Student Spotlight: Amanda White
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| Amanda White |
I have already featured Amanda White on this blog several times. However, the other day she sent an email about her Fulbright experience in Brazil that just blew me away. It touched on so many things that are important to me and many of you.
- Her love of languages.
- Her nostalgia for the countries in which she has lived and studied.
- Her abilities and challenges as a student of the liberal arts.
- Her ability to see how languages, countries and cultures all connect and influence each other.
Oi
pessoal!!!
I've just caught up on rest after two weeks of traveling in
Brazil and realized it's time for another update. This one will be a bit longer
to share about my travels in São Paulo. To see photos from São Paulo
click here. By next week
(hopefully), I will send another email about my travels in Rio de Janeiro,
Iguazu Falls, and Salvador.
The Fulbright midyear seminar in São Paulo last month was
really great! I'm happy I got to visit São Paulo, the biggest city in the
Americas with about 20 million people living in the metropolitan area and about
12 million in the city center. The city also boasts one of the largest
immigrant communities in Brazil. I especially loved this and enjoyed the
diversity particularly through food (Uberlândia lacks in this area, Brazilian/Mineiro cuisine 24/7
with the exception of one Mexican, one Thai restaurant, and lots of sushi).
For the first time in months, I enjoyed spicy Indian cuisine. My
absolute favorite was finding a Spanish tapas bar and restaurant. The name of
such a fine establishment? Sancho Bar y Tapas (as in my literary heroes
Sancho Panza and Don Quijote de la Mancha!!). By far, one of the best meals I
have ever had. The decor was spot on. As we walked in, I saw the bar lined with
pinxos (pronounced pinchos) just like in Northern Spain. Bottles of
wine were stacked along the brick walls and legs of jamón hung from the ceiling with care. The
restaurant layout was long, stretching into the back, and narrow just like many
European buildings.
Spanish was everywhere. Quotes from Spanish poets and writers
were written on the brick walls with chalk. The menu had dry red wine (not very
easy to find in Brazil. Brazilians tend to love sweeter things, including their
wine). Bullfighting posters hung on the walls along with pictures and paintings
capturing well-known moments from Don Quijote de la Mancha (DQ and Sancho were
everywhere in this place). I especially loved the Spanish and Brazilian
flags hanging side by side on the wall. I was in my element. I had the best of
both worlds in a single place.
The food was delicious and the waiters even spoke Spanish. We
had such a good time. At one point during dinner, I turned to my friend Amber (my orientation roommate in
Brasilia and ETA in Rio Grande do Sul aka, gaucho land), we grasped each other
by the arm and within seconds of the other we sighed, "I think I'm going
to cry." Cry from pure joy of course! Great ambiance, great food, great
company.
We also enjoyed a few of the museums in São Paulo. My favorite was the Portuguese
Language Museum. A museum about a language? Yes! It was super cool and
interactive. It was fun to see the linguistic influences of Brazil's indigenous
languages, African languages (due to the slave trade), French, English,
Spanish, and Arabic in shaping Portuguese over the centuries. I particularly
enjoyed reading on a giant, wall-sized timeline about the influence of Arabic
on Portuguese. It shares similar history to Spain, in which the Moors occupied
the Iberian Peninsula for several centuries. I tend to forget about Portugal as
part of the Iberian Peninsula (oopsies). Then of course, the Americas were
"discovered" and Arabic influenced Portuguese arrived to the new
world. I find it so fascinating how languages are malleable and ever changing.
Another really cool museum was the Soccer Museum, located in the
same stadium where Pelé scored over
200 goals. Charles Miller, born to a Scottish father and Brazilian mother with
English descent in the state of São Paulo, is credited as the father of soccer for Brazil. When
he was young, his parents sent him to school in England where he was introduced
to soccer. He later brought two soccer balls, cleats, and a rulebook back to
Brazil. The rest is history. Inside the museum they also share World Cup
history, information on Brazil's most influential footballers, and more. I have
never missed playing soccer so much until living in Brazil.
The conference was very well done just like our orientation. It
was really fun to see everyone again and swap stories. Many of us shared the
same feelings about our overall experience despite our very different
locations. It was comforting and validating, even encouraging. Besides
lectures, we participated in group activities and attended workshops lead by
fellow ETAs. We enjoyed company from the Argentina and Uruguay ETAs (their
programs are much, much smaller than ours. I also mistakenly said Paraguay in
the last email). It was interesting to hear about their experience as
well.
One of my favorite speakers was Tom Healy, the Chairman of the
Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board (le gasp!). He, his 11 fellow board
members, and thousands of petitioners successfully fought hard to protect the Fulbright program
from major federal budget cuts (I sent an email about this earlier in the
year). For now, the program stays as is. I encourage you to read the history of
the Fulbright Program here.
Stemming from that discussion, Mr. Healy shared why he thought
intercultural programs are so important even in this age and how we show its
importance and success since we live in a quantitative era desiring specific
measurements. So, what are we quantifying and testing for in programs like the
Fulbright? How is it measured? Well, it's hard to measure because....
...basically, we as Fulbrighters, and by extension study abroad
students and other cultural exchange participants, are US ambassadors working
on the ground with everyday people in their everyday lives. Fulbright also welcomes
exchange students from other countries to the US. Through these interactions,
we build friendships, trust, and mutual understanding between cultures. This is
the main focus instead of metrics and data. It may not seem like a big deal,
but it truly is. When we make friends, we lose enemies and gain allies. Sounds
peaceful, right?
Mr. Healy is a poet and Liberal Arts and Science (LAS) guy to
the core. A fellow ETA asked Mr. Healy if his present self could give his
22-year-old-self advice, what would it be? Mr. Healy responded, "I would
say to worry less about defining yourself. Ease up on yourself, you'll be just
fine."
This really resonated with me, and I think many other ETAs felt
the same way. Mr. Healy believes that LAS students and alumni (like me) in
particular experience a great deal of pressure to be, to find something, or
have a title if they are not entering a specialized profession. I've struggled
with this and spoken to some friends and family members about the subject. I
found Mr. Healy's words encouraging and validating. My path is unconventional
and that's more than okay. One way I can ease up on myself is to stop using
conventional norms to guide my unconventional journey.
These were some of the highlights in São Paulo. Others included sharing specialized
coffee at Coffee Lab in the bohemian neighborhood Vila Madalena, seeing amazing
street art in Beco de Batman, walking in Ibirapuera Park, and visiting the
Afro-Brazilian Museum within the park. It was fun to experience the local
culture and enjoy the enormous city after our daily conference
activities.
I have about 9 more weeks in Brazil, which will be over in the
blink of an eye. We ETAs spent months anticipating the midyear seminar
in São Paulo. Once it was over, it was hard to say goodbye. Luckily, I
will see some of my ETA friends in the States when we visit each other and keep
in touch. It's amazing how despite not knowing each other very personally, we
become very close when together.
I think this is because we share a unique experience, which few
outside of such an experience could fully understand and relate to like culture
shock, language barriers, and expat lifestyles unless they've had similar
circumstances elsewhere. I don't consider this bad. It's just a different way I
relate with others in different relationships. I enjoyed witnessing this bring
us together and feeling a sense of family when so far away from my own. I'm
very grateful for it.
Thank you for reading through this e-mail (as well as each one
I've sent!). I know it was a bit lengthy, especially because I doubt I will
write a blog post anytime soon. I'm doing my best to be present in each moment
while away from the computer, and not to cut those enjoyable moments
short.
Stay tuned for Rio de Janeiro, Iguazu Falls, and Salvador. Hope
everyone back home is well!
Um abração,
Amanda
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