Mother's Arrival

About one week later...
Many things have happened in the past week so I wasn’t able to/too lazy to finish my last entry. Things like my mother arriving, my computer breaking, getting a new computer, and dealing with a little cold...
But, first things first, the conclusion to the Rio trip. As I was saying, I grabbed a double shot and headed towards the consulate. I decided to walk because I still had about two hours before I needed to be there. After about an hour of walking, I started getting a bit tired. So I sat down, next to the peri, and started thinking to myself: wow, this now makes 24 hrs without sleep. Alright, after the consulate, find a place to sleep. And that’s what I did. The consulate wasn’t to eventful; I walked in, they gave me my new passport, I walked back out. I grabbed a bus and went to the bus station. I bought my ticket back to São João and found a quite place to catch a few Z’s. It was about 3:00 and at that time, I thought that my bus left at 7:00 so I slept in one of the most uncomfortable chairs ever created for about two and a half hours. After taking my little power nap, I went outside for a smoke. While doing so I double checked my ticket information. Turns out I was being a bit dyslexic or something because the actually left at 9 that night. “Ugg, two more hours of waiting...” So I can’t get back to sleep but I’m to tired to read or write anything. So now I have three hours to do nothing.. I sat there for probably about 15 minuets trying to figure out what to do until I just said fuck it, I’ll hit up Starbucks again! Hop on a bus(45min), get an expresso(10min), go outside to drink it and enjoy the night life of Rio(30min), get on a bus back to the station(45 min), and arrive having seen the city at night with an extra adventure to tell in about two hours. Shortly thereafter, I feel asleep on the bus and woke up in SJDR with a nasty little cold.

...The following week after that was a bit hectic. I had about three days to get over my cold because my mom was coming. I sat at home and drank ridiculous amounts of tea because as soon as my mother arrived, I knew I wouldn’t have any more time to rest. Unfortunately, that’s not quite what happened. The day I was supposed to pick up my mom, I slept in in way past my alarm; I missed the first two busses to Belo Horizonte. Finally after getting on one, there was a lot of traffic in Belo so the bus made me even later. So I’m at the bus station, my mom probably already waiting for me, and I still need to get to the airport. So I say screw, I’ll take a cab, it’ll be faster. Turns out that the airport is on the outskirts of the completely other side of town. So I gave the cab driver my arm and a leg and started franticly searching for my mother. After my first tour of the airport with no luck, I decide I should do this a bit more systematically. Good thing the airport wasn’t big or my one hour of searching could of turned to hell. After still no luck, I go to information to call her on the intercom. I wait, 5min, 10min, 20min... I think to myself: no way did she try to get to São João by herself, she’s either way late or stuck in São Paulo. Thinking that this was going to be a quick grab and go, I didn’t bring any of my things so I ended up paying R$5 to use the internet at an airport computer. Turns out that I received a message stating that she would be about five hours late. Well that was two hours ago so I had three more to go. I find another uncomfortable chair in a quite place in the airport and fall asleep. At about 6p.m., five hours after she left that message, I go back to the computer. Strange though, a two hour nap made me feel a world better in terms of my cold. Nothing new from my mom so I grab her flight number to see what I can find out about it. At information, they tell me that it had been cancelled and all the passengers were rescheduled for a different flight. When the flight came, no mother to be seen. I walked around looking, double checked the new flight number, nothing... I decided that I would wait until 9 and then just go home, what else could I do? But a good hour after her re-scheduled flight, she arrived.

Rio-epilogue part 1

1:00 A.M.
running to catch a bus that’s makin a pit stop...

10:12 A.M.
Oh god! I think I’m in heaven! Heaven, for some people, mainly people completely addicted to coffee having suffered withdrawals to good kinds, is also known as Starbucks. For the first time in Brazil,I ordered coffee, knowing exactly what it was going to taste like. Even at 7:30 this morning as I passed the mall I knew the taste of that caramel frappachino. It’s almost sad to think that in a country who’s main exports include coffee, I fee; such an urge to drink american coffee. But it is nice to know that wherever you are in the world there are places that can make you feel a little closer to home.
...And so, the story of how I arrived here. At about 10:30 last night I left my house in SJDR to pick up passport in Rio. At about 11:00, I found out that the bus I was going to take didn’t have any vacancies and the next one left at 6 the following morning.. After looking distraught and confused for a minute, the bus attendant told me that there was a bus coming from Divinopolis that was going to stop here real fast on its way to Rio de Janeiro. It would be here between 12:20 to 1:00 for about 5min. So I left to go eat a burger and came back around 11:50p.m. to start waiting. And so I waived. And waited. Then it started raining so I waited some more. And finally, as I start thinking of leaving and going home, I see a bus. Only, it wasn’t going where I had expected it to go. So I sprinted around the bus station and ask if I can hitch a ride with them. Turns out that I can and I ended up paying close to half the price of a normal fare! We arrived in in Rio somewhere around 6:30a.m. This being my second time in Rio, I knew my around a little better so I hopped on a bus and headed for Flamenco, a district close to downtown Rio. I walked around with one goal in mind: Find Starbucks. After about a mile of walking around, I finally found the mall that the Starbucks was in. Just one problem: The mall didn’t open for another two and half hours. So I decided to find the world renown beach; Copacabana. So I headed South. Now here is the point of the story where I introduce a new character. Like my previous adventures, I met someone along the way. He wasn’t an angel or an american burnout, but an intriguing person none the less. By the end of out time together, I was certain that he was home-less, family-less, and also, friends-less. He spoke super fast with an un-enunciated accent so I barley understood anything that he said, but that didn’t stop him from talking about everything in the world.. He also carried around a stereo from the 70’s that probably didn’t work but he kept a gospel CD in there anyway. Although I didn’t understand a single thing that he said, he accompanied me for about two hours showing me different places with our final destination being Copacabana. He took me to a few different ‘touristy’ places and another beach before reaching Copa. Copa however, wasn’t as good as I had expected. The water was dirty, it was rainy, there was trash everywhere, and my vagabond friend kept showing me all of his possessions. I will say that it did have some decent waves. Probably some of the biggest I have ever seen actually, measuring around 15-20 feet tall. The landscape too was nice. So after watching the waves and my friend washing his shirt in them, I said ‘Adieu’ and took a bus back to the mall. And in almost perfect synchronization, as I walked up to the entrance and the line of people waiting outside, the mall opened. Three floors up, I found my golden treasure...
R$12.00 Grande Caramel frappachino, that’s what I’m talking about! I’ve now been sitting here for about an hour, slowly sipping down that frothy deliciousness and writing this blog. Now, I’m off to the consulate to pick up my passport. But first, another double shot!

