Classroom etiquette in Brazil

This is according to our coordinator and professors, and as with everything there is variability but these are still good to keep in mind:

1. Brazilian students dress much more formally than U.S. students--especially Californians ehem*
2. Professors like or expect that students greet them and ask how they're doing. It's kind of rude to just go in sit down and then leave, because it kind of gives the message that you're just there for them to perform a service for you and then you leave. In Brazil I've heard it's common that the professor-student relationship is a lot closer than it is in the U.S.
   
3. Also no putting feet on chairs, good posture etc. no sleeping, and participate
4. Another thing that always is hard for some Brazilian professors to understand is why during class almost no one asks questions but once class is over quite a few students stay and ask questions. In Brazilian classrooms students ask more questions because I think most people feel they can get stuff out of other people's questions. And here in the U.S. a lot of people are embarassed to ask questions because they're afraid of looking stupid or think it will bother all the other people who know the answer.

so those are some things to think about

tour part 3: bonfim and bus sights

still 03 september 2009

So these are some more pictures from the tour. we stopped by Igreja de Nosso Senhor do Bonfim (Our Lord of the Good End) which sounds awesome right? It is a Catholic church however there are definitely influences from Candomble. There are a few big Festas at this church and in one, they sing Yoruba Chants.

This church is also known for the lembrancas do Bonfim which are these little ribbons that you can always find around the church in several different colors and each color represents a different Orixa. People but them on the gates outside, on the doors in the front, on their car rear-view mirrors, and around their wrists; and you're not supposed to take it off; you wait for it to fall off.
About 95% of the people I've seen in Salvador have at least one on their wrist but since you are supposed to leave it on until it falls off by itself, the ribbons end up looking like strings.

we definitely got lots of waves aboard this discrete bus.

Rainbow Bus 2: Casa de Yemanjá

For a context on this beautiful shrine: Yemanjá or Iemanjá and many other names in different places around the world, is an Orixa in the Candomlé religion which is another big religion here in Bahia. This religion was brought to the Americas from a Yoruba tradition in Africa via the intense slave trade here in Brasil. Candomble was practiced underground for many years, as Catholicism was the mainstream religion, and it was a form of cultural resistance.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candomblé)

There are many orixás, which are something like saints, and Yemanjá who as you can see takes the form of a mermaid, is the ocean, and a symbol of motherhood protector of children. Many sailors also look to her for good luck at sea.

There were a lot of fishers around this shrine, and inside there was this altar and lots of little flowers and candles a lot like altars for Catholic saints. From my experience here in Bahia, where there is the highest concentration of blacks because of slave patterns and the sugar engenhos(industrial style mills), but it seems like a lot of people, like here in my family will have influences of both religions; they seem to have been made quite compatible just like a lot of indigenous religions and catholicism mesh a little in Mexico.

This mermaid form of Yemanja is a very popular representation of her but she isn't always depicted as a mermaid.

The Rainbow Bus tour

This isn't necessarily in chronological order, but I felt like putting up some more interesting pictures. Then I'll go back and discuss other things, and I'm building up to my food post. mmm... anyway. This was a bus tour coordinated by the program that would go from 2:30 to 7PM

So from the beginning I didn't think we could look more like tourists on this fat bus with a group of 55 people.

But yes the group was huge and we were all touring around together all with our cameras and on the bus whenever the tour guide would mentions some sight, everyone would crowd over to that side of the bus and plaster themselves to the windows taking pictures. It was quite entertaining. Okay fine I did it too, but only two times.

Our first stop was this Farol da Barra, (Lighthouse of Barra). This Barra neighborhood in Salvador is actually pretty close to where I am staying, and all around it there is such beautiful scenery it's unbelievable.

And of course people selling souvenirs and cangas (brazilian sarongs) with such awesome designs. Necklaces, and snacks, and salvador t-shirtsPorto da Barra is the best place for swimming. Since Bahia has so much coast line and beach, it seems like every beach is specialized for something. Like there's one beach that is for futevolei (combo of volleyball and soccer) or this raquet ball game, surfing, swimming, tanning, banana-boating, parasailing, there's a beach ideal for everything.

