AZP Brazil 2012

AZP Class 13 Last Night in Brazil Last Blog

2012-02-08T13:24:00.000-08:00

First of all I thought you all would like to know that on the long trip we drove 3100miles. That's the most miles we have driven since I have been doing the program. Lots of bus time to say the least but if you look at a map we covered several inches and saw several sites. :)

It's late Wednesday night and time is winding down. There are some students extremely excited and ready to come home and then others who want to stay longer. That is similar with other years. Now for earlier in the week.

Our field trip on Monday had us leaving Antonio's at 6:00 am (no rest for the weary) and took us to Itatinga/SP where we visited one of ESALQ's Experiment Stations. The focus of the station was on Eucalyptus trees. Several acres are set aside for various research projects. We saw several different species of trees and had a nice fast paced walk through the woods. Eucalyptus trees are an important industry in Brazil because they grow fast, are very resistant and a strong wood.

In the afternoon we visited a large beef cattle ranch with Melore cows where we learned about how the farmer did his pasture rotation with his cows which was very unique for that region. We saw his feedlot although he had no cows on the feedlot. The feedlot is usually used from July to November because its too hot the rest of the year. His cattle were divided in groups of 500 and rotated every four days between nine different pastures. This gives the grass growth time of 35 days between feedings and time to fertilize. This system was used with several different groups of cattle. It was quite interesting. He buys about 6000 head a year when he goes to the auction. The students had lots of questions for him and his English was very good so he took time answering each question. He seemed to have as much fun as the students.

The students took a break from paying attention and I caught them in action. On their behalf it was a very hot afternoon in our jeans and blue AZP shirts.
Monday night we returned to Antonio's and the students worked on the remainder of their projects and fine tuned them for presenting on Tuesday. Some got a good nights sleep while others worked late into the night. The projects went really well on Tuesday and you can see a sample of the groups.

Tuesday night we had our final dinner with the host families. The students were excited to see them again. Some have seen them since the host family weekend while others had not but all families were there. The restaurant we go to is a pizza restaurant but the waiters come around with 26 different pizzas. You name it, it's there including anchove, three cheese, celebreze, egg, shrimp, pineapple, banana, chocolate-strawberry etc, etc.

Today was a service learning day. There is a service organization in Piracicaba (MUCCAP) that for many years has built houses at a very low cost selecting families from those who apply for the project. AZP has painted 29 houses since we started and we added three more houses to the list today. We broke off into three groups, one group of five, one of ten and another of five. The second house was the biggest that we have ever attempted and the third house was probably the cutest. These houses are in a very poor part of Piracicaba and the third was deep into the flavelas. I was with the group of five who painted third house. We worked together really well. I know that at least two of the houses were featured in the local newspapers and some of the students were interviwed. The students worked very hard to complete all three houses. The families and MUCCAP are very appreciative of our efforts.

Throughout the blog I tried to include pictures of all the students. One student seemed to be a little camera shy and clearly avoided any pictures being taken of him. Well I grabbed him today on the way back to Antonios after painting. I didn't want you to think I had forgotten him throughout the pictures. The students were also treated to ice cream this afternoon. Oh by the way it was 104 degrees today while we were painting!! Yes, 104!!!! I will have to say that the students burned off all the calories of pizza they ate last night!!

Tomorrow morning many of the girls are treating themselves to manicures and/or pedicures, some students are buying last minute gifts and some will be sleeping in as they are enjoying their last night in Brazil at one of the interns fraternity houses. We had a nice barbecue and I left them dancing and enjoying themselves to finish the blog. We have a closing luncheon at a restaurant along the Piracicaba River and then we leave the hotel for the airport at 4:00 pm. Thanks goes to Ricardo Shirota, Ana Vitoria, Andres, Cristina, Professors Peres, Mello and Caron and the bus drivers.

I will have to say this has been another great group of students. I am very proud of them and their host families commented last night how much they had changed between their first meeting and last night. "So quiet and now so talkative and confident" they said. I always enjoy watching each student from Seminar 1 through the Washington D.C. trip. They each grow in their own special way but I always see that self confidence emerge. Class #13, you've been great!!! Please keep in touch.

Next time you hear from us we will be back in the United States.

