Brazil: September 2015

Hi all! I thought I would start this to allow you to follow along and update you will photos along the way! (Hanna and Kristin did such a good job though I have quite the writers to live up to...)

Rio is like no city I have been to in the US. It is massive, tropical but also filled with hills and mountains. Parts of the city are built into the mountains and other you drive through to get to the other side. Apparently based on how high up you live associates with your social-economic status.

Our first week has been crazy hectic. In order to verify our visa we had to register with the federal police of Brazil. This was quite the experience, as we had to go and sit in an office and wait for them to call our name at the airport. It was similar to sitting in the DMV but in a room four or five times the size as it, serving all of Rio and its long term visitors. Although great people watching, a lot of sitting and waiting.

Besides logistical aspects of the trip, I have met the teacher I will be working side by side with for the semester and she seems awesome. She is clearly very passionate about her job and absolutely loves the kids. The school is completely Americanized. They teach an American curriculum…use the same textbooks as we do and even teach American history and currency. I personally think it must be a lot for the students to take in because they are expected to learn and understand Brazilian history, geography, currency and language along with the American side. During the school day the kids speak mostly English unless they are chatting with each other or in Portuguese class. I was most surprised by the way the teachers and students interact physically in the classroom. In Philadelphia we were barely allowed to touch the children and here they hug and kiss as a greeting.

We have had great luck with food! The school lunch isn’t anything you could imagine. I do not even know how to compare an American lunch to Brazil school food. Our Lady of Mercy (OLM- the school I am at) feed all of their employees breakfast and lunch every day. Lunch is their biggest meal of the day and therefore is a full course. This also means that the restaurants do not open up again until 7 or 8. On the menu-always rice and beans- then some vegetable, meat and a variety of salads. Today I had a pumpkin salad, chicken, rice and beans (if you don’t have rice and beans they look at you funny). Any left overs from lunch make their way to our apartment. Although we get food from school, this week we have eaten out a few times because we wanted to see the kinds of food they had on the menus. Everything I have had has been delicious! I don’t always know what it is because we order in Portuguese, which I know very little. So far we have made it with pointing and the little we know between us.

After school at about 4, we have some time to wander around or do whatever we would like. This week we have just been trying to find our way around our area, find the market, restaurants, etc. We have made friends with the other young Americans in the school who are full time teachers and they brought us to the “best” beach in the area, only about 10 minutes via bus. Apparently this beach is better because it is away from all the tourist spots. It was beautiful!

.....sorry for any typos, I am no writer to say the least!