I arrived in Brazil on Friday, and since then, I’ve been having a lot of cultural adjustment and shock. From the beginning of December until the middle of February, I have been and will continue to be traveling and seeing new places (I promise I’ll return to the blog posts about my trip to Peru, Bolivia, and Chile soon!). In the span of about 10 weeks, I will have been in six countries, spoken three languages, and lugged around way too many things. While I love to travel and experience all the world has to offer, I do like a little bit of structure and predictability.
I left Argentina Friday morning and flew to Rio de Janeiro for a month-long Portuguese language intensive. The same people who run my Buenos Aires program, CIEE, run the program I am on, so I know what to expect on the management end. Our program started Saturday morning, so Friday I had the afternoon to myself. Like every time I go to a new place for an extended time, I am very upset and disoriented. This is the first time I have travelled internationally on my own, meaning there was no one to get me from the airport and I didn’t know other people who were traveling. While I am fully capable of getting a cab and finding my way by myself, it’s still a nerve-wracking experience to know that you are completely on your own if something goes wrong. After a healthy dinner of passion fruit juice, a cheese croissant, and a churro filled with dulce de leche (I was missing Argentina), I was feeling slightly better.
In my walk to eat, I went down to the beach and took note of what people were wearing. I recently bought my first two-piece swimsuit in years in preparation for Brazil, but it appears it will not do—my bikini is still about 50% larger than all the other swimsuits I saw on both women and men. It appears that one rouge wave could leave the entire beach naked.
Group photo of almost everyone on my month-long study abroad program in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Saturday morning I ventured over to the hotel that was hosting our orientation; this hotel was air-conditioned, a necessity in over 100-degree temperatures. I started meeting the other students on the program, and started to feel a lot better. We had sort of a general orientation to things in Brazil, and then we went out to a pizza place for dinner. It appears Brazilians are into hardboiled eggs of all sizes on their pizza (Mom, you’ll have to come try some!), as well as delicious dessert pizzas with chocolate and strawberries. Afterwards, I went with some other students to a bar—it wasn’t that I desperately wanted to go out on the first night, but I understand from my first few weeks in Argentina that the first days are key friendship-making time, so it’s important to put yourself out there in all of the activities.
On Sunday we learned how to take public transportation and saw where we will be attending classes and the CIEE Study Center. This study center is a definite improvement over the one in Buenos Aires for the mere fact that it has both a usable kitchen and hammocks. In the evening, we were taken to our host families’ homes. I am staying with another student, Hannah, in Copacabana with our host, Maria Amelia. She is in her early or mid-sixties and used to teach gym classes.
Maybe I have been spoiled with living with Delfi and having a really great homestay experience in Buenos Aires, but when we arrived at our apartment, it was clear that Lia (her nickname) wasn’t ready for our arrival. I am staying in her room since I am only here for a month (she has moved to another small bedroom), and she hadn’t finished removing her items so there was a place for me to unpack. She had wifi but didn’t know the password (she also suggested we go to the restaurant next door and ask if they knew how to make a new wifi- this does not make sense). We had to ask for towels and where to put our stuff in the bathroom, she did not have keys for each of us, nor did she have any breakfast food for us to eat the next morning.
None of these things in itself is a big problem, but all together, it was a little challenging personally. I think knowing what a good and prepared homestay should be made me more aware of the problems. Lia said that her mother has been ill so she was on the phone all day taking care of things for her, which I can appreciate, but it just seemed like she had done nothing to prepare. All of these things got resolved within twenty-four hours, so in the grand scheme of things this was not a big deal. In addition, my stress was compounded by the fact that Lia does not speak any English—thankfully I had Hannah here, and as a team we were able to figure most things out.
We have already had class orientation, and I’ll write more about that in a few days once I start class. For now, I am struggling to get all my Portuguese back—at the moment, I am stumbling through life here using portunol (portugues + espanol) which is getting me by. People have been helpful when I ask what stuff is called, and I can feel my abilities coming back each day. It still doesn’t take away the weird feeling of being in Brazil. I am used to Buenos Aires, which I can now say is neat, tidy, and organized compared to what I have experienced so far in Brazil. For example, yesterday I went to buy a cell phone, which involved no fewer than five steps: First I told the woman at the cell phone counter which phone I wanted, then she left and returned with a piece of paper with a number on it, then I went and paid for the phone, next I took the receipt from the cashier back to the phone counter, and finally she went and brought me the phone. After getting the phone, I refused to leave the store until someone explained to me how to put the SIM card in, which involved begging the other phone representative to stay after his shift ended to help me.
I’m sure in a few days once I’m at class and more in the swing of things I will feel a lot more comfortable. Today’s plans are to enjoy Copacabana beach (just three blocks away!), drink out of a coconut, and not get sunburned before class starts tomorrow. Até logo! Until next time!