Last Day of the Long Trip

2012-02-05T04:56:00.001-08:00

We spent the evening in Pouso Alegre/MG. The last visit was a tomato and corn farm in Turvolandia/MG. Lucas Muraoka and his father presented the tour. Lucas is a student at ESALQ. This was different in that all the crops produced were for human consumption only. The prices are up right now for corn and tomatoes. The production of tomatoes and corn for human consumption is different than that of producing for exporting. These crops went to the local community and Rio. There were 40 hectares of tomatoes and several acres of corn. You can see by the pictures that the crops looked excellent. Twenty-one sharecroppers are hired for the maintenance of tomatoes.

You can see the students took a little time to play around in a tree doing an upside down O-H-I-O and Chris hanging like a sloth.

Mr. Muraoka treated us to a wonderful lunch in a fancy restaurant and the students slept most of the way home. Thank you Mr. Muraoka. We presented the bus drivers with OSU hats. Two bus drivers are with us for the trip and they swap driving. They get us in and out of tight spots throughout the trip. Each year I am amazed at their driving skills. One of the drivers has been doing this long trip each year I have done the program. Thanks to the bus drivers and to Shirota, Ana and Andres for making all the arrangements. It takes time and organization to make this work.

There probably will be one more blog before we leave. Take care, AZP Partners Class 13

Chance of a Life Time - Rio de Janiero!!

2012-02-05T04:21:00.000-08:00

We spent two nights in Petropolis which is about an hour and a half from Rio in good traffic. The students were quite excited to get to see Rio de Janiero. Another day would have been nice but we jam packed a lot in the time we were there. The first few pictures give the image of Rio as we came into the city on the bus. You could see the favellas just stacked on top of each other and as well the view of large skyscrapers. Every once in a while we would pass a house or building with float pieces ready for carnival. The small beautiful church caught my eye as I sat watching out the window.

Our first visit was to the Christ the Redeemer monument and what an amazing piece of art. Just breathtaking!! We took our bus partway up the mountain to a small village where we boarded a van, then we got into another van and then it was several steps to actually get to the top. It was interesting in that it was different van companies just to get up the mountain. Initially they fought over the group as to which vans we would use. We stopped part way up, took pictures of the view of the city and then we went to the top. The place was packed with people and it was a very hot day. We took several pictures and went through the same process going back down the mountain.

We ate lunch and then went to the Rio de Janiero Botanical Gardens. We split off into groups and it was a nice relaxing walk through the gardens. Most of the flowers were not in bloom but it was just gorgeous. Most of us just needed this time to unwind. The entrance where we walked into the gardens was awesome as you saw a long pathway of palm trees on both sides. There was an orchid display and old water mill in the gardens. You could even see the Christ the Redeemer monument from the park. There are just a few pictures showing the gardens. Then we returned to Petropolis and had a nice meal at a small restaurant across from the hotel.

The second day we did some street shopping in Petropolis, walked through a small hippie market and had a tour of the Imperial Museum. Pictures were not allowed at the museum but the tour actually tied together some of what the students learned in class related to the imperial family and that time period. One thing the students will remember is that everyone who visited the museum had to put slippers on over their shoes that had dusters on the bottom. The floors of the museum were all wood and this kept the shoes from damaging the wood and actually dusted it at the same time. A bit awkward walking through the museum but “ya gotta do what ya gotta do”.

After eating at a gorgeous little restaurant in Petropolis we visited the Itaipava and Cristal Beer Producer. The students learned about the production of beer. It takes water, malte, barley, hopps and variations there of. I think I remember them saying that they moved 42,000 bottles of beer through the plant a day. Students learned that draft beer is only good for 15 days and the bottled beer stays fresh in the bottle much longer because of pasteurizing. A very interesting tour.

What did you think of Rio in two days?

Jamuary 31 and February 1

2012-02-02T18:46:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday we had an extremely interesting visit to a papaya and banana producer, again fruits that we aren’t use to seeing produced in the United States. The students had lots of questions and learned first hand about the planting and production of both fruits. They were able to compare and contrast the banana field from the previous day with the one today. The owner of Frutas was very good at explaining his farm and talking to the students. He had 450 employees. We saw the papaya packing plant first. Brazil has a problem with a fungus that causes black spots on the papaya. They are edible but they aren’t a first class fruit so they cannot be exported. Then we saw the papaya field and I think the students were surprised at the number of fruit per tree. This farm was so large they were harvesting papaya every day.