The never ending adventure: Part 3

12-02-09
6:24a.m.
The following day, yesterday as of now, was a bit intense. I had about 8 hours to study for a final and take it, print and fill out my passport application, and gather everything else that was needed to go to Rio. Despite unruly amounts of stress and impatience, everything turned out fine. I even think I did pretty good on my final. Although I’m still missing a few pieces of my application, I’m sure it’ll be okay. I still have about an hour and half before my meeting so I think I’ll watch the waves breaking on the rocks and the homeless being woken up by the police. After I finish my business, I’m going to try to find myself a starbucks.



12-02-09
11:30a.m.
...Sitting at the bus station waiting for my bus at 2:00 to go back to SJDR. Made it through the consulate alright. Funny, seems like there was only one American there and he was pretty much running the place. All the security, secretaries, and what not were all Brazilian. Not what I expected but that was fine. My final question to the guy when we were finished was: “Now where can I find myself a Starbucks?” He laughed. He told me where to find one and how to get there; the easiest way being by metro. So when I was outside, I started heading towards the nearest station. As I’m about to head down the stairs to catch a train, I hear, in English:”...And so we meet again!” It was a guy that I met in the consulate while waiting my turn. He told me that he’d been living in Rio for the past four years and when he heard that I was adventuring to a Starbucks, he told me “Man! You’re in Rio! You’ve got to try the coffee here, I know a real good spot; they pretty much invented the ‘cafezinho’, I’ll take you there...” And so we walked on. Strange character he was. He told me that he “taught english”, he came from Los Angeles, and his income came from a “family business”. He also told me he lived in a favela. He kind of looked like the main character in ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ looked in real life twenty years later. One lazy eye, both eyelids halfway shut, bald wearing a black baret. The kind of guy who laughs at his own experiences thinking: ‘damn that was a crazy freaking time’. Although vacant and appearing unintelligent at first glance, he did, at times, produce little blurbs of evidence that the gears were working. Every once in a while, he would state some kind of historical fact about a specific building or the city of Rio but then proceeded to mindlessly rant about it. So after he got us lost a few times, we finally made it to that cafe. I was unimpressed. Although this was the first place I’d seen in Brazil that made coffee naturally, it still didn’t meet my standards. Fun anyway, even though the coffee was no good, the company was nice and seeing a new city is always fun. Afterwards, he showed me which bus to take to the bus station and bid me farewell. So now I’m here, waiting for my bus back home, at the end of this endless journey. Another seven hours and it’s back to finals week. woot!

12-03-09
Cyrille Gindreau

P.S. I have to go back to Rio in a few weeks to pic up my passport. Maybe I’ll see our gardian angel, or maybe the sketchy, burnt out American...

The never ending adventure: Part 2

12-01-09
11:20p.m.
Ouf, crazy past 24 hours, got back to SJDR, crazy night with Susan, watched a movie, went to sleep, woke up five hours later, went to a meeting with my employer-to-be, ran around town doing errands, took a final, WAIT! I’m not finished with my last posting am I? I am now waiting for a bus back to Rio de Janeiro. Now, where was I? Right, Top of the world...
...It was wonderful. After promenading the top and the side of the mountain, I decided to check out the canyon that connected the back of the gulf and the main ocean. The gap in the land was only a mere 50 feet long, cliffs lining both sides with that impeccable turquoise-blue sea in between. Had I had the conhones, this seemed to be the perfect spot for cliff diving if you could get past looking down a 100 foot drop of rock and cacti. And so after absorbing as much beauty as we could, we started our decent back down to town. After a good mile down, we actually came across that restaurant we had been searching for earlier. A nice looking place, our stomachs decided to eat there. We ate shrimp and pasta on there back balcony over looking the marina and one of Arraial’s beaches. Good food, good alcohol, good view, couldn’t of asked for more for our two year anniversary.



12-01-09
11:54p.m.
Just got on the bus and am leaving for Rio...
And so after our little feast, we walked the rest of the way back to our hotel and went to bed. The following day, I made sure to set my alarm for 5:30a.m. to be able to go watch the sunrise on the beach but unfortunately, that wasn’t early enough. My first thought waking up was: “Fuck, it’s already light out.” So I grabbed my cloths and camera, booked out the door, down the stairs, and realizing that the hotel assistant was sleeping, scaled he front gate because it was locked. Two cigarettes later, I finally found the beach. Although it was safe to assume that the sun had risen above the water, it could not yet be seen from behind one of the islands. And so I watched the sun rise, on the beach, in Brazil.