MY new home

29.08.09- saturday

What I learend about the families was that they are all basically middle/upper-middle class because we all have to have houses near the ACBEU university and that is located in an area where that social class predominates. So my host father came to pick us up in his Volkswagen after I got my bags and checked out of the hotel. We soon got to the apartments pretty quickly. It has a gate and a person to open the gate fore people who are familiar. They were some pretty nice apartments. We took the elevator to the ninth floor and as soon as I entered the door, I thought it was a very beautiful place. It has white walls, and a lot of white furniture with some strong colors here and there, but it has huge windows so the natural light illuminated the living room/dining room really well. Then we went into the cute little kitchen and there was a second living/enternaining room with a big TV and stereo system and very like contemporary style walls--not saying that it was positive or negative like oh wow "it's great that they're modern" or anything but just that I've never been in a place like that before. But it had some really nice vibes. Then my mother showed me my room. Everyone in the program gets a single room furnished and all. They have sheets, towels, and in my room internet and big windows through which I can see part of the bay.

this is my room

"-- this is below the apartment area, lot's of trees and the sound of all these different birds just emits from this shrubbbery... all day

I put my stuff down, and since it was saturday my younger sister was there, and I could see some resemblance, I could definitely see how we could be sisters. And we were sitting there in teh living room just talking for a long while getting to know eachother. Then my sister brought out this chart that they have for the program with all this food, and we can let them know what we like most, what we CAN eat, what we can't eat stuff like that. I felt kind of bad that my stomach is a bit picky though. But that's why I made sure to mention that in my housing questionnare. I am lactose intolerant but I do eat cheese and ice cream and iogurte (yogurt) in small quantities. And my stomach is also slow at digesting meats and starches so not too much meat or rice, or bread, or pasta, or etc. etc. But it seems easier if I say: i eat all the vegetables and virtually all fruit except for kiwi and pineapple. (sorry i don't think you neeed to know all this) the point is be very specific from day one, because it's harder to say after a long time "oh by the way, this whole time i didn't like this, and this is bad for me"

But then my older sister came home from work, she works in construction/engineering, because she's studying engineering.

And we talked some more. I felt like they were really interseted/curious about me and very super welcoming and I felt like we were family that I was visiting and hadn't seen in a very long time. And I didn't really remember the language. But I knew enough to describe the words I didn't know, so that helps a lot.

Of course they understand that we're hear to better our Portuguese so they were super helpful in speaking a little more slowly and clearly than usually perhaps, and also using more description so that it's easier to understand with the context and stuff. And oh I just loved being there. My host mom is super caring like my own mother and like I said I totally see how the psychology is working here. It really helps with the homesickness to feel loved here too, and like I said my mother is always hugging me and kissing me calling me daughter, and perhaps the director knew that it would be easier for her to do that and feel that way because I look like her daughters quite a bit.

Orientation and meeting my family!!!!

We had to wake up kind of early to have breakfast in the hotel before orientation which would start at 9AM. Breakfast at the hotel was included in the program, and I have to say it was a beautiful breakfast, and I hadn't had fruit in like two days, so I was so happy to have something good and raw. The hotel dining place was so crowded though.

I had a banana, banana de prata. I was super excited about all the different kind of bananas that they have over here, and I'll talk about all the different types later, types I haven't even had in Mexico.

I had freshly made "suco de abacaxí" pinapple juice, "goiaba" guava, I think it was papaya which would be a smaller version of what we call papaya in the states. And papaya is called mamão in Brasil. And the pineapple I had was smaller than what I was used to, and also a lot lighter in color, it was a very light yellow, almost white. I toasted some wheat bread and put some tamarind spread on it. It was soooo gostoso. But of course they had soo much food, I just really neaded my fruits. The had bacon and eggs and beans I think all sorts of things.

Right after breakfast we all met in the lobby to walk over to the conference room for orientation. We were a group of 55 people all just from UCs, although usually it is combined with Dartmouth or some other schools. We met the director of the program, and she was amazing, she apparently had memorized every single one of our housing applications and with our faces. It was amazing how well she remembered and new us. She is amazing in general really; very happy very loud, very funny and festive all the time! She told us a little about herself and how she had studied psychology and was confused when her boss said she had hired her because of her background. But now she understands why psychology really helps in this situation--and I totally understand now too. I feel that she really does try very hard to make this the best experience it can be.

This orientation was mainly going to be about the rules of the program, tips/suggestions, and also a kind of preview of brasilian culture as to her perspective, possible cultural differences etc.

The rules were pretty obvious but people do stupid things all the time that make them get expelled like smoking pot on the beach in the middle of the day. I mean you just don't do that. They got arrested and put in jail here in Brasil because they didn't have any original identification and it is a serious crime. Or standing outside and peeing into the public pool in front of people.