The banana farm was just amazing. The students could really see how bananas are harvested and how careful the farmer is with the bananas. It was interesting to see how the workers cut down the banana bunch. They notch the tree so that it leans, clear the leaves away from the bunch of bananas and then another person cuts the bunch where it carefully lands on another workers shoulder with a pad on it and then the bunch is hooked to a cable which carries it to the packing plant. The cable is throughout the field and the direction can be adjusted by the worker. A banana tree is grown with a grandparent, mother and daughter planted side by side because they only last for two to three years. The students even got a chance to slice a small bunch of bananas (like we would find in the store) from the actual full bunch cut from the tree. The original bunch may weigh up to 60 pounds. The bananas are then put in water to be cleaned and packed. The students also tasted fresh papaya and banana. Hmmmm good!!!! Very impressive farm. The rest of the day was spent traveling to Vitoria and we arrived at 9:00 pm.

Wednesday started with a visit to Vale do Rio Doce’s Port Facilities. We started at their sensory park which is open for the community to enjoy. Then we viewed a movie followed by a bus tour of the full port. This is the largest iron ore port in the world. We also saw one of four new ships that have been ordered by Vale. It is the largest freight ship in the world and called Vale Rio de Janiero. There are very few ports that are large enough to even dock the ship. The crew of a ship like this might be 110 people or so while the crew of the cruise ship that crashed off the shore of Italy was 1100. It had just finished unloading when we saw it. We were able to see the process of a port and movement of iron ore. We saw it moving through the system to the train. Vale is a small city within itself and very environmentally conscious.

Next we visited Garoto, Brazil’s largest chocolate processing factory and when merged with Nestle has 50% of the profit share in chocolate across the world. It was neat to see all the different chocolates made by Garoto and learn about the history of the company. No cameras were allowed but we saw the production of several different lines of chocolates, the wrapping and packaging and we also were able to taste several different kinds of chocolate candy. It was interesting to see how many different kinds some people were able to eat. We were able to visit their store after the tour.

Then we settled in for the trip to a small town outside of Rio. So far our bus travels have been fairly dull. No flooding, no rained out roads, no trees down in the road as in past years. I have been waiting for something to happen. We departed from Garoto about 5:00 pm with a predicted arrival time of midnight. The roads weren’t the best and then about 2:00 am we came to a very narrow overpass. The bus slowly moved through the passageway and crash!! We didn’t hit the sides but we hit the top, the bus could not get under the overpass. The commotion of hitting woke many of the students up (I was already awake). We had to carefully back out and turn around and find another road. We ended up arriving at the hotel in Petropolis at 4:25 am. We are currently on the bus heading towards Rio and we left at 8:00 am this morning.

More to come with the adventures of AZP Class 13.

The Beach!!! and Monday

2012-02-02T16:53:00.000-08:00

It has been a very busy last few days. It ended up being a 20 hour road trip to get to the beach in Bahia on Sunday. We got there about 11:00 am and stayed until 6:00. It was a gorgeous beach and we had time to relax, sun bath (some got more sun than others), enjoy the ocean, and walk around to experience the culture of Bahia. Bahia is a different region in Brazil in that it is mostly all African American’s. There is not the diversity that you see elsewhere in Brazil. We also had dinner at a typical street restaurant where there were many more choices of juices. Fruits that we were unaware even existed. It was 11:00 pm before we got back to the hotel. You will have to ask the guys about their speedos. Great O-H-I-O’s!!

Monday we were up early and toured CEPLAC, a National Cocoa Research Center. We were able to see the process of making chocolate and even tasted a sample of 50% chocolate which is almost a premier chocolate. It was interesting to hear about the different uses of the various percentages of chocolate. We started in the cocoa fields and learned about the growth and disease of the plants. We opened up the pod and saw a gooey, slimy material around the cocoa bean. We tasted the gooey material and most actually broke open the bean and tasted the inside of the bean. It is the gooey material that makes white chocolate. I will have to say the sensory skills of students were active today. We then visited the lab that produces chocolate but it is focused on research rather than production.

After that we stopped at a sloth refuge center and were able to see the sloths up close. The curator was holding a 2 month old baby that lost it’s mother and was brought to the center and an older sloth who had lost a foot in the electric wires. They were enjoying being held by the curator. There were other sloths that we watched for a while and learned about their behavior, habits and habitat.

We then stopped at Biofabrica which produces papaya plants for the farmers and we learned the steps in starting a papaya plant from a cutting to the planting in the field. We also observed banana farm and learned a little bit about bananas. This farmer emphasized that bananas need a canopy of taller trees for protection and they did not like full sun.