Going home later that day was, well, interesting... Bus 1: Arraial to Cabo Frio. Piece of cake. Then, when we asked about getting to Barbacena, they told us that the bus only had one vacancy left and the next one wasn’t for another 12 hours. Thank god, we had our guardian angel with us. When we first arrived in Cabo Frio, he helped us find which bus to take to Arraial. Random guy, never even knew his name. But, with a bit of luck, we saw him again that day. We told him our situation and he simply suggested going to Rio first then taking a direct line to São João. Easy enough, and so we got ourselves tickets to Rio and headed there. Regardless of the size of the bus station, we eventually found our way around when we got there. We bought our tickets to SJDR and an hour later, we were off. Interestingly enough, as we waited for the bus, we saw our angel a third time, Coincidence? Maybe, but the rest of our journey went quite smoothly.

12-02-09
6:00a.m.
Sitting on a pier in Rio, watching the smog/fog starting to break around the surrounding mountains (insert clever metaphor). For a big city, sure is damn quite at 6 in the morning; the water quietly breaking over a small rock is the loudest thing around.
...And so as for my Cabo Frio story, that’s the conclusion. It was fun, interesting, beautiful, and relaxing. But, this is not the end of the adventure...

The never ending adventure: Part 1

11-28-09
10:52a.m.
On our way to Cabo Frio
This is the second bus of today that we’ve taken. I woke up at 6:30 in the morning, took a shower, are breakfast and we left São João del-Rei at 8:00. Hour and a half later, we arrived in Barbacena. 1.5 hrs down, 6.5 hrs to go.

11-29-09
5:44a.m.
As I expected, I woke up an hour before my alarm went off.. Guess I’ll start writing from where I left off. We reached Cabo Frio, then took another bus to Arraial do Cabo (only like 10min). Nice little town, not what I expected but seemed fun. Walked around until we found a decent hotel at a decent price and dropped off our stuff. After getting comfortable, we went off to find the beach. Eventually, we found it; completely deserted and dark, it was night time by then. We took a nice nighttime stroll in the water and played a little in the sand. Susan kinda got stung by a tiny jellyfish, nothing serious. On our way back, we stopped at a nice little wood oven pizzeria to eat, then proceeded back to the hotel to go to bed. As for today? I’ll probably let Susan sleep for another hour or two before we set off on our adventure. Our plan is to go on this hike to what seems like a nice, secluded beach. All of this was planned off of Google Earth so no idea what we’re going to find...

11-29-09
7:21p.m.
Sippin a caipirinha on the beach.

11-30-09
5:37a.m.
Watching the sunrise.

11-30-09
9:44a.m.
Even though I’m writing this as I go in a journal, I still can’t keep up with this trip...
We’re on a bus now, waiting for it to leave to Rio de Janeiro. No, not Barbacena, not São João, but Rio. Why? Because we kind of missed our first bus... But, this isn’t what you want to read, you want to hear about yesterday. Well, again, I guess I’ll start from where I left off from last time. After finishing that that last entry, I went back up to the room to get a few more hours of sleep. After waking up a second time and getting ready, we took off for the beach. The first beach that we hit was nice but we were just using it as a landmark to get us to the real thing. And so we got our feet wet and walked on to our final destination. We walked probably around half the town before coming to the entrance of the mountain we needed to hike to get to our beach. After a nice, long, steep, hot, hike up the mountain, we finally got to see the other side of the mountain and oh what a site it was:




We walked around that side for a while until realizing that being out in this heat with no water and not knowing when the next time we could find shelter was not the greatest idea. And so we turned back to find something to drink. On our way back down, we noticed a a sign for a restaurant and decided to try to find it. Well after a about a mile of walking in the heat, we started thinking that maybe trying to find this place wasn’t such a good idea given the circumstances. So we started waving down cars to see if they knew anything or had any suggestions. After a while, one car did stop and ended up giving us a ride all the way to the beach. God, that AC felt nice, so did those water bottles we chugged when we got there, only problem was, there wasn’t a beach here. “So, where’s the beach?” “You walk down that path there.” said the man selling the water. “Right, okay” I thought to myself. The path looked quite treacherous. It was almost like rock climbing though a forest. Bot eventually, the forest thinned, and then, at last, we found it. I’m no professional writer but I’m sure even a person like Thoreu couldn’t describe the beauty of this place. And so:



Heh, even the picture doesn’t even do it justice... And so we swam here for a few hours, built a sand, wall? Took lots of pictures and video, and generally had a wonderful time. After having our fair share of fun in the sun, we decided to explore the rest of this little peninsula. So we hiked back up the mountain path and headed further along the dirt road. It was amazing, after every curve, it just seemed to get more and more beautiful. That was, until we hit the grand finale: The top of the world! From here, we could see the ocean on our left, the peninsula in front, the little ‘mini-gulf’ with our beach to our right, and an island to our backs...........

Crazy Days

It's the end of the semester and everything, like back in the states, is getting super crazy... Yesterday, for example, I was told that I'm going to get job next semester translating the UFSJ website into english. Then was interviewed by some people doing a commercial for schools in Brazil, followed by classes. The entire time trying to buy and cook a turkey with Susan because Thanksgiving isn't a normal holiday here. Woke up at 9a.m., went to bed at 3a.m.(went to an end of school party) Today? ...Recovery day, tomorrow, travel for 10 hours to go to the beach!!!! woot woot! It's been way past due but I'm finally getting my chance to see the ocean! When I come back, I get a few days to catch up on work and then I'm going to Rio to renew my passport. The following week is pretty much finals week, and then my mother comes. Not to sure what that will entail but I foresee a lot of traveling around to place like: Tiradents, Varginha, Caxambú, Rio de Janeiro, and we're going to be spending Christmas in Argentina. Not to sure how much I'll be able to post seeing the congestion of the things to come but if worst comes to worst, I'll be keeping a journal on me to write it down in the bus to later post here. Should be fun!!!

