Visiting Brazil

Visiting Brazil

I’ve been to quite a few countries in my life but I’ve never been to Brazil.  I would love to go there some day.  I have many friends who always go on and on about how great Brazil is: the music, the beaches, the dances, the women, etc…and I’ve also read and heard about the more negative things that don’t always get mentioned: the drug cartels and the police violence, for example.  Both of these aspects (the “good” and the “bad”) are interesting to me and I would love to explore them more closely.  I’m also interested in Brazilian politics, especially president Lula and the worker’s party.  When he was elected president, it was a big deal for progressives around the world.  I often wonder if he has changed the country for the better.   Visiting Brazil would be a good way to find out. 

My only real contact with Brazil so far has been through films.  I remember when I saw City of God, a film about growing up in Rio de Janeiro’s dangerous favelas.  The level of police and gang violence struck me but I was also intrigued by the way people struggled to make it despite living in such precarious conditions.  Another film about Brazil that I enjoyed was Estacion Central.  In this film, a woman works as a letter-writer.  I didn’t realize that there were so many illiterate people in Brazil!

I have several friends who seem to love Brazil; sometimes I think they even love Brazil more than they love their own country.  My friend Belen, for example, is obsessed with Brazil.  She listens to Brazilian reggae, dances Samba, watches Brazilian films and does Capoeira whenever she has free time.  I sometimes think that the Brazilian embassy should hire her to promote Brazilian culture in Chile.  She could be some sort of cultural ambassador.  I’m sure she’d do it for free.

Personally, I would like to meet Edison Arantes do Nascimento (aka Pele).  He is probably the best soccer player in history, perhaps only Maradona comes close to his level of skill.  Unlike Maradona though, I don’t think Pele belongs in a museum, I think he belongs outside promoting the sport like he’s been doing for a long time.  Of course, if he were in a museum, I’d go visit him.

I would love to visit all the places that you always see on postcards but I would also love to explore the more hidden aspects of the country.  Maybe I should go there for the next World Cup or for the Olympics in Rio.  Of course, during those events, it would be hard to see the true face of Brazil.  In any case, I should start saving money now.

Here are some guidelines:

Identify country and reasoning:

Which country would you like to go to? Why? What is it about the country that makes you want to visit it?

What do you know about it and how did you come to know about it:

What do you know about it? 

Have you seen films that were shot in the country? Have you heard from other people who have visited the country?

Details about what you would do:

What would you like to do there? Do you want to live there for a while or just visit for a few weeks and travel around?  Where exactly would you like to visit inside the country? What is it known for?

(how about looking up some information on the internet?)

What would your life there be like?:

Would you like to study/work/live there? Explain.

What would you do during the week, the weekends?

Would you go alone and meet people? Would you go to language school there?

What would be some of the difficulties in studying/working/living there (language, visas, getting a job, where would you stay?, would you have to save money to get there?)?

- Make comments on 3 of your classmates’ posts

- Word Count: 200 words