Then we headed toward Teixeira de Freitas/BA arriving about midnight.

January 23 - 29

2012-01-30T15:43:00.000-08:00

On January 24 we visited one of the largest dairy farms in Brazil located in Tapiratiba/MG. No pictures were allowed but it was quite a facility. The students asked lots of questions. They had their own brand name, Fazenda, and the students were able to process. They even tasted some COLD milk packaged at the farm. Some students liked it and others did not. It did taste different. In the afternoon we visited Cooxupe, a large coffee cooperative in Guaxupe/MG and a coffee farm. Between the two visits we observed the whole process of coffee production including planting, picking, drying, delivery to cooperative, grading and selection of coffee beans, more drying, storage and delivery to consumer. Specialty coffees are the next on agenda of the cooperative. You can see two students stepping up to experience coffee tasting and having the knack of swishing the coffee throughout the mouth to get the full taste and then spitting it out for the next taste. What about that O-H-I-O in the coffee field.

On Thursday a group of us stopped at lunch to see if we could find the monkeys at ESALQ. So far we had not seen them. Darcy left a banana and we stopped to get ice cream. We returned after the ice cream and they had found the banana and were eating. The students had a grand time feeding two bananas to several Tamerin monkeys.

Thursday afternoon the students had their written exam and then we left a little after 8:00 pm the long trip and drove all night before reaching Sete Lagoas/MG . We spent the day at one of Brazil’s EMBRAPA national research stations focused on sorghum, corn and millet. They are researching three types of sorghum with the tallest containing more sugar. We also saw corn plots. Then we were able to see fruits not found in Ohio or the U.S. – papaya, avocados and star fruits.

Saturday morning we visited a large integrated hog farm. They purchased the grand parents of the F1 generations and then bred, birthed piglets, fed them out, sent the males to market, kept those females they selected and sent the rest to market. He had 500 sows, 6100 total pigs and sent 50 hogs a day to be slaughtered. Those sent for slaughter came back to farm after slaughtering and the meat was processed and then sold to restaurants and industrial food companies. Brazil had 5-6 cuts because most of the meat was bought in bulk but over time the family size has decreased and therefore this farm has developed 30-40 different cuts. Extremely successful and the farmer started small and grew over time since 1968. He now has a bio-digester for the waste which he plans to use the methane to run an engine for electricity.

We currently are on our way to Bahia. It will be a 13-16 hour drive. The beach is at the other end of the ride!!! Stay tuned for more next time.

Take care, Class 13

January 17-22 Preparing for the Home Stay

2012-01-23T05:15:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, Thursday afternoon and Friday were with a new professor, Dr. Caron. Dr. Caron focused on music, art and culture. How culture impacts the growth of a country. We watched two movies, one on the Canudus and the other Rio. We listened to lots of different music also.

Chris celebrated his 21st birthday several times J. We went out the night of January 16th into the 17th and then had a cake for him in class.

On Wednesday we visited a Case IH plant in Piracicaba which makes coffee and sugar cane harvesters and sprayers. Pictures were not allowed most of the time so what we saw is not necessarily depicted. We were able to see the equipment. The sugar cane harvester is pretty amazing. Brazil is the largest producer of sugar cane. What is important to know is that In Brazil by 2014 all sugar cane production is to be done by machine. One new machine will replace 90 people. The topography of the land will determine if production can be done by machine or must continue to be done by hand. The estimate is that 90% of the sugar cane production will be done by machine. What is Brazil going to do with all the displaced people who depend on their income from sugar cane? The economy must be growing to absorb these workers.

Wednesday evening the students celebrated Stephanie Verhoff’s birthday by going to Andre’s house and having hotdogs and beverages. I did not go. There are times when I think its best for students to experience the social culture without me being there. Also, I am just getting too old to go out every night How could that happen?

Wednesday afternoon we visited Coplacana which is one of the largest cooperatives in Brazil. We visited the biofuel facility and their recycling facility. We observed soybeans being made into soybean meal and then oil. The oil will then be converted to energy. In the pictures you can see the soybean meal and then oil being produced. The facility is not approved yet to take that last step from oil to energy so they sell the oil as they wait for approval.

Coplacana is also very proud of their recycling facility. Brazil is very conscious of the concept of recycling. You see it everywhere. While we were there the President of Coplacana stopped by. All farmers are required to recycle all chemical containers. You can see the truck loaded in the background with compressed plastic containers. You can also see the gift we gave to the Coplacana administrator who handled our tour.