Oh yea, and I haven't updated pics in a while because I've been rebuilding everything from the ground up, I've recreated the albums and all that needs to be done is some HTML coding and it'll be uploaded so watch for that to, not to mention the beautiful pictures from the beach that I'll be soon visiting!

Cyrille Gindreau

The "Rising Action" of the semester

The days are getting long again, must be getting close to the end of the semester... Here was my day and what I did:

7:00a.m. Wake up & take a shower
7:30a.m Walk to cafe to have an expresso while I start to read this text on grammar and lexicon.
8:30a.m. Start walking back to my house and my alarm to wake up goes off.
8:45a.m. Get home, facebook apps and read news.
9:30a.m. Continue reading that same text (it's long, boring and full of words that I don't understand...)
10:30a.m. Go to campus Santo Antonio to speak with the exchange program coordinator; we talk about my passport renewal, visa renewal, picking up my permeant identity card (all of which need to be done within the next two months), classes that I may take next semester, and generally how I'm doing in Brazil. She also said that they were thinking of hiring me to do translations for there exchange program website next, might be fun...
11:30a.m. Get back home only to find that my room mate wants me to go to lunch with him (dammit, I need to study more...)
12:00p.m. Get home, run through the face book apps and the news and get back to reading my text.
1:28p.m. Finish reading the text only to realize that class starts in 17 min.
1:55p.m. Get to class only to find out I'm still the first one there (even before the teacher)
3:00p.m. Finish class, grab a coffee, and head to the library to type up the notes that I supposed to turn in on this text.
3:07p.m. Play starcraft
3:45p.m. Start taking the notes(in english) on the text)
6:30p.m. Grab some food and another starcraft break.
7:30p.m. Translate and type notes to be turned in
8:50p.m. Leave library, get coffee, print text, and head to class. Shit, no regular class, umm, okay, hey you, what's going on? presentation in the theater? Cool, sounds good...
9:00p.m. Attend a presentation my teacher is giving.
10:30p.m. Presentation ends, walk Susan to the bus, and walk home
11:30p.m. Facebook aps, news, starcraft
1:30 a.m. Cook dinner and watch a movie
3:30 a.m. Start writing this blog
3:45a.m. Lucas comes home plastered out of his mind and recounts events of that evening (very funny!)
4:15a.m. Three more roommates come home from a club, not hammered but definitely had a few drinks
4:40a.m. Finish this blog

All in all, a fun day with plenty of things to do right? All I have more to say is 'Thank God It's Friday'... I'm going to bed...
Cyrille Gindreau

Technology Me

It has been 76 days since I have arrived in Brazil but it seems that it is having quite the reverse effect that what I initially thought it would have. Being in a country where not everybody has internet and the ones who do, it's slow and jolty, many would think that you learn to navigate away from facebook and google, and your computer in general... I am now living proof that this is not at all how it works. In the past 76 days, I have started reading news, blogs, twitters, the works. When the internets down, I work on 3-d animation, flash, or general html for my site. It seems that the more I'd like to get away from it all, the more I find to do on my computer, more sites to log into, more blogs to subscribe to and read...



(Here's the latest in maya)

Cyrille Gindreau

Caxambú

Few days late but I wanted to create a video to go along with this blog...
So Susan and I decided: You know what? let's go on an adventure... We're comfortable enough with our knowledge of the language and the culture to be able to go somewhere on our own by now right? And so we did...
We of course had our handy friend Lucas to help us pick a place and he ended up suggesting Caxambú. And so the following day (Friday) we got on a bus and headed there. It was about a three hour bus ride from São João del-Rei. Trip there wasn't to bad, rained a little, had to stop in two other cities before we got there, but generally fun. Once we arrived in Caxambú, our main priorities were: food, shelter, and money. Well as we wondered around the town, we began to notice that this was obviously a tourist town full of fancy hotels and nice bars, the trick was to find a hotel that was a bit more affordable seeing how we're college students... Our first try was a semi-fancy hotel, but in the middle of town. Cost about 160 reals a night! No good... And so on we went, we found a bank where I would be able to get some money out of the atm(which I later found out I couldn't because they didn't have the right atms), found a nice little plaza/avenue area with a few bars and restaurants, and finally, after about two hours of walking around this strange, new place, we came across a hotel that seemed a lot more affordable and so we went in, checked it out, looked at one of the rooms, and got it(only 80 reals a night). For the price, I was actually surprised at the quality and service, we pretty much got a suite; main room(big), bathroom with separate bath and shower, and a little entrance hall room with a fridge. So we set our things down and took off to go find food seeing how it was now around 8 at night. We decided to go back to the plaza and go to a little pizzeria. Good food, great service, and a decent tab. We then proceeded to go back to the hotel and go to sleep.
We woke up around 8 the following morning to try to get a head start on the town. Our first order of business was to see how we were going to get back to São João del-Rei. Head to the bus station, check the times, the price, and that's fine. As we're leaving we see a "ski life" operating on the other side of the road. Lucas told us something about there being a "water park" here and so we went to check it out and ended up taking the life to the top of this huge mountain overlooking the city. There was also a statue of Jesus but it looked really funny because of all of the radio towers around it:



