This summer, the Walton College is proud to feature Katie Terrell, who will be guest-blogging for us while she embarks on a Study Abroad experience in Brazil. Katie will be sending posts and pictures so we can hear all about this unique opportunity. Links to her previous posts can be found at the bottom of this entry.
The amazing three weeks in Rio are up, and it was a frenzy of inspiring lectures, mind-blowing sight-seeing and, of course, copious samplings of the local cuisine.The sun was almost always shining, the food delicious, the city beautiful, and the lectures amazing.
We were fortunate to hear from people of many different walks of life and ages, giving us the opportunity to be presented with a variety of opinions about Brazil’s current political and economic environment and how it will (or won’t) improve. All of the information proved even more impactful in front of a backdrop of actually walking through the streets of Rio de Janeiro every day.
The mix of traditional lecture with getting to know the neighborhoods and seeing the sights was a great way to catch a genuine glimpse of what doing business in Brazil is like. Even when just on a city tour, one can’t help but think about the interconnectivity of Brazil’s history, location, and beauty making its current international position what it is.
Brazil’s natural beauty and fortune became quickly apparent from atop the beautiful Sugar Loaf, Pão de Açúcar, in Portuguese. This is “that hill” – the one that’s in the background of almost every picture of Rio de Janeiro, and it is just as spectacular as the post cards make it out to be.
We took cable cars to the top and found enough quaint little shops and restaurants between the two big hills to fulfill any tourist’s dreams, and the views were perfectly clear and beautiful from every angle.
We wandered around a trail that would eventually wind all the way down the mountain, when all of a sudden we came across all of these monkeys! They were just playing and playing, and it was so beautiful. Walking along the trail on top of the peak and then around the bottom alongside the ocean, it was interesting to think about the different things people take for granted depending on where they are from and how they were brought up. Can you ever “get used” to the view of Rio from the Sugar Loaf? Can sitting on the beach and listening to the waves ever become mundane and commonplace?
I can’t believe the trip was only three weeks, and that it was over so soon. I hate that I fell behind in updating the blog, but rest assured knowing it was because I was taking every last second to fill my time and my mind (and my camera’s memory card!) with extraordinary experiences. From comparing Sao Paulo to Rio de Janeiro, from sunny beach days to rainy museum visits, from classroom lectures to wandering the halls of the Brazilian stock exchange and car dealerships, and from not knowing a soul on the trip to forging close friendships and powerful connections, I know that the memories will stay vividly with me for a while. I anxiously await my next visit (who’s interested in going for the World Cup in 2014?!), and until then, will keep the pictures in my mind and will follow the news to watch Brazil as it continues to grow and succeed as a phenomenal country in a beautiful world.
Katie
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