Brazil is not for beginners – Safety in Brazil

Before coming to Brazil, I was most worried about getting killed and/or getting robbed. Surprisingly, my fears were not induced by media coverage of violent crimes in Brazil (we rarely hear about such things in Europe). My fear was cultivated by talks with Brazilians visiting Europe, who practically could not stop talking about how more dangerous Brazil is than Europe and how Europeans would get killed/raped/mugged/robbed/etc. if they went to Brazil. So, what is the truth? Is Brazil really hell itself? Will everyone, who stays there long enough, get murdered? I have survived several months in Brazil, without having been mugged and while I can certainly confirm that Brazil is much more dangerous than Europe, I think if one “follows the rules”, one can stay out of trouble for quite a long time.

What do I mean by following the rules? Following the law? Well, not just that. It is true that if you are a law-abiding citizen in Brazil, you are less likely to be murdered. But that is just not enough. You also have to be street-smart to minimize the damage. What do I mean here? Well, if you are a tourist, you had better hide that you are a tourist, if you have any valuables, you had better not show them, and you had better not go to the wrong places in the wrong times. You have to know what can happen to you, so that you can prepare for it adequately.

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Pickpocketing is very common in crowded places like touristic areas, city centers. To prevent your valuables from getting stolen, it is best not take any to such places. If you really must take things with you, do not put them to places that are easy to reach, for example: keep your wallet at the bottom of your bag. Do not show your that you have valuables, or where you keep them. For example: do not check your phone in the middle of the square, if you need to order a cab/Uber/99/Lyft/Cabify/whatever or if you are just lost, and want to check the map, enter a supermarket that has cameras, check your phone put it away and get going. It is always a good idea to lay low, and not to attract attention by flaunting wealth.

Tourists should also be aware of scams, but as I lived in a less touristic city, I cannot tell much about these. In general, kindly saying no and walking by, not maintaining eye-contact mostly helped me. Never leave leave your bags or other valuables unattended. If you go to the beach, somebody should guard the stuffs while the others are in the water. Hiding money/jewelry in the shoes will definitely not help.

I generally recommend using a credit card to pay for expenses in Brazil, because exchange offices work with horrible fees and conversion rates. Nevertheless, caution is advised. It is recommended to always check the amount that the waiter/shop assistant/etc. puts in the machine, because very often people try to trick customers by adding an extra zero to the sum. Credit card cloning is also common in Brazil, I guess a good advice would be to only use the card at trustworthy places.

Mugging is so rare in Europe nowadays, that Europeans probably never had to count with its probability. In Brazil they are much more frequent. It is important that if the thieves have a gun or knife, but even if they appear to be unarmed, you should not try to fight back, you probably have more to lose. You should just hand over your belongings and get out of there. Muggings usually happen in deserted streets or at night, so one should stay in safe places after dark. Not carrying any valuables also helps minimizing the damage. You should note however, that you are advised to always have a small amount of cash ($5-10) to hand over in such cases, because you do not want to piss off the mugger, because especially if they are under the influence of substances, they might just kill you right there. When I had to cross unsafe areas, I always had enough money in my socks for a bus to get home in case I got mugged. However, his is an exaggerated measure for most situations.

Crimes against women are especially common in Brazil, therefore it is not advised for women to walk outside at night or in dangerous places. It is always better to call a cab or any of its modern alternatives (they are really cheap here) to move around. Muggings on buses are also often reported about in the news, but for example I have travelled two hours by bus every day for half a year without having had any incident. It may be because I was taking a bus that many stops with security guards. In general, travelling by car is much safer than taking the bus. Surprisingly, even the metro is safer than the bus.

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Walking in certain neighborhoods can be dangerous, especially at night. It is good if you can get a ride home. However, even in a car, you should be cautious. When the car is stationary (at red lights e.g.) and there are people nearby, it is safer to not leave the windows open. It is also advisory to not stop at red lights in streets without traffic, as you get mugged when you stop or slow down for the red light. I am sorry to say that, but one should also be wary, that sometimes, the bad guys fake that their car broke down and rob you if you stop there trying to help.

Kidnappings can occur too, even if they are not as common in Brazil as in some other Latin-American countries. I guess the regular caution (hide the bling, avoid dangerous-looking places) is enough to prevent them. However, there is a phone scam, where criminals would call random numbers, saying that they have kidnapped the son/daughter of the victim, demanding a ransom. And many gullible victims would believe it and would comply with the demands of the criminals. That is why Brazilians do not introduce themselves when they receive a phone call.

Altogether, I think that if someone is street-smart, then they can most probably avoid becoming a victim in Brazil, and the country itself is beautiful, there are many places that are worth the trouble. So, were the Brazilians that I talked to lying? Is talking to locals more frightening than listening to nowadays media? (Yes, I had seen Cidade de Deus and I was still not as terrified as after having talked to Brazilians.) The way I see it, the stories of Brazilians who travelled to Europe were exaggerated because of their recent experiences in the old continent.

Brazilians who do not travel, do not realize how dangerous Brazil is. They sometimes hear about stupid tourists getting robbed in ridiculous ways, but they accredit them to the naivety of foreigners. As they say: “Brazil is not for beginners”. Brazilians, who experience how safe the streets of Europe are, are usually amazed, that life can be that much easier. They are surprised to hear that it is safe to walk through the park after midnight, they are surprised to see people walking with expensive phones in their hands inn busy streets. And when they see this, they imagine that if they tried to behave like this at home they would be mugged in half an hour. As a matter of fact, all of the Brazilians that I have talked to, told me that the biggest culture shock that they had when coming to Europe, was the contrast in security.