After enjoying the view for about an hour, we take the "ski lift" back down. On our was up and down the lift, we notice that what we are traveling over seems to be some kind of park so when we arrive at the bottom, we proceed to go into the park. Lucas's "water park" ended up being a nature park with mineral springs all over the place. Part of the park was like a childrens playground, another was full of monuments with the different springs dictating what this water was for. One of the springs, you washed your eyes with, another one was for gargling with. Another part of the park contained a lake where you could take swan boats out on, and part was full of tourist attractions and venders. After spending the day there, we decided to go back to the hotel and take a nap. Later that night, we ended up going to the same pizzareia for lack of creativity and energy. At the end of our meal, they asked us where we were from and asked us to sign there guest book. So if anyone goes to Caxambú, look for us in that guest book. We actually found someone from Rio Rancho, NM. small world right? The following day, we left the hotel at 7am, got on the bus and headed home. So far, Caxambú is deffently one of my favorite places to go, wonderful people, beutiful park, and the price wasn't to bad. overall spent 400 reals for the two of us for a three day trip, not bad at all... Here's a little video I put together on our trip:



Cyrille Gindreau

When it rains, it pours...

Many of you are familiar with the expression: "When it rains, it pours" but chances are, you don't take it literally... For example, nothing to interesting is happening in your life, then all of a sudden, you wife leaves you, you get fired, and find out you have a warrant out for your arrest because you forgot to pay a few speeding tickets... Well, in Brazil, I'm not sure they have this expression BUT, when it rains it freaking pours!!! 

This is a picture that I took from the balcony of my house of the road in the front... As you can plainly see, the city is quite flooded... At first I was quite surprised that this was actually quite an ordinary thing for it to rain this much, I was sitting at my computer when one of my room mates told me to come check it out. They later informed me that they weren't going to there classes on this accord. Today it happened for a second time, except I was at school at the time so of course, I walked home and started uploading pics of it... quite beautiful and tons of fun! Word of advise: best clothing to wear in these conditions, in my opinion, is sandals, shorts, and a jacket... The first time it rained this much, I did not wear this, and well, started wishing I had, couldn't wear my shoes for a week and my pants reeked! Today was much better... You can find the rest of the pictures that I took on my website: Adventures in Brazil.

Report (portuguese)

aqui é meu reportagem em português

“Eu acho que é importante para todos os estudantes da universidade no Brasil, principalmente em meu curso, fazer um intercâmbio¹” disse Lucas quando questionado sobre o programa de intercâmbio. Lucas Oliveira, 24, estudante em São João del-Rei, disse que no próximo ano gostaria de estudar nos Estados Unidos por um semestre. UFSJ e New Mexico State University(NMSU) mantêm juntas um programa de intercâmbio de estudantes de uma universidade para outra. Com essa ligação direta, estudantes como Lucas têm uma oportunidade de ver o mundo, estudar coisas diferentes e aprender culturas novas.

Embora haja uma troca direta entre as duas universidades, não é tão simples fazer parte deste programa. Na UFSJ, para serem selecionados, os estudantes devem ter concluido 40% do curso, apresentando Coeficiente de Rendimento igual ou superior a 7,5 e ter o conhecimento da língua que é falada no país. Quando o estudante atende tais exigências, pode ser efetuado o intercâmbio. Uma vez aceito no processo de seleção, os estudantes serão entrevistados na língua do país de recepção para mostrar a facilidade e a habilidade de sucesso em seus estudos em uma outra língua.

Na NMSU não é muito diferente o processo seletivo. Os estudantes devem ter terminado 2 semestres do seu curso para tornar-se elegíveis, ou seja, devem mostrar a proeficiência no português ou espanhol e comprovar condição financeira, sendo pago a taxa de matrícula na NMSU. Uma vez aceito no programa, os estudantes devem trazer carta de recomendação, teste do “WebCT” e seguro de saúde de HTH. Assim, em entrevista por e-mail, recomenda Jose Francisco: “Aprenda tanto quanto possível sobre a cultura. Filmes, música, política, tudo que voce puder.²”, uma vez que ele é de NMSU e esteve em São João del-Rei por um semestre.

Então, o que um estudante faz depois que ele completa tudo isso? Eles registram os bilhetes aereos para o país de destino! Ao chegarem lá, começa a parte mais difícil. Ao chegar em São João del-Rei, os estudantes devem se matricular para as aulas, regularizarem-se com a polícia, atender às orientações dadas, e à outras coisas desta natureza, tudo em português. Embora muitas pessoas no escritório de intercâmbio falem o inglês, a orientação e o registro sao feitos em português.

Na NMSU, o processo começa com: “As escolas associadas nos notificam de seus candidatos, depois, eles preenchem o formulário de intercâmbio na NMSU, para eu rever,³” disse Dr. Huntsberger, “ Então eu trabalho com admissões internacionais para admiti-las como estudantes de “non-degree”. Então nós podemos emitir seus documentos do visto.³” Quando aceitos, nós arranjamos moradia para os estudantes que têm a opção de comprar um plano de alimentação. Quando chegam, os alunos vão á orientação de estudantes e, depois, registram-se para as aulas.

