Week two for me in Brasil is coming to a close and much has happened. Major happenings of the week include: starting research at UFPB, learning (a rather small amount of) Portuguese, making new friends, beliefs and monkeys. Each are "major" because they come with different cultural and life meanings to me, where by living in one country place for my entire life has not permitted me from experiencing.
To start, the research that I'm doing at UFPB seems fitting. We actually were able to go to the university last week and meet the people we are working with this summer, but Monday was the real first day in my mind. I was able to go into the lab and collect my thoughts on the four projects that I have been assigned to do research on. The overall jist of the research is to conduct user testing evaluating different interfaces that the lab I'm working in has made. Each project is different, so each must have their own methodology set up for it. This meant taking Monday and Tuesday to do a heavy amount of reading, in order to write a literature review (which happened Wednesday, Thursday and Friday). Overall the literature review came to ten pages, which I thought to be quite substantial for the first week of a research project.
This week I also tried to assimilate a little more by trying to learn some Portuguese. The language is not that far off from Spanish, but some people get upset if you accidentally speak Spanish instead of Portuguese to them. But being a human, this is bound to happen. Mostly though, people have been very supportive of me using (messing up more like it) the language which is very grateful. Take for example the hotel owner where we are all staying. He will try his best to talk in English to us, but expects us to at least try to use a little Portuguese from time to time. This is very helpful in that we have all been able to help him with his English, and he helps us with our Portuguese. But most of the time I feel as though I'm caught in Searle's Chinese room, just regurgitating the last said Portuguese out again. Some friends have made fun of my because I'm so eager to try the language, and almost embracing it too much (yelling a room number, when yelling it is not needed). Oh, and the language gap also makes dining out fun. Sometimes, you never know what you're going to get!
When discussing making new friends, compared to the other students that came with me, I feel like it has been easier due to the size of my research lab. The other students' labs that they were placed in, have an average of about five people. Whereas the lab myself and another student were placed in have around forty students. This alone allows for more interaction with more people due to a default of being in a big lab. Also, the people in my lab are willing to both help with anything I need help with (such as discuss a project that they are working on) and converse on an intellectual level with me. Take for instance a conversation I had with two students from the lab at UFPB. They were talking about how once they get into college, and take a placement exam, they must go through with the major. Whereas in the USA, people switch majors from brushing their teeth in the morning to getting cereal five minutes later. They said that this makes it hard to gain a breadth of knowledge, but rather gain a depth of knowledge. I found this interesting because I never thought about it like this. They also brought up the fact that with the breadth that someone like myself is able to attain, a depth can occur when it comes to specialization (such as HCI from Cognitive Science). I also found out that there are very few interdisciplinary majors in Brasil compared to those in the US. A very interesting talk with some very smart people was refreshing. But as for other friends that were made, two went to SUNY Oswego last year. Which was very surprising because but also welcoming at the same time. As for being 6000 miles away from home, meeting two people who were able to relate to things that I've experienced and know people I know was comforting, which in turn made the friendship that much easier.
As for new friends, one person that I was able to meet this past week was in a post-graduate computer science program at UFPB. Post-graduate is considered graduate in Brasil, and graduate is considered undergraduate in Brasil. Interesting, but an easy adaption to make. Regardless, the student I was able to meet talked about his family (which he loves very much) and his belief system. His family, especially his wife, is very important to him. But, he forgot about Valentines Day (which was Tuesday of this past week, crazy in of itself). He was laughing and telling me about how he always "forgets" each year, but then does something for her the following weekend. A man after my own heart, no pun intended. Through this, he asked me if I practice a religion and proceeded to tell him my views. He then expressed to me that he practices what is called Spiritism. I'll let you read more if you want to read more. But long story short, he asked me if I have ever had a spirit talk to me, which I, at first, found somewhat amusing, but then was able to see past it and notice that it was his own belief. He is a very interesting person, and I'm glad we were able to discuss personal matters and not just work.
