Day 1: An Unexpected Delay
I want to start off by saying that it was cold when I left Cleveland for Columbus. Like, you take a breath and it hurts cold and your jeans freeze to your legs on the walk to the car -8 degrees, feels like -43 cold. So needless to say, I was excited to be in Piracicaba, Brazil where it was 84 and sunny. Both my parents took off work and drove me down to Columbus, which was very nice of them. For it being absolutely freezing and fairly windy outside, we made pretty good time, getting there a solid hour before we were supposed to meet, which let us get one last meal together before I left for six weeks.
But after that, the trip to Brazil did not go as intended. About half of our group of twenty had checked their luggage and got their tickets when we received the news that our flight had been canceled! At first we thought it was joke, but Kelly made the official announcement and we were seconds away from going into a total breakdown. Luckily it only took a few minutes before we were able to book another flight for our entire group.The new flight was the exact same time the next day with the exact same connections, so it’s almost as if the entire trip was simply moved back one day. For the four of us without an apartment or fraternity house to go to, American Airlines was able to get hotel rooms for each of us with a shuttle back and forth. Once we rescheduled and made it to the hotel, I was feeling much better about the trip.
The hotel was actually very nice. It had a pool, hot tube, a nice work out facility, free drinks, and a complimentary breakfast in the morning, not to mention it was simply pretty to look at. I spent my time talking with the others, playing euchreswimming in the pool and relaxing in the hot tub. I actually enjoyed the hotel, and having my own room with the others just down the hall was very convenient. Yes I would have been happier if I was on a plane to Dallas/Brazil, but we made the best out of our situation and managed to have a good time.
Day 2: We Depart
We checked out of the hotel and made our way back to the airport for round two. This time, we managed to get everyone through the line without any trouble. No canceled flights or delays this time! The flight to Dallas went well, just a little turbulence. I was lucky enough to sit across the aisle from Jared, who taught me two simple card games for the plane (king’s corner and pyramid).
When we arrived in Dallas, we ate together as a group before going back to the gate. Our flight was delayed by about an hour, so we talked and some people played more card games. When we finally got on the plane, I discovered I was in for an unpleasant 12 hour flight. About ten minutes into the flight, the person in front of me decided to put her seat the way back so that I had absolutely no room. It was kind of obnoxious. When we got dinner about an hour later, the flight attendant actually had to tell her to put her seat up so that I could eat. On the plus side, the seat had a built in TV that let us watch all kinds of new TV shows and movies, listen to music, play games, or play something of ours through a USB. Unfortunately I barely slept more than two hours with a little bit of dozing off here and there, which didn’t help me in the morning. The flight was about eleven hours and we got slightly delayed, but it wasn’t that bad and I was too excited for my first trip out of the country to care.
Day 3: First Steps in Brazil
The first steps off the plane and into Brazil were HOT. Even in the airport, we all could feel the 100 degree difference between Ohio and Brazil (I’m not exaggerating; it was about -6 in Ohio and 90 in Brazil). We got through immigration quickly and without any problems, which was a big relief to me since I have heard so many horrible stories about customs and immigration. We met up with Juliana and Enrique, our student helpers/translators, who showed us to our bus. The bus is so much better than what I was expecting. The chairs are large and comfortable with plenty of leg room, and they recline perfectly so that you’re not bumping in to or annoying the person behind you. They also provide cold water, which really helps with the heat. We stopped after about an hour and a half at what seemed like a rest stop where we had our first encounter with Brazilian cuisine. The restaurant was set up buffet style, where we paid by the kilo. I really like Brazilian food. I ate some kind of meat, pasta, grape juice, bread and some other foods that I honesty couldn’t identify but were delicious. After that we left for the rest of the drive to Piracicaba. When we got to Antonio’s Palace, Alexis and shared a room, the only double in fact. There isn’t that much extra space, but that’s fine. There are two twin beds and sink and shower, which both work perfectly, though (and this is rather gross) we had to remember to throw toilet paper it in the trash, not the toilet. Also kind of annoying is the electricity. It works fine, but you have to leave you room key in a slot for it to work and when housekeeping comes in they take the card out so the AC turns off which means that it is always sweltering when you first go into the room.