The cultural things that she mentioned was showering. That host mothers [and the host mothers here I realized play such an important role, the housing situation is almost all focused on the mothers] get worried when they have students who shower like every three days. I know people who do that in the states but being here, I see why it's disturbing: it is so humid and sticky and sweaty and I don't see why someone wouldn't be dying to shower by the end of the day, I'm showering twice a day.

The director made it very clear to the boys that they have to smell nice and buy perfume if they didn't want to repell brasilian women, because according to her they really like men that smell nice. I don't know how well that applies but I haven't smelled that much cologne.

eating habits: we should always only use our knife and fork, not our hands. Not to serve ourselves what we think we might eat but what we know we will eat and then if we have more room we can always get more. She emphasized that past students have used their hands to put their rice on the fork--and i was just thinking "Oh i'm going to have to work on that because i eat with my hands all the way most of the time". Or mother mention that some students would serve themselves with the same spoon/fork that they used to eat. That I wouldn't do.

Oh and because the plumbing is different we have to throw all of our garbage in the trash not in the toilet.

Another thing is that our program is paying for 3 meals a day every day, so if we will eat out it might hurt our mother's feeling because they have stuff planned sometimes, so make sure that you tell her at least so that she didn't spend so much time and energy making something super delicious and then you just don't show up and eat some place else.

We got a map and a t-shirt that says ACBEU and has a little picture of people jogando Capoeira.

But what everyone was really anxious about the whole time was finding out who their family was. Toward the end we got a paper with a list of our names in alphabetical order, and next to them our host mother's name, and then the address and contact information.

Oh there's not much you can tell by the name so we were all feeling like oh how much more anxious we are that we know nothing about them but they got to know a lot about us.

Then the director went down the list and gave us a short little background about our families, how many people were in it, a little about our mothers especially, or things that stand out. What she told me about my host mom was that she was very spiritual and believes in energies a lot and that as soon as she came to my application she said that she wanted me because I have a beautiful energy and she said she didn't have to read anything on my application or see any others because she wanted me. And it felt so nice to hear that, but at the same time I was hoping I wouldn't dissapoint her oh my gosh those are really high expectations, but she also said that she was retired, she used to be a secretary and she has a husband and two daughters. One is 21 and goes to a university, the other 18 and is still in the equivalent to highschool. And then--oh the cutest thing, as a psychologist the director gave us each half of a postcard and we were supposed to go down into the lobby and find our other half, which our host mother would be holding. And as soon as I got to the stairs i heard my name and i looked down into the crows of families, and my mother was looking straight at me holding her card, and she hadn't even seen mine but she knew it was me, it was amazing.

After we chatted for a while we went in to half lunch and there was even more crowded than breakfast but we found a spot to share with one of her friends and her family. It seems like all the mothers all know each other and are friends. Mine was kind of new to the program though she only had two before me; there are families that have been in this for like over 10 years though. So although there were mainly mothers, some brought other people in their families too, like little children etc.

Lunch was really nice, and I was trying to be very conscious of my eating habits, my mom helped with that though. Like she poured my guarana soft drink out of the can and into the wine glass, i guess it's weird drinking out of a can. Oh I was so happy because this host mother was just so happy to see me it seemed and she was saying how I look so much like one of her own daughters. And she went around looking for her friends and introducing me to them, "look at my daughter "

it was cute, and having studied a little bit of portuguese and having a spanish-speaking background really really helped. So I would suggest that even though these language and cultre programs don't have any experience requirements, it helps a lot so that you can start communicating with your family and bonding a lot sooner. And generally knowing a little bit more about what's going on helps.

the flight was...

29.08.09
Because all of my flights were delayed except for the flight that I missed, my trip lasted about 35 hours, like a day and a half I guess. And when I arrived in Salvador FINALLY, I saw someone who looked kind of familiar, looked my age, and I asked if she was from the program and she was. From my campus too. So we shared a taxi to the hotel, for which we had a paper with directions saying exactly what to do upon arrival; it was the address and name of the hotel and also how to use the taxis. You can prepay one with a credit card there in the airport or pay in reais, the brazilian currency, and wait on the white lines which are where the taxis hang out.

these are some things i saw, i'm not sure if this is tha amazon river, but i took this picture when the little virtual map on the screen in front of me showed that we were over the amazon, so it's very possible/probable
I thought this is so cool when you can see the clouds' shadows in miniature and contrast it to how it is to be in it's shadow it seems like the whole world got dark.

the most notable thing upon arrival was the humidity. It felt super humid compared to the cold airplane, and it was pretty warm too, but not hot. later i'll talk about the climate here, year-round. It felt really nice for me because my nose was getting too dry on the plane and once I got off the plane I felt free to breath as much and as hard as I wanted. my skind also felt sticky but it's all good at least for me, i'm not going to complain.

