The fine folks at Yahoo threw a small reception on Sunday at the French Quartier, a nice jazz restautant nearby. Prabhakar Raghaven, now head of Yahoo Research, used to work with a number of folks now at MSR-SVC, and so a few of us who were about tagged along. The folks we met from UMD were also there, as was another fine CMU student (go plaid!) and a woman from Northeastern who has the distinction of having had her luggage lost two SIGIRs in a row — but apparently the emergency shopping trip worked out OK.

Some of the Yahoo folks invited us to go to a club a few doors down. It was a fun club with people dancing and drinking… all on a Sunday! The only minor snafu came as we were trying to leave. After the band finished its set, we took off… but you pay to get out, not to get in. So we’re trying to get everyone together so Stephanie, who was organizing the event for Yahoo, can pay for everyone. We managed to get almost everyone out, but 3 cards didn’t scan (they’re like parking cards from a pay-as-you-exit parking lot). So Stephanie paid again, and when one didn’t scan, started giving the guy at the door what-for. Next thing you know, they’re all working, and we’re out of there. Fear the irate redhead.

Anyway, while the press out there likes to point out to how companies like Microsoft and Yahoo are aggressively competing with one another, which we are, it’s actually nice to take a step back and realize that we’re all good people with a shared passion for technology, and search in particular. Yeah, we’ll be back at each other’s throats next week, but for now we can talk to each other as people.

BTW… it’s Day 2, and I still haven’t seen anyone from Google…

Monday was spent finding a cell phone SIM card (well, they call it a TIMcard here, as one of the local companies is TIM), and then hanging out on a sunny and rainy (weather changes fast) lunchtime over a few beers. That night, we were treated to the formal Yahoo opening reception for the conference with some wine, beer, hors d’oerves, and a capoeira show. Capoeira (cap-O-ee-ra) is a local martial arts dance that the slaves (Salvador was a big slave port) did so that they could practice a martial art, but not make it look like they were practicing a martial art. It’s very lively and much like a musical kata (a series of moves that you do when demonstrating skills for a belt in karate).

We had thought the reception would have dinner vs appetizers, so afterwards, a bunch of us hooked up with some folks from Ireland and went to another nearby open-air pub / cookery and had some local cuisine. We were they treated to another local custom — pay-for-peanuts. These girls (who are maybe 10-12) walk around with a tupperware thing of peanuts, and pour out a handful on a small napkin in front of you. You’re then supposed to give ‘em R$ 2, which is about $1, so a bit pricey for peanuts IMHO. I wasn’t so much bothered by the price (I’m sure it was a tad inflated for us) as by seeing these girls hawking peanuts at almost midnight on a Monday. I mean, they should be asleep with school in the morning! I understand that people who live in areas that are very depressed gotta do what they gotta do to survive, but still, I can’t help but think there’s something wrong there.