After we got settled in, we went on a brief tour of ESLAQ with Juliana and Enrique. We then went on a group dinner to a fancier buffet where we met professor Shirota and some students from Missouri (the Mizzou kids were much louder and stereotypically American than I expected). After that we went back to the hotel and I tried to take everything in and catch up on some sleep while a few others went exploring.
Day 4: Classes Begin
I started the day off with a wonderful fresh breakfast at Antonio’s. I had fresh pineapple and watermelon that put our fruit to shame, eggs, and delicious pineapple juice. But they had a huge variety of other food and fruit that I want to try in the future. We walked to campus (about a 20 minute walk) and started class, which was mostly a presentation from the president of the university and a safety PowerPoint from Shirota. For lunch we went as a group to yet another buffet, but this one served free delicious orange juice and is my favorite. I absolutely love the chicken with an orangey peach colored sauce that I ate with mashed potatoes. It’s one of my favorite dishes. We also had lunch with a Japanese girl named Ayaka who was studying Portuguese with Shirota for six months.
After our two hour lunch (I thoroughly enjoy having so much time) we went back to the school for our first class with Professor Pedro, the economics teacher. He didn’t talk much about econ, but gave us a very confusing history lesson. And I’m also ashamed to say I fell asleep briefly during his lecture, but I definitely wasn’t the only one catching up on lost sleep!After classwe finally had our first non-buffet meal. I tried the pineapple juice with mint (abacaxi com hortela), and it was amazing! Also, my chicken sandwich was enormous!It was the size of the dinner plate and I had to eat it with a fork and knife because I couldn’t pick it up. I could only finish half of it and took the other half home. After dinner most of us went out with Juliana for a drink. I really enjoyed sitting down and social drinking instead of everyone drinking to get drunk like at home, I wish this was more common in America. We got back about 12:15, but I didn’t get to bed until 1 and couldn’t fall asleep until around 2ish which was not helpful for the next day seeing how I woke up at 6:30 and had class all day.
Day 5: We Get Açai
Day five of the trip was fairly uneventful. We had the same breakfast as before, and then walked to class where we watched two movies about Brazil’s colonization and learned more about Brazilian history. This particular day was even harder to stay awake and most of us fell asleep at some point. I feel awful about falling asleep! I actually love history and find it incredibly fascinating. I stayed awake through the lecture, but a combination of the cool room and a movie was enough to put almost all of us out.
We went to a new buffet for lunch and this one had an awesome waiter who spoke pretty good English (it surprises how so many people here speak English and it make me feel so bad about the fact that Americans, including me, typically only speak one). Class after lunch went late because Shirota decided to go over the entire itinerary with us, so we dropped our things back at the hotel and went out to dinner with Juliana again. This time we went to Piraçai, a restaurant that specializes in açai berries. It was absolutely delicious although slightly expensive if you don’t share.
Day 6: First Dinner Alone
Our latest class with Professor Pedro was still mostly history instead of economics, which kind of worried me about the final, but he said that he was going to give us a chapter of his book to read and the final which I don’t know is a good thing or not.
We went to yet another new buffet for lunch, this time with both Juliana and Professor Pedro. I didn’t like this place as much; it mostly salad, which I’m still a little wary of, and not very many main dishes. It did have abacaxi com hortela though which made me happy. Also this restaurant was more expensive than the previous ones. I really wish that we knew how much drinks were and how much a plate costs per kilo, it would really help. Another thing I’ve noticed is just how inconvenient it is that America is the only country that refuses to learn the metric system. It would make life so much easier if we would just suck it up and switch over. After lunch we finished up our Brazilian history class (which I now call it because the only economic thing I learned in it was Brazilian imports, exports, and that Pedro made up a “points” system for the cattle industry to get around a law about using foreign currency in Brazil). We had day three of our Portuguese crash course where we learned basic verb conjugations (which, thankfully, are practically the same as in Spanish) and some adjectives.
This was also our first night being able to eat wherever we wanted for dinner. A bunch of us went to a frozen yogurt place that is very close to our hotel right after class for dinner. I had both mint and chocolate gelato instead of frozen yogurt, and it was several times better than the gelato we have in the U.S.
Day 7: Rafting!
