Welcome to Porto Alegre...

Day One of my time in Brazil was spent primarily on foot, walking throughout downtown taking in the sights. I took pictures of everything worth remembering, which sadly amounted to only one photo. In fact, I only took that one because I thought it would have been a shame to have carried a camera around all day for nothing...

During my Sunday tour of the city there were few shops open and surprisingly few people outside. That was, of course, until Dave (my roommate) and I found our way to a large city park where it appeared as though all of the 1.4 million "gauchos" (the term for people from the Rio Grande du Sul region) from Porto Alegre seemed to be. There were tons of people, many carrying pint-sized dogs outfitted in adorable clothing, and even more toting around a gourd of chimarrao, a traditional tea drink packed with green herbs and drank through a filtered straw. There were also numerous stands displaying crafts, including matchstick carvings for just R$13 (US$7).

I think the conference may have been scheduled here to lure us with the exotic sound of Brazil, while ensuring there would be few distractions. While the locals seem to think there is plenty to do here, I suppose I wasn't particularly impressed based on my day of exploration (during which I visited all of the sited indicated by my tourist map). I think I'd recommend skipping Porto Alegre should you be planning a trip to Brazil. My negativity towards the city has subsided though, having spent time with a number of Brazilian students that are attending the conference, who have been a blast to hang out with. The conference has been fairly boring so far, and does not seem as though it will yield particularly useful results. To some degree, I feel as though I am in fact paying for my otherwise free flight. Roughly 5 hours each day are spent listening to presentation on laser welding, plasma generation, vacuum arc remelting, sub-continuum blah blah blah, all of which remind me that math is not my strongest subject (relative to these hardcore PhD folks, that is). The other 3 hours is spent on "homework", a series of assignments which are intended to help us understand what is required for PPDM, but are rather pointless and frustrating. Didn't I just graduate?

Outside of "work", I've been making friends with the Brazilian (and American) students, of which there are some really fun people. Andre, a Porto Alegre native, has been taking Dave, Paul, Sandra and I to various parts of the city to sample the various local foods and drinks. Tonight they are heading to a sports bar to watch the local futbol team fight for a spot in the South American finals. I, however, will go to Patrick's dormitory to watch the game with some of his friends and enjoy some traditional Brazilian barbecue, chimarrao and cerveja (beer). Tomorrow I'll pay some indoor futbol, and Saturday will be spent touring the local wine country.

My Portuguese is progressing nicely, and I have been impressing the Brazilians with my quick learning. My limited Spanish is definitely a huge asset and is making for a great foundation--I should be fluent by the time I embark on my own in a week and a half. Speaking of which, yesterday was a sour day of realizing that my initial travel plans are not realistic since the country is so big and flights so expensive. But I think I have settled on taking a US$300 flight to Manaus (in the Amazon) as soon as the program is over, followed by another short, $70 flight to Belem, a coastal city at the mouth of the Amazon River, just barely south of the equator. I believe at that point I can take buses along the coast, stopping at a few of the cities on the way to Salvador. From there it isn't too expensive to get back to Sao Paulo, where my trip home departs from, but I~m not sure if I'll go by plane or bus.

Anyway, I'm having a good time so far, making some friends, eating well, working out in the hotel gym and swimming in the pool, and looking forward to the adventure ahead.