O fim; Or, Why you should do Yale in Brazil

[[I broke from my normal pattern of Portuguese blog titles just so I could be sure that anyone with even the slightest inkling of interest in doing this program DOES IT!!!]]

Porque você deve participar no programa Yale no Brasil

I said it before, but I really had no reason to come to Brazil other than that it was something to do over the summer. While that might not've been the best reasoning, I'm glad it made sense at the time! I totaly recommend this program. Especially for freshmen; this was definitely the perfect way to wrap up my first year as a Yale student.

Reasons why this is by far the best study abroad program Yale University offers:

Four Credits
That's an entire semester. AN ENTIRE FREAKING SEMESTER. Do you realize what this means? It means you never have to take a 5 credit semester. Ever. In your entire Yale college career. And if you choose to, you do so knowing that A) you can drop that extra credit, and B) you're enrolling in that class because you want to, not because your degree depends on it.

The Workload
It's ridiculously manageable. It's not really a gut because it's interesting (I tend to think gut courses are incredibly dull--easy as fuck, but dull), but there's really not a lot of (necessary) work. The language classes (especially the L1/L2 program) cover a lot of material, but they cover that material in class. Meaning most of the work you do will be during your 3 hours of Portuguese for Romance Language Speakers, not at home on your own. Jackson's class has a heavy reading load but... it's not actually necessary that you do it. Skim what looks interesting and enjoy the fact that you're in Brazil, learning more from lived experience (one would hope) than from 16th century Portuguese poetry.

The ISA
Okay, so not everyone gets it, and not everyone who gets it gets one as generous my own. But, if Yale helps you out majorly in terms of financial aid, TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE INTERNATIONAL SUMMER AWARD. Essentially, Yale paid for my entire trip. I say "essentially" because Yale initially said they would only pay for 88% of the total cost; however, they're the ones estimating travel expenses and, as luck would have it, they (really) overestimated. Long story short, I got to keep the difference. So, every time I was lounging on the beach in Paraty, sipping a caipirinha I won in a raffle on our island hopping booze cruise, or stumbling out of a club in Lapa at 2 am on a Sunday morning, I stopped and thought: "Yale paid for me to do this. Holy fuck."

The Jacksons
They're seriously some of the nicest people in the world. Bete is super awesome, a really sweet person, and a kick-ass Portuguese teacher. Three hours (for the most part) flew by because we used the time effectively--as in, we were actually learning and not doing pointless drills. Professor K. David Jackson (Bete's husband) is really great too. His course consists mostly of him talking and when you take a break from surfing Facebook (when you have internet access) you can tell just how brilliant of a Brazilianist he is. Their kids came along too, and both of them are nice. Their daughter was our age so a lot of people got to be pretty close with her, and she came out with us a couple of times. It was a little awkward when we ran into her parents/our professors as we were walking to a bar. I never really got to know their 15 year old son. Both of them speak Portuguese as a first language--something you would NEVER assume from just looking at them.

I didn't really know Marta (the intermediate teacher) but some words that I've heard used to describe her are: "Sassy," "DGAF," and "Badass Bitch." Okay, the last one was just me... she definitely looks like one.

Brazil
Enough said.

But I'll say a little more anyway. Six weeks in Brazil should be enough to convince anyone. But take into account that the structure of this program is perfect. Your first two weeks are in Paraty, a historical, colonial city half-way between Rio and Sao Paulo. It's small, touristy, and beautiful. It's great for test driving your burgeoning Portuguese skills and for just taking in the fact that you're actually in Brazil (I think if we'd gone directly to Rio my head would've exploded). Normally Yale's there for the FLP (Festival Literaria Portuguesa), which was rescheduled when I went this summer because of the World Cup. Apparently it's an equally great experience that infuses Paraty with a lot more liveliness (and about 30,000 more people), but I enjoyed having Paraty nearly empty of tourists. Then four weeks in RIO DE JANEIRO. They don't call it A Cidade Maravilhosa for nothing.

Not New Haven
I love the Elm City (no, seriously, I do) but in the summer... Eh. The weather's shittier than normal a lot of the time, and not that many people are around. Luckily, the Brazil program spends two weeks in The Have. TWO. That's the shortest (I'm almost positive) time spent at Yale out of any of the Summer Sessions Abroad--well, actually the Swahili in Kenya program doesn't spend any time in New Haven at all, those bastards go straight to Africa. The French program, on the other hand, was on campus for almost a month before going to Paris. 14 days in New Haven and then SIX WHOLE WEEKS in Brazil. That is by far the best configuration for any Yale abroad program that starts off on campus.

No Experience Necessary
Very few summer sessions abroad have L1/L2-level courses available. The sole requirement for the intro. class was familiarity with a Romance language. While Spanish is definitely the most helpful, there were people who spoke French and even Romanian.

Learning From My Mistakes
The utter freedom of this program, especially in terms of structured activities vs. free time could be overwhelming at times. With so much that I could be doing, I frequently found myself not doing anything, really. I let homesickness affect me more than I would've liked, and lot of time was spent trying to hijack wifi from Luba's neighbors or hanging out in the internet cafe around the corner.

And it was always during those bouts of not doing anything that I started to feel really bad about not doing anything, as if I were completely wasting my experience in a way. That's not a good line of thinking to start down when you're even slightly emotionally on edge (because you're thousands of miles from home, friends, and the familiar). And, honestly, towards the end of the 5th week of program, I really started to think about going home a lot more and actually looked at my calendar in pseudo-countdown fashion. While I loved seeing two very distinct parts of Brazil, that was also somewhat disorienting. Just as I got used to Paraty, we up and left for Rio, for example. I then spent the next few days readjusting to life as someone's tenant in a totally foreign city--it definitely wasn't the smoothest transition for me to make.

Five months after returning to the US and Yale, my time in Brazil is now definitely in the realm of memory. I can't remember all the specifics of the trip, and my reflections are mostly hazy combinations of nostalgia and saudades. I definitely learned a lot from my six weeks abroad, though--about myself, about the place I come from, about what I want to do in life. I enjoyed the Yale Summer Session in Brazil, to be sure, but it did feel like a 6-week vacation; I mean, that's not necessarily a bad thing, but I wasn't out saving the world, or even interning or doing research; I was taking classes, exploring Rio, and generally relaxing. All admirable things and I don't regret doing them, but I now know that I want my subsequent summers to be more substantively productive.

But like I said, Brazil was awesome. Like Bete says, "O Brasil encanta, Brazil enchants." I definitely would love to go back, and I'm so happy that I had the opportunity to go. It was eye-opening on so many levels. The friends I made were also an added benefit; maybe it was just the particular year that I did it, or maybe the fact of being in such a wonderful place with such a relaxing academic program just pusts everyone in a good mood--whatever it was, I had an incredible time!

Well, I guess that's about all I have left in terms of Brazil-related blog posts. This probably lacks all credibility since there was a six-month gap in my postings, but I truly enjoyed keeping this online journal and am planning on starting one up for second semester--I'll post a link on Facebook or something.

Até logo, amigos. Graças por ler!