Reflections and Expectations After My First Week in Brazil

     Today marks my seventh day in Brazil and I must say that it feels like I have been here much longer than one week.  This blog post is supposed to be about my internship related experience but since my internship has yet to commence, I will reflect on my experiences in Brazil thus far.  When I arrived in Sao Paolo International Airport, I knew I was in for an adventure of a lifetime.  When I reached immigration, the attendant started speaking to me in Portuguese about a discrepancy between my student visa in my passport and the original visa application.  Luckily, I was able to speak to her in Spanish and she could understand what I was saying and the situation was resolved in a few minutes.  From that moment, I knew I was going to have to adapt extremely quickly not only to the language, but also to a new culture and way of life. 

     Whenever I visit or live in a new city, I instinctually look to compare the new city to other cities that I have been to.  After spending a week in Curitiba, I can honestly say that this city is like no other.  As innovative and efficient as the city’s bus system is, actually using it in practice is quite a different story.  From the perspective of an international exchange student with minimal knowledge of the language, I have already had my share of experiences, good and bad, using Curitiba’s transit system.   That being said, I have already learned a lot from my mishaps thus far and am inclined to believe that my impression of Curitiba’s transportation system will be much different upon leaving in fifteen weeks.

     I start my internship next Monday.  I will be working from 9 am until 2 pm Monday through Thursday for the next fourteen weeks.  Because my internship has yet to commence, my learning objectives that I elaborated about in my first blog post have not changed.  I am very excited to meet my colleagues at Toro Investimientos in Curitiba and anxious to start working towards meeting and exceeding my learning objectives.  Furthermore, I am curious to see how the knowledge and skills I have acquired throughout the past four years at George Mason will help me in practice in a financial consulting firm.  In addition, I am interested to learn what my daily tasks will be in the firm and what area of the consulting business I will focus my time and attention to.  The tasks and area of concentration will undoubtedly significantly shape the experience and knowledge I take away from my semester long internship.

     Portuguese class has been a seamless transition thus far.  My background in Spanish language has been a huge aid to this point in terms of easing the learning curve in grammar and vocabulary.  Don’t get me wrong, there are significant differences among Spanish and Portuguese and at times my knowledge of the former has been just as much a hindrance as it has been a help.  That being said, in times where I have been stuck, Spanish has helped me communicate more so then English ever would.  When I speak Spanish, a native Portuguese speaker can understand most of what I am saying but when they reply to my Spanish in Portuguese I have a hard time comprehending the majority of their response.  That being said, I have already noticed the major strides I have made with the language in my first week and have no doubt that I will be conversational in Portuguese when I leave Brazil in May.