Hi, my name’s Rachel and I study MLang Spanish and Portuguese. I’ll be living in Brazil for the year, studying at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG for short) in Belo Horizonte, Southeast Brazil.
Day 1 25/7/16 (Stopover at Lisbon before flying to Belo Horizonte)
Today was pretty much spent packing – I have a ridiculous luggage allowance of 2x32kg plus hand luggage and a laptop. Although I didn’t take full advantage of this I was pretty close to the limit (most of this is probably suncream).
We made it to the airport and navigated the queues – everyone in the country seemed to have decided to fly from terminal 2 – and after a slightly emotional goodbye I got through security just before boarding started.
The flight to Lisbon was a bit delayed, but the luggage people (there probably is a word for their job but I am obviously already forgetting my English) seemed to be having a laugh outside so at least some people were enjoying themselves taking the wrong containers off the plane and then re-loading them (I sound really sarcastic but I’m not – please welcome new, chilled out Brazilian Rachel :P).
Then we were off! I would say that the flight to Lisbon has been a success:
– one free seat next to me
– window seat (to enjoy the sunset)
– unexpected sandwich and Compal*
– Portuguese practice with airhost (is that what you call a male airhostess?) and family sitting in my row. If I can understand the European Portuguese accent, then I can understand anything. Or so I have been lead to believe…
*for anyone who has never travelled to mainland Europe and sampled the delights of Compal juice, you are missing out. We usually try and sneak some back in the hold.
The rest of this week has been very intense! I flew from Lisbon to Belo Horizonte on the Tuesday morning (about a 9 hour flight) and was welcomed by the family I will be staying with this year, Daniela a graduate from the UFMG, and her mum, Elaine.
Observations
The weather: it’s winter and has been about 26°C on average each day (people here complain that it is cold!)
The people: generally very friendly; a lot of Brazilians are very surprised that a white girl from England without any Portuguese relatives can speak their language
The exchange students: most can’t speak Portuguese – the Latin Americans just speak Spanish, the Europeans and Americans speak English, so trilingual conversations are something I’m going to have to get used to. Most are also engineering students which probably explains why the UFMG is linked to Southampton
The food: let’s just say it would be difficult if you were a vegetarian (which thankfully I’m not!)
The bureaucracy: the most difficult thing I’ve faced so far has been the amount of paperwork that the Brazilian government wants me to fill in, and all the hidden costs of taxes when registering as a foreign national. It makes for a very inefficient system that on the plus side employs a lot of people but also means that no one has any idea about anything except their specific job (so you have to figure out what you are meant to do next).
This leads me onto the most important thing – the CPF (Cadastro de Pessoas Físsicas) number, which you need for EVERYTHING! For example, topping up a Brazilian sim card, opening a bank account, buying air conditioning… you name it, you need a CPF. I’ll probably try and do a post at some point on all the things you need to do before and when you arrive in Brazil.
But for now, até logo!
View of Belo Horizonte from Mangabeiras municipal park