It has been days since came back from Rio. After finished all of the accumulated work of Spring Break, I finally got some time sitting down and think about the whole trip. Honestly, I have never think of I would go to Brazil so it is complete a surprise that I got this opportunity through Knowlton. The Rio trip really taught me a lot and I really had a lot of fun.
Before the departure, we are told to pay 120% carefulness to our belongings as well as ourselves in Rio. Thus I pictured a city with lots of homeless on the streets and police officers carrying guns standing in every neighborhood. But at the same time, I know the city is chosen for holding 2016 Olympic games and it is also a world famous tourism place so Rio has to have some reasons for being chosen and become such an attraction. What a mystery trip! After I got there and after few days of experiencing the city, I had totally different impressions. By walking down the city, it looks quit safe and relaxing. There are lots of people walking on the streets with their dogs and countless people hanging out on the beach. All of these make people assuming this is the whole image of this city. But Rio is a city with more than 6 million people and it is certainly that not everyone’s life is like that. Soon I found that southern part of the city is the tourism area and the western part is the place that most citizens are living and working. Luckily I got the chance to see both sides of the city. And observing how the most of people in Rio is living. The biggest impression Rio gives me is it is showing the existence of poor and rich so incisively and vividly. Even in downtown area, simple, broken houses exist among bunch of skyscrapers. Many countries have similar situation but Rio is one that showing it so directly. Also, as there are so many amazing architectures in the city, the contrast is even more obvious.
The Rio trip let me experienced the pleasure of exploring a new city both with a group and individually. Even though I have done some research about where to go in Rio, there were still some sites that Aimee and Troy took us surprised me, like the botanical garden. I did know there is such a place like that. Also, in free day we explored Rio downtown, besides the visit of Escadaria Selarón, which we planned ahead, we also discovered lots of new places that we never thought of in downtown. I guess that is the meaning of traveling- seeing things you never expected. 🙂