Hello there,
As already mentioned in the last few posts, I'm spending one year studying abroad in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Some of you were quite interested and asked me a lot of questions about my stay in this megacity, so I decided to write a whole post, not only about my everyday life but also about the changes I had to face. Here we go!
Furthermore I was asked me to tell you a bit more about my leisure time, how I usually spend it and if I have found any friends yet. First it is to say that the neighborhood of my school has gyms, bookstores, and numerous restaurants and cafés filled with students and locals. So finding some friends was not a big deal tho. I use to spend my leisure time at the beach with some friends and I also signed up at the local sports club to stay active during my gap year. There are just so many benefits when it comes to the freetime opportunities compared to Austria, I'm definitely going to explain that in a post by itself. On the weekends my host family is often planing different trips, to show me more of Brazil.
My host parents are amazing, they really do their best to make my stay in South America unforgetable. When I first came to their house, I thought that it would be kind of small for 5 persons, but after some days I realized that it is not easy to afford a luxury living standard here in Sao Paulo. There are a few people who have big houses, spacious flats or even a penthouse but then there are also hundreds of poor people who live in dirty slums at the edge of the city. I'm lucky to find myself in the middle class, which is quite big here.
You should not go to the slums on your own in order to stay save, because poverty can make people do bad things to the ones who are better off. Another risk is not to inform yourself about the do's and don'ts of this country, as you can make mistakes easily.
Compared to Austria, we can say that there are a lot of similarities like the school system, the infrastructure and also the numerous international restaurants but also many differences. The young inhabitants of Sao Paulo for example are really into culture and religion, while many Austrian teenagers don't even care about issues like that.
I hope that most of your questions are answered now, but if there are some more things you are interested in, feel free to leave a comment below.
Greetings to all my friends at home, I miss you a lot and I'll try to keep you up to date!
As already mentioned in the last few posts, I'm spending one year studying abroad in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Some of you were quite interested and asked me a lot of questions about my stay in this megacity, so I decided to write a whole post, not only about my everyday life but also about the changes I had to face. Here we go!
My school (the PUC de São Paulo) is a private high school and has about 19,000 students. The campus is in the residential Perdizes neighborhood, not far from São Paulo’s famous Avenida Paulista, with good access to public transportation. Talking about the infrastructure of Sao Paulo in general, we can say that a lot of people prefer to go by metro because the streets are crowded 24/7. The public transport system is great and if you don't suffer from claustrophobia (there are hundreds of people in each wagon), you should definitely go by underground as often as possible.
Furthermore I was asked me to tell you a bit more about my leisure time, how I usually spend it and if I have found any friends yet. First it is to say that the neighborhood of my school has gyms, bookstores, and numerous restaurants and cafés filled with students and locals. So finding some friends was not a big deal tho. I use to spend my leisure time at the beach with some friends and I also signed up at the local sports club to stay active during my gap year. There are just so many benefits when it comes to the freetime opportunities compared to Austria, I'm definitely going to explain that in a post by itself. On the weekends my host family is often planing different trips, to show me more of Brazil.
My host parents are amazing, they really do their best to make my stay in South America unforgetable. When I first came to their house, I thought that it would be kind of small for 5 persons, but after some days I realized that it is not easy to afford a luxury living standard here in Sao Paulo. There are a few people who have big houses, spacious flats or even a penthouse but then there are also hundreds of poor people who live in dirty slums at the edge of the city. I'm lucky to find myself in the middle class, which is quite big here.
You should not go to the slums on your own in order to stay save, because poverty can make people do bad things to the ones who are better off. Another risk is not to inform yourself about the do's and don'ts of this country, as you can make mistakes easily.
Compared to Austria, we can say that there are a lot of similarities like the school system, the infrastructure and also the numerous international restaurants but also many differences. The young inhabitants of Sao Paulo for example are really into culture and religion, while many Austrian teenagers don't even care about issues like that.
I hope that most of your questions are answered now, but if there are some more things you are interested in, feel free to leave a comment below.
Greetings to all my friends at home, I miss you a lot and I'll try to keep you up to date!
Até logo (means "See you" in Portuguese)