June 20th
Today was a very long day. Classes began with the normal with 3 ½ hours of Portuguese grammar, composition and discussion. After our first class we had to quickly grab lunch from the cafeteria and catch a bus to a metro to a bus to get to the Jardim Botanico on the outskirts of the city to meet our professors to tour the gardens for our afternoon cultural classes. Being a large, obviously foreign group was actually helpful yesterday when several bus passengers stopped us from getting off the bus about 20 minutes too early!
The topic was particularly interesting for me as it addressed the history of the Brazilian environmental movement and how the city Paulistas have thought about nature and national identity which are aligned with my research interests. The gardens themselves are very beautiful, although since its winter here they are not in bloom. The gardens are part of a large nature preserve that is actually the second largest stand of the original Atlantic forest that is left in the country. It was fascinating to see the contrast between the current concrete jungle and the green jungle that covered the original area of the city. We had a guest professor from Emory (a specialist in Brazilian environmental history) come and lecture to us about the garden and environmental policy in Brazil. After the lecture we were able to walk around the park and see the orchadium (somewhat disappointing since there were no flowers) the native forests, streams and sculpted gardens. My group spent most of the time looking for the source of the historically important Tietê River which currently flows underneath the city (causing major problems with flooding as with other large cities that simply build over there rivers). We followed both signs and spoken directions and it took us over and hour and a lot of hiking to reach the ‘source’ of the river which was really just a little puddle on the ground…But on the way we were able to take in some green organic life after being somewhat starved of nature in the mega-city.
We were in the gardens until they closed at 5:00. At closing the professors decided that we should all just go straight to the restaurant were we would be having our group dinner that night (it was rush hour and it didn’t make sense to go home and then come back). So we began our long trek back into the central areas of the city. We took one bus and two metros, and it was an experience. The first metro was not very full when we got on but we were packed in like sardines as we moved closer into town. When it came time to exit the train we had a hard time getting off because the people who were staying on the train did not want to get pushed off so they planted their feet and stayed put. I was able to punch my way through the crowd but I thought I was going to be by myself because the other three girls in my group could not get off! Luckily the whole mass of people on the train bowed out allowing them to get off. We made our transfer down to the red line (the most busy at that time of day) and lined up on the platform. Looking at the group of people we guessed it would be three trains before we would be able to get on…little did we know that Brazil subscribes to the Japanese form of loading metros. When the next train stopped we were swept up in the crowd and propelled in to the train, squashed in even tighter than sardines! We were able to stay together and no one was mean, they just all wanted to get home on THAT train. We had a somewhat long ride, but we were able to get off with relative ease (now that we knew the strategy, grab hands and punch through the gaps) at our stop. Once we had regrouped with the rest of the students we began the long trek to the Italian pizzeria where we were going to have dinner.
Due to the large protests planned for that night (over 1 million people all around Brazil) we had to get off at a further stop and walk around the protest rather than end up in the middle of it. It ended up being quite a walk to the restaurant and at this point we were hungry, tired and had been on our feet for more than 5 hours. At the restaurant our group took over the tables on the veranda overlooking the Parque de Buenos Aires. The food was amazing!! The restaurant had many great examples of the fusion of immigrants in the city; Italian pizzas with Japanese mushrooms is one of the city specialties. We ordered several different pizzas which circulated around the table so that everyone got to try everything. The restaurant also had made great caipirinhas (the national drink of Brazil), juices and chopps (draft beers, pronounced shoppe). Our group spent a really enjoyable evening with rounds of pizza and drinks, most of us just glad to be off our feet for a few hours! At the end of the night we broke back into our neighborhood groups to travel home. We were actually only a 15 min walk from our apartment so we were able to get back rather quickly, and fell asleep almost as soon as we got there!
Today was a very long day. Classes began with the normal with 3 ½ hours of Portuguese grammar, composition and discussion. After our first class we had to quickly grab lunch from the cafeteria and catch a bus to a metro to a bus to get to the Jardim Botanico on the outskirts of the city to meet our professors to tour the gardens for our afternoon cultural classes. Being a large, obviously foreign group was actually helpful yesterday when several bus passengers stopped us from getting off the bus about 20 minutes too early!
The topic was particularly interesting for me as it addressed the history of the Brazilian environmental movement and how the city Paulistas have thought about nature and national identity which are aligned with my research interests. The gardens themselves are very beautiful, although since its winter here they are not in bloom. The gardens are part of a large nature preserve that is actually the second largest stand of the original Atlantic forest that is left in the country. It was fascinating to see the contrast between the current concrete jungle and the green jungle that covered the original area of the city. We had a guest professor from Emory (a specialist in Brazilian environmental history) come and lecture to us about the garden and environmental policy in Brazil. After the lecture we were able to walk around the park and see the orchadium (somewhat disappointing since there were no flowers) the native forests, streams and sculpted gardens. My group spent most of the time looking for the source of the historically important Tietê River which currently flows underneath the city (causing major problems with flooding as with other large cities that simply build over there rivers). We followed both signs and spoken directions and it took us over and hour and a lot of hiking to reach the ‘source’ of the river which was really just a little puddle on the ground…But on the way we were able to take in some green organic life after being somewhat starved of nature in the mega-city.
We were in the gardens until they closed at 5:00. At closing the professors decided that we should all just go straight to the restaurant were we would be having our group dinner that night (it was rush hour and it didn’t make sense to go home and then come back). So we began our long trek back into the central areas of the city. We took one bus and two metros, and it was an experience. The first metro was not very full when we got on but we were packed in like sardines as we moved closer into town. When it came time to exit the train we had a hard time getting off because the people who were staying on the train did not want to get pushed off so they planted their feet and stayed put. I was able to punch my way through the crowd but I thought I was going to be by myself because the other three girls in my group could not get off! Luckily the whole mass of people on the train bowed out allowing them to get off. We made our transfer down to the red line (the most busy at that time of day) and lined up on the platform. Looking at the group of people we guessed it would be three trains before we would be able to get on…little did we know that Brazil subscribes to the Japanese form of loading metros. When the next train stopped we were swept up in the crowd and propelled in to the train, squashed in even tighter than sardines! We were able to stay together and no one was mean, they just all wanted to get home on THAT train. We had a somewhat long ride, but we were able to get off with relative ease (now that we knew the strategy, grab hands and punch through the gaps) at our stop. Once we had regrouped with the rest of the students we began the long trek to the Italian pizzeria where we were going to have dinner.
Due to the large protests planned for that night (over 1 million people all around Brazil) we had to get off at a further stop and walk around the protest rather than end up in the middle of it. It ended up being quite a walk to the restaurant and at this point we were hungry, tired and had been on our feet for more than 5 hours. At the restaurant our group took over the tables on the veranda overlooking the Parque de Buenos Aires. The food was amazing!! The restaurant had many great examples of the fusion of immigrants in the city; Italian pizzas with Japanese mushrooms is one of the city specialties. We ordered several different pizzas which circulated around the table so that everyone got to try everything. The restaurant also had made great caipirinhas (the national drink of Brazil), juices and chopps (draft beers, pronounced shoppe). Our group spent a really enjoyable evening with rounds of pizza and drinks, most of us just glad to be off our feet for a few hours! At the end of the night we broke back into our neighborhood groups to travel home. We were actually only a 15 min walk from our apartment so we were able to get back rather quickly, and fell asleep almost as soon as we got there!
A very cool bamboo tunnel at the gardens
Part of the formal gardens
No comments:
Post a Comment