Então, por que ir se há tanto trabalho? Qual é o ganho? Não seria mais fácil estudar apenas no mesmo local? “Foi uma experiência única em minha vida.⁴” diz Fernando em uma outra entrevista de email, “Durante o tempo que passei lá conheci pessoas de várias nacionalidades, pratiquei o inglês, cursei matérias que não existem na grade curricular de meu curso no Brasil e conheci finalmente o país, cuja cultura esteve presente na minha formação desde que era criança.⁴” Fernando fez intercambio durante um semestre na NMSU. “Eu começaria dizendo dos ganhos acadêmicos em primeiro lugar, nao é?⁵” Segundo Adelaine, coordenador do intercâmbio da UFSJ “Quando você vai para um outro país, você aprende uma outra lingua. Isso já é um ganho e uma competencia que você vai adquirir.⁵” Por essa razão, o trabalho compensará para quaquer pessoa que participar de um programa de intercâmbio.

Report (english)

Here is the report that I have created using the interviews in english...

“I think it's important to all the students in college in Brazil, mainly in my course, to make an exchange program” says Lucas when asked about exchange programs. Lucas Oliverira, 24, is a student at the Federal University of Sao Joao del-Rei(UFSJ). He says that in the next year, he would like to study abroad for a semester. UFSJ and New Mexico State University(NMSU) hold together a sister exchange program for students from either university to go to the other. With this direct link, students get an opportunity to see the world, study different things and learn new cultures.

Although there is a direct exchange between the two universities, it’s not just a walk in the park to be accepted into this program. At UFSJ, to be eligible, students must have already completed 40% of their major, present a transcript showing a GPA of 2.5 or better, and must have fluency of the language that is spoken in the country that they would like to go to. Once a student has completed such requirements, they may apply for the exchange. Once accepted in the application process, students will be interviewed in the language of the receiving country to show there fluency and ability to succeed in their studies in another language and country.

NMSU is much the same in their ways. Students must have already completed 2 semesters at NMSU to become eligible, must show proficiency in the portuguese or spanish, and must prove there financial ability; They will be charged NMSU tuition. Once Applied and accepted into the program, Students must bring letters of recommendation, take “Web CT” tests, and obtain HTH health insurance. “Learn as MUCH AS POSSIBLE about the culture. Movies, music, politics, everything you can.” Recommends Jose Francisco in an email interview. Jose is from NMSU and stayed in São João del-Rei for a semester.

So then what does a student do after they have completed all of this? They book plane tickets and get to there country! Once they have arrived, the most difficult part comes. When arriving in São João del-Rei, students must register for classes, register with the police, attend student orientation, and other things of this nature, all in portuguese. Although many people in the ‘intercambi’ office speak english, orientation and registration is all in portuguese.

At NMSU, the process starts with: “Partner schools notify us of their candidates, who then fill out the NMSU exchange application, which I review,” Starts Dr. Huntsberger, “ Then I work with international admissions to get them admitted as non-degree students. Then my office issues them their visa documents.” Once accepted, they are arranged into student housing and they have the option of buying a meal plan. They then arrive, goto orientation and sign up for classes.

Why go if it’s so much work? What is gained? isn’t it easier to just study in the same campus? “It was a unique experience in my life.” Starts Fernando in another email interview, “During the time that I passed there, I met different people, practiced english, took classes that didn’t exist in my university in Brazil and got to know a country’s culture that has been in my life since the time I was a child” Fernando has gone on a semester exchange to NMSU. Adeline stars “I’ll start by talking about academic gains... When you go to another country, you will learn it’s language. becoming competent in another language is a gain in itself.” Adeline is the exchange program coordinator for UFSJ. With so much reason to go, the work will become well worth it for anyone participating in an exchange program.

Interview with Ana Paula

This is another interview that I did for my report. It is with Ana Paula, my portuguese teacher.

Cyrille Gindreau

Interview with Adelaine LaGuardia

About two weeks ago, I was sitting in a car, next to my friend, going to his home town... I was looking out of the window thinking: 'what the hell? I'm in freaking Brazil! freaking crazy...' I was very happy with this thought, I just wanted to scream I was so thrilled, I wanted to show people what I was doing... And so then it came to me: why don't I show people?

I'm in journalism here, they want me making reports on things and what not... Well that was part 1 of the documentary idea that is being formulated... The assignment is to make a report on something going on in the city. So why not do it on the exchange program between NMSU and UFSJ? So I set out to start creating questions to interview people with but instead of just writing them down, I would film so that at the end of the year here, maybe I could put together a little documentary of my exchange program. So this past week, I have done two in person interviews and two email interviews. I plan to do another 2 more before I turn in my report which I will also post here when I am finished with it (portuguese and english versions). So here is one of the interviews; it is with Adelaine LaGuardia, the exchange program coordinator here at UFSJ. Although she does speak english, the final report must be in portuguese so I hope you all can understand!!!

Cyrille Gindreau 9-20-09

hitch hiking Brazil

So there I am, sitting at a bar with Lucas, (room mate and best friend in Brazil) talking about life, women (and men(he's gay)), school and things to do in Brazil when he tells me he's going to his home town in Varginha. He tells me that there this party that he plans to go to with some friends. And then he asks me to go. Keep in mind, this is Thursday night and he wants to leave on Saturday, come back on Monday because it's a three day weekend. So I tell him sure, that sounds like fun, I'd love to go to another city in Brazil. So whatever, the night ends, we go back to the house and I go to bed.

