Lazy Sunday

I slept in till 12 today but that still was only about 6 hours of sleep. The only reason that I was able to sleep in this long is because this was the first really gray day that I have had here in Brazil and it pretty much rained all day long. This was probably for the best since I had a lot of homework to catch up on that was due tomorrow. I really enjoy my schoolwork here, but I have to say that it is more than I expected. I guess I thought I would have less because stories that other students have told me about studying abroad and how they never actually had homework but just had to show up to class. Come to think about it, I had a lot of misconceptions about this trip that have taken me a while to get adjusted to. Some of this things have panned out to be better, and some have turned into my biggest struggles. For example, I was told that I did not need any previous Portuguese knowledge to go on this trip. I think that should be changed or seriously reconsidered. I know why most study abroads require previous language now. First, because it is very hard to learn the language by listening to conversation without formal Portuguese lessons (I am learning a lot in my intensive UFES class, but the second one is pretty slow). Second, you can't really be effective or experience the culture without knowing the language (this is true to an extent, I believe I am truly immersed in Brazilian culture, but I do feel that I am taking much less away from this trip than if I had some previous Portuguese; I do not feel like I am being very effective at CADEC or I feel that I am only being a small fraction as effective as I could be). Third, this puts alot of pressure on the student and on the people surrounding the student's everyday life ( I feel really badly about the trouble that my lack Portuguese is causing my family and volunteers at CADEC) Because of these reasons and some smaller more personal reasons, I think that language studies should be a prior to departure requirement. If you would have told me this about a month ago, I would have laughed and said that I will be fine or that you are being overcautious (my parents probably warned me about this but I never gave it a second's thought). This advice could be specific to only my situation, especially because I never had much trouble getting around in Europe or Africa, but then again everyone speaks English and we had a translator, respectively. I also was pretty ignorant about what I would doing down here, but I attribute that to my lack of communication. Based on the information that I was told, I thought that I would be volunteering in a health clinic some days and volunteering by doing manual labor other days. I did know that I would be volunteering with children but I thought this was a temporary thing. My mistake was that I did not go to the source and ask Daniel. I was very busy before I left the states (graduation, publications, working 60 hours a week for spending money) and my lack of communication has had many repercussions of which I do not fault anyone but myself.

I digress, the rest of my day was filled with homework and I enjoy taking it slow and reading and writing. I really need to start doing this sooner, but I surprisingly have little time during the week. I think I need to start volunteering at CADEC for 4 hours only because I have the publication review hanging over my head and Dr. DiFazio really would like it if I completed it soon. I have discovered that most of my wasted time is spent waiting for the internet to load, so I keep my current reading material next to my computer similar to how most people keep is next to their toilet. It is amazing how a change in the speed of internet affects my life and very sad at the same time. In the words of Nina Spadora, I am a slave to technology.

The pictures really have nothing to do with today, but I turned them into panoramas while waiting for my internet to load. The first one is of Vila Velha and I live close to where the high rise apartment buildings end on the beach in the distance (hard to see, but kinda in the middle of the second concave section of beach, pass the slight peninsula in the center-right of the picture). Every night I run to the other outcropping of rock or peninsula close to the green mountain ( Most nights when I am feeling good at this point, I continue to run to the neighbor surrounding the green mountain in the left of the picture. This mountain (Morra Morena) was the one I climbed on Friday.

The second picture is of Vitoria. It is actually a pretty large island connect to Vila Velha by the third bridge. The port is seen in the distance on the right and Morra Morena is on the right. The marine barracks are on the beach at the bottom.