I know that the above lines sound scary. But after all, most tourists who travel to Brazil get home just fine without any harm. Most tourists stick to the more touristic area, where police presence is much higher, and at the main sights (for example at the Redeemer statue or on top of the Sugarloaf Mountain) it is perfectly safe to take pictures with a brand-new phone or a high-end camera. My aim was definitely not to deter anyone from travelling to this otherwise amazing country. I simply meant to emphasize that in Brazil, more serious preventive measures are necessary than in Europe.

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Source of the feature image

Drinking in Brazil

After having discussed the eating habits of Brazilians (here and here), I would like to give my remarks on their drinking habits. I am not only going to talk about alcoholism, but I will try to touch on some differences regarding non-alcoholic beverages as well.

When I first travelled to Brazil, I was delighted to see, that they do not consume as much alcohol as Europeans do. While for most Europeans, going out at night mostly means drinking alcohol and getting absolutely wasted, Brazilians who go out in the evening, eat and drink as well. Since young people (especially students) are mostly on tight budget, this means they cannot drink too much and eating also helps tolerate alcohol. Most Brazilian bars offer some kind of finger food, often churrasco (grilled meat). In general, my impression is that the effects of drinking alcohol start showing on Brazilians earlier than on Europeans, however, they do not get knocked out as often as many Northern or Eastern Europeans do, because on average they do not drink as much.

Skol, Brahma and Antarctica are the three most consumed brands in Brazil.

Alcoholic beverages are generally expensive in Brazil and are of poor quality. The most frequently consumed beer types (Skol, Brahma, Antarctica) are nowhere near in quality to most European brews (let alone comparing to German or Czech beers), and imported beer is very expensive. Nowadays, artisanal breweries are becoming more and more popular; however, they are also quite hefty. Wines that I could find in Brazilian supermarkets, tasted horrible and were also severely overpriced. Even Vodka is very expensive.

Most Brazilians drink beer regularly, but considering what I have mentioned above, for tourists, I would rather recommend drinking cocktails (such as the famous Caipirinha), because they are more priceworthy. Caipirinha is made using sugar, lime (which the Brazilians call lemon – they call the real lemon ‘Sicilian lemon’) and cachaça. Cachaça is a distilled liquor produced from sugar cane. People also drink it as shots.

Caipirinha. Source

Another thing that I can recommend is ordering for juices. Most restaurants in Brazil serve freshly pressed orange juices or lemonades, which are rather rare in Europe and the difference in quality is apparent. Do not forget though, that Brazilians like everything very sweet, so they would naturally put tons of sugar in your juices or cocktails, you have to tell them explicitly if you would not like that.

Brazil is the land of coffee; therefore, you probably think that Brazilians drink good quality coffee all the time. You are partly right. Brazilians really drink coffee all the time. But the coffee they drink is of worse quality than what Brazil exports. I do not know if it has to do with the producers deciding to sell their best quality products for markets that are willing to pay more, or if it is because Brazilians drink so much coffee, that they have to drink a waterier coffee to avoid medical consequences. Nevertheless, you can see that Brazilians consume a lot of coffee. But do not have high expectation towards Brazilian coffee in Brazil. As a matter of fact, on the shelves of Starbucks’ in Brazil, the advertised coffee brands are from Africa or South-East Asia.

Chimarrão. Source

You may know that many South Americans drink mate, a kind of tea prepared from the dried leaves of erva-mate (erva = herb). This is common in Peru, Chile, Uruguay and Argentina. While it does not have the same popularity all over Brazil, the Southern states are known to drink a lot of chimarrão (the Brazilian version of mate). Some residents of other states might also consume it of course. And it is important to note that most Brazilians while saying ‘tea’, actually mean mate.

Similarly, to US Americans, Brazilians also serve most beverages either very cold or with a lot of ice cubes. This means that most Brazilians will not at first like European beverages, because they are served “hot”. Yes, 5-10°C beer is referred to as “hot”. My girlfriend’s theory is that Brazilian beer is so bad, that people can only drink it if it is ice-cold, so they do not feel the taste. It makes sense to me, but I also agree that some extra cooling is necessary because of the heat, but I think it is exaggerated. Restaurants and bars usually serve beer bottles on a bucket of ice to keep it cold. Since beer is often served ice-cold, it is not uncommon to receive a bottle of beer that is half-frozen even in bars (only in the cheaper ones though). Not in restaurants or bars, but in their homes many Brazilians resort to the barbarian act of putting ice cubes into a glass of beer or glass of wine (YUCK!). But let’s keep in mind that these beer and wine are not of the same quality as the European ones.

There is a typical Brazilian soft drink that has the taste of Guaraná. Guaraná is a fruit that grows in the Northern parts of Brazil. Brazilians seem to like it so much, that there is even a Fanta juice with this flavor being sold here.

Guaraná drinks and the weird, eyeball-looking fruit that it is made of.

