have been close friends for over 14 years, we are very different people. We're nearly opposites, with drastically different personalities and interests. This poses a challenge when travelling together. These were the principal things I wanted to do:

• active endeavors, like kayaking in the lake and running



• go out to bars and meet new people



• dance at a club



• get a professional massage (so cheap in Argentina!)



• go to local, not-so-touristy spots



• eat healthy food, including sushi, fruit & fresh fish



• wine tasting



• lay on the beach



• see live music, especially because there was a music festival happening in BA at the time



• not spend too much money

And these are the things Betsy wanted to do:

• shopping



• bus tour of the city



• sitting at the hotel pool sipping a tropical drink



• shopping



• stay at a luxury 5-star resort (our 4-star one 2 blocks from the beach didn't make her standards)



• the major tourist destinations, like the cemetary with Evita Perón's grave in Buenos Aires and Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio



• eat at the American-style restaurants with burgers & anything fried



• shopping

And since she spent the money to visit me, I gave in to almost everything and agreed to do what she wanted to do. I wanted her to have a fantastic time. Luckily, we did have a couple common interests - getting good deals, laying in the sun in Rio, and enjoying affordable spa treatments at the Hilton in Buenos Aires. In fact, everything in Argentina is cheap in relation to the U.S. dollar. While in Brazil I'd generally cut the price in half to equate to dollars, in Argentina I'd divide by three. Which is why Betsy did not want to leave.

Highlights of our trip were Ipanema beach, very inexpensive food & clothing in Buenos Aires, and Pão de Azucar in Rio. I created a web album to chronicle our journey through photos. Check it out:

http://picasaweb.google.com/swiryn/BuenosAiresRioTripWithBetsy

Betsy was terrified of Brazil, based on horror stories & advice from multiple people back home. Betsy would walk down the street with my arm in arm so we would be able to save the other person in the case of attack, and every time someone came within 5 feet of us, she's tug my arm tightly.

One girl (who was actually born in Brazil) warned her not to talk or laugh loudly because it will alert people to the fact that we're American and thus make us both targets. It became a favorite running joke of mine that when we laughed, one of us would wanr the other sternly: "No laughing!"

Felipe especially loved these rules. He said if he visits America, he won't speak. Instead, he'll just use sign language to communicate.

General Safety

Time and time again I would get asked the same question about Brazil: "Is it dangerous?"

The answer is that Brazil is not as safe as the U.S., and yes you should take certain precautions, such as:
- Don't walk alone at night
- Don't walk with a laptop bag around
- Don't take pictures with your camera for long periods of time in public
- Don't put your purse somewhere unattended
- Don't wear very expensive jewelry

You basically want to dumb down your appearance when it's dark out so you don’t look like you’re wealthy. If you drive an expensive car and wear diamonds, you're much more of a target. (See the "Kidnapped!" posting and it's moral of the story.) It's unfortunate that you have to be this careful. When my Dad asked me if I could live here long-term, I answered no because of that reason. Personally, I could see myself living in Brazil for up to 6 months, but never with a family.

As with many other countries, the discrepancy between the “haves” and the “have nots” is huge. Poverty is severe and widespread, and there’s much more within the class extremes than the middle class. This makes for a lot of people who strive to even that score and simply make ends meet by stealing.

With that said, the danger factor in the country is overestimated. It's not as bad as most people think. If you're careful and take taxis around at night instead of walking everywhere you should be fine. For me, I lived in Itaim, a nice area of São Paulo, and generally the more wealthy areas see less crime, as one would expect. So if you're visiting and concerned about safety, stay in the nicer neighborhoods.

Before my friend Betsy visited, she got some tips from a girl who used grew up Brazil. The tips about safety included don't talk loudly and don't laugh, because that alerts people to the fact that you're American and may have a lot of money on you. Don't laugh? I thought this was hilarious and a little overboard on precautions. Apparently I wasn't the only one. Felipe is a guy we met at Vaca Veia (one of my fave local restaurant/bars), and he loved reading that printout with tips so much that he begged and convinced Betsy to let him keep it. He said if he visits America he won't speak or laugh; instead he'll just use sign language.

Triple Movie Night

There's a special event in São Paulo called Noitão that features three films in a row, starting at midnight. Leticia, Roberta and Ligia were going to attend, and I decided to tag along. The theater, HSBC Belas Artes, chooses a variety of local and international films. At least one is from America, which meant I could fully understand a portion of the entertainment. I realized that I'd have to read Portuguese subtitles for the other movies, and I viewed this a fun challenge.

After João's birthday dinner at a pizza place, we headed over to the theater and attached to a line that trailed around the corner. Apparently this was a popular thing. Fortunately, we didn't have to wait too long. Each event has a different theme. This time it was "Segredos Obscuros" ("Dark Secrets"). They disclose the name of two of the movies, and the third is a surprise. We knew we were going to see "Fast Food Nation" and a French comedy that translates in Portuguese to "A Noiva Perfeita." I was wide awake for the entirety of FFA, but by the middle of the second movie, maybe around 3 am, I had to rest my eyes and brain waves for half an hour.

I was actually doing extremely well with comprehending the Portuguese subtitles. I got about 75% of what was going on. Not too shabby. The third movie was another French one, "La Pianiste," which means "The Piano Teacher." In contrast to the previous, this one was definitely not a comedy. It is a very disturbing, sexual and depressing movie to say the least, but I thought interesting from a psychological perspective.

Afterwards all the movie-watchers lined up for goodie bags full of snacks. I can say with certainty that a nutritionist was definitely not involved with the meal. It consisted of boxed orange juice (more accurately described as orange-flavored sugar water), Toda Hora crackers, a chocolate "bolinho" (little cake), Maxi Chocolate (chocolate-filled bar), and Sonho de Valsa chocolate candy. We grabbed our chocolate-drenched meals and walked outside, where it was obscenely bright from the breaking day. It was nearly 7 am. And then with little effort, I napped like I've never napped before.

