By allilopez
The on-site orientation for CIEE’s Liberal Arts in São Paulo took place over a course of two days. It began on July 2nd with the Resident Coordinator, Christiane, picking us up at Guarulhos International Airport. As I mentioned in my previous post, this was followed by lunch at a delicious restaurant called Segredos de Minas and a walk on Avenida Paulista. From there we took a bus to CIEE’s office in Perdizes were Ana Luiza, the Resident Director, talked about academic life in Brazil and public transportation in São Paulo – which I found really helpful.
You see, American universities are drastically different than their Brazilian counterparts. Unlike in the U.S., Brazilian students spend only part of their day at their university. Many of them work during the day and go to school in the evening or vice-versa. Consequently, the social life of young Brazilians tends to take place outside of the university. Moreover, the structure and length of classes in Brazil is very different: classes meet once per week but last 3-4 hours. The professor may not expect papers about every text students have to read; but he/she may expect the students to do ALL the readings for every class. As such, classes may just be discussions and professors often just give a mid-term and a final.
As far as public transportation is concerned, CIEE talked to us about the bilhete único, a rechargeable card similar to DC’s SmartTrip card. However, unlike in DC, all one-way tickets (regardless of distance) for the bus or the subway cost R$3,50; you can take up to 4 buses in 3 hours pay only R$3,50, which is awesome for broke college students like me! Furthermore, if you take both the metro and a bus you only pay R$ 5,45. One more important transportation tip which CIEE gave us was that we should take taxis at night as a safety precaution.
The first part of the on-site orientation ended at 7pm. Afterwards, we went to dinner at a fancy pizza place nearby called Bendita Hora (which I mentioned in my last blog!). The next day, we had breakfast at our hostel and headed back to CIEE’s office for the second part of the on-site orientation. This time Ana Luiza talked about Brazilian culture, our prospective host families, and general safety tips.
For me, the part about Brazilian culture was nothing new since cultural norms tend to be the same throughout Latin America: i.e. how people greet each other, personal interactions, the respect and civility that is expected when you are in someone else’s home, etc. The most important tip I can give non-Latin readers that are hoping to study abroad in Brazil or elsewhere in Latin America is as follows: Brazilians (and Latin people in general) may say one thing and mean another.
In Latin cultures, people are not as direct and straight-forward as in America so this cultural norm may be done so as not to hurt someone’s feelings or create any awkward situations. For example, when your host parents say ‘Make yourself at home. Don’t worry about anything,’ what they really mean is ‘We welcome you as our guest but please be respectful of our house and our rules.’ Be patient and keep an open mind when dealing with Brazilians and other Latin people as our cultural norms are a bit different than those in America.
That’s it for now gente (everyone)! Até a próxima! (Until next time!)