Yelling in the office, dental hygiene & other daily events

Whenever I'm on a conference call in the SP office, people on the phone ask me if I'm in an airport or a shopping mall. No, I'm sitting at my desk. this is the normal noise level. it is LOUD. Overly, distractingly, are-you-serious loud.
My colleagues just favour holding their calls ON SPEAKER phone. Yelling over the open desk partitions (there is no such thing as a cube here. If you reach to the left or right you will touch your neighbour).
This yelling behaviour usually heats up around now, at 2:30-3pm, when everyone starts to get cabin fever.
Sadly, it is only about halfway through our work day since everyone insists on staying here till about 8pm. They claim its due to the traffic but I don't buy it.
I am not loving that part - it really busts that laid back Latin America myth that everyone works a little bit and enjoys life a lot. Not here, sadly for me. I personally would rather get some work done in a slightly quieter environment and get the hell outta dodge early enough in the evening to actually have a social life. Apparently I'm the only non married person on this floor otherwise, I might get some support for this *revolutionary* new schedule.

In other news, Brazilians have absolute best dental hygiene I've ever witnessed.
Each person keeps a kit at their desk with toothbrushes, toothpaste and dental floss. If you go into the washrooms after the lunch hour, you will walk into a line of women doing a full regime on their teeth. At first it surprised me but now I'm just generally impressed with their cultural commitment to clean teeth. Something we can learn from the Brazilianos.

My new daily event is being late for everything. Apparently I learn quickly. I learned this lesson after arriving on time for a full team meeting that supposedly started at 7:15. This was a ruse to ensure everyone showed up sometime after 8am. The meeting commenced at 8:18. I was not impressed and have now taken to arriving fashionably late for all my meetings. Yesterday, I arrived 4 minuutes late to a meeting with my boss (this is a stretch for me - he is my boss after all), only to wind up waiting 9 more minutes for the rest of the team to show up. I think I need to stretch my median late time to 10 mins.

The yelling is still going on. I really should tape this, writing just does not do it justice.