Talking to the Brazilians

So we had to go out and talk to some Brazilians for class today. First of all, we had to see if they spoke English and if they did, ask them how they felt about the U.S. based on the media they see. It was really interesting. I was actually with a couple of my classmates when they were getting their interviews done, so I got to see a lot of different perspectives on this.

One girl, Kristini?? (she said it was Christina in English- so I´m not sure how to spell it) thinks that the U.S. is great and that all of her friends think the same thing. Another guy that I talked to, Guihermi (once again, sorry for the spelling) said something similar. That he thinks the U.S. is also very cool based on the media. I was talking with my classmate Fletcher (the mystery man!) about his interview and he said that his guy knows that the media only shows one side of the story and that he shouldn´t take what he sees on TV as literal. I thought all of these opinions are very interesting. When we set out to do this assignment, I was under the impression that they were all going to hate us, but I found out just the opposite. I was also really surprised that the guy Fletcher talked to didn´t take the media seriously, because a lot of people do, which is so not cool because America is not what Hollywood makes it out to be (big houses, plastic surgery, Paris Hilton...) But all in all, I was just surprised that they liked America.

I didn´t get a chance to talk to anybody older though. As Jena said in class today, there´s a generation gap and it seems that older people feel as if their culture is being invaded by America´s ´junk food´culture, while the younger generation embraces it. I got a good taste of that today. If I can find an older person that speaks English, I would love to ask them how they feel about America, because I´m pretty sure that they would think our culture sucks. But it was really interesting to see exactly what we talked about in class today presented to us in real life by talking to people. It was also neat to have to go up to people and ask them if they spoke English, because it was sort of like an ice-breaker with the locals and made me feel a little bit better about that whole hospitality thing I mentioned in the previous blog.

Today was also a little bit better in the sense that we´re starting to blend in and look less like tourists. We´re getting the hang of crossing that round about and are getting better at asking questions in Portuguese. I think over the course of the three weeks here, people will start to like us and hopefully forgive us for being so loud and obnoxious on our first day here. It seems like it´s going that way already (that and we´re beginning to get into the more laid back lifestyle of this place).

Can´t wait to go our and take pictures tomorrow! I´ve only taken 3 pictures since I´ve been here (mainly because I like to take my time, blend in and capture the moment) but it´s been too much of a whirlwind to do this). If I feel better tomorrow, I´m getting up early to shoot the city in the early morning light. It´s so beautiful here and I love observing how laid back everybody is. It´s also cool to be in a college town and to see how much different, yet how much the same it is as back home.

More to come tomorrow...