In Brazil it is quite common for restaurants (not the fancier ones though) to serve 2L bottles of soft drinks like Coke or Guaraná. If a group of friends is dining out and they or at least part of the group can agree on drinking the same beverage, they can save some money buy ordering the larger quantity. In Europe most restaurants make a big profit on selling drinks, therefore it is in their interest to be able to sell smaller quantities with a bigger profit. I guess in Brazil the profit on food and on drinks are more evenly distributed or may be bigger on the food. Interestingly, when Brazilians drink beer, they do not each order for a bottle, they order for one bottle and ask for cups for everyone. If the group is bigger (6-8 people) they will ask for two or three bottles of beer. And they all share the bottle, and when it is empty, they ask for another one. The point of doing this is to avoid the beer getting warm.

To sum it all up, when you go out drinking with your Brazilian friends, do not expect the same kind of pub crawl that would be common in Europe. I recommend trying Brazilian drinks whether cocktails or non-alcoholic beverages like juices or Guaraná. And do not be surprised if you are getting beer served from the freezer!

Source of the featured image is: https://www.camparimilano.com/

Restaurants

In Brazil, one can find foreign-themed restaurants like Chinese, Arabic or Italian restaurants, but they are usually more expensive than traditional Brazilian restaurants, and do not necessarily offer better quality. I personally recommend for every traveler to eat local food anywhere they go (the only exception being the UK, but that is a different story), but here this is also the more economical option. Restaurants work differently in Brazil from those in Europe, which can be quite a surprise when visiting.

In Europe, most restaurants are à la carte, which means the restaurant gives out a menu with the options that the guest can order for. In Brazil on the other hand, most restaurants offer self-service for weight, that means that there is a place where the guests can choose what they put on their plate and then weigh it on a scale and pay accordingly. Another thing that is very common in Brazil, are rodizios (the word means rotation, because they are constantly grilling different pieces of meat and they go around serving them). These are all-you-can-eat restaurants, however in some restaurants one can choose to either get the per-kilo price or opt for the rodizio. Here in Minas Gerais, only fast food restaurants, burger places, pizzerias or some fancy places offer menus. But I have seen that in Rio de Janeiro, and the more touristic places, most restaurants have a menu and function like restaurants in Europe.

Example of self-service at a tipical Brazilian restaurant in Minas Gerais.

I saw the struggle on the faces of the Brazilians when they had to choose food in European restaurants without having seen it first. I admit that if one is already used to the Brazilian system, it is hard to order for unknown dishes, even if one can translate the ingredients listed in the menu. What I really love in Brazil is paying for the food by weight. Because this way everyone can decide for themselves how much of which ingredient they are going to put on their plate and they are not paying for something they are not eating, yet they do not feel obliged to overeat. I understand though that maintaining a system like this is difficult because the restaurant has to plan carefully how much of each dish they are preparing, guessing the number of costumers they are going to have that day. Another downside is that some dishes may get a tad colder than optimal while staying in the cauldrons waiting to be served.

I think the reason why Brazilian restaurants can work with this system very well is the relative monotony of the Brazilian cuisine. I have mentioned earlier that Brazilians eat rice and beans for lunch practically every day. The standard offer of garnish at a typical Brazilian restaurant is rice, beans, French fries, cassava, and some salad. Meat is usually grilled (churrasco), however fried chicken or fried fish are also common. There can be several typed of cooked meat or the festive Brazilian dish feijoada (a black bean stew with many types of meat, mainly pork).

In Brazilian restaurants, the guests usually receive a paper at the entrance (or at the scale where they weigh their food), this is called the comanda. This is where the waiters will list all the foods and drinks that you order during your stay. It is your responsibility to not lose this. Upon leaving the restaurant you will pay the bill according to the comanda, and often when you leave the building you have to show the security that you have paid the comanda.

Another positive aspect of the Brazilian restaurants is that waiters and waitresses are more attentive than in Europe. I think Americans may find waiters or people who provide services in general, rude and cold, because in most parts of Europe, people do not smile without a reason. However, this is simply a difference in the upbringing. People in Brazil and in the US as well, are taught that smiling all the time is polite, while most Europeans usually do not smile without a reason.

Tips in Brazil are usually calculated as an extra 10% service fee added to the original bill. At some places the waiters may ask you whether you were satisfied with the services and whether they can add the 10% to the bill, but in most places where I have been, they did it automatically.

Birth rates are much higher in Brazil and Brazilians lay more emphasis on quality time with the family than Europeans do. In accordance with this, many Brazilian restaurants include facilities for the children to go and play while waiting for the meal or after the meal, while the family sits at a table drinking and chatting.

Places where kids can play are often found in Brazilian restaurants. Source

Altogether, I like dining at Brazilian restaurants and I encourage every tourist to try as many of the local dishes as possible.

Source of the featured image: caminhoslanguages.com

The land of always summer

People often imagine Brazil as beautiful beaches, girls wearing bikinis, and guys wearing swimming shorts. Of course, the weather has to be sunny all the time for that right? Well, my impression about the Brazilian climate is exactly like that. I know that most Brazilians would disagree, saying that they also have winter, when the weather gets colder, but while in Brazil, even in winter, I did not need to wear a pullover, let alone a coat. I admit that in winter not every day is ideal for going to the beach, however, I just never had the real winter feeling here.

As I have explained in an earlier post, Brazil is a huge country, and has many different climates, therefore it is not possible make statements that are generally true for the whole country. However, the part of the country where I am staying (the Southeast region) is the most populous region of the country, therefore most Brazilians and probably most tourist coming to Brazil will experience the same climate that I have experienced.

