White People Like to Study Abroad!

But I've already noted that. If you're interested in finding out more things that white people like you might want to check out the appropriately-titled website "Stuff White People Like". Mostly it's a collection that describes a "...stereotype of affluent, environmentally and socially conscious, anti-corporate white North Americans, who typically hold a degree in the liberal arts". Like the authors of the blog themselves. Considering a solid portion of my SIT group fits this bill--I know that I do--we can have a lot of fun thinking of all of the things we've been doing here that white people like!

I think that most of us (at least I did) paid attention to how Brazil did in this summer's World Cup (#133) in South Africa. Even though they lost to the Netherlands, it didn't stop me (or anyone else) from liking the idea of soccer (#80). So it was good preparation for studying abroad (#72) in a soccer-loving country like Brazil. (I guess that "traveling", #19, works here too).

And being here leads to so many other things that we like! I think that everybody was genuinely excited upon arriving, and we might have been a little bit anxious but everyone was prepared for a great semester. And what better way to start than promising to learn a new language (#115)? It really is an asset in a lot of different ways, and it definitely leads to greater awareness (#18). In Brazil especially, historically a very ethnically and racially mixed society, speaking Portuguese increases one's chances of being the only white person around (#71). Then when we go back home we can share all of the things we learned with the Brazilians we know and be the experts on their culture (#20). Part of which, like I said, is soccer. And during our one-week orientation at a farm outside of the city, we played a lot of co-ed soccer (#65).

We also got to pick our own fruit there (#132) which was most definitely organic (#6). Meanwhile, during the rural homestay, one of the first things that I did was drink the coffee (#1) offered to us upon arrival. In most of Brazil, especially in rural areas, coffee is consumed throughout the day, especially during breakfast and between all meals. But my host family in Pau D'Arco were great hosts and made me three different kinds of tea (#13), one of which was even made from the bark of a tree! And these beverages were just supplementing the bottled water (#76) that we had (and have to) drink. Unfortunately, the city reservoir in Belém is in the same watershed as the sewage dump...so, yeah. That's not good.

And like I wrote before, the diversity (#7) here, particularly in terms of food, is astounding. In every place we've visited--Belém, Manaus, Santarém, the Trombetas and Tapajós rivers, and the waterfalls--we've been living by bodies of water (#51). At Ver-o-Peso, in a way the city's huge farmer's market (#5), I bought a natural medicine (#59) to help with some pain I was having in my foot. And it worked incredibly well. Thankfully I haven't come down with anything more serious, and hopefully my new layer of bug bites won't lead to malaria or dengue fever...

We've spent extended periods of time without televisions (#28), especially during orientation week and on the boat, and have visited a number of cool non-profit organizations (#12), doing a lot of different things in the region. On the other hand, like I wrote before, we also visited the largest bauxite mine in the world, which gave us all a chance to express hatred for corporations (#82). But through it all we've been able to maintain a lot of our interests that aren't as common here, frisbee sports (#110) and indie music (#41) being among them. And I'm typing this on my Apple computer (#40), with Facebook (#106) open in another window. And despite the warnings of many, I've maintained my vegetarian diet (#32), and this weekend even found the tahini that I need to make hummus (#112).

So, it seems like this has been a really good place to be for "left-leaning, city-dwelling white folk". I've certainly found a lot of things that I like.

That was really tedious. But in all seriousness it helped explain our time here a little better than I normally can? Anyways, visit the site and feel free to ask me questions about anything!

And here's a photo of (in order) my host sister, Amanda, host mother, Maria Clara, me, my other "host" sister, Cynthia (who has her own house), and the student she's hosting, Amanda.

Now that I have your attention...

It's getting hotter here. It's getting colder at home. Right now I consider that something positive. Anyways, I decided to create this site in order to let friends and family know what I’m up to in northern Brazil this semester. It also saves me the trouble of sending individual emails with pictures!

So, obviously, I’m studying abroad this semester. I arrived in Belém do Pará the morning of September 2nd and met the group at the airport later that night. The city is located in northern Brazil, at the mouth of the Amazon River, and has a little over 2 million inhabitants in the metropolitan area. It also has an informative Wikipedia page. I’m here studying through and SIT program here, which pretty much means that they organize the classes, excursions, and homestays for myself and the other 18 students here (all from the U.S.). We spent the first week in Brazil at a farm outside of Belém. We sat through (almost) extremely exciting orientation lectures, played a lot of futebol, and even got to venture (kind of) into the rain forest. Part of that

walk-through included "helping" to harvest açaí (which was later made into a juice for us).

We also had an introduction our classes for the semester: Portuguese, a Thematic Seminar (classroom-based), an Environmental Field Studies Seminar (field-based, obviously), and the Independent Study Project, in which we choose individual topics and research them for four weeks, either in and around Belém or somewhere else in northern Brazil. Our first "field" experience was a trip to the mangroves near Belém and a meeting with a fishing family who operate out of a small island at the beginning of the Atlantic.

And on Wednesday the 8th we finally came to Belém and met with our host families! I'm living with a mother and daughter (and a poodle) just outside of the city. After dropping off my luggage here that night we drove to Icoarací, a town north of Belém where we sat on the banks of the river and drank the water of cold coconuts. Delicious. They've also taken me to the Botanical Garden here and the Museo Paraense Emilio Goeldi, a combination of a zoo and museum of the flora and fauna of the Amazon region.

So, since Wednesday we've mostly been studying Portuguese and spending time with our host families here. Obviously I'm a little late starting this but the more things we do the more I'll have to post!