January 27, 2019
Today we began by visiting a bridge dedicated to the former Brazilian President Juscelino Kubitschek, who is responsible for the construction of Brazília in the 1960’s. Once we had walked across the bridge we embarked the bus and drove to the Palácio da Alvorada, which is the home of the Brazilian president. We were unable to tour the building but we did get some good pictures.
Next, we saw the president’s office building which is located near the National Congress. One thing that is different from the United States is that the Brazilain president lives and works in different places. We then drove to the U.S. Embassy and got a picture out front. We were all excited to see the familiar United States flag. We then drove and saw several other embassies. At noon we attended catholic mass in English. Evan and I were asked to be lecturers and at the end Maggie shared about Alpha Zeta Partners and what we have been studying. Immediately following mass, we joined the congregation for a social and snacks. The service was in English so the people we met spoke English and a few were even from the United States. This was a fantastic opportunity for us to socialize with people living in Brasília.
When it was finally time to go we said goodbye to our new friends and headed to lunch at the mall. After lunch we visited the Torre de TV de Brasília which is a large tower on the national mall but unfortunately it was under renovation so we were not able to travel to the top. We did explore the surrounding mall and the flea market that was at the towers base.
Next we travelled to the National Cathedral. The cathedral was designed as part of the original plan for the city so it is a very non-traditional cathedral (please see attached pictures). One thing that was interesting to me was outside the cathedral were two large sculptures meant to represent the eucharist, one represents the chalice and doubled as the bell tower and the other represents the host.
After exploring the National Cathedral we visited another church nearby called Santuário Dom Bosco. This church was basically a large blue stained glass cube. It was very pretty. After we had gotten our fill of this church we went back to the hotel and ate dinner at a restaurant around the corner.
The National Cathedral in Brazil.
The Euchrist
Chalice
Adventuring
A Catholic Church we visited.
-Todd Peterson