Post 8: Mackenzie
Yesterday we went to Mackenzie University, located right here in Sao Paulo. It was just a few stops down the Yellow Line, so it is not too far from our neighborhood of Vila Madalena. We started off the day with a tour of campus. Everything was so pretty -- from the old buildings to the palm trees and shaded pathways. Then, we headed inside a classroom on campus for a lecture given by Professor Pfluger. The lecture was interesting because it focused on the differences in Brazil and the United States' energy consumption.
We met with our groups next, which was really cool because it was the first time we were able to actually talk to the Brazilian students. My group is composed of David, Mel, and a Mackenzie Student, Luan, who is really nice. He is a fourth-year who is also a Civil Engineering Major, which was cool because we immediately had something in common. We all headed out to lunch together at a shopping mall down the street.
I also had the chance to talk with another Brazilian student, Iris. She was so cool, and seemed very excited to talk to us, especially about the differences between the USA and Brazil. We talked about the differences between our cultures. I told her how I loved the people in Brazil, how everyone is so open and inviting and spend so much time outside. She said she had never been to the US but she would love to visit sometime. She said she would love to go to buy technology there, and when I asked her why, a bit confused, she said that Brazilians often think of technology when they think of America. Technology is so expensive here in Brazil, so people often travel to the US for their low prices. I found this so funny that this is what her impression of the United States was. It is actually very accurate, too, I just hadn't thought about it before, and it is interesting.
We attended a lecture by a professor at Mackenzie about Sustainable Energy in Brazil, and then we were given time to work on our projects. Our assignment is to come up with three innovative ways to implement sustainable energy in Boston, and three ways to cut down on fossil fuel usage in Sao Paulo. Once we have developed our ideas, we will give a 15 minute presentation next Saturday to a CEO of an energy company here in Sao Paulo. He or she will judge us and choose a winner, and this winning group's Brazilian member will win a chance to travel to Boston. It's a super exciting opportunity for the students and for us, so I'm excited to see what ideas we come up with. We got a good start on it, so hopefully it will turn out well.
After this, we traveled back to Campus Casa hostel for a bit. It was Professor Pfluger's birthday, so this morning we had picked up some flowers, chocolate, and wine to give her with the card we picked up the day before. Renato ordered a cake and we sang her happy birthday. Then we headed to an Italian restaurant. They had amazing pizza -- they even had desert pizzas which were fantastic. The whole night was awesome and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves!
(Justin and I also made a stack of empty water bottles at one end of the table for no reason other than we were waiting for food and we are both civil engineering majors.. I mean, what else should we expect? haha...)
We ended the night by heading to a bar in our neighborhood. It was awesome to get to hang out with everyone, and the live music was really good.
We met with our groups next, which was really cool because it was the first time we were able to actually talk to the Brazilian students. My group is composed of David, Mel, and a Mackenzie Student, Luan, who is really nice. He is a fourth-year who is also a Civil Engineering Major, which was cool because we immediately had something in common. We all headed out to lunch together at a shopping mall down the street.
I also had the chance to talk with another Brazilian student, Iris. She was so cool, and seemed very excited to talk to us, especially about the differences between the USA and Brazil. We talked about the differences between our cultures. I told her how I loved the people in Brazil, how everyone is so open and inviting and spend so much time outside. She said she had never been to the US but she would love to visit sometime. She said she would love to go to buy technology there, and when I asked her why, a bit confused, she said that Brazilians often think of technology when they think of America. Technology is so expensive here in Brazil, so people often travel to the US for their low prices. I found this so funny that this is what her impression of the United States was. It is actually very accurate, too, I just hadn't thought about it before, and it is interesting.
We attended a lecture by a professor at Mackenzie about Sustainable Energy in Brazil, and then we were given time to work on our projects. Our assignment is to come up with three innovative ways to implement sustainable energy in Boston, and three ways to cut down on fossil fuel usage in Sao Paulo. Once we have developed our ideas, we will give a 15 minute presentation next Saturday to a CEO of an energy company here in Sao Paulo. He or she will judge us and choose a winner, and this winning group's Brazilian member will win a chance to travel to Boston. It's a super exciting opportunity for the students and for us, so I'm excited to see what ideas we come up with. We got a good start on it, so hopefully it will turn out well.
After this, we traveled back to Campus Casa hostel for a bit. It was Professor Pfluger's birthday, so this morning we had picked up some flowers, chocolate, and wine to give her with the card we picked up the day before. Renato ordered a cake and we sang her happy birthday. Then we headed to an Italian restaurant. They had amazing pizza -- they even had desert pizzas which were fantastic. The whole night was awesome and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves!
(Justin and I also made a stack of empty water bottles at one end of the table for no reason other than we were waiting for food and we are both civil engineering majors.. I mean, what else should we expect? haha...)
We ended the night by heading to a bar in our neighborhood. It was awesome to get to hang out with everyone, and the live music was really good.
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