A little piece of advice I got from students I talked to that studied abroad in Latin America was to bring peanut butter. Peanut butter is one of those little things you use every day in the states that is difficult to come by abroad, and when you do find it, along with everything else in Sao Paulo, it is extremely expensive. Furthermore, the peanut butter sold in South America tastes more like the organic peanut butter sold in the United States. To spare myself the agony of eating watery, healthier peanut butter, I bought a huge tub of Skippy to turn to when I’m in the mood for something American.
My flight is in T-10 hours, and I still don’t know where I’ll be living once I get to Brazil. Most students on my program haven’t been contacted by their host families, and will be in the dark for a few days until we meet them in person after our Orientation. This same suspense will linger over the course of our semester, as we move locations from Salvador da Bahia, a beach city in the Northeast, to Sao Paulo, South America’s largest city. With two different cities come two different host families, two polar-opposite cultures, and two very different experiences. My large extra chunky Skippy will be one of the few constants that remain from Salvador, hopefully lasting me most of the semester.
The dichotomy of these two study abroad sites was what drew me to this program over Georgetown’s program in Rio de Janeiro. I wanted a big city like New York, and while Rio is a big city, I knew with such close access to the beach and natural attractions I would not have the self-control to go to class every day. Instead of, “the marvelous city,” as Brazilians call it, I chose to spend the majority of my semester in “the city of drizzle.” Sao Paulo has much to offer with its ethnic neighborhoods and world-class gastronomy and nightlife, while Salvador will give me my beach fix for the first four weeks of the program.
In a strange way I feel homeless, trapped in my thoughts of leaving my home in Maryland for the unknown host families I’m supposed to be living with. I’ll be staying in a hotel for a few nights until we meet our assigned families. Until then, all I’ll have is my luggage, some Skippy, and a little bit of anxiousness. All I know for certain is that I leave the States with one family, and return with three.