The family stay has always been a highlight of the trip for most students. On Wednesday night the students met their host family. We had a splendid dinner together. The pictures show the students as they arrived. You can sense the nervousness and see the pieces of paper on which they have their introductions written. Each student introduced themselves in Portuguese and then was matched with their family and then sat with them for dinner and conversation. You can see some of the students introductions and then their family member coming up to greet them and take them to their seat. I am sure each student took lots of pictures of their home stay so ask them about what they did and what they observed about the family. The culture of the family is much different in Brazil than the U.S.

Thursday we visited the ESALQ dairy farm and learned the techniques and processes used and then listened to a post doc’s research on grasses.

Students and families always ask what I do over the weekend while the students are gone. It is always different each year. Friday night I went to the formal commencement party after the actual graduation ceremony. Graduates, family members, students and faculty were invited. About 300 students graduated. It did not start until 11:00 pm and probably went on until 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning. The entertainment was unique. I am not sure I can even describe the group. Tons of food was served, lots were dancing but mostly students, some parents. I don’t think we could pull off anything like this in the U.S. I did work most of the rest of the weekend including answering e-mails and quarters to semester conversion.

The last picture is taken out my window from Antonio’s. If you look close the Piracicaba soccer stadium is on the right. It was full for the first soccer game of the season. A big game and one of the best teams in the league were the visitors. Some of the students actually went to the game. It was loud and it ended in a tie. The smoke to the left was fireworks that were set off at one point I think before the game.

This week will be the last of the classes, tomorrow we will visit the largest dairy farm in Brazil in Tapiratiba and then a coffee cooperative in Cooxupe, and the written exam will be Thursday afternoon. We will leave for the long trip Thursday evening.

Take care,

AZP Class 13

The Second Weekend in Brazil - What a Blast!!

2012-01-16T04:00:00.000-08:00

Volleyball and Basketball - Thursday night the group went to ESALQ's recreation center and played basketball and volleyball. It was a nice night of exercise and fun.

On Friday we left early in the morning and headed to Sao Paulo which is about two hours from Piracacaba. On the way we stopped at Cajamar and toured Natura which is Brazil's largest cosmetic and cream factory. It was very impressive. They had 7500 workers at the location in Cajamar and on location they had a restaurant, health care options, smoking cessation classes, a 170 child day care and a training center. They worked three shifts Monday through Friday and they rotated responsibilities throughout the day.

Natura had a wall with wood inserts in their conference center which identified those consultants who had worked for Natura for more than 15 years. One might compare Natura to Mary Kay Cosmetics. The marketing of the products was all done by consultants.

From there we traveled to Osasco to visit Mcdonald's Food Town and oberserved the production of buns for McDonalds. McDonald's Food Town produces all the products for McDonalds and each year I have been to Brazil I have seen different sections of the company. The students immediately noticed how clean it was and were fascinated by seeing a large amount of dough being mixed and made into buns. No pictures were allowed so ask your student about the visit.

We checked into the hotel in Sao Paulo and got settled in and cleaned up for supper at McDonald's, Samba School and the Carnival experience. We ate dinner at McDonald's to compare U.S. and Brazilian McDonald's and to eat the buns we had just seen made.

It is really difficult to explain the Samba School and Carnival Experience. Carnival is a Brazilian Celebration which happens annually in February. It lasts three days and throughout the country it is a time of celebration, parades, dance and music. You could compare it to the Mardi Gras but then think about that country wide. Communities have dance groups which join together to create a theme and recreate the theme through music and dance. They parade through the streets presenting this theme. Formation and presentation of the theme is judged. In essence what we experienced was the gathering of one of the community groups in their center, learning the samba from one of the members and then going out onto the street and very quickly learning the song and dance movements so that we could join the group in one of their rehearsals. We then danced the samba and sang the song with the movements in formation back to the community center.

You can see the students here modeling some of the Carnival head pieces in the traditions O-H-I-O!!

These pictures were taken while we were outside parading back to the community center.

We left about midnight very hot and tired. A good night's sleep was necessary for Saturday's activities of a soccer game, the zoo and a nice night out in Sao Paulo.

In our group of four people there were at least 50 pictures taken of this hippo. The hippo just caught our attention and we watched for a long time. He finally came up to the fence right we were standing.