Days have the same length. Where I am from, in Europe, we have long days in summer, when the sun sets at 8 pm, and in winter, we have very short days with sunset as early as 4 pm. This is how I have lived most of my life and I got used to it. The first time I experienced anything different was, when I visited Russia. On my first night in Moscow I wanted to take some night pictures of the Kremlin and the Red square. So, knowing that it was the middle of summer, I left my hostel at 9 pm, thinking that I will see the sunset soon, in the end I had to wait around two hours at the Red square till it actually turned dark at around midnight. This is something that will never happen in Brazil. The sunset is always at around 6pm, whether it is winter or summer. Brazilians who visit Europe in winter or in summer often get confused by the sun setting at times very different from what they are used to.

The weather in the Southeast of Brazil (where cities like Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paolo are located) is quite stable, the temperature rarely rises above 40°C, and in winter the lowest temperature is usually about 10°C, snow is extremely rare, and I have had many winter days here, when in the early afternoon we had 28-30°C. However, I could see that the perception of temperature is different for Brazilians. People here wear coats when it is 20°C outside, but I have seen people wearing coats at 30°C in Salvador!

Weather forecast in Brazil in winter.

People use the terms summer, autumn, winter and spring, but here there are only two real seasons, a dry and wet one. The wet season in the Southeast is from December till February when it basically rains all the time. Some wet seasons are wetter than others, but it is basically like that. Oh, and neither the city life, nor the traffic is ever ready for the rain. Since this is a mountainous region, some streets are valleys, while some neighborhoods are on hilltops, and since the drainage is usually not very well solved in Brazilian cities, certain streets can be flooded by water in this season. The dry seasons are usually still warm, with lower temperatures only prevalent in June-August, and even then, it is not very cold.

Flooded street in Rio de Janeiro in February 2018.

The Northern part of Brazil is an exception from what I have said of course, because that part lies very close to the equator (two state capitals, Boa Vista and Macapá are even North of the equator). The climate is tropical there and that is where the Amazon rainforest is. Another exception is the South of Brazil, where the four seasons can really be observed, it even snows in winter, especially in the mountainous regions.

One thing that annoys me very much here in Brazil though is the constant use of air-conditioning. People complain about the cold when it is 25°C outside, but it is alright if they set the air-conditioner to 22°C. People rather wear hoodies at work than turn off the air-conditioner. I, personally, hate when I arrive from a 35°C outside temperature to an office where the temperature is 10°C lower, I don’t like it, because it makes my eyes drier and one of the worst thing is to sit at work underneath the air-conditioner with your clothes all wet from the heavy rain that sometimes lasts for a week.

What I love about the Brazilian climate is the high humidity. Even dry seasons are relatively humid, which is important for me, because in Central Europe I often suffer from dry eyes. I guess some of the inlands have less humidity, but since the country is narrow in the south, where dry seasons are longer, there is not so much Brazilian land far away from the ocean.

Altogether I find the weather monotonous, but what is good about it that I never felt too hot nor too cold in the Southeast region. I must mention though that I have felt pretty hot in Salvador (Bahia), which is a city in the Northeast, but that did not cause a problem as I was there on a beach holiday. I think some of the cultural differences between Europe and Brazil can be traced back to the different climates, as for example I have explained when I was writing about food, that Brazilian dishes lack seasonality. But I also think it affects people’s temper, how and whether they think about the future and probably many other things.

Social inequalities – the root of all evil in Brazil

Brazil is a country of both extreme poverty and extreme richness. There are many neighbourhoods with beautiful villas with huge pools. And then most cities have multiple favelas, with people living there in absolute poverty. These two extremes living so close to each other is undoubtedly the main source of the high crime rates in the country. Unfortunately, the whole structure of the society, legislation and policies are set to curb economic mobility and increase social inequality. Here, I list the three factors that I think contribute most to this and outline some of its consequences.

A favela next to a condominium in Sao Paulo. Source: https://trippingonculture.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/4d493-foto2bda2bfavela2bde2bparaisopolis.jpg

1. Lack of proper free education

Most of the Brazilians cannot afford private elementary or high schools. Public school teachers’ salaries are ridiculously low, they are severely underskilled, especially language teachers. Many public school English teachers cannot hold a simple conversation in English. While other teachers of subjects may be better skilled, I have heard that sometimes in public schools, certain subjects are taught by unskilled substitution or are completely dismissed for entire semesters, due to the lack of teachers. Private university tuitions are comparable to US tuition fees, while they usually do not compete with them in the quality of education. The federal universities are free, and they generally are the best options for higher education in the country. Getting accepted to a federal university without private secondary education can be challenging though and this limits the career options of the poorer strata. At the federal university, where I am doing my research, the campus parking lots (which are huge) are filled with the cars of the students. Wealthy parents can afford better education for their kids early on and this way later they can send them to the best universities of the country for free. Scholarships from the government that support underprivileged children definitely improve the situation, however they are not solving the problem in the long run.

Source: http://www.qs.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/shutterstock_136519811.jpg

2. Huge income inequality between professions

The wages for unskilled labour are extremely low while highly skilled professionals, who as we have learnt from the previous paragraph are most likely to come from wealthy families, earn as much as professionals in more developed countries. Nowadays in Europe, skilled handymen usually earn more during the first ten, twenty years of their careers, than do many many people with university degrees (if we factor in that during the university most students do not earn much money). On the other hand, in Brazil, making a living as a handyman is much tougher. Breaking out of poverty is difficult, while as the next paragraph is going to show the rich can always make sure they stay rich.

