Back from Sao Paulo

23 Nov.

After Sampa: And then got back and to study hard! i have my last culture essay to write, then the final which i'm kind of scared about. In Portuguese: an oral presentation on a topic of choice that will last about 20 min. (like a mini lecture in Portuguese) I also have a Portuguese in-class essay and final.

I hardly do anything that is not study related except for going to the dance class Tu and Thurs and going to play with those kids at the school. There is just so much reading and I’m not fast reader. I like to annotate and understand things as close to fully as possível

mas estou mais o menos triste que jã vem o final. :(

Esssay #3

17 Nov 2009

ESSAY #3

So it was great that we went to Cachoeira right before this essay is due, not.
But this part #3 is usually the most enjoyed by students because it is the one on popular culture and music and all that sort of stuff.
I wrote my essay on the implications of having Carmen Miranda be the international spokesperson of Brasil, but also for the Whole of south America--from a feminist perspective.
People love to bag on Carmen Miranda, but i decided that the issue is much more complicated.

I have to say I am really rather proud of this essay, the most I have been with my papers so far, and I think it's because I am the most passionate about this one.

How is studying and doing homework here?

Oh my gosh! it is really an effort. I'm not going to lie. Not only because there are far more distractions here than I'm used to because of course I want to go out and explore, but also I usually live with all other students and haven't studied around a family in a really long time. But I get my stuff done.
I am somewhat picky about study ambiance, and organization and usually everything has to be in a particular order. The desk cleared my laptop, an area where I can spread out all my sources, i have to feel comfortable, I need to have a glass of water, and really prefer when it is quiet.
Oh man and the process of writing a paper for me. First I have to transfer any relevant quotes into word, then categorize them into patterns for how my essay might flow, it's just super organized in detail and I honestly think it's just busy work procrastination. but again, that is my process and I manage.

However, the biggest struggle for writing papers here, for me, is the whole sleepy thing. I get sleepy and tired around 7PM and want to go to sleep. (still don't know if it's the weather, food, my imagination, all of those) That really only gives me like 3 hours a day of homework time when I account for classes, then eating times, and shower. And reading exacerbates this problem because it makes my eyes so hard to keep open even though the material is interesting.
(TIPS)
But I think that by now I have gotten better. I can stay up longer and I just close my door, put my headphones on and turn it up--to stay awake, it really helps. I also have to keep drinking water to keep having to go to the bathroom. Open the windows sometimes because it gets pretty windy and it flutters around all my papers and the blinds that keep falling out.
Anyway, I can control how much i let external distractions get to me, but not bodily functions and I want to sleeeeeeeeeeeeppp. Sleeping feels so good.
And I wake up early too because my room faces east and I get the bright morning sunshine through my window at 4 o'clock in the morning. I wake up at 6, the latest.

Midterm grades back...

25 Oct. 2009

So we finally got back our midterms after much anxiety. And half the class failed! We were all very surprised. A lot of us felt like the TA, one of the professors, and others involved in the program were writing off our complaints because they kind of assume that in this program in Brazil we were all just on the beach and that's why half of us failed. And there was this huge issue with the midterm. Lots of people were unhappy.
Granted I'm sure a few people in the program did not put sufficient effort into this and fit some of the characteristics of the stereotype above but a lot of people who I know tried really hard (like me *ehem*) still did poorly.

We voiced our complaints and pointed out the problems with their new changes in the program which they were trying out on us. Many felt that we were being tested on a certain level but the professors and resources were not at that level.
The people constructing the program were trying to make it more rigorous because it would stand stronger against budget cuts like that.
So the midterm grades weren't curved but they gave us some points on a question because was the part that.

And lots of people are still really mad about this because they did study and read and are really dissappointed that their GPA is being hurt because of this trip.

Português class part III: quarter grade

29 Oct 2009

So we were getting our grades for this quarter since our Portuguese class is split up into two parts. And everyone was so kind of shocked in my class after hearing what the grades were.
So our professor called us in one by one while the rest of us were waiting anxiously by the door and seeing person after person come out saying "well it's not what I expected" some looking really down, others with mysterious smiles.
Then I went in and the grade the professor gave me was a B-. And again as a straight A-of-some-sort student I was also surprised just because it didn't seem to add up to the grades I had been getting on quizes and homeworks and oral exams. I'm not quite sure what happened. And almost as the last person was called in some peers had redone the math and realized that the professor was counting the 10 point exams as 5 points! yay!
then everyone's grade went up more than one grade point. So yes!
Some people really struggle in class, so I will say it's not just a class you don't have to worry about because it is intensive learning but it's definitley doable as long as you're in the correct level. If you feel it's going to fast you can ask to change classes. that's my suggestion.

1st Midterm

12. October 2009
A lot of people are a little stressed out about this midterm tomorrow because there is a lot of information in this. It's history which means a lot of dates to remember and names for the like 20 different articles and lectures. I'm pretty sure most of us have done the readings. But even so I think it's kind of hard to say what how I should go about reveiwing because I can't completely read all of the articles all over again. Since this is the first one, we have no idea what to expect. We had a review session and I'm feeling pretty good.

13. Oct. 2009
Yay! It's over and it wasn't that bad. I wasn't expecting to be asked about what century certain things happened in. So I'm a little woried about that but I do feel like I have a good understanding of the material and hopefully not remembering certain obscure details will be fine.

We got our essays back...

