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MY CULTURAL NOTES ABOUT BRAZIL
The International congress in Brazil is finished and since yesterday night I’m already back home to Tallinn, where the weather didn’t change at all since we left – same rainy and cloudy weather. Bit its nice to be back to the permanent place, which I already started to call home :)
Well, the main question you would expect from me to be answered is the very broad one “So, how was it!?” I would say that the feelings after it are kind of mixed and maybe a bit lost. Don’t expect from me to write smth extraordinary, just general thoughts.
From the cultural perspective to visit such a country like Brazil was really exciting and it fulfilled my expectations more than that! I would describe the feeling when I landed to Brazil and my intern, Natalia, picked me up from the airport, I was feeling like a “happy puppy”, who is full of energy to observe everything around, jumping from one place to another and full of excitement in the eyes! The same feeling I had when I had a trip to India… That’s good to be a tourist sometimes :)
From my small observations I would describe Brazil as a country full of surprises and it’s really a place to be! Every moment you are there, you experience some differences which make you smile all the time. Well, if any Brazilian reads this blog post, don’t take these thoughts too much into consideration as I had only couple of weeks in Brazil and have been only in Sao-Paolo and Goias district to observe. Of course, the country is so huge that cultures inside varies greatly by regions.
The International congress in Brazil is finished and since yesterday night I’m already back home to Tallinn, where the weather didn’t change at all since we left – same rainy and cloudy weather. Bit its nice to be back to the permanent place, which I already started to call home :)
Well, the main question you would expect from me to be answered is the very broad one “So, how was it!?” I would say that the feelings after it are kind of mixed and maybe a bit lost. Don’t expect from me to write smth extraordinary, just general thoughts.
From the cultural perspective to visit such a country like Brazil was really exciting and it fulfilled my expectations more than that! I would describe the feeling when I landed to Brazil and my intern, Natalia, picked me up from the airport, I was feeling like a “happy puppy”, who is full of energy to observe everything around, jumping from one place to another and full of excitement in the eyes! The same feeling I had when I had a trip to India… That’s good to be a tourist sometimes :)
From my small observations I would describe Brazil as a country full of surprises and it’s really a place to be! Every moment you are there, you experience some differences which make you smile all the time. Well, if any Brazilian reads this blog post, don’t take these thoughts too much into consideration as I had only couple of weeks in Brazil and have been only in Sao-Paolo and Goias district to observe. Of course, the country is so huge that cultures inside varies greatly by regions.
Well, the definite thing not only about Brazil, but the whole Latin America countries is that they are always late. For example, our Study tour OC picked us up from the place 1,5 hour later than it should be, or we traveled to Goiania 16 hours instead of 12 and there are some more small examples. One of my AIESEC friends, who is in MC Ecuador told me, that he has already adjusted to that and its ok waiting for a person during 1 hour and he can do smth else during this time. Well, in our culture it’s also ok to be late, but not for that huge time amounts…
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As I understood, the food in Brazilian culture matters a lot and people enjoy having it and in the families prefer to have it all together. Brazilians love eating meet and I even tasted blood-meet – woooh!… :) Well, the food is really tasty and I know being in another country for a longer period it matters a lot. Various exotic fruits confuse you sometimes – which way to eat them? Do you know how the palm tree tastes? Have you ever tried ice-cream with the taste of cheese? What’s açaí – the fruit everyone talks about? Do you know that rice and beans are the most common meals in Brazil? Can you cook Pão de Queijo (“cheese bread”) at home? Did you know that Brazilian cheese and milk products are one of the best ones in the world? Caipirinha for lunch and dinner?
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Rice and brown beans
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Pão de queijo (“cheese bread”).
Serving of açaí pulp.
Caipirinha - National cocktail of BrazilMy main location was São Paulo – the largest city in Brazil, located in the South-East of the country with population over 10 mln people as officially counted, but I’m sure it’s much more. The city itself is really huge and you can’t tell – where is the centre of the city? It might be anywhere! When I have just arrived to the city, I could from the 1st moment breath the “smell” of the city – polluted, huge city full of cars and motorbikes (less than in India but still popular). Almaty has sometimes the same smell, especially in summer time, when there is nothing to breath in a hot weather. The traffic jam can be enormous in São Paulo and you can stay couple of hours sometimes to get from one place to another, that’s why people are sometimes afraid of planning somewhere to go by car as you may be stuck in any time during the day. Better to go by train, metro or observe the nearest neighborhoods.