So once my classmate and I got to Hotel Tropical, we were pretty hungry so we decided to go out and have dinner. We got there and realized we had two roommates, respectively. And one of her roommates, came with us to search for a restaurant. It was around 7 or so. It was really hard finding a place because we didn't know our way around, but we went out and saw this big plaza, it was really cool, very artistic fences around really pretty garden like deals, and water fountains. On my taxi ride I realized that even more--possibly second to the humidity; even the airport has very artistic qualities.

Then we saw this big crowd of people on one side of this plaza, and we were curious; there was this big rainbow flag. It turned out to be happy lesbian day that day. so we chilled with this crowd for a while practicing our portuguese, and letting one of the guys practice his english. They were reallly cool people, two young women and one guy around our age, activists explaining what was happening, and also answering our questions of why at that particular place, and apparently it is a very popular place where people hang out, very public.

And this was a party in celebration but at the same time a protest. they were protesting by at one point getting into a big circle and kissing everyone, some on the cheek some a little more, with this really groovy music blasting, it was nice, and the people were so nice, and helped us find a place to eat.

This wasn't the best food at all, nor representative of brasilian food now that i've had more, but this wasn't that bad. This place whose name i forgot, it was like Gussy or something like that, was somethign like a fast food version of traditional brasilian food. the dessert was pretty good though. and it was pretty cheap like 6 dollars. for buffet, that's not bad at all.

Then several people went out to check out the bars, but I was sooo tired, and I had to take a shower and sleep because the next day we were going to have

All window seats forever!

I’ve had the opportunity to fly many times before to visit my family in Jalisco, México. I started when I was very young possibly before I was two years old, and I used to go every year for either summer or winter vacation, (lately it’s been harder because there are a lot of university expenses ant it’s more difficult) so I don’t think I’ve ever really been scared of being on airplanes or anything like that. It’s really not that bad for any of you who haven’t gone before. It can get stressful because of the different documents, rules for carry-ons, but it’s really not that bad as long as you have a designated place for your documents and they usually are only your passport, visa if you’re foreign to where you’re going, your boarding passes, and little tickets that match your luggage that you check in just in case something happens with it, but it’s extremely rare to have complications like that. So that’s really it and they ask for things at different times usually but just have them handy and you’re good. On the plane on an international flight you always have to fill out a customs form, that is a declaration of what you’re bringing in to their country. For brazil I know that they tax heavily on electronics, but for most if not all countries you have to go through special procedures to bring in animals, plants, anything still living I guess, and also arms or explosives, alcohol, and also large quantities of money exceeding $100,000 or something large like that.
The Washington Airport doesn’t have FREE wi-fi. Nothing’s free! : ( . I got this sandwich and water, and chips for $15. and it was like a little tiny sandwich AND the chips were compulsory!

I don’t know why but I had to buy the chips apparently otherwise I’d pay for them and not get them. Anyway at the SAC airport they did have free Wifi, and they even had lotion in the bathroom for after washing your hands. But I’ve spent soo much money on just food. Oh it’s kind of a hard trip a lone, no one else had my flight. But my suggestion would be to try to fly with someone else even if you don’t really know that person from your program. Another thing is bring a lunch from home. Because the food is so expensive, and well I guess I was overestimating how hungry I’d get too, because even though the plane food is in small quantities your body doesn’t get as hungry as usual because you’re just sitting most of the time, or sleeping. So… but food from home is good. And get a very very light carry on, I totally hurt my back carrying around so much stuff. Even though it seems like you won’t be carrying it for long because you’re sitting—no no, really emphasis on the LIGHT CARRY-ON

the night before...

28/08/09

i have been making a lot of copies of all my travel documents and important information and attending to my grandma who came from mexico to see me off. so... i have saved packing for the last minute... but i did set things apart. my flight is tomorrow. the plane is supposed to leave at 7:25 AM and arrive in Salvador at 12:50PM the next day. Right now there is a four hour difference. it's winter in bahia. anyway it's a very long flight because from Sacramento I'm going to washington, wait their 7 hours for the flight to sao paulo, then from sao paulo to salvador.