3. Things always end in pizza

Corruption is present in the everyday lives of Brazilians. People here are so used to it that whenever they hear about a big corruption scandal they just whisk and say that “it’ll all end in pizza”, people will get their slices, and nothing is going to change. The biggest corruption scandal in the history of the country uncovered by Operation Car Wash (Lava Jato) managed to send a former president to prison and lead to the impeachment of another one, serving the political goals of the right wing. However serving justice to everyone involved is in nobody’s best interest, because that would upset too many people on both ends of the political spectrum.

Source: https://aulablog1.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/lava-jato.jpg?w=600

It is easier to be rich when you start off rich in Europe as well. The difference is that in Brazil, being poor is a much bigger stigma. In Europe, social interactions between the poor and the rich are more common. In Brazil the rich demonize the poor, they fear them and they feel more entitled, when in fact they are more likely to owe their fortunes to circumstances. The poor are more prone to committing violent crimes, while the rich more often benefit from corruption and get away with it. That does not mean that all poor people are criminals, nor that all rich are corrupt oppressors. However, due to the differences in lifestyle and the lack of social mobility, that is how these groups see each other.

I have the feeling, that the country is losing a lot of potential by not providing the circumstances for the integration of the poor, who make up a large part or the population. I think it is crucial to improve upon education, especially in the rural areas. Unfortunately, seeing the current political events, significant changes in the near future are unlikely.

Eating Habits

In this post I am going to write about eating habits in Brazil, I will not present the typical Brazilian foods in detail, that would make this post much longer. Instead, I think I will present most of the Brazilian dishes and candies in separate posts later.

I think that the traditional Brazilian eating habits are much closer to what is considered healthy than European eating habits are. Brazilians have six meals a day, they eat smaller amounts about every three hours. Breakfast is called café da manha, and although it has the word coffee in it, you’d call it like that even if you don’t drink coffee, but most Brazilians do. Brazilians usually don’t eat much for breakfast, the café da manha has nothing to with an English breakfast. Bacon and eggs are not very typical, most typical would be some bakery products, for example pão de queijo (small cheese filled rolls) with coffee or a yoghurt. Lanche da manha or colação is a snack in the morning, between breakfast and lunch, it can be a fruit or some dairy products.

Pão de queijo

Lunch is called almoço, it is the heaviest meal of the day and is typically rice and beans with some meat. I found it appalling in the beginning, but rice and beans are eaten by most Brazilians every day. I think the fact that there is a type of dish called feijão normal (’normal beans’) already says a lot. Apart from the ’normal’, there are many other ways to prepare the beans, they are not very common, some for example the feijoada are prepared commonly for special occasions. The rice can be simple, or sometimes brown rice (whole grain rice). Rice in Brazil is not as sticky as in Europe or in Asia. The main source variation during lunch is the meat. It is most common to eat beef or chicken, while fish is also common in the coastal regions. I find that the salad options in Brazil are not as broad as in Europe. The regular vegetables consumed in salads are beetroot, carrots, kale, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, tomato and lettuce. Corn is used more often than in Europe, either as part of the garnish or the salad.

Feijão normal

Café da tarde is the meal eaten between lunch and dinner. Again, it is called like this, independently from whether one actually drinks coffee or not. Jantar is the Portuguese word for dinner. It normally describes a heavier meal than café da tarde. Some people do not have jantar, and the last meal that they eat is the café da tarde. Foreigners can be misled by the question ‘Are you having coffee or dinner?’ (I know I was). This question does not ask you to choose between a hot beverage and a meal, rather it is asking whether you would like to eat something light, like biscuits or something heavier. Usual options for dinner would be rice and beans, burgers or pizza or a churrasco (barbecue). The South of Brazil is most famous for its churrasco, but barbecuing is fairly common way of families to get together all around Brazil.

A plate of churrasco

Most Brazilians have a siesta after lunch, which means that even people who have to work early in the morning normally stay up until midnight. The meal eaten after dinner is called ceia. Although I heard that Brazilians normally have these six meals a day, I have never met any Brazilian who lived by this as a rule. I think it is very difficult to always carry snacks around and find time for all these meals.

Overall, I think that Europeans would find Brazilian food monotonous. I have mentioned that the main dish is rice with beans basically every day, which I find quite practical. Both are very cheap and can be stored very well. And the re-heated rice and beans are about as good as the freshly made ones. They contain fiber and carbohydrate, so they make a good garnish. So, I can really advocate for eating rice and beans, but I found it strange that people eat it every day. It is so normal for Brazilians, that they think that other countries also always eat the same things every day, and when ‘I am asked what do Hungarians eat?’ I always start listing, that we eat schnitzel, goulash, pasta, potato, all kinds of salads… and in the end I get the question: ‘Ok, but what do you eat every day?’, which shows how different the European and Brazilian mindsets are.

Another thing I found strange about Brazilian food is the lack of seasonality. Since the weather does not change a lot, most of the fruits and vegetables are available throughout the year. The changing of the seasons in Europe means that people have different things to eat in different seasons. In spring we eat strawberries and raspberries, peaches and plums in summer, grapes and pears in autumn and in winter we normally eat imported oranges and bananas. The limited availability of certain ingredients means that there are many dishes that are connected to seasons, for example dishes containing mushrooms are mainly eaten in autumn, fruit soups in summer and winter dishes are usually prepared from vegetables that can be stored for longer time.