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Traffic jam in São Paulo
In São Paulo you may find people with different social classes and its ok, if in the city next to some more or less modern building you may meet bunch of houses called slums (трущобы), and you can even imagine how people might live in these conditions – housings built from several different-sized wooden boards covered by the cardboards as an entrance to the “house” or smth else. There are certain parts of the city full of slums and there is always some boss of the slum which is ruled by him. Remember, the Mexican soap opera "Wild Rose" («Дикая Роза»)? So, the same housing concept. Well, it’s still looked “nicer” than the living conditions in India for poor people who belong to untouched cast.
Slums in São Paulo
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People are expressive and emotional, with warm attitude and positive even if smth goes wrong and not according to plan – they still keep it simple! People look differently, you can’t certainly say “Hey, that’s definitely Brazilian!” – they might look like dark skin Afro-Brazilian to white skin with blond hears and blue eyes. So depends again where the person comes from – South or North part of the country? Amazons or savannas?
Quite few people speak English in Brazil. And that makes I guess trainees to be put to the conditions of learning local language. I find it perfect!
There are loads of Japanese people live in São Paulo and they even have their own neighborhood.
Quite few people speak English in Brazil. And that makes I guess trainees to be put to the conditions of learning local language. I find it perfect!
There are loads of Japanese people live in São Paulo and they even have their own neighborhood.
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The Japanese-speaking community of São Paulo live mostly in Liberdade Neighbourhood.
To be engaged in criminality among young low class people is quite common and all the time my friends were scared me to be attentive with my bag or any other belongings. I know, that’s should be in any country you travel, but in Brazil this should be your first rule. It’s quite ok, if in the street or even in the metro full of people, one person comes closer to you with gun or knife hidden in the shirt and tells calmly “That’s robbery… Give me your bag and watches”. Or when you sit in the car in front and someone comes to you and tells to get out from the car and then you find it several blocks ahead with no laptop bag at least. These cases are common in big cities like São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro, don’t know about the other cities. And you are lucky when police is somewhere around and some cases you might get some stuff back, if you are smart to react immediately.
Because of those social issues, for young people from poor families it’s quite easy way to start being engaged to criminality and if you don’t pay attention to them in a certain time, the may go down and follow the example I showed above. In Goiania city we have visited one NGO, which is supporting young people from poor families in their -teens to learn and study how to enter the legal job market – so they attend this school and after that may work legally in certain places. I’m sure, that’s one of the small examples how third sector in Brazil helps to prevent social crisis like that. And it was really admiring to see, how people are into that with the whole concept and idea they have. It made me to think about social issues we have in my country, this concept can be relevant anywhere in developing countries.
Well, that’s some general observations I have noticed being in Brazil and I’m really happy that my parents supported me with an opportunity to visit this country. Well, I’m already keen to come there back for internship maybe and doesn’t matter which type of it, at least for two objectives – learn Portuguese and capoeira.
These are simple reasons which make people travel around the world…
Because of those social issues, for young people from poor families it’s quite easy way to start being engaged to criminality and if you don’t pay attention to them in a certain time, the may go down and follow the example I showed above. In Goiania city we have visited one NGO, which is supporting young people from poor families in their -teens to learn and study how to enter the legal job market – so they attend this school and after that may work legally in certain places. I’m sure, that’s one of the small examples how third sector in Brazil helps to prevent social crisis like that. And it was really admiring to see, how people are into that with the whole concept and idea they have. It made me to think about social issues we have in my country, this concept can be relevant anywhere in developing countries.
Well, that’s some general observations I have noticed being in Brazil and I’m really happy that my parents supported me with an opportunity to visit this country. Well, I’m already keen to come there back for internship maybe and doesn’t matter which type of it, at least for two objectives – learn Portuguese and capoeira.
These are simple reasons which make people travel around the world…
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Smog in São Paulo
São Paulo Sé Cathedral.
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PS. If I manage with my time, I will write back about IC experience, as hectic time is coming in AIESEC… Try to enjoy autumn and don't get freezed! :)
