Maringa!

Oi! (meaning: “hello” in Portuguese)

Talk about a long day! We went to the UEM today at about 8:30 am and did not arrive back to our hotel until 7:30 pm!! It was a very interesting day to say the least! We had 3 lectures in the morning: one on adapting Florida’s affordable housing needs assessment to Brazil, one on Vertical development in Maringa, Brazil and one on a “favela” in Maringa, Brazil.

I am gonna vent a little so I apologize in advance. The lecture on “verticalization” as the professors here call it was definitely…well, interesting! There is a different mindset here in Brazil, which I sort of knew when I decided to study abroad in a different country. The professor (which by the way they refer to themselves as Professor Doctors!) was telling us that in this region of Brazil, and most places for that matter, have a large rate of growth, specifically upwards. And then he proceeded to tell us this was a completely bad thing. I sat in class and I was a little confused…I mean yea, maybe some privacy issues and minor negative issues are present with vertical growth, but it can’t be all bad, right? Nope. This guy, sorry, Professor Doctor, was saying he didn’t agree with it, but Brazil had to accept it because it was what the present situation here was. So what’s the alternative to vertical growth?? That would be sprawl. You have to be kidding me that you are going to encourage sprawl as opposed to “verticalization”. Has anyone seen what the United States is currently going through with all their problems with sprawl?! After this lecture I had a conversation with our program director who told me that many people see this “verticalization” as a symbol of power and capitalism and so in that sense it is a negative thing. While that may be true to some extent I still don’t see the reason to totally discourage it...I wish people would learn from other people’s mistakes! Hint*Hint Brazil.

We walked around downtown Maringa which is really cute…there is a huge cathedral in the town center that is shaped like a cone! (See pictures) We also went to a public park which is one of two “lungs” of the city…it was gorgeous and there were tiny monkeys everywhere! (See picture) Then we went to a neighborhood called Santa Felicidade. It is a low-income neighborhood that is in the process of being displaced…I am not even going to get started on this one! Basically Maringa’s local government lied and said this neighborhood was a favela (shanty town) to get 25,000 reias (Brazilian currency). Can you say corruption?

Enough ranting and raving….We had lunch with some of the Brazilian students from the university. Their biggest meal here is lunch, which is so different than what I am used to! So we have been eating big lunches and dinners here! But we walk A LOT!!! So I’m not worried J
While on our “field trip” today I attempted to converse with the Brazilian students…Disaster!!! Portuguese is very difficult! I assumed that it was similar to Spanish and since I am decent in speaking Spanish that I could get by with Portuguese. Wrong! It was actually kind of funny because one kid couldn’t speak English and I couldn’t speak Portuguese so we ended up trying to speak Spanish…haha…wish you guys coulda seen it!!

I apologize if my blog is really similar to Liz’s. We are on the same program so obviously we are experiencing the same things…but I try not to read hers and hopefully we have a little different of a take on some things and it keeps it interesting?!

This is a pretty long blog post for me and its 2:19 am so I am gonna sign off now…but one more thing before I go. Liz pointed out to me that I talk about Caprinhas in every single blog post! So I was obviously gonna try to avoid talking about them but I realized I spell them wrong in every post as well and just wanted to correct my Portuguese J (Correct spelling = Caprinhas)
Also, if you notice I changed my color scheme to green and yellow which are Brazils colors…a little more festive! AND…anyone can post a comment now…I changed the settings so that you don’t have to be a user…SO that means you guys must comment on this fabulous blog of mine! MAUD SAYS!

Enjoy the fotos! (P.S. I uploaded all my Sao Paulo pictures to facebook so go check-em out!)

Bons sonhos (meaning: “good night” in Portuguese)