7 Steps to An Inspiring First Day in Brazil

〈 Have a look at About the Trip for context 〉

1. TAKE A COLD SHOWER

Always take cold showers.

It’s empowering when you are able to overcome your body telling you to do anything but step into freezing water. I first tried it a couple of years ago after I read a Medium article (similar to this one). I’ve been doing it for a while now, and it honestly never gets easier. There are a lot of times when I take comfy steamy hot showers because I convince myself that I may be getting sick or that it’s too cold outside, and sometimes I’m just too weak to follow through with it. Every time I do, though, I step out glad that I did. It’s helped me be comfortable with being uncomfortable, understand that I decide my mental state, and develop a “just do it” attitude. Apart from the mental exercise, it’s better for your hair and skin and is a plus when traveling and hot water is not available. Nathalie, Allie, and I were discussing cold showers, and I was trying to convince them to at least try it out. It’s one of those things that sounds terrible until you try it. And then it sounds a little less terrible. I teased that it was my goal to get them to willingly take a cold shower before the end of the summer: “I hope you are used to failure,” Nathalie answered. Welp.

2. EAT A DELICIOUS BRAZILIAN BREAKFAST 

Complete with 12,532 different types of bread, dulce de leche muffins, cinnamon bananas, seeds of all types, fresh orange juice, 4,786 different cheeses, thin-sliced ham, and strong coffee.

Evidently breakfast is kind of a big deal here. I met a lady on the plane¹ who said that more emphasis is placed on breakfast, so most hotels include it in their prices. This was the case at the Radisson — we definitely took advantage of it. We were advised not to go all-out with the fresh fruit because of water quality concerns. We are starting light on the fruits and building up immunity.

3. FIND A COOL UBER DRIVER

Who will go out of his way to help foreigners find their way.

It was our first Uber ride in Porto Alegre, so we were’t sure of anything to begin with. We were hoping to eventually arrive at the engineering building at PUCRS but didn’t know what the campus was like and didn’t have internet to look it up. In very broken Portuguese, I attempted to ask if he was familiar with the campus. It seemed like he said yes… but who knows? It was really the first time any of us had heard native Portuguese, and we were struggling. The map on his phone clearly indicated that we were going to PUCRS, but when we arrived at the location the map indicated, he disregarded the entry. After a few seconds of mild kidnap panic, I realized he was probably going to the main entrance on the other side of campus. He stopped to ask for directions before venturing as far as possible into campus, and warmly wishing us luck on our journey and we got out.

4. EAT LUNCH AT A BUFFET 

Where the desserts are at the beginning of the line.

There are a bunch of eateries on campus. There are at least 4 cafés with coffee and pastries, a student cafeteria, and two “regular” restaurants. Prof Carlos took us to the nicer buffet restaurant where, for some reason, they have dessert items placed before anything else.

At most restaurants we’ve been to, there is a little table where they have tiny cups put out for coffee, chá (“tea”), or quentáo (non-alcoholic warm wine). Prof Wettergreen missed the non-alcoholic part of the quentäo description and was surprised to see everyone drinking it just before heading off to classes. Quentäo is especially “hot” right now because it is traditionally served during Festa Junina.

5. LAUGH WITH PROFESSORS AND FACULTY

As you help teach an engineering design workshop.

6. TOUR A DIVERGENT THINKING LAB

With Creative Design students from PUCRS and a passionate professor.

TECNOPUC’s Crialab is a collaborative space with environments dedicated to constructive team interactions. The various rooms are conducive to different parts of design: rooms with only sticky notes and white boards for brainstorming and synthesis, a prototyping room with raw materials for tangible idea representation, a theatrical space for presentation, and an “ultra-productive” room called Sala Sky that is completely covered with white boards and has variable lighting to encourage different types of thinking.

Above some of the doors in TECNOPUC:

“Aprender é a única coisa de que a mente nunca se cansa, nunca tem medo e nunca se arrepende.”

“Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets.”

– Leonardo da Vinci

7. GET TO KNOW YOUR ENGINEERING PROFESSOR 

Over dinner and conversation about how education and society has changed over the years.

I always find the personal side of professors interesting because it’s difficult to tell what a professor is “really like” based on their classroom personality and teaching style. I like to see that casual side because it puts human qualities behind the knowledge that they share in an academic setting. Naturally, I tend to associate a professor with a very specific set of knowledge or skills, but realizing how their life led them to their specializations and understanding how they see their expertise fitting into the real world is all the more important.

Dr. Wettergreen mentioned how he pretty much subsisted on peanut butter because anything else was too expensive — seems like some things about the college life never change.

Side notes/random thoughts of the day:

• The students at PUCRS don’t speak English near as well as we thought they would. Better that way – more practice!
• Why aren’t there lanes on some of the roads?
• “Alright, let’s take a short 3-minute break” … *Professors take a 45-minute coffee break*
• Engineering courses are scheduled from 5:30pm to 10:30pm at PUCRS because almost all undergrads work during the day. From Prof Carlos’ perspective, this means arriving at work at 9am and not going home until 10 or 11 at night. As he is the engineering dean, he has meetings and paperwork in addition to his lecture and research responsibilities.