Have I missed anything important? Are there more differences between eating habits and food in Brazil and Europe? Is their anything else that you would like to know about? Leave a comment under the post. Até logo (that means see you soon).

Etiquette – Being Polite in Brazil

In my first post about cultural differences between Brazil and Europe I am going to write about etiquette. Well, maybe not just about stuffs that are normally thought of as part of the etiquette, but many different behavioural differences between Brazilians and Europeans that can lead to awkward situations. Since there are just so many differences, I am not even trying to list all of them. For now, I am just going to present some that come to my mind.

Source

DO hold the fork with the dominant hand!

When I say the word etiquette, I usually think of table manners, so I am going to start with a habit that is related to that. When eating a soup with a spoon, people normally hold the spoon with the dominant hand, that is something we have in common with Brazilians. During the main course, Europeans hold the knife in their dominant hand and the fork in the subdominant hand. However, Brazilians and – as I have been told – some other Latin-Americans as well, hold the fork in the dominant hand and the knife in the subdominant hand. Another variation that I have seen here is switching between the hands while eating, i.e. holding the knife in the dominant hand while cutting and changing to put the food in one’s mouth with a fork also with the dominant hand. This rule is not something that is likely to lead to any misunderstanding, but I thought it was interesting to mention here.

DON’T expect him to hold the door for you!

Chivalry is disappearing from Western Europe as well, so this is not a culture shock if you are arriving from Germany or Spain, however compared to Central or to Eastern Europe, Brazilian guys are really not gallant. This is seen pretty often when guys not only do not let the women go first, but sometimes they even rush in before them. Holding the doors for a partner is also not common, but at least I have seen men carrying the heavy groceries for the women.

DO split the bill!

I will divide this section into two parts, as I think there are to two separate issues here. First, I will continue the topic of gender roles. What I am going to say is based on the behaviour of women who are now in their 20s and 30s and had higher education, and I would not be surprised if it was highly dependent on age and the level of education or socio-economic status. While on a date, Brazilian women usually don’t expect the man to pay the bill, they even feel offended or at least insecure when it is offered. The situation is the same Western Europe, but as we travel towards East in Europe, it gets more common, that men pay the bills in cafés and restaurants. As I understand Brazil is quite unique in this regard in Latin-America. I have a feeling that many Brazilian women are insecure about their independence in a way that I have not seen in Western Europe, but I find it hard to describe. The topic of women’s rights and emancipation is a burning issue in Brazil nowadays, many things have just recently changed, and in many aspects Brazil has a lot to improve in this area, but I am going to go into this topic deeper in a later post.

Splitting the bill is also normal among friends. I found it strange in the beginning, because in many countries in Europe, closer friends going out, do not split the bill, but take turns on paying at different places. However, I admit that splitting the bill at each place is the fairest way, it is just funny to see how much harder it is to be a waiter in Brazil.

DON’T blow your nose in public!

Brazilians do not have rhinitis – neither allergic, nor infectious – as often as Europeans. Therefore, blowing one’s nose in public is viewed as disgusting. It is not really considered rude, just odd and yuck. It is also rather difficult to find tissues in Brazil. A subtler, more Brazilian way of taking care of a snotty nose is going to the bathroom to clean it, however sniffing is also very common, among old and young. Imagine all the Brazilian exchange students in Europe during the winter exam periods, when the situation is so bad, that the professor hands them tissues… The same is true in the Far East. In many Asian cultures, sniffing is accepted, while blowing one’s nose is not. Studies^1,2,3 suggests that blowing may not be as healthy as some European mothers say it, so maybe it is a European trend, that will soon die out.

Source

DO small talk!

It seems to me that Brazilians are afraid of silence. Even strangers might start conversations out of nowhere, but friends or colleagues will definitely initiate small talk, and if you only answer with yes and no or forget to ask back, because you were too tired to hide your indifference, you can easily come across as mean or antisocial.

DON’T take the question “How are you?” seriously!

Brazilians, much like people from the US, often ask “Tudo bem?” (It should be understood as: “How are you?”) as a mandatory part of their greeting. But it doesn’t mean that they are even a little bit interested in how you feel, so just tell them “Bem. E você?” and carry on. In Brazil, again, similarly to the US, everything has to be perfect, or even better. There is no room for complaining here, which is in sharp contrast to the Central European culture of complaining when people literally bond over complaining about the traffic, the weather, the society or just about anything.

Source

DO compliment generously!

Every adjective you use is understood at least one grade lower than what the dictionary will tell you. I will try to show how adjectives get translated in the Brazilian minds:

What you think you are saying	What the Brazilians understand
It was awesome, this was the best.	You did quite well.
Very good.	Nice try.
Good.	Not okay
Okay.	It was horrible.
More or less	*serious offense*

These were the most shocking differences that I could think of after a couple of months living in Brazil. In my next post, I am going to write about food and eating habits in Brazil.

Disclaimer

Finally, the time has come… From now on, I am going to write about my experiences in Brazil, and about cultural differences that I have been encountering. I think this is a very interesting topic, as Brazil is a big country and most people have heard about it, but not too many people get the chance to actually travel to the country, just as not many Brazilians have the opportunity to travel abroad. However, many topics that I am going to touch on are rather sensitive and I bet there will be people that are offended by some of the statements that I am going to make. Therefore, I am writing this disclaimer that I can later refer to, so that I do not have to start explaining myself after each post.

