I have been traveling for a month now, and as an exchange student every experience changes your perspective and your life. Traveling from the south of Brazil in Rio do Janeiro all the way to the north in Fortaleza is almost like traveling in different countries with the different culture, accent, and people. Its amazing how by traveling for one full day I can go to different cities in the same country, but the two cities have completely different histories. For example, we traveled from Porto Seguro to Recife in about one week and they both have unique and interesting histories that differ from each other. Porto Seguro was one of the first places that the Portuguese landed in Brazil and in Recife the Dutch invaded and held the city for 25 years resulting in a different type of accent and culture. Seeing all of the diversity of Brazil has really helped me realize how amazing this country is. Even though it is a third world country and is home to some of the poorest and dangerous cities in the world this country has amazed with how the people hold together. No matter what is happening in their country they always have the strength to stay the course and ride it out. On a different note Brazilians are happy and you’ll never find a brazilian saying “Aww, I’m having a bad day today” and just be depressed about it. Usually you could find them with a problem and happily working through it. I found this no matter where I went in Brazil, from Sao Paulo to Fortaleza.
I recently had my birthday in a little village on the beach called Jericoacoara and it was awesome. The night before my birthday we were allowed to go and walk around the village. I was able to have deep conversations with exchanges that I had just met three weeks before and have it feel like I had known them since I was born. I think that this is a critical part of exchange, knowing people from around the world and becoming brothers with them. That is why us, exchanges, are called ambassadors to other countries, because we become best friends with people from around the world. From this we go back to our respective countries and tell everyone we know unique and wonderful people from all over the world. Right now I could tell everyone that have three best friends from Germany, Denmark, and Canada. This is the kind of thing that makes us exchanges and why we represent our respective countries all over the world.