Orientation Week
My nine month adventure in Brazil has begun! It took a day and a half to get here, but I finally arrived in Sao Paolo on Monday. Another Fulbrighter was on my flight so we met up and got an Uber to the hotel together. I don't know any Portuguese yet, so I was glad I had her to help me get to the hotel. Monday was just a travel day, so I spent time getting to know other Fulbrighters who had already arrived and then I went to bed early to prepare for Tuesday.
We had a lot of speakers come in and talk about safety, educational resources, the US embassy in Brazil, and the history of Brazil. It was a day full of learning, but we also had a lot of food and coffee breaks throughout the day to mingle and meet each other. I also learned about Brazilian time, which means that Brazilians are generally late to things. Being ten minutes late for them (or even half an hour) is being on time. I will definitely have to get used to that. My mentor group had dinner at an Arabic place and had a great time getting to know each other better. We then went out for drinks and met another group of Fulbrighters and spent the rest of the night drinking Caipirinhas, a typical Brazilian drink, and discussing the events of the day.
Wednesday was a day full of adventure. We began with a tour of the city where we stopped at a cathedral, an art museum, and a huge food market. They had some of the best sandwiches and I also tried acai for the first time. It is a fruit and the juice was frozen and then the lady put sweet, condensed milk on top, which basically made it taste like ice cream. I will definitely be eating acai again. After that, I went to a session led by mentors where we talked about managing stress while being here in Brazil and brainstorming activities we could find to do around our cities to get us out and about. Later than night, I went out for drinks with friends again and had a great time.
Today was another day full of lectures where we talked about culture shock and cultural differences in the workplace. It was a long day, especially after going out two nights in a row. At the end, my mentor group took some pictures and said goodbye to each other. However, we will be in the same state of Parana together, so we won't be too far away and we will see each other again at the mid-year orientation in July. I'm sure a lot of people are going out again tonight, but I have to be up early to catch my flight to Londrina. My host professor will be picking up me and Alexa and we will stay with her until Monday when she will take us to Apucarana and we can finally move into our house. As of now, we are sharing a room, but I would like to look into more housing options so that I can have a space of my own. We will see what happens.
For now, I'm probably going to go to bed since these three days have worn me out. I am three hours ahead of Nebraska, so if you want to contact me, just be aware I'm in a different time zone. Missing everyone at home!!