The bear appeared to be enjoying the afternoon just sitting there soaking up the sun.

Sunday we went to the hippie market which gave us the opportunity to buy homemade gifts for friends and family members. Very interesting looking at the the items related to Brazilian culture. From there we visted a large cathlolic church in Sao Paulo for their 11:00 am mass.

Shirota often talks about the lunch on Sunday in Sao Paulo and not eating supper and breakfast before so that we are hungry. This Sunday lunch is what is called a Brazilian Churrascaria. Sunday is a family day in Brazil and most families go out to eat. The group was served meat, fish and cheese along with a grand salad bar until we could eat no more. There was no reason to go away hungry. I think for the first time two students ate more than Shirota. That is a lot of meat!!

The students slept all the way back to Piracacaba. They could barely move when they left Charrascaria. It was a quite night of settling back into Antonio's Palace and getting a good night's sleep.

Take care

January 9-12

2012-01-12T10:42:00.000-08:00

It’s 8:30 am and the students are in class. It has been cooler and rainy here the last couple of days. This morning seemed brighter and warmer. It’s tough to know what the day is going be like. Let me back up one step and introduce you to Cristina. Cristina teaches the survival Portuguese and she also locates the host families and matches the students with the families for the home stay which is a key experience the students will remember for a very long time. We are now done with our survival Portuguese class and each student is creating their introduction for next week. They have the information to put together; they just need to think about what they want to say.

The last class with Cristina ended with her teaching us a Portuguese song and then the students learning a popular Brazilian dance which is much like the two step.

Prof. Fernando Peres started his lectures on Tuesday. He earned his PhD at Ohio State University in Agricultural Economics. His background is economics, sociology and business. His focus with us is on the history of Brazil as it relates to agriculture. He works from a timeline for the 1900’s.

On Wednesday we spent the day observing the flower industry of Brazil. In the morning we visited Veiling in Holambra. There is nothing like this in the United States. It is one of the largest flower auctions in the world. Since there are no big flower holidays coming up we saw a slow day but there were probably 20,000 flowers auctioned during our visit. The auction is what is called a “reverse auction” and to speed up the sale it starts from the highest bid rather than the lowest bid so it goes very fast. It is all automated and there are three clocks going at the same time. The clock shows the species, amount of flowers, seller, bid, next lot coming up etc. It is quite interesting to watch.

From there we went to Bioflora which is a seller of flowers to the auction. The focus of the company was on orchids. There were many beautiful orchids. The planting of seedlings to full grown plants is based on the holidays in the country. The orchids move from greenhouse to greenhouse based on the stage of growth. Orchids need a cooling stage in order to force the bloom. Gustav, who did the presentation, gave each student an orchid cutting. He talked about new species he was producing and the fact that they go to the Netherlands to see what they are doing to improve production in Brazil. Temperature in the greenhouse is extremely important for each stage of growth. We also saw a new package they were using for shipping orchids. After each visit we give the farmer or industry representative a gift.

We had a nice lunch in Holumbra and then went to Terra Viva which also sold flowers at Veiling but it was much larger and more automated than Bioflora. We observed the whole system from seedling to packaging and loading on the truck. Quite an investment. I believe it was about 28 acres under cover. We could compare the orchids at Bioflora to those of Terra Viva. The students can tell you the differences in the appearance of the orchids. We also saw chrysanthemums and anturios.

We got back to Antonio’s about 6:00 pm. We split up for supper and about half the group went out later in the evening. Everyone arrived at class this morning at 8:00am. Tomorrow we leave for our visit to the Sao Paulo metropolitan area.

Take care,
AZP Class 13

Our First Weekend

2012-01-08T13:31:00.000-08:00

Greetings !! All 19 students are still accounted for on this fifth day in Brazil. Friday and Saturday the students were in class all day. Prof. Mello emphasized the economic history of Brazil. National Geographic’s Guns, Germs and Steel video was shown and they discussed it and its relationship to Brazil’s history. The students have learned about Carnival, the samba, religions in Brazil, and the diversity of people in Brazil. Cristina, as always is a big hit with the students. Her expertise teaching survival Portuguese is awesome. The students have learned to introduce themselves and carry on a brief conversation in Portuguese. They have learned many of the food items on a menu, months, days, time, numbers, articles of clothing, utensils to eat with and much more. Each student will be expected to introduce him or herself to the group of host families so Cristina has been preparing them for that as well. The evenings were spent exploring and experiencing the different restaurants within walking distance of the hotel sometimes in small groups and others in a large group. It is Brazilian culture to spend two hours for lunch and much the same for supper. That is something most Americans have difficulty imagining and handling.