I wake up like any other day on Friday, go down stairs to check my email; I sit down, turn on my computer, and in comes Lucas. "Get your stuff together, we're leaving soon!" 'Today?' "Yes, c'mon, let's go!" 'Umm, wha, umm, K...' My computer finishes turning just so I can shut it down... I pack my things together, run to the school to reschedule an appointment and run back to the bus station. As I walk up, here comes Lucas, we hop on the bus, sit down, and we start our journey. So here's where you start wondering: Bus? I thought you said hitch hiking? Well yes, we were on our way to go to Lucas's favorite place to start hitch hiking... We get there and there we were, holding a sign that said 'Lavras' holding our thumbs out. After about waiting for about half an hour, finally we get picked up... Nice enough couple going to Sao Paulo and Varginha was kind of on their way... I fell asleep in the car and woke up to Lucas sticking his finger up my nose. We arrive on the side of a freeway next to a gigantic statue of Pele, a Brazilian soccer player, and start walking for a little bit... We get to the other side of this interstate intersection and around the statue, stop, and start sticking out our thumbs again, this time with a sign that says Varginha... soon enough, some old guy picks us up and we get to the city. We walk to Lucas's house and I get to meet his mom... Nice enough woman, full of energy and the craziest stare I think I've ever seen. We don't do to much that night; go downtown, check out the place a bit, go to a bar, nothing special. It's Saturday and we leave the house to go looking for something that I wanted to buy; a tripod and lavaliere (fuck portuguese, try explaining what a lavaliere is to someone who knows nothing about video and sound in a language that you cannot communicate completely in) We found the tripod after checking like 7 stores but couldn't find the mic so we gave up and got coffee. afterwards, we went home to find some new developments in our plan... This is really where the story gets interesting, please, keep in mind that I am completely straight and had no idea what was to come of the next 48 hours... We come home to see that Lucas's boyfriend had arrived along with one of his friends. We hang out for a little bit and then go to some of Lucas's friends house. Turns out to be a lesbian couple and one of there friends. So we have a grill out from 7 till around 11. Somewhere between those hours, I remembered sitting at the bar with Lucas and him telling me that we were going to a party that night so around 11-1130ish, I start to think that we just aren't going so I settle down and knock back like 7 beers... haha, I was wrong, it's about midnight when we leave to drive about an hour and a half to some club in the middle of no where, which of course, turns out to be a gay club... It was a fun though, I enjoyed myself for the most part, loud techno music, fun people, good times... around 3 in the morning, Lucas and his boyfriend leave, leaving me with a lesbian couple, and two other people that I had met at the grill out early, so around the time of my third cocktail/second beer, I'm just sitting in the back, enjoying the music when this drunken gay man starts hitting on me. That was kind of awkward. I'm straight and don 't speak much portuguese. Well I actually led him on for a while, bought him a drink when he spilt his all over me, tried talking to him and after a while i got board so I just joined up with my other friends leaving him with the phrase: 'sorry, I'm straight, I'll see ya later' soon afterwards, we left and went back to the house. I wake up with a bit of a hangover, to find that we're going to a gay parade. So I down some Guarana, eat some pao de quijo, and we're off. We get there and there's actually only like 100 people, must of been early cause we decide to walk around a bit. After more people have joined, we find a nice spot to hang out and dance for about 3 hours to the pulsing techno music that is filling the streets of Varginha (gay parades in Brazil apparently consist of a truck in the town square blaring techno music as loud as possible and a bunch of people drinking, dancing and well, being gay. After a few hours, the truck starts moving around the town with everyone following it) So after 48 hours of dancing and being hit on, I think we all begin to get a bit tired so Lucas, his boyfriend, and I go back to his place and the rest of the weekend is much tamer... Eat good food, have some more good times and I found the most amazing cafe in the world; the first internet cafe I've seen since my arrival in Brazil, but it's Brazil so this isn't no ordinary internet cafe. sure they have the usual coffee drinks and what not but they also have and an entire menu for alcoholic coffee drinks so of course I get an Alexandra cocktail. It's now Monday night(we were supposed to leave today but Lucas decided to Tuesday morning and get back before classes start) and a friend of Lucas comes by to say hello. For anyone who knows Gerry, this guy was his Brazilian equivalent; totally right wing and the first person that I met who didn't like Lula(Brazilian president). He pretty much had no good points as far as I understood and was quite self centered in his reasons for not liking him but he was fun, very passionate... He leaves, we eat dinner, go to bed(which i didn't do till around 4 in the morning) and wake up at 530 to start hitch hiking back. The return trip was a bit more fun because it wasn't as easy even though it was faster... We take a bus to the outskirts of Varginha and start holding the sign. Get picked up after 20 min by quite a boring and non-talkative person, and are driven for about 20 min before we have to find another ride. Again, we wait for another 30 min and get picked up by a couple going to Belo Horizonte. A bit more interesting but not to much to tell. they drop us off at the entrance of Lavras. This time we only wait for about 5 min before this old fellow picks us up and says he can at least take us to the other side of the town where it would be easier to get a ride to Sao Joao. We get to the other side and wait for another 20 min and a very colorful character picks us up. After finding out that I'm from the states, he starts saying: "You like Brazil? You like the woman here?!? There very beautiful yes?!? You have lots of sex with them? You like to party? Get drunk a lot?"Very funny person, I liked him... Turns out he was going down our street in Sao Joao so he drooped us off right in front of our house... we got back around 11, leaving a day early, getting back a day late... I sleep for an hour and get prepared to go to class...

...First Weeks in Brazil

It's now been 10 days since the time that I have arrived in Brazil. I have started school, gone site-seeing around the nearby towns, and faced the everlasting challenge on communication in a foreign country.