In my following posts, I am planning to write about all kinds of things that I find strange in Brazil. I am from Hungary, a small European country, and apart from Brazil, I have barely spent any time outside Europe, so European culture is what mostly defines my worldview. Of course, European culture is not homogenous, there are huge differences between French, British or Spanish culture and these are all Western European countries, differences get even bigger if we include Switzerland, Poland, Finland or Albania in the comparison. Obviously, there will be things that I mention as culture shocks and someone from another part of Europe would say are the most natural things in the world. The same way, Brazil is also very diverse culturally. It is not quite apparent when we look at the maps, but the territory of Europe (10.18 million km²) is not even 20% bigger than that of Brazil (8.516 million km²). Even if the population of Brazil (208.7 million) is barely more than a fourth of Europe’s population (741.5 million), since many communities are rather separated from each other in Brazil, it is understandable that they are going to be culturally different. So, I am sure that most features of Brazil can be paralleled by some European countries, and there are parts of Brazil that are culturally more similar to Europe than others. I am going to draw differences between parts of Brazil that I have seen and parts of Europe that I know. When I know that certain foods or traditions are specific to just a region of Brazil, I will try to mention that, but sometimes I might not be aware of the isolation of a tradition, I may attribute it to the whole country by mistake. If it happens, I would be happy to receive comments about it, so I can learn more about the country and the people who live there.

I am also aware that each individual is different, thus associating adjectives with a nation is a delicate subject. Even if something is true for the majority, there will be many people who are quite the opposite, and I want the readers to be aware of that. I will try to write things are true in general, but I do not mean that any of the things that I write will always be true, and I am planning to write about so many characteristics of Brazilians that in the end I doubt, there will be even a single Brazilian of whom all of the mentioned things are true.

I do not take any responsibility for any misinterpretations of what I write. For example, there is a lot of poverty in Brazil, much more than I am used to in Europe. Brazil is a dangerous country, with a high crime rate. Most of the violent crimes are committed by poor people. But by saying these I am not saying that all poor people are criminals, in fact, as there are many poor people in Brazil, and because most people are not criminals, only a small fragment of poor people are criminals, and I am in no means trying to say that you should not trust poor people. However, in Brazil, it is recommended for tourists to stay away from poor neighbourhoods, just as many locals do.

I will try to find out the reason for most of the different behaviours that I encounter, so I will often write about causative relationships that I assume. But since many of my posts will touch on racial and ethnic stereotypes, which can be very sensitive topics, I want to say that I cannot be responsible for all the interpretations of my texts. I will try my best to state things as I observe them, and I would be grateful for any corrections in forms of comments, personal messages or e-mails.

With all these things cleared… Let’s get started!

Campus Mundi

As I have promised in my first post, I am now going to present the scholarship that allows me to be here in Brazil. The scholarship Campus Mundi is offered by the Tempus Public Foundation to students of Hungarian universities to facilitate student mobility and to increase the attractiveness of Hungarian higher education. I have taken part in many exchange programmes before, and I am glad that promoting student mobility is an important part of the European Union’s (EU) policy. In this post, I am going to show how Campus Mundi is different from other exchange programmes which promote student mobility, introduce the different types of Campus Mundi scholarships and explain how they work.

I want to emphasize, that THIS IS A SCHOLARSHIP ONLY FOR STUDENTS OF HUNGARIAN UNIVERSITIES. Therefore, I expect that this post is useful mainly for Hungarians. The reason why I am writing this post in English is that this scholarship is an important part of my current travels and I would like to include it as a part of my blog. Student mobility has played a crucial part in how I could meet people from many different countries and experience other cultures. Furthermore, I think that it could be interesting for anyone to know what options are there at other universities, and who knows, maybe they can influence policy makers to make some better decisions. I am not planning to post a Hungarian translation, because the majority of the students who have a chance at applying to Campus Mundi, speak English well enough to understand this writing.

The Tempus Foundation, which probably got its name from a programme of the European Council, is a public foundation supervised by the Hungarian Ministry of Human Capacities and it organizes and coordinates many mobility projects. Campus Mundi is the successor of the Campus Hungary programme and it offers scholarships to countries across the globe. This is first thing that differentiates it from many other mobility programmes available to Hungarian students. Campus Mundi is most similar to the European Commission’s ERASMUS+ programme, but the ERASMUS+ scholarships can only be used for mobility to partner countries (which also include many countries outside the EU!), while one can get a Campus Mundi scholarship for exchange programmes in any country around the world, except for those that Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs deems too dangerous to travel to. Even though there is a project called ERASMUS Mundus, which promotes student mobility between EU countries and other countries, but as I understand ERASMUS Mundus funds joint programmes and supports students from outside the EU to study at European universities, financing the studies from the start of the (Master’s or doctorate) studies until the graduation. And therefore ERASMUS Mundus is very different from the Campus Mundi programme.

Campus Mundi offers financial support to students with any kind of major for studying at a foreign higher education institute, completing an internship related to their studies abroad or for study trips abroad. ERASMUS+ offers scholarships for studying and doing internships abroad, but not for study trips. Such study trips can include for example travelling to a conference, symposium or exhibition. The criteria of what kind of study trips are financed are not hard set, so students from all disciplines can find it useful, they only have to explain how the study trip is connected to their studies and how it is relevant for their career. The amount of money that an applicant can receive depends on the duration of the mobility and the average living costs in the target country of mobility.