So i'm supposed to leave my house at 4AM to get there ontime to check in my luggage have it weighed hopefully it doesn't go over and they charge me.

i would advise that you not pack too much. It's usually like unless it's one or two formal outfits, don't pack anything you're not going to wear more than 3 times if you're there for a few weeks, but if you're staying somewhere for like 3 months like me, then don't pack anything you're notgoing to wear like 10 times, and try to get clothes that goes with other things.

non-clothes items. i am taking sunscreen for face and body, aloe vera gel in case i get sun burnt, the regular toiletries like toothpaste/brush, floss, lotion, etc. my mosquito and bug repellant products, my favorite alarm clock, my laptop but that's optional obviously because there are a lot of internet cafes in salvador and also a comp lab at the campus, hand sanitizer, emergency water purifying drops, medicine for mild diarrhea, stomach aches, heartburn, etc, some milk pain -killer. stuff like that. my diary, my planner, my camera, all my appliance chargers, and a little present for my host family. I chose to bring a poster of one of the landscapes that a local artist painted that was very representative of my home town and i was planning on getting like some postcards and a little souvenir at the airport because there's nothing like that around here.

this is my suitcase like at 1 AM the day of my flight

The Application Process

There were a lot of components including a statement of purpose, permission from all the counselors to make sure you’ll be on track, agreement to meet all future deadlines, a housing questionnaire, 2 passport-type pictures one for the EAP program and the other for the housing questionnaire.
The housing questionnaire is for your future host family to view [or several families; I’m not sure exactly how it works but they chose you after reading the questionnaire—and my picture sucked], so it asked your name, age, sex, then about what your diet is like, to what you’re allergic, hobbies, whether you liked children/animals, what things you couldn’t live with and a description of your family, occupation and sibling-wise.
And simply a lot of agreements to things such as the health insurance, and basically if anything bad happened to you abroad you wouldn't sue the UC or the program or anyone, agreements to register the trip at the US embassy abroad stuff like that.

The Program

28/aug/09
There are two programs that the school offers, one is a semester, 6 months at the PUCI, and the other is quarter long, (a bit over 3 months) and it is a language and culture program. So in this program that takes place in Salvador Bahia, Brazil, the courses are all about Brazilian Portuguese and culture; the culture course is called “Brazil and the Black Atlantic”.
And I went for that one. I really preferred this housing situation to the Rio program. In Rio it would be living in dorms or apartments or finding a place if you chose to do that instead. But in Bahia, we would be staying with familias Brasileiras. And of course focusing on the culture was very important.
Although it doesn’t cover any of my major requirements, I think it’s relevant to Cultural Psychology. But I did it for the experience, and because the 3.5 months were compatible with the quarter system over here so I wouldn’t be too side-tracked.

It fit well into my academic scheduling, which I had to do with my department and college counselor for the EAP application. But I just feel like I really really wanted to go to Brazil, I still really, really want to go to India too. May be on my last quarter. If possible, but who knows with all these cuts and fee hikes I can’t even be guaranteed to study at the UC at all. But it’s all good, I’m so grateful that I can have this opportunity. I got a good financial aid package and two scholarships, one need-based the other merit-based. So, although education shouldn’t be about getting good grades, and good grades aren’t necessarily correlated with intelligence, they really help if you’re in my situation, but I always wonder if I should focus my efforts more on something else other than getting As. I feel that I can be more productive and less selfish.
Oooh, I heard Portuguese finally. My first all day! Exciting. I feel like I’m getting closer. But of course convenience isn’t all of it; that was just what made me chose Brazil over India. And also because in this program they really facilitate involvement in the community; they have connections with local organizations and groups.
India was too long for me for now. I don’t know if I’m ready to go for 6 months, but like I was saying I am hoping to go and do fieldwork in India some day when I’m prepared with a more specific project than, ‘having to do with farmers in rural India’.

I know a few people who did two EAP trips. But after all this application process, visa, and all the other preparations, it’s not as easy as I once thought. Of course, it’s doable but it does take a lot of your attention for like a year or so. You’re constantly doing something for EAP for about a year. Not too much at a time, but still lots of deadlines to meet. Okay I’m going to get a sammmwich jk. Oh and I found an electrical outlet for FREEE!. I hope :/ anyway.

this is an aerial view of the coast of Salvador, Bahia (which means bay and now you see why) that I took as we were arriving.

