Paradise

This is paradise.

I arrived in Brazil yesterday, after a long flight with a four hour layover at JFK. My mum, being the lovely considerate woman that she is, ordered me a vegetarian meal for the plane. Unfortunately, the vegetarian meal also serves as the diet meal: not only did I miss out on the crackers and brownie, but my breakfast included a mini bagel while everyone else received one of more normal proportions. At least the flight was relatively smooth and the quintessential crying baby fell asleep soon after take-off.

My flight arrived in Sao Paulo at about 10am, but the SEE-U van was not scheduled to leave until 12:30, so I wandered around the airport for a while. I learned that women in Brazil (or at least in the Brazilian airport) are even more inept than American women when buying pants. Lots of muffin tops and bare ankles. Lots of whisker-wash too; I'm not sure which is more abhorrent. By 11:00 I was bored of aimlessly perusing souvenir shops and book stores full of trashy romance novels and maps in Portuguese, so I headed over to the Pizza Hut in terminal 2, the meeting place selected for our group.

There were a few girls waiting around a table; I identified them by the nearby pile of backpacks and suitcases. Oh, and the Columbia t-shirts. Everyone was very friendly and seemed interesting; we went through the standard introductions of what's your name, where are you from, what's your major, etc. Most of the participants hail from Columbia University (although I am the only Barnard student), but one attends NYU and another is from Delaware Valley College.

At 12:30 we loaded our luggage into a large van and drove for about an hour to our site. It was wonderful to step outside the airport after traveling for so long; palm trees planted on the roadside waved in a light, warm breeze, surprisingly warm since this is the Brazilian winter. The drive was beautiful, down a winding gravel road along the side of white cliff faces and through thick woods. Right after leaving GRU we passed through a residential area on the outskirts of Sao Paulo; the brightly painted concrete houses and dark-haired children sitting on the curbs reminded me of the neighborhoods of Belize City.

After driving for about an hour, we reached our destination: the Instituto de Pesquisas Ecologicas (IPE). The location is absolutely breathtaking--it's one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. The center overlooks a deep blue reservoir; black and brown cows graze peacefully in the foreground, munching on green grass dotted with patches of wildflowers. There are some kayaks that we can rent and I would love to spend some time paddling across the water. The scenery also includes miles of tree-covered mountains stretching into the horizon. The Atlantic Forest isn't jungle-y like the Amazon, but it is amazingly lush.

We're all staying in a two-storey rectangular brick building with red shutters and external stairs; the rooms are small, containing two twin beds with only a few feet between them, but very comfortable. I was afraid we were going to be roughing it, but that's not the case. I think the mattresses may even be Tempur-pedic. (I slept very soundly last night.) There have been no hot showers as of yet, which is marginally disappointing, but it makes it easy to wake up in the morning. A brisk shower never hurt anyone and I'm sure it saves a lot of water overall.

The food has been excellent so far. For lunch yesterday we had green salad, rice, and a meat dish. I'd love to lose a few pounds while I'm here (what a great bonus). For breakfast this morning we had granola, yogurt (delicious!), crusty rolls, cheese, and lots of fruit. A great array of fruits--bananas, apples, oranges, mangoes, papayas, passion fruits, etc. All of the produce is grown in a nearby garden...I'd love to see it.

We had our first class after breakfast and went over some orientation topics: general safety and appropriate behavior, class schedules, grading criteria, etc. I'm really excited to start learning about this beautiful place; I think the educational material will be heavy but not too difficult, and I can't wait to spend time in the field. We each complete individual projects during our five week stay here, but I have no idea what topic I would like to study.

After class we went for a hike around the area, through a wide pasture, over several hills, and down a narrow path veiled by low hanging vines and thick shoots of bamboo. We saw some enormous spiders, lots of pretty flowers, and a sloth. Taking advantage of such a slow-moving organism, I took too many photos (as usual). When I upload them onto the computer I probably won't be able to decipher their subject, since the sloth was quite high up and my camera's zoom is less than ideal. He was very cute though and climbed down a bit to watch us as we watched him.

We have class again tonight until about 6:00. Afterwards, I'm hoping to finish the paper that I still have not turned in from the end of spring semester. I have about 20-pages so far and I just need to do some revision and add some more primary source references. It's by far the lowest quality writing that I've done all year, but I'm so burned out. At least it will be done soon and won't be hanging over my head. Hopefully Professor Rieder (who I hope to coerce into advising my thesis) will forgive me and won't judge my abilities too strongly based on this one assignment. He did tell me at one point during this semester that he thought I was brilliant. (I almost fainted.)