Today my morning began by leaving the house at 7:00 AM to spend some time with Professor Vera, the woman who is now helping me organize my time here (she was the professor of the social services class I attended Wednesday). She is a professor at PUC, but recently Vera has also become a professor for the other university, UFG, as well. She teaches on the UFG campus in Cidade de Goias though, not in Goiania. This morning I went with Vera around Goiania to organize her documents with the university and officially secure her position in Cidade de Goias. It was great to just ride in the car around some parts of Goiania that I have not seen before. The city really is beautiful in some parts and when you are on the outskirts you can see the rolling fields of soy beans, corn, and sugar cane and rising hills in the distance. Then, Professor Vera and I went to PUC for me to have a tour. Though I have already attended two classes there, I really enjoyed the tour of PUC and the students that I met. They were very nice and welcoming and all so impressed that I am learning Portuguese. My tour guide Isabela, a third year medical student and the daughter of the director of the medical school, will also be my guide next week. The plan is for me to attend some of her classes and go to the hospital, Santa Casa with her for clinical classes as well. Today I saw the laboratory which houses the animated mannequins for the medical students to learn proper medical techniques and procedures. Isabela said she really enjoyed when her classes were in the lab because all the students practice. On top of that, she said that when the mannequins just will not do, they even practice on each other! Next I saw a theater where the students do presentations, and after that, Isabela and I walked one block to the anatomy lab, where there are some lovely smelling human remains for the students to study. These bodies were SO old. Well, I am not sure of the age of the person when they died but I mean old as in they are black and dusty! There were also a lot of jars with different organs in them, including a brain and several pieces of other brains, a heart, and a kidney. Some jars had fetuses at different stages of development too.
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| My forro dance lesson from Luiz |
At night, Thaynara and Karen and I went to a party called Festa Junina. This is a kind of party that happens every weekend in June. Sometimes, the people dress up like hillbillies to attend! It is so funny because everyone wears plaid and cowboy boots and cowboy hats. There is a lot of dancing with sertanejo music and some more old fashioned music as well. There is also a lot of food there that is traditional here, like pohmona (a corn and cheese dish that is cooked in a corn husk) and caldo (a type of soup). This Festa Junina was called Asclepiao. It was hosted by the UFG Medicina course and so I really enjoyed seeing all the people that I have met so far attending UFG Medicina events like Inter UFG. It was so much fun to see everyone and learn how to do the dances. I even got to meet Bonnie, an exchange student from Hong Kong! She speaks English very well but does not know any Portuguese. It was so interesting to hear about her experiences and thoughts about Goiania. We both are on an amazing journey here, but it was funny for me to hear that she thinks Goiania is a small city. I just laughed because to me it seems huge! To put things in perspective: Hong Kong--7,000,000 people; Goiania--1,800,000 people, Hillsdale and Alma together--might have almost 20,000 people!
The two pictures above show the traditional dance that I learned. Everyone stands in a big circle and there is an announcer who calls out the direction you have to go and it is crazy! Bonnie and I shared a partner and laughed the entire time.
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| Thaynara and Pracilla and I |
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| Fernanda and I |
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| Thaynara and I |
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| Karen and Thaynara (I live in their house.) |