Today was our first activity away from Piricacaba. We traveled about two hours to Brotas which is a small town noted for its rivers, rafting and scenery. Let me first introduce our two undergraduate student interns I mentioned in the last blog. Ana Vitoria and Andres are shown below ready for rafting.

We started out the morning with our safety instructions and commands used in the rafts by the leader. The instructors in Brotas are fantastic with the tourists. One instructor spoke in Portuguese and the other in English for us. He picked up on the facial expressions of those who were nervous about rafting immediately. We then broke off into our groups and met our raft leader. Our life jackets, helmets and paddles were distributed and we all loaded on the bus and headed for the river.

Each group boarded their assigned rafts and practiced the commands before starting down the river. I am not sure how many rafts were in the group but there were several. We were on the river a couple of hours. Our raft used the commands forward, back and floor most often. The rapids and waterfalls were challenging at times. One of our students did fall out but was quickly snatched back in the raft before she barely realized she was out. She was pretty amazed. The funniest was it occurred when they held their paddles up to cheer for the raft. You can tell by the pictures a good time was had by all. At one point we were able to get into the river and swim which was pretty cool for those who did it.

After the rafting we got back on the bus and went to a restaurant/entertainment place that had a lake with swimming, slide and several zip lines. We ate lunch and then enjoyed some free time before we had to quit because of thunder and lightning. We got cleaned up and headed back to Piricacaba. Most slept on the return to the hotel. Decisions for supper are being made as I write this.

Until next time, take care and we are having a great time!!

January 3-5

2012-01-06T02:58:00.000-08:00

AZP Class 13 Leaving the Columbus Airport on January 3, 2012

As you know we arrived in Brazil safe and sound. For the most part, the trip was uneventful. Everyone’s luggage arrived with us except for one piece, and it was mine, so the students were ready to go once we landed. Danielle was the one student who had not flown before and she did just fine.

We met our Brazilian contacts at the airport once we got through customs. Dr. Ricardo Shirota is the in country coordinator and he has two undergraduate student interns, Ana Vitoria and Andre who help him. The two students stay with the group most of the time we are in country. They assist with planning the program but also integrating the AZP group into the country both socially and culturally and assist with translation of the language. Shirota completed is PhD in Agricultural Economics at OSU so he has a strong commitment to OSU and our students.

It was a two hour ride by bus from Sao Paulo to Piracicaba. We stopped for lunch on the way so the students were able to immediately experience the food of Brazil. We stopped at a restaurant (truck stop style) with a buffet. Like most Brazilian restaurants the food is weighed by the kilo. You will have to ask them about the food. Once we arrived at Antonio’s Palace the students moved into their rooms, cleaned up and then we headed on a campus tour.

Then we went on a city tour and ate supper at a nice style buffet where they were able to experience even different foods. We also surprised Tyler with a birthday celebration for his 20th birthday where we learned about the Brazilian custom of cutting the cake. Tyler had to cut the cake Brazilian style and he gave the first piece to Shirota. Sleep came early that night.

Thursday (yesterday) we began the formal classes with a welcome and then Cristina offered the first lesson on survival Portuguese while I went to the bank to convert the students’ money, so they had Brazilian reals for lunch. The students were asked to introduce themselves and they learned some food items. For the days we are in classes, it is a real adjustment for the Buckeyes. A typical Brazilian college day goes from 8:00 am-6:00 pm with the same instructor all morning and then either the same in the afternoon or a different instructor. There is a two hour break for lunch. U.S. students usually do not have the same subject for that long of a period of time. Prof Pedro Mello presented all afternoon. His focus is on Brazilian Economics. Last night the group went out for a nice dinner and learned more about each other, tried Brazilian pizza, learned more about the student interns. One of Ana Vitoria’s friends also joined us for supper. Today Prof. Mello is discussing the importance of being a BRIC Country.

Are You Ready??

2011-12-31T08:58:00.000-08:00

The countdown has begun, three days and counting. Class 13 plus Lauren Prettyman and minus Austin Bahnsen. Austin, we wish you well in your recovery. Please watch this blog for a view of Brazil 2012. We will miss you but it will be the experience of our lives.