By mfretes93
In New York, punctuality is key. In the land of Wall Street bankers and subways so crowded that you can taste the sweat of the person standing next to you, everyone will do anything to be on time. And that applies to everything--you need to be on-time to class, job interviews; you even just want to rush grocery shopping, for the sake of rushing. And for us, "on-time" is 15 minutes early. And actually being on-time is a slap in the face.
Surprisingly, one of the hardest things for me to get used to in Brazil isn't the language or the food or anything like that--it's their concept of time and punctuality. Which is to say, compared to life in the U.S.--and especially New York--it might as well not exist.
To put this in perspective, my first classes in high school started at promptly 8:08 A.M. everyday. If you dared to arrive at 8:09--tardy. At GW, it obviously depends on the professor, but if I were to walk in to any of my classes 20 minutes late, I would be the object of snickers from my fellow students and a stern glare from the professor.
Meanwhile, in Brazil, walking into class 20 minutes late means that you've probably beaten the professor--he'll come in another 10 minutes. A class scheduled to start at 9 A.M. will most likely start around 9:30, and if it's also scheduled to end at 11, it'll probably end at around 10:30.
Which isn't to say that classes are a joke. You're still learning the material. You're still taking notes and answering questions and fighting the urge to go on Facebook on your phone. In other words, class is still class.
They just have a different idea of time and deadlines: here in Brazil, 9:30 is 9:00; 10:30 is the same thing as 11:00.
So if you ask someone to meet you for lunch at noon, don't expect them to show up any earlier than 12:45. And that mindset applies to just about everything--meals, class, hanging out with friends. It's just how time works around here--it's flexible, everything is fluid.
Which, to my eye, is more reflective of the way that Brazilians view life in general: just live! If you're too consumed by deadlines and rushing around the city to be on time, instead of appreciating the sights around you, you're not living life the way that life is supposed to be led.
Was this mindset hard to adjust to at first? Of course. But now, day by day, I'm watching the time-obsessed New Yorker in me slowly dissipate, replaced by a person who doesn't mind waiting for the next bus on a nice day.
One thing that I can't ever change, though? Walking fast, everywhere, all the time--sorry Rio, you can't change all of them!