For once I had plenty of rest and was actually awake and alert for our first trip, which cannot be said for everyone. I was probably the only one that didn’t sleep on the bus ride. This was partially due to the fact that the bus we had wasn’t nearly as comfortable as the one we had for the air port; it was more like a nice Greyhound bus than fancy one we had earlier. We got to the rafting place, AdventurAH, around 10, giving us plenty of free time before we went rafting.
When 11:30 rolled around we were off rafting! Well we actually got dressed up in helmets and life-jackets and rode a bus while listening to safety instructions just like in the US. It really surprised me that the procedure was exactly like in America, we even had to sign the same safety wavers! On the way to the river, we saw a herd of horses and cows in the middle of the road and neighboring fields. I’m not sure if they were wild, but they were simply wandering around with no fences in sight. I’ve never seen anything like it in the US and I think that they have horses and cows that do that, whether wild or free, is amazing to me.
The river was beautiful even though it was low due to adrought, there was thick foliage all over the river banks and everything was just green and lush. The ride was a lot smoother than I thought it would be and I was slightly disappointed that there weren’t that many rapids or falls other than three at the end. But still, it was a lot of fun! When we got back we had lunch and Alexis and I ate with Philippe, one of the guides, and his girlfriend. They both spoke English and were incredibly nice and I really enjoyed eating with them.
After getting back from the trip, we relaxed and slept for a while. Around 8 a group of us met up to try out a new sandwich shop that we saw on the way to the grocery store. It was a good ‘ole fashioned sandwich and hamburger place like in US. We split our meals and it was still too big to finish! They say that Americans eat a lot of food but this was much too much for any of us finish even with help. After that I went back to the hotel and Jared, Erin, AJ, John, Sejal and I played a couple games of euchre. Just for the record, we won the first game 11 to 1.
Day 8: I’m Running out of Semi Interesting Titles
This day didn’t start off any different than the school days. I got up, ate breakfast and went to class (it was our last day with Pedro). For lunch we tried out the campus store and I decided to be super original and adventurous with a plate of spaghetti (which tasted exactly like it does in America). We had plenty of time left during lunch so Holden, Jared, Alexis, Christine and I explored the campus and took a bunch of pictures of everything we saw. We were originally searching for the Brazilian cows for Jared, but we ended up not finding them (though we did find a two foot long lizard. We got back just in time for a huge storm to come out of nowhere. The sky turned really dark really fast, the temperature dropped significantly, the wind was much stronger and it began to pour. Most of the people were amazed by how fast the weather changed which makes sense because that doesn’t exactly happen up in Ohio, but from growing up Florida, I knew how fast the weather changed in tropical environments. Honestly, Piracicaba reminds me a lot of Orlando in terms of weather and plants. When class started up after lunch we got a new professor that I really like a lot. He involves us more and follows his slides in chronological order so I can actually understand what he’s talking about.
After class we all went to play soccer with some Brazilian students. The walk was a little far and the field it turned out was an indoor basketball court with two soccer goals on either end. Needless to say we lost, but it was still fun!
Day 9: Another Day Another Class
Another routine day: breakfast at Antonio’s, class and lunch where I met Danilo, a Brazilian who knew Dr Pfister from last year, and we talked the entire way back after lunch about Brazil and America and all sorts of things. He was incredibly nice and I was happy to have someone to talk to during the awkward time between when I finished lunch and class started. Then there was more class and then our final day of Portuguese where we learned a beautiful Brazilian song called Águas de Março which I absolutely loved.
Day 10: Field Trip and Car-Sickness
Unfortunately I got sick on our weekend trip. I couldn’t eat anything and my stomach was definitely upset. When we got on the bus I immediately felt sick. Something about the weird smell and the heat were not agreeing with me and when we started moving my stomach started churning. I was mostly alright at the Hyundai plant, which I found thoroughly interesting and wish that I was feeling better so I could have enjoyed it more, except for a couple of the smells in the factory at the end of the tour and the thought of the snacks they offered upset my stomach again.
After the Hyundai factory we were off to another tour of a Coop called Coplacana. But once again as soon as I got on the bus I was hit with that nasty smell and a blast of stale hot air that made me nauseous. Dr. Pfister let me stay on the bus to rest up instead of going to the info session and I am eternally grateful to her. But after about an hour I was feeling much better and the group was coming by the bus for the rest of the tour so Juliana came to get me and I was able to go on the second half of the tour and I even felt well enough to eat something afterwards!