Making the most out of this exchange program

I have heard several students back home in Montevallo voice interest in applying for the program I'm in to come next spring semester. One word of advice: Fully commit to wanting to learn Portuguese! It is not a given that since you will live here for six months you will be fluent by the time you get back to Alabama.

I know the semester before coming here, Portuguese tutoring was very important to me but I did not study near as much as I should have due to my other classes & time. And I do not know about the participants placed in Vicosa, but here at UFG the "letras" ( literature) department is fairly large and you will not have much trouble finding people who speak English on campus. However, if you want to connect with someone other than English speaking students and see a broader view of Brazil, Portuguese allows you to fully submerse yourself in this culture instead of being a passenger on a six month ride. It is necessary to fully understand the classes, and showing interest in Portuguese shows respect for the people of that country that you are trying to learn their language instead of hoping that they know yours.

I regret not spending more time learning Portuguese back in Montevall0, and with only four months to go I have a lot to learn in a short amount of time. So, future applicants...study, have fun with it don't worry, and be ready for the experience of a lifetime! The Brazilian students who come to Montevallo have to do a very expensive and difficult test (TOEFL) to test their language ability, all we are required to do is a one semester tutoring program so it is the least we can do. I highly recommend this exchange program, being a student here at UFG has allowed me to experience Brazil in such a beautiful way that six months is going by quicker than I could have ever imagine.

Good luck to the future applicants!If you have any questions, I'll be glad to answer them.

Electricity

One of the first things I noticed when I got here to Brazil was the lack of air conditioners. At first, I chalked it up to my student budget one room apartment, but after visiting many people's houses I realized it is very uncommon to have one. First of all, after import costs an air conditioning unit is extremely expensive. And if you do have the money to buy one, it is rarely turned on due to cost of electricity. Some apartments that are not built as open as the Brazilian houses have started to get air conditioners.

Now, imagining 80 and 90 degree weather without air conditioning seems like torture at first!However, Brazilian homes are built much more open, with the outer walls consisting mostly of windows allowing the breeze to do a pretty good job of keeping you at a non boiling temperature. Houses here are also generally enclosed by a wall/gate all the way around, allowing for the outside area of the house to be covered and used as additional living space (chairs, hammocks, maybe a bar) on extremely hot days ( January and February get insanely hot!).

And another energy waster I had to get used to living without was a clothes dryer. They are extremely uncommon here. Even in well above middle class households, a clothes dryer is seen as an expensive and unnecessary waste. And laundromats only have washing machines. Houses and apartments have hanging clothes racks that can be lowered to hang clothes on, or on especially sunny days they can be line dried. In the sunnier afternoon, all except a thicker pair of jeans dried just as quick as they would have in a dryer AND it didn't cost a dime.

However, in the rainy season, it's a gamble to line dry outside. 15 minutes after this photo was taken it rained so hard there was practically a river in the street! I got my clothes down in time though...aguas de março! The waters of march.

Sunday means vegetable fair

I moved in with a Brazilian family, a professor and her husband(pictured above left at the cheese stand). Every Sunday they go to the local vegetable fair and buy a weeks' worth of fruits and veggies! There are many types of fairs in here in Goiania: Feira do Sol, Feira do Lua, Feira Hippie and so on. You can find anything from clothes, shoes, pets, vegetables, crafts, or necessary household items like pots and pans depending on which fair you go to. They normally have a designated day of the week. They have produce sections in grocery stores, but it is a lesser quality and not worth the cut in price for most items.

Haggling/bargaining with vendors is not very common, maybe at the end of the day (which for vegetable fairs is around 11 am, 7am people get the best picks) when produce is not as fresh. They normally have a set price per kilo or per quantity (for example: 6 ears of corn, 1R$). You put it in the basket or bowl and they weigh it ,bag it, and you pay.

Generally at fairs , no matter clothes fair or a vegetables one, there are some standard snack stands. I would say the most common street vendor foods from what i noticed are sweets stands, coco water/juice, pastei and popsicles. Today I tried a new one, sugar cane juice with lime(just under 2 R$)!

The end of tutoring, beginning of classes!

It has been so busy, I've taken trips to Pirinopolis, and Rio Quente! More on that later. The first thing on my mind is that today was the last day of classes with Camilla, my portuguese tutor.

The semester back at The University of Montevallo has been in full swing since January, however here the semester does not start until monday. Today was our ( Devin, West, and myself) last day of Portuguese tutoring with Camilla(pictured left), a student at UFG. We will have an official
Portuguese for foreigners course, as well as start our courses within the university Monday. Today we had a farewell party , which included reading and watching a popular Brazilian children's comic/cartoon which is entitled "Mônica", and eating homemade fruit salad (the picture above shows Devin & I eating some of this!)prepared by Camilla's mother. It is hard to believe that we can barely read comics, yet we will be taking college classes in this language in less than a week. Baby steps, we are all learning so much every day!Learning a new language takes more patience than I had ever imagined.

This comic strip is known by everyone here, it is a very common and favorite comic of Brazilian children. The main characters in this comic strip include (from left to right):

Magali: she eats enormous amounts of food and is always looking for more, has a cat who's name Mangau translates to "Porridge"

Cascao: a little boy who has never taken a bath and is afraid of water

Cebolinha: speaks with a speech impediment and often replaces "L's" with "R's". Cebolinha means little onion, a name attributed to by his hairstyle!

Mônica: a pudgy buck toothed girl who gets teased a lot by the others, but who is very endearing and takes revenge via hitting people with her stuffed bunny who's name is Sansão, translates to Samson