Monday, January 25- Joel Sonnenberg and Grant Cory

 

Joel’s Homestay Recap (Grants is below)

For many cultures, the family is the main social unit. The United States and Brazil are both cultures where this is true. Therefore, there is no better way to truly experience a culture than to be welcomed into a family as if you are truly part of that family. Opportunities to experience that are rare; however, this past weekend we had that opportunity. Every one of us spent the weekend with a Brazilian family. Our Portuguese teacher picked which student would go with each family based upon our personality and interest. All of our families had different activities planned for us, but I will only recount my experiences during the homestay weekend.

After my family picked me up from the hotel, we went to his house so I could drop my belongings off before going to the BBQ. Following Brazilian tradition, Eguinaldo gave me a tour of his home. Then we left for a traditional family BBQ at the home of Eguinaldo’s cousin, Cassio. David stayed with Cassio’s family, so it was comforting to be with one person that I knew. In addition to Cassio’s and Eguinaldo’s family, Cassio’s English teacher, Jaoa, was there as well. Jaoa, spent a year studying in Montana and considered himself a cowboy. Unsurprisingly, I hit it off with him very well. At a Brazilian BBQ, people do not wait for all of the food to be made and then sit done and eat all at once. Instead, once a piece of bread or meat is finished being prepared small pieces are passed around and everyone takes a bite. This allowed for plenty of time to sing American and Brazilian country music.

The next morning, Eguinaldo took me to an English school and to see some sights in the city. During the afternoon, I played Xbox 360, which is very popular in Brazil, with my host brother, Guilherme. Before another BBQ, Eguinaldo and Cassio took me and David to an American football practice. It was interesting to see a group of Brazilians learning football for the first time. Later that evening I felt like I was in there shoes, as we dribbled and passed a soccer ball around.

On Monday, all of us had the opportunity to go with our host parent to his or her job. Many students went to agribusinesses; however, I went to a public daycare school. Brazilian students are on the end of their summer vacation, so no children were there. Visiting the school and seeing the differences and similarities between ones in the United States was very interesting. When all of us returned to the hotel we began to share stories from our amazing weekend. It is safe to say that we all enjoyed our homestay weekend.

 

Homestay Blog

Grant Cory

 

On Friday, our families picked us up at around 7:00pm or so, then after that we were on our own during the weekend for the most part. Some of our families were actually friends with each other, so they would get together for parties, and some of us in AZP saw each other as a result. There were even a few cases where some of us and our families would just be walking around some of the popular hangouts in the city, and we would stumble upon each other.

My family wasn’t friends with any of the other host families, so I didn’t see anybody from AZP until Monday. This was actually my host-family’s first time hosting a student from another country. My dad Daniel picked me up at the hotel, and we headed straight to his house, where my host-mom Carla was making dinner. My host-brother Lucas was staying at his grandma’s house, as he usually does every year before school starts back up.

Their house was in a neighborhood area within the city area of Piracicaba. It felt very homey with all of the colorful decorations and knick knacks. Their living room and kitchen were kind of combined into one room: there was a mirror on the wall that let people in the living room see people in the kitchen and vice-versa, so it helped with conversations between the rooms. I was going to be sleeping in Lucas’ room while he was gone.

There was a door from the kitchen leading out to the backyard, which is a little different than the kind of backyard I’m used to in the U.S. The main difference was that there was no grass, but instead the ground/floor was all ceramic tile. They also had a grill for Brazilian BBQ, a fridge for beer, a sink, some tables and chairs, and clotheslines (Of course you would want to take advantage of the hot Brazilian sun). It was a very nice place to just hang out, so we ate dinner out here and enjoyed the cool night air. Their home-cooked meal was amazing! We also enjoyed some of the fresh bread that we got at the bakery a few blocks away.

The next morning, we visited a local market. My parents told me about the wide variety of fruits, vegetables, meat, and fish they sold there. It felt kind of like the weekly farmer’s market back home! We also had some freshly made sugar cane juice and pastel, I kind of fried pastry with meat and cheese in the middle. My family likes to come here to eat breakfast every once in a while.

We also went to a language school where Carla’s mother taught English. Her mother wanted me to come in and introduce myself to her class – she wanted her class to hear an American English speaker because she said it’s not every day they have people come here who speak English for a living. By the end of my visit, I had gone to 4 classes, introduced myself, and took questions. All the students were so nervous about speaking, but I know how they felt. I felt the same way when we had guest speakers in my Spanish class in high school.

After a small pasta lunch, Daniel and I went to one of his friend’s houses to have a traditional Brazilian barbeque. I was glad to meet some of Daniel’s friends and get to know them. I was surprised at how many of them spoke English. For a Brazilian barbeque, they take several different cuts of meat, cook them all on a grill, and set out small cuts of the meat for everyone to try. We did this, sang karaoke (a mix of Brazilian and American songs), and just hung out and talked. It was a really fun time, and the meat was absolutely delicious! I would go so far as to say it was the best meat I ever had.

Back at home, we just hung out and talked for the rest of the night. I got news of the huge snowstorm moving through Ohio and kind of laughed about it. They were even talking about the storm on the Brazilian news! That’s when you know it’s really bad. I even showed Daniel and Carla a picture of my house covered in snow that my mom sent me. Carla had seen snow before, but Daniel hasn’t.