HOW I CHOSE TO STUDY ABROAD IN BAHIA, BRAZIL

8/27/09
I have been terrible at this blogging thing. But I’ll try to catch up now that I’m sitting at the gate waiting for my plane to come take me to Sao Paulo. I am somewhat delirious from lack of sleep but here we go.
I think I’ll start with how/why I chose this program, because I guess that’s the beginning.
I knew that I wanted to study abroad since …may be elementary, such a long time ago. And my first year in college I almost immediately picked up a whole bunch of brochures at the EAP (Education Abroad Program) office. And I grabbed EAP brochures that were focusing on majors, I took those, and then I looked at all the country-specific ones, and I took practically all of them except for places like Mexico or too close to home. I had about 20 different brochures and decided to cut down before showing them to my mom, and I realized that if I were to go to even a fifth of these places, I would be studying abroad my whole college career. But I made friends and my ideas changed and I realized that obviously I couldn’t do them all, so I reduced them to about 5 countries, and then from there I chose which were most compatible with my studies. My top 5 were: India, Turkey, Thailand, Brazil, and Holland. And I had reasons for all of them mainly because the cultures and histories of the countries grabbed my attention. Holland also has a fantastic Cognitive Psych department, and I could study psychology at Hyderabad University in India too. At that time all I knew was that I wanted to be a researcher in psychology and I knew that I wanted to do my research in non-European-“Western” cultures because that has been the group that has been most represented in academia yet the findings are usually applied to the general populations of women/children/marriages/eating habits etc. etc. EVERYTHING!

So I have always been interested in doing research in the Middle East, South East Asia, Africa, and definitely in Latin America. So the way I cam more and more focused on Brazil is because since I find it extremely important for anyone doing research with a people, to know about their culture beforehand, know the context very well, and be able to communicate directly, so it is imperative to know the language.
A video I saw in a developmental psych class really impacted me on that decision because this American researcher was describing a finding with some Japanese infants, and when he was talking about one of the participants, an infant by the name of Aya I think, he totally called her a he. And “Aya” is among the most common female names in Japanese, it’s like “Anne”. He kept saying he was a boy. I mean, I know it’s hard to tell sometimes because they look very similar, and it was different language, but still, it doesn’t seem right to me that this researcher is using the infant to demonstrate some psychological finding but doesn’t even care to learn enough about the participant to know if it’s a girl or a boy?! Even though gender wasn’t necessarily the area of focus, I just think there’s something wrong with that.

Okay anyway, the point is that I don’t want to be that researcher, and so, since I knew that I wanted to do research in Latin America, I already speak Spanish, but Brazil is such a huge part of Latin America, so I decided to learn Portuguese.
Last fall I took Brazilian Portuguese for Spanish Speakers, and it’s a program that takes four quarters, and the professor kind of expects students to hopefully eventually go to the university of PUC (pronounced /pookie/) in Rio de Janeiro to take classes among other Brazilian students, and one can study major classes.
The thing is that throughout the quarter we were learning more than just Brazilian Portuguese, we learned about the music, the food, (we had a lunch in class with food from a local Brazilian cafe), we watched films in Portuguese (some brasilians others from Guinea Bissau), and we went into a little bit of everything, the history of slavery in Brazil, the current racial relations, gender relations, poverty in the favelas, and just about everything. And that really gave me the last push towards Brazil.

So far I have:

30/july/09

Done the application process for EAP, which is for UCs (University of California)
I had to prepare for that pretty much since Fall Quarter to turn in the application in January.

First I had to complete a "New Applicant Questionnaire" which was just to make sure I understood what the study abroad program I chose was all about. Then I went to a kind of orientation to answer questions about the program and we were then given the application.

I did the application as accepted and then, I applied to the Gilman Scholarship and I GOT IT!!!!
oh i was soooo soooo happy it was amazing.

had my travelers health consult at the health center.

gotten an injected live vaccine for yellow fever because it is very recommended for this area of brazil

and i got the oral typhoid vaccine which i am waiting to take later one. they are 4 pills, and i have to take them every other day until i finish them. It has to be on an empty stomach, and i can't eat until like 2 hours after. They are also very sensative to temperature so they have to be kept refrigerated at a certain temperature otherwise they'll expire.

the typhoid pills are the ones in the box, the other pills are for moderate diarrhea. later I'll give more details on all the information that I recieved at the healh consult. such things as dengue and all that good stuff that can only be prevented by these things that i also bought from the health center

They have a good amout of deet to repell mosquitos.

I still have to get my visa though...which is supposed to be processed 10 days after you turn it in.