13 October 2009
The essay we wrote for culture class is back. Like I said before every section of the course (there are 4) we have to write an essay on one of the many topics of that section and it has to do with the Afro Brazilian experience.
And I must say I was dissapointed. I put a lot of effort into it, and I got an 88%. I know it's not that bad but it's a lot lower than what I'm used to and again it wasn't like I decided not to try hard because I'm in Brasil. That wasn't it at all, and I was left a little confused because I also didn't get much feedback as to what could have been better. I just thought too many points were docked off for the one comment that I got. I was comparing two things and the TA said I should have just focused on one thing, but I feel like I had compared the two things very well, and had I just focused on one thing it wouldn't have made sense. But oh well. I'll just try harder next time and think of just one topic.

Essay 1 Culture Class

I've been working on my first essay. It's very different from writing essays back in California, I feel like I need many more days to work on this than usual. I usually take a lot of time thinking about the topic and taking notes but i won't actually start writing the essay until 3 days before it's due. But I feel like I need to start writing a lot earlier here, because I can't go late into the night, I'm tired by like 8PM and can't keep my eyes open while reading/writing. It's terrible.
Another difference, it's a little harder when you don't really have that many guidelines. We were just told "write a 3 page paper on any topic within the module that is related to the Afro-Brazilian experience". And since this is the history module we've learned about the colonization period, the different economic and slave cycles, and capoeira. So I'm not sure what a good topic will be and since I don't know how my TA does papers, I feel a little in the dark, but I'm glad we can choose whatever we personally find interesting because, I do find a lot very interesting. Let's see how it goes.

Português class part II

25/09/09

Studies: Portuguese class is really fun. Our professora is always trying to make up little games for us to play, always super competitive and some students really get into it. Overall it’s really fun; stuff like pictionary and then each group guesses in Portuguese what word the drawings are depicting.
We also played gestures…in Portuguese of course, my words were way to easy though: hair, eat, cake and stop. (cabelo, comer, bolo, para) but other words were harder like shirt collar and sweater vest, bat. I don’t think all the classes necessarily did this, because our class was the more advanced one so there might be some different activities in each classroom.
But we read articles and debate them in class (in Portuguese). The topics include things like sexual harassment in the visa process, castration for rapists, whether the rich in Brazil are actually the poorest because of how badly they’re seen by the rest of society and how they live in fear. Another time we read news report about this one girl who was expelled for wearing a short dress and 1,000 students were offended by this and were talking about it online or something. Then one day they decided to harass her all day calling her names, and she was expelled for not dressing appropriate to the university environment.

We also listen to songs while filling in the blanks of incomplete lyrics for the song. The songs are really great too. We’ve done skits in class, and current event reports.
I think that’s the difference between my experience in Portuguese back at my UC campus and ACBEU here. The class I feel is less structured and more filled with activities in which you get to interact with everyone in your class, while in Port back at the UC we usually got to practice a little at the end or beginning of class with our neighbors. So I like the structure of class back in California but I like the activities we have here. If they were combined it would be perfect.

Many students feel that they really needed more structure for a better sense of direction and preparation for the mini-tests. So we told our professor and most of us felt there was a big improvement. But my concern is I'm not sure if I’m learning as much as I would like to.

There are mixed feelings about classes some students feel like they aren’t learning anything in some classes and feel like class time is wasted on peers’ questions about curse words. However, there are people here who came not speaking ANY Portuguese and are really falando muito bem now. It’s amazing to me how much progress many of my friends have made from not speaking any Portuguese or even any romance language before to the level they are speaking now.

this is our book.



I think it's okay but we aren't going in order we're jumping around alot, but I like the pictures :). I'm doing pretty well though the mini-testes aren't hard for me at all and I am not the one to study a lot but I pay really close attention in class and ask questions until I understand things, but I know it's not like that for everyone. those are just my habits, but like i said it this course isn't necessarily super easy for everyone and it requires a lot more time for them.

Culture class

our culture class is divided into 4 modules as i said before
there is an the afro-brazilian experience in all of them

module 1: focuses on the history of brazil and bahia and the african experience
module 2: afro-brazilian religious tradition especially those developed more in Bahia and their relationship with african roots

module 3: Racial identities in music, literature dance, and the arts; cultural products
module 4: concerned with the black movement in contemporary brazilian society, and questions of race and gender ina political context

thre are a few homiork assignments in which you answer questions about half a page long. usually there are around 5 questions per module

then there are 4 , 3 -page papers; one for every topic/module
and it's open to whatever you want to write about some aspect of the afro-brazilian experience that was covered in that module. referencing at least 3 articles from that module

there is also a 2 hour midterm and final (at the end of each of the 2 sections of the course that i mentioned before)

portuguese class

portuguese class:
everyone has to be enrolled in one of the levels, i believe there are four levels into which you are placed through an exam.

the quarter is actually divided into two sections in which you can get different grades and then they just combine them for your final UC grade.
5 mini-testes 25 points
1 written test 20 points
1 oral evaluation 20 points
2 in class essays (450 words) 20 points
homework 15 points

section I total 100 points

the other half is pretty similar except you have to do a project to present to the class the last day of school.

the mini testes are pretty short and easy nothing to stress about as long as you do homework and pay attention in class, you get 20 minutes but usually people finish in like 10/15 minutes
the midterm is pretty easy too, but it's an hour long.

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