The next day, Daniel and I went to a local café shop for breakfast: pastries and coffee. Carla had to work this morning, so she wasn’t able to come with us.

During the morning, Daniel showed me some of the cool historic places around Brazil. We started off by going to the abandoned sugar mill right by the Piracicaba River. However, I probably shouldn’t call it abandoned, because it’s actually a pretty popular place for people to go just to walk around, hang out, or even get post-wedding pictures! It was a very beautiful place: the red brick architecture, large amount of windows, and wide open spaces did give it that old factory feel. The city had done a really good job keeping the buildings mostly intact. They even transformed one building into a theater for plays! Sadly we didn’t have enough time to go in to see it.

We then walked across the bridge to the other side of the river just to walk along the sidewalk on the riverfront. The riverfront was also a pretty popular place for people to just come, sit down, talk, and maybe share a meal from a few of the restaurants along the front. Even though the river was a little dirty and polluted, the fact that there was natural running water, several trees, and many birds along the front made the riverfront a very natural and peaceful scene. We walked back across a different bridge and back to the car.

Our next stop was an old railroad station that had been transformed into a small park for public use. The train no longer ran through this area. It was like the same case with the sugar mill: the city took an old landmark and refurbished it in some way so that it could continue to be used by the public in some way. They had a few workout areas, a brick track that ran the length of the two passenger stations that people could either walk or ride bikes on, a few playgrounds, and trees and flowers everywhere. The two buildings at the station still looked like new. It was a beautiful place, and I’m really glad I got the chance to go there.

We went to Walmart to pick up some things to make a traditional Brazilian lunch. The main difference between this Walmart and the ones back home is that we parked under the Walmart here instead of parking in a large parking lot to the side. I really liked this system because it was much better at saving space.

Back at the house, I watched Daniel start making lunch. He’s a very good cook, and he actually showed me how to prepare several of the dishes that he was making. We left the house for a few minutes to go pick up Carla at her job at the hospital, then we picked up Lucas at his grandmother’s house. Once we got back to the house, we finished making lunch, then we sat down and at lunch together as a family. They told me that usually don’t have a typical Brazilian lunch on Sundays because that’s when they like to prepare a special meal with food that they don’t usually eat, that way they can change it up from their routine. Weekends are usually when they have their Brazilian barbeques as well.

We spent the rest of the day resting, relaxing, and talking about family. I was surprised to learn that they have some of their heritage comes from Portugal, Liverpool, and Italy. It’s been nice getting to talk to them so easily because Daniel and Carla both speak English very well. Carla lived in Indiana for a year in junior high and learned English there, and Daniel too English classes for about 5 years. Their son Lucas was currently taking English classes, so he understood some of what we were talking about, but at times he didn’t know how to respond. His English was much better than my Portuguese though, and the only reason I could understand some of what people said in Portuguese is because of the four years of Spanish I took.

The next day, I went with Daniel to his job. He’s a health and safety engineer, so every day is a little bit different for him, which is one of the things he likes about his job. He’s also really glad that he can help people stay safe while they’re working because when they’re so focused on the job, they don’t always see the dangers. He’s glad he can help point out the dangers.

Today, we went to a construction site, where Daniel was gave a short dialogue on staying safe on site and walked around to observe and see if there are any additional changes that need to be made to the construction project to promote safety. While we walked through the site, he also told me some details about the project, like how and why they were building it a certain way. The final result was going to be a 22-floor apartment building, but so far they were only on floor 3. I’m really glad that I was able to experience this because it has a lot to do with my major in Agricultural Systems Management, which in general has to do with the technology, construction, and management of the various agricultural operations in today’s world. One of the classes I took for my major actually had to do with concrete, masonry, and wood framing, which were the primary things being worked on around the construction site. Additionally, my dad works with a construction company back in Ohio. I was able to use much of the knowledge I gained from him, along with what I had learned in my major, to make some comparisons between a Brazilian project and an American project. Of course my knowledge is still limited: there are still many things about construction that I wish I knew more about.

There wasn’t much else for Daniel to do at the construction site, so at around 11:00am we left. We went back to the Piracicaba riverfront to see some of the other popular places further down the riverfront. There were a lot of fish restaurants that had delicious smelling fish being fried and grilled; there was a nice park with a small lake, some swan paddle boats, and an amphitheater; and everywhere we could see sediment and other evidence of the river overflowing sometime last week from all of the rain. It was a really nice time just walking around and enjoying the sights.

Eventually we picked up Carla from work at the hospital and had some lunch. Lucas got back from school by bus. I had to go back to the hotel soon because Daniel’s health and safety classes started back up today, so I started getting my things packed. We got a final group picture, then Daniel took my back to the hotel. It was a really sad goodbye because I had gotten to know them so well over the last few days, and they were so kind and thoughtful about everything. However, I do admit I started missing the others in AZP, Antonio’s Palace, and ESALQ. The others in AZP had become my family over the past 4 weeks or so, and Antonio’s Palace had become my new home, and ESALQ my new home school. It felt weird not having any of these things in my life during the three days of our homestay.

When I got to the hotel, only a few of the others were back. Those of us that were back told stories of our weekend, and slowly, the others came back and shared story-telling. A few of us went out to eat at the restaurant next door later on, where we continued our story-telling.