Rio: Part 1

Everyone kept telling me I have to visit Rio and I knew it was true. My grandmother Lola was disappointed that I hadn't been there and recorded it on the blog. "It's one of my most fabulous areas - actually stunning!" she urged. And a great time to go came along during the Sept. 7 Independence Day holiday. I took off by car with Katia and Ligia from work and it took about 6 hours. The vast green countryside reminded me just how incredibly huge this country is.

When we drove through most of Rio, it wasn't pretty. In fact a large majority of the city is very poor and the infamous favelas (slums) are everywhere. It's sad to think about living in such meager, cramped quarters. I did see lots of soccer playing in fields and courts. In fact, wherever there was grass, there were people playing soccer, usually barefoot (the grass sometimes wasn't the fluffiest looking greenery so I imagine this would scrape up my own feet). But then we hit the lake, Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas, which is beautiful. I wanted to run around it, but never got the chance. It borders the Botanical Gardens, which I also didn't get to do. The beauty of Rio lies in the green-covered mountains surrounding such a large city, which give it a surreal feel.

We stayed in between Copacabana and Ipanema. Because of the 3-day weekend, already-expensive hotel rates were even higher, so we stayed at the nicest one we could find that was still close to the main beach at Ipanema. The view from the top was gorgeous. These were taken from our roof...

Favela on a hill

The nice lobby wasn't very representative of the rooms, which were basic at best, but we weren't planning on spending much time there. We were ready to explore!

So we hit the beach, naturally.

And there I realized that Rio must be the wedgie capital of the world. The bikinis are like the underwear here - not things, but they're so narrow that they quickly become like thongs. The back is pretty much the same size as the front.

This was the first time I'd laid out in Brazil, and I can safely say I was the whitest person on the beach in a quarter mile radius, although many of them were naturally dark. This included a LOT of people considering the beach was so packed for the holidays that you couldn't even find a spot. This photo gives you some idea of the population on the sand:

Here's us.

Half the men wear tight little Speedo-style shorts, which looked dorky at first, conjuring up long-forgotten memories of the first guy I ever kissed, a French biker in Spain. But then they started to grow on me. It depends on the guy.

Tattoos are huge here, and everywhere in Brazil. I'd say about 70% of the people under age 35 have at least one piece of ink. I saw a lot of generic ones - butterflies and Japanese symbols and the like. If you're going to get one, get one that's unique, that says something interesting about you personally.

At night we hit up OO, an ultra-cool bar/club that's half outdoors, half indoors. There was a dance floor with hip-hop but the songs weren't so great. I talked a lot with Alex, which was my first extended conversation in Portuguese with someone new. He speaks some English, but I wanted to practice. I was holding my own. I was proud. And Alex was my main experience with what I hear is a typical Brazilian male practice: the ancient art of not calling.

Ligia, Me & Katia

The next day we enjoyed the beach again, and did a little shopping at the boutiques in Ipanema. We also stopped in Mil Frutas, a must-visit homemade, all-natural ice-cream shop, They carry delicious exotic fruit flavors from the Amazon. I had a scrumptious combo of ginger-cinnamon and caramelized banana. Mmmmmm.

After a necessary nap (although naps make Ligia cranky when she wakes up) we headed to Melt, a club that my trusty Fodor's guidebook claimed is the spot for many celebs. Maybe it was an off-night, but I didn't see anyone who looked could be a model or one of the famous soap opera stars. We waited three full hours in line to get in, and made friends with the group in front of us, João from Portugal and his crew. After talking with them, I noticed that the language in Portugal is much slower and easier to understand.

When we finally got in, the boys were grabby, and one guy in particular really annoyed me. He was quite the close talker, and I had to physically push him an arms-length away, saying "Stay." He said ok, and then tried to nuzzle back in when we talked. Ligia got a kick of the charade. Another guy got all his friends to surround me on the dance floor, trapping me in for a few seconds, which actually was kind of funny because it reminded me of a kid's playground game. The music was better than at 00, but mixed; some songs were good and some made for getting another drink at the bar.

The next day we had to leave. In typical vacation fashion, the day of departure came much too soon. We went to the weekly Sunday hippie market and I bought some great gifts and clothes. Highly recommended. Overall it was a great trip - got our minds off work for a bit and our bodies out of São Paulo and on the beach.

Movie Names

I noticed after a trip to Blockbuster how many film titles change from America to Brazil. In my estimation about half of them alter the meaning. For example (and translations may not be exact but you get the idea):

Saw --> Jogos Mortais ("Deadly Games")
Garden State --> Hora De Voltar ("Time To Return")
Primal Fear --> As Duas Faces De Um Crime ("The Two Faces Of A Crime")
Meet The Parents --> "Entrando Numa Fria" (expression for "Getting in Trouble")
Lucky Number Slevin --> Xeque-Mate ("Check-Mate")
50 First Dates --> Como Se Fosse A Primeria Vez ("Like It Was The First Time")
Charlie's Angels --> As Panteras ("The Panthers")
Ocean's 11 --> Onze Homens E Um Segredo ("11 Men & One Secret")
Peaceful Warrior --> Poder Além Da Vida ("Power Beyond Life")
Failure To Launch --> Armações Do Amor ("Love Trap")
The Nightmare Before Christmas --> O Estranho Mundo De Jack ("Jack's Strange World")
Inside Man --> O Plano Perfeito ("The Perfect Plan")

The Portuguese versions usually were more basic about the plot. I prefer the more creative titles.