To sum up this post, it's fitting to talk about the monkeys. A few weeks before I left for Brasil, I was informed that there were monkeys at the university. I GOT SO EXCITED. I never usually get excited for things such as this, but the fact that monkeys are at the place where I am working made me very happy. Oh and on Friday of this past week, I was able to see them. I wasn't able to get that many good pictures, but there is one picture that is worth seeing. So I will leave you with the picture. :)
- a hero within
To start, the research that I'm doing at UFPB seems fitting. We actually were able to go to the university last week and meet the people we are working with this summer, but Monday was the real first day in my mind. I was able to go into the lab and collect my thoughts on the four projects that I have been assigned to do research on. The overall jist of the research is to conduct user testing evaluating different interfaces that the lab I'm working in has made. Each project is different, so each must have their own methodology set up for it. This meant taking Monday and Tuesday to do a heavy amount of reading, in order to write a literature review (which happened Wednesday, Thursday and Friday). Overall the literature review came to ten pages, which I thought to be quite substantial for the first week of a research project.
This week I also tried to assimilate a little more by trying to learn some Portuguese. The language is not that far off from Spanish, but some people get upset if you accidentally speak Spanish instead of Portuguese to them. But being a human, this is bound to happen. Mostly though, people have been very supportive of me using (messing up more like it) the language which is very grateful. Take for example the hotel owner where we are all staying. He will try his best to talk in English to us, but expects us to at least try to use a little Portuguese from time to time. This is very helpful in that we have all been able to help him with his English, and he helps us with our Portuguese. But most of the time I feel as though I'm caught in Searle's Chinese room, just regurgitating the last said Portuguese out again. Some friends have made fun of my because I'm so eager to try the language, and almost embracing it too much (yelling a room number, when yelling it is not needed). Oh, and the language gap also makes dining out fun. Sometimes, you never know what you're going to get!
When discussing making new friends, compared to the other students that came with me, I feel like it has been easier due to the size of my research lab. The other students' labs that they were placed in, have an average of about five people. Whereas the lab myself and another student were placed in have around forty students. This alone allows for more interaction with more people due to a default of being in a big lab. Also, the people in my lab are willing to both help with anything I need help with (such as discuss a project that they are working on) and converse on an intellectual level with me. Take for instance a conversation I had with two students from the lab at UFPB. They were talking about how once they get into college, and take a placement exam, they must go through with the major. Whereas in the USA, people switch majors from brushing their teeth in the morning to getting cereal five minutes later. They said that this makes it hard to gain a breadth of knowledge, but rather gain a depth of knowledge. I found this interesting because I never thought about it like this. They also brought up the fact that with the breadth that someone like myself is able to attain, a depth can occur when it comes to specialization (such as HCI from Cognitive Science). I also found out that there are very few interdisciplinary majors in Brasil compared to those in the US. A very interesting talk with some very smart people was refreshing. But as for other friends that were made, two went to SUNY Oswego last year. Which was very surprising because but also welcoming at the same time. As for being 6000 miles away from home, meeting two people who were able to relate to things that I've experienced and know people I know was comforting, which in turn made the friendship that much easier.
As for new friends, one person that I was able to meet this past week was in a post-graduate computer science program at UFPB. Post-graduate is considered graduate in Brasil, and graduate is considered undergraduate in Brasil. Interesting, but an easy adaption to make. Regardless, the student I was able to meet talked about his family (which he loves very much) and his belief system. His family, especially his wife, is very important to him. But, he forgot about Valentines Day (which was Tuesday of this past week, crazy in of itself). He was laughing and telling me about how he always "forgets" each year, but then does something for her the following weekend. A man after my own heart, no pun intended. Through this, he asked me if I practice a religion and proceeded to tell him my views. He then expressed to me that he practices what is called Spiritism. I'll let you read more if you want to read more. But long story short, he asked me if I have ever had a spirit talk to me, which I, at first, found somewhat amusing, but then was able to see past it and notice that it was his own belief. He is a very interesting person, and I'm glad we were able to discuss personal matters and not just work.
To sum up this post, it's fitting to talk about the monkeys. A few weeks before I left for Brasil, I was informed that there were monkeys at the university. I GOT SO EXCITED. I never usually get excited for things such as this, but the fact that monkeys are at the place where I am working made me very happy. Oh and on Friday of this past week, I was able to see them. I wasn't able to get that many good pictures, but there is one picture that is worth seeing. So I will leave you with the picture. :)
- a hero within
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