My first week of school was surprisingly uneventful... Monday, I had Portuguese as a second language(PSL); it lasted 15 min. Just an intro I guess. Tuesday I had PSL for the second time for a little longer; we studied advertisements and how to read them. Super basic but I guess it helps right? later on, I had 'various linguistics' it started 8:55, the teacher arrived at 9:20 and was boring as all hell... Wednesday, again had PSL; nothing eventful. Then I had graphic design and technical journalism. Well when I showed up to the campus, I learned that both teachers were gone and class was cancelled for the day. Amazing... Thursday I had 'various linguists' again, still boring... So a very uneventful week :(

As for the town, I am learning fast my way around, it's actually a pretty small town. Susan and I also went Tiradents. It's a small tourist town resembling toas about 20 min from where I live. I really enjoyed the place, very pretty but I definitely did not like the cost, like any tourist town I suppose...

Not to much else has happened, I've just been exploring the city and meeting hundreds of Brazilians... I've gotten a lot closer to my 6 other room mates, especially one named Lucas. He has helped me a lot here because he is the only one who speaks english. Every once in a while, we'll go bar hopping just so that I can practice my portuguese and he his english. I've really enjoyed my stay so far but as I start my classes I realize that it will be quite difficult to keep up; I'm in classes with a bunch on natives and they themselves have hard times but at least the can understand... Oh well, should be fun, we'll see what happens...

Cyrille Gindreau 7-21-2009

P.S. Pictures for Sao Joao and Tiadents soon to come! (working on the site for them...)

The Arrival

Alright, okay, finally... I left Los Alamos on Sunday, five days ago... Tonight is the first time I've had a chance to sit down and write something. And so here you go, the journey...

Day 1: Nothing to special happened actually, just left Los Alamos and went to stay the night at my dad's in Santa Fe; easy...

Day 2: Here's where things get a bit more interesting... Leave Santa Fe and arrive at ABQ: Albuquerque's Sunport. Leave there at about one in the afternoon to fly to Atlanta, Georgia. Not to bad of a flight, no problems. I was sitting next to a baby but he was very well behaved thank god... I've always know babies to be a hell of a pain in the ass whenever your next to them in airplanes, unfortunately, my luck ran out pretty fast... I arrive in Atlanta, wait for four hours, then get on the plane to go to Rio de Jeniro. Once again, next to a baby... At first, nothing bad was happening, just boarding the plane as usual, start to pull out of the runway, and wait to get onto the runway. pretty normal right? no... As everyone kept waiting to take off, some of us realized that something kinda funny was happening as all of the stuarts were kind of running around... As I looked around I noticed that there were three of them huddled around one of the passengers. I later saw one get up and get a med kit of sorts. Then after about 45 min of waiting, we're told that someone on the plan has some kind of medical problem and that we need to go back to the gate to get him off the plan. And so we do so... we see a bunch of paramedics come onto the plane and get the guy off... So there we are, an hour late already and we get another announcement: while taking the man off of the plane, one of the crew members got hurt. We now have to wait for another to come fill the position What the hell? really? ridiculous... So another half hour passes and we get a new crew member arrives, along with two more passengers. So, once again, we are leaving the gate, watching the safety movie for the second time, and everything is apparently fine. Well, in terms of flight? yes, we took off and all was well. Well of course the screaming baby sitting next to me the second the plane started moving was a bit obnoxious but all the same, we were finally leaving...

Day 3: So we land! I am now in Rio de janeiro! pouring rain, hour and a half late, it feels nice to be in Brazil at long last! ...Well, the way my itinerary was set up was that I had about four hours to get from one airport to another, check in, and then get to the airplane. Now I only have about two and a half hours to do this so I start to go through customs and that takes a hour in itself but finally get out to take a taxi. Grab the first one I see and I'm off. takes about half an hour to get through to the other airport but it was a very interesting ride. My first taste of Brazil was incredible, I'm not exactly sure what part of town i was in but it seemed to be the "favelas" the ghetto. Broken down homes, factories, the works... and of course, driving at about 70MPH through the equivalent of LA traffic. I get to the airport, check in which was interesting seeing how I don't really know portuguese that well yet, and get to the plane. Had the plane been on time, I'd of gotten there with about five minutes to spare but that plane too was about 45 min late so no worries, everything worked out. Got on that plane, flew to Belo Horizonte, and met the student ambassador. Fortunately, he spoke very good english so the drive to Sao Joao, was very pleasant, aside from the driving at about 100MPH and narrow, curvy roads with no lane distinctions. I arrive at my house after about a three hour drive. I meet my first three room mates there and the ambassador leaves and says we'll meet up later that evening. Little did I know, none of the roommates there knew any english. So for about four hours, we sat around in the kitchen trying to communicate; throwing around a dictionary, me speaking very little portuguese, and them speaking very little english. Then we go to meet the ambassador and Susan at the school. Ended up being a fun night, got a quick tour of one of the campuses and returned home to try communicating some more with the roommates. Later that evening, we go down to the bar(which is actually directly below my house) and have a few beers. I tried cassas which is a Brazilian liquor derived from sugar cane. I thought it was alright, but not the best thing I've ever tried... And I meet two more of my roommates, one of which, speaks english... So, turns out that I have six roommates, one of which speaks english, and a host mother.

Not to much more to update on, yesterday I spent the day walking around town getting to know the city. Very nice, but very different. Today I pretty much did the same. I also signed up for classes; I'm taking graphic design, technical journalism, portuguese as a second language, and some other kind of portuguese grammar class. interestingly enough, classes start at about 5:00p.m. and finish around 11:00. Very different culture here but should be fun eh? bye for now

Cyrille Gindreau 7-13-2009

Intro to the Blog

Hello, my name is Cyrille Gindreau and I am starting this blog to keep people I know updated about my progress in Brazil. As of now, I am not in Brazil but do plan to leave New Mexico on the 10th of Augest. I need to wait for a visa to come in so that I can leave the country. I'll keep everyone updated as to what's going on...