I am currently receiving a scholarship for an internship at a Brazilian University. There are many associations which organize professional exchange (internships), for example AIESEC and IFMSA. These associations usually do not offer scholarships, but instead help organize an internship for exchange students, which can often be just as helpful as money (they can arrange free accommodation, provide food and take care of part of the paperwork and provide contact persons). The main difference between the programmes offered by such associations and between scholarships like ERASMUS+ and Campus Mundi is that with the latter ones, the applicant has to contact the company or institution where they are hoping to do the internship, has to convince the employer, HR, or supervisor to accept him/her and the applicant has to take care most of the paperwork that comes with it. Most (undergraduate) students, especially ones who have never lived abroad before, or ones that are unsure about their language skills find these tasks rather hard and are more likely to opt for exchange programmes which take care of everything for them. Even if that means that they are less likely to be assigned to a department where they could best utilize their skills.

The application process is also a little different from most applications that students face when applying to other exchange programmes. All of them require a CV and a motivation letter, value good academic and scientific accomplishments and community service to varying degrees. It is not different in case of Campus Mundi either, however for the application to Campus Mundi, the student is also required to write a study plan/research plan, where he or she explains the how the exchange is going to benefit him or her and also host and sending institutions. The study plan is a crucial part of the application evaluation process, and as I have heard, it is also the part where many applicants lose the most points. This part is similar to like writing a writing a research proposal for a grant (of course in a much smaller scale), and this is something that most students are not ready for. But I also think, this is a test of maturity, and a test of the student’s resolution, because writing such a plan requires the student to discuss with the future supervisor about future activities and declare months in advance what he or she is going to do there, so the supervisors already know what they can expect, and they can receive the student accordingly, and the student also feels obliged to live up to what he or she has “promised” in the study plan. This is in contrast practically to all other programmes where students with good grades, or students who are active members of an association, or do charity work get their exchange programmes as well-deserved holidays (it is, unfortunately, also quite common and it is how many people imagine student mobility). Therefore, I think Campus Mundi has more students, taking the exchange seriously than any other exchange programme, because the students who apply to Campus Mundi have to think about how they are going to make an impact during the mobility and they have to come up with an answer that convinces the judges that they really need this exchange for their professional development.

Application to a Campus Mundi scholarship is not difficult, actually the process itself has become much less bureaucratic recently, but it requires dedication, and earnest intentions towards the mobility. But these efforts are rewarded by scholarships which are even higher than ERASMUS scholarships (which are already high in the Eastern bloc, not like in Western Europe), and can really support travelling to and living in a foreign country.

Introduction

Hello everyone!

I thought that I would use this first post to introduce myself and to outline the purpose of this blog, so let’s get down to it.

I am Zsolt, a 26 year-old Hungarian graduate student, currently on an exchange programme in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The main reason I have started this blog is that the scholarship, called Campus Mundi, that enables my stay here in Brazil has a condition that participants have to engage in advertising activities that promote exchange studies and the scholarships offered by the foundation. So no wonder that my next post is going to be about the scholarship that I am currently receiving for which I am grateful, and also some other ones that I find particularly awesome (for real, it is truly great that there are so many scholarships that promote student mobility and I really think everybody should know about them, this is not just Stockholm-syndrome talking). But since I have to do this anyway, I was thinking about filling this blog with some content about my personal experiences of travelling, cultural differences between Europe and Brazil, and some hints about travelling, or student mobility.

Lake Pampulha of Belo Horizonte.

So why does a Hungarian travel to Brazil? If you know where Hungary is (or if you knew more about Brazil), you may be wondering why somebody in their right mind would choose to do research in Brazil instead of practically anywhere else in the European Union. Well,  I have a degree as a medical doctor, though I never worked as a doctor, I am doing my PhD in molecular biology, and I am planning on focusing on research rather than the clinics. My main fields are genomics and virology. While there are small niches where Brazil may prove to be a better place to study certain viruses (e.g. yellow-fever, dengue, zika, chikungunya), those viruses are rather far from my main area (herpesviruses) and even though I tried to get a collaboration going in this direction too, at the time of writing this seems rather unlikely. The reason why I chose to be a visiting researcher in Brazil was that my girlfriend is Brazilian.

To sum up, we have met while she was on an exchange in Hungary, we have been dating for three years now, of which we have been together for less than a year while she was in Hungary, and since then we have been visiting each other every half a year only to spend together a month, or sometimes less. While long-distance relationships have their merits, they are definitely not easy, so I was looking for a chance for us to be together while she finishes her studies. The last time I was Brazil, I reached out to some professors, with research areas overlapping with (or at least bordering) mine at a local university called UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais). And I did not receive many answers, but in the end I got in contact with one professor and arranged an exchange programme for myself to Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais, which is a state approximately in the middle of Brazil.

Federal University of Minas Gerais

With the last paragraph, I did not mean to say that Brazil is a bad place for research, in fact there are tremendous research opportunities, especially when it comes to tropical medicine, anthropology or wildlife diversity, but I also think that the options in Brazil are quite limited in comparison to advanced countries in Europe or North-America. Even though I am not going to be able to take advantage of these geographical advantages that Brazil offers, I am content with the place that I have got here, because I will get to work with a team that is focused on bioinformatic analysis of genomic data, an area where I was planning to improve anyway. So I am really positive that this research exchange is going to prove very favourable to me both personally and professionally.

Source for the feature image visible on the top of this page.