For the month of May, me and 5 other Fisher students traveled to Sao Paulo, Brazil to intern there for 4 weeks. We consulted for the manufacturing and packaging company, Greif. We worked on our project throughout the week, doing any research we needed, and spent our weekends traveling and exploring other parts of Brazil.
Everyone always says traveling abroad will change you, make you more open minded, and make you learn more about yourself. With this being my first time traveling abroad, I listened to everything people told me, but did not truly grasp how much would change until this project was over. This trip made me more understanding and opened my eyes to how different other cultures across the world are. I developed not only a deeper understanding of the culture in brazil, but a strong desire to travel more and experience other cultures out there. I truly realized how privileged we are in the U.S in regards to many things; most of us can drink the water without worrying about getting sick, we don’t have to worry as much about plumbing issues, mosquito viruses, or pick pocketing, and fuel shortages are not as big of a problem. Finally traveling abroad not only allowed me to expand my horizons internationally, but made me more appreciative of what we have. This made me take a step back and evaluate my life at home and my attitude towards certain things and showed me how independent I can be.
The key aspect of this trip that really changed my views were the people we met. I never would have expected to have been so welcomed into a different country, the way we were treated was outstanding and everyone made us feel at home. Brazil stresses personal relationships before business a lot, all of us knew this before we arrived but we would have never guessed how open they would be with us. Our coworkers not only helped us tremendously with any questions we had, but they spent time with us comparing cultures and languages and took us out to explore the city. They invited us to eat with them almost everyday at lunch and made sure to tell us about any plans they may have had after work. They not only gave us a deeper level of understanding the Brazilian culture, but mutually benefited from our conversations and learned about the U.S. On top of our coworkers, we were paired with the organization Campus Brazil that also spent quality time with us. We not only met them for required events, but they even reached out to us to grab dinner or coffee and just chat multiple times. For this being my first time traveling abroad, everyone we met and their friendliness really made everything less scary.
The biggest culture shock of this trip was the language barrier. It didn’t sink in how difficult it would be to communicate until we arrived and were on our own. Luckily we had one person in our group that knew a decent amount of Portuguese and ended up being our savior throughout the month. For the rest of us, things were not always easy. Majority of workers there were patient with us and understanding, but not living in a touristy area meant that no one spoke English and they did not expect to have to deal with so many of us at once. There were many times where trying to communicate was difficult, and a couple times where it was nearly impossible and we failed. “Im sorry” was one of the first phrases we learned, and we used it religiously. We all felt rude and helpless trying to order food or communicating with anyone since we were in their country and didn’t know their language. A major lesson I learned from this trip was that next time I travel I will spend time learning the language before I go. I now understand and feel for those who come to the U.S and don’t know English yet, especially since workers and people here are less understanding and patient in regards to the language barrier.
One last thing that not only I, but everyone else, loved and learned from was the independence. We were truly alone in a foreign country. While we had Campus Brazil and other people we could reach out to for help, we truly were on our own to figure things out. For me this was only my second time flying and first time flying alone, which may have been the scariest part of the trip for me. My first 2 flights were both canceled and I had to find other arrangements in a short period of time. While all of this was happening I was in a slight panic, but learning to deal with this on my own and handle what was thrown at me gave me the confidence to fly alone in the future. The independence we were given was enjoyable but scary at times. Since we were traveling alone we did not always know where the more dangerous areas were and where we should stay away from, and since we were not traveling to major touristy areas we stood out and were easily targeted as Americans. Where as nothing bad happened to us, we learned to really keep an eye out for ourselves and other group members. The independence really taught us to be more aware of our surroundings.
Everything I learned from this trip will benefit me in any way imaginable. I was finally able to complete my personal goal of traveling abroad and experiencing a new culture. This trip gave me more personal goals of traveling to different places and making myself more open to trying new things and going out of my comfort zone. This project gave me the perfect mix of personal and professional benefits. It allowed me to travel and experience another culture while working and experience business internationally. I got to experience first hand how business works in another culture and setting, which is more experience than I ever saw myself getting. It allowed me to network my colleagues and gave me skills that I will forever use.While this trip made me grow personally, professionally, and culturally, it gave me the desire to keep traveling and keep growing.