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!
