January 17th

Today we started our 8th day of classes and our 3rd and final day of classes with professors Fernando Perez and Thiago Romanelli. We discussed sustainability, economics and some Brazilian history in each of the classes. After the day of class, we returned to the hotel and packed up our belongings and prepared for our homestay weekend. Each of us were picked up by our families and some of us even met later that night at a Samba bar with our families to kick off the weekend. Tonight was the first of 3 nights spent with our host families.

Sarah Jarvis

January 16

Today was a hot one. 95 with a UV index of 11, wow. Our professor, Fernando, discussed the ideas of innovation, differentiation, and Brazilian markets. A quote that I jotted down was “success and innovation comes from having differentiations of people and ideas within a nation.” Fernando elaborated on how different cultures provide new ideas to a society that help progress the group as a whole, which is something Brazil and the United States have in common. He also discussed how in 1930 Brazil’s dictator, Getulio Vargas, intentionally implemented taxes on agricultural products in order to progress and advance the country. He took them from a rural society to an urban/industrial society.
Later in the evening we all went to João, one of our host students, fraternity house for a Pet Gea night. Pet Gea is the organization that trains students to work with international students like ourselves. It is like their AZP. The students were all very welcoming and interacted with us like we were all their friends. It made us all feel less like foreigners for a night, which was nice!

Preston Sheets

January 15th

Greetings from Brazil! We hope everyone at home is having a nice time in the cold. Today we were blessed to have 90 degree weather and no rain. This morning we all woke up and headed to class. After class most students hung out by the pool and got some sun. Then a large group of students experimented with ordering a pizza in Portuguese and all went well. When evening turned into night, the students arrived at the Fraternity house of one of our mentors, João. There we met with Brazilian students and had very embarrassing dance lessons. While we were not very good at the samba, I think everyone had fun and we got a good work out. By the time 11pm rolled around, we were all ready bed. It was a memorable and exciting night here in Piracicaba.

Ally Magyar

January 14th

Today the class of 2021 Alpha Zeta Partners had a great time in Brazil! We boarded the bus and drove to AgTech Valley in Piraçicaba. We visited the Pulse Tech Hub and learned all about startup companies and what Raízen is doing to support innovation agricultural technology. Next, we visited the AgTech Garage where we toured the facility and learned about different startup projects happening there. We had a delicious lunch at Varanda Jequitibá and headed off to the Milk Cooperative of São Pedro. We toured the facility and sampled amazing yogurt made at the site! At 7:00pm we had dinner with our host families for the upcoming weekend. Although we were very nervous to speak in Portuguese in front of all of the host families, we tried our best and everyone did great! We are very excited for the upcoming weekend and can’t wait to see what kinds of adventures our host families take us on!

Maddie Allman

January 13th

Today, was a very relaxing day for us. We had our last Survival Portuguese Class with Professor Cristina before finishing out our school day with Professor Romanelli We listened to him lecture and worked on group projects related to diagrams. After classes we were able to enjoy a free night! Many went swimming before heading out to dinner at Toca da Coruja!

Em Wilson

January 11th

     This morning we started our day the same as the previous days in Piracicaba with breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Breakfast is typically composed of breads, cakes, fruit and deli meat, along some traditional Brazilian foods. After breakfast, we departed for ESALQ. At ESALQ, we continued our Portuguese lessons with Christina. Today we learned how to ask several questions and household vocabulary.  After our Portuguese lesson, a new professor, Romanelli, began his lecture series on sustainability. He spoke on Brazilian efforts to protect the environment and compared and contrasted the United Stated and Brazil. After class we walked back to our hotel and some group members swam in the hotel pool. The evening was a free night for dinner.

Sarah Jarvis

January 10th

Today we learned how to introduce ourselves to our host families in Portuguese with the help of Professor Cristina. We can now say where we are from, our college major, as well as a short introduction about things we enjoy at home.

​For lunch, students were able to pack food and eat around the beautiful ESALQ campus taking in the beautiful scenery and the warm sun. After a morning Portuguese lesson, the group listened to Professor Mello talk about the Brazilian economy past, present, and future. Professor Mello described in detail the importance of agriculture to Brazil as well as showing that Brazil as well as the United States are both positioned to be future leaders in agriculture. Thank you again to Professor Mello!​Today is also the first day that it has not rained since arriving in country.

Jonathan Hoorman

January 8

We began our day by eating our first breakfast at the hotel, Antonios Palace. We then headed to ESALQ for our first day of classes! We were greeted there by Heloisa, our program leader, João, Letícia and Jenifer, our student mentors, and Professor Heloisa. Professor Heloisa spoke to us about the history of ESALQ as well as some of the international programs that go on there as she is the President of their International Committee. We then proceeded to take a tour of the campus!

After touring the campus we had our first Survival Portuguese class with Professor Cristina. We learned the alphabet as well as how to spell our names and ask and answer some questions pertaining to names! We then worked on learning and pronouncing several different foods! This was our last thing before we headed to lunch!

For lunch we ate at a buffet style restaurant called Toque Brasileiro before walking back to campus for the first session of our class. The session was taught by Professor Mello who teaches Economics at ESALQ and it focused on the history of Brazil!

After a day of class we had a little bit of free time which some spent resting and others spent swimming in the pool before dinner. For dinner we walked to Burger Bus and enjoyed burgers with fries! We headed back to the hotel and prepared ourselves for the next day!

Emily Wilson