Pipa (Kite)

This past weekend I was fortunate enough (as well as thinking about my entire experience this summer) to go visit some Brasilian beaches. We left on Friday and came back on Saturday. This meant it was an entire weekend 2 hours away from Joao Pessoa, where I have been staying for the past 8 weeks. At first, I was quite nervous, but once we got on the road every fear I was having, disappeared.


Friday

The drive to Pipa, which is a famous tourist town in another state, Rio Grande do Norte. It was a two hour drive to Pipa, with beautiful landscapes to view on the way. Once we got to Pipa, we (as one jokingly put it) parked the car. After parking the car we had to wait for our rooms, since others were still occupying them. 

Oh yeah, it was a hostel too. 

A couple days before we left to go to Pipa, the people who were bringing us told us that we would be staying in a hostel. Well, what went through my mind was not what the hostel was actually like. The movie Hostel was running through my head more than anything, but once we got to Pipa and saw the hostel it was not the case at all. It was run by a very very nice lady, who was very open with dealing with 9 college age kids. Especially the fact that it was 4 American's and 5 Brasilian's staying together.

Since we couldn't go into our rooms, we decided to go straight to the beach. Mind you, I am not that big of a beach person, but decided to let that feeling in me subside for the weekend. We got to the beach, and it was one of the most beautiful sites that anyone could ever see. A jaw dropping, pants splitting moment for most people, even including an introverted anti-beach bum like yours truly.

Once done gawking at the beach, we decided to get a snack/lunch to hold us over until we back to the hostel to settle in and make dinner. After lunch, we went walking along the beach, trying to find natural pools of water that form close to the shore. We were not able to find very deep pools of water, but we did find a giant rock to climb on and take pictures, you know, like the young reckless people we are. 

After playing on the rock and climbing the cliffs (which I did not partake in) we decided to go into the water. Up to this point, this was the only thing that I wanted to do during the weekend. Needless to say, since being born and being on this experience in Brasil, I had not gone swimming in the Atlantic Ocean. Is your mind blown? People on the trips minds were completely blown (not really, but in my mind I took their uninterested looks as mindblown-ingly). 


Once we had enough of fighting waves and baking in the sun we decided to head back to the hostel to make some dinner. Back at the hostel we decided to split both rooms we got into American's in one room and Brasilian's in another. Mind you, once back at the hostel I was quite curious of the shower. If I haven't brought this up before, the shower in my hotel room in Joao Pessoa has cold water. Yes, it's been 8 weeks of cold showers and in my mind I was hoping that the showers at the hostel would be warm.


It. was. warm.


I felt like I just won a challenge on Survivor and a warm shower was the prize. 


This being a relief, for a couple of days at least, I was ready to take on the rest of the night. Once we all freshened up we had a nice dinner of spaghetti with tomato sauce and tuna. It was delicious. After cleaning up the mess we made for dinner, most of us decided to take a nap before heading out for some fun in Pipa at night.


After napping for a while, we headed out to the club scene on the main road in Pipa. Just as I am not a beach person, surprisingly I'm not that big of a clubbing person either. At first, I just sat at a table with another person and chatted about how interesting and amazing both Pipa and Brasil are. Then after a little bit others want to hit up another club to dance somewhere else. Let's just say, once we got to that club my dancing shoes magically appeared. Remember, we didn't leave the hostel until around 11pm, so by the time we go to this club it was close to 1am. Once the dancing shoes came on, they didn't want to come off. The dancing went on for a solid 2 hours, and was one of the most fun I've ever had dancing.


A note on dancing in Brasil: people dance in a circle, and there is very very little bumping and grinding. This surprised me for some reason. Shockingly, it was more about dancing here in Brasil than trying to get laid on the dance floor. Which, to me, is the case at most clubs in the USA. I'll stop being a cynic about dancing... But it was a blast, especially with the group of people I was with.


Saturday


Getting back to the hostel (at around 3:30am) all of us crashed, and crashed hard. The amazing part was, that we all got up around 9am that day. We all got up and had breakfast, along with discussing plans for the day. Knowing that I would be exhausted the entire day, I decided to stay back at the hostel and relax for a bit. The group went out to a different beach. But having very nice hosts, two of the girls came back to get me as well as another person who showed up mid-day on Saturday. Good thing they did, or else I would have missed one of the most beautiful scenes in the world.


After regrouping with everyone, we headed back to the beach that everyone was so we could go to another place. Here is a picture of the beach that everyone was at for the entire day, up to the point I got there.

From here we decided to head to some cliffs that overlook the Atlantic Ocean; very beautiful.

Once we admired the natural beauty of the ocean, some of the others decided to run up a sand dune to try and get a better view of the sunset.

Since this wasn't a great spot to see the sunset, we decided to venture to another dune to see if the view was better. The walk was a bit of a hike, but well worth it.

Oh yeah, and about what was over the sand dune...

And the sunset.

Needless to say, this was one of the best parts of Brasil. Where else can you see such an amazing natural peaceful sight? Not a lot of places in the world afford us this.


After we watched the sunset, we headed back to the hostel to make dinner. Now, we started dinner at 6pm, with the hopes of being done with it by around 8pm (mind you we had to feed 9 people). It started with making a few dishes, and ended up being around 7 different dishes that we made, oh yeah and we didn't sit down to eat until 10pm. But it was delicious. After we cleaned up from dinner, we all decided to stay in for the night since we were so exhausted from the day. A great end to a great day.


Sunday


After waking up on Sunday, we all headed out to a different beach called Dolphin Bay (I do believe). It took us about 20 minutes to walk there from the hostel, but was well worth the trip. First off, the sand and water was beautiful. The waves were also of perfect height, so perfect that we all were able to have some fun bodysurfing.


But.


When they say dolphin bay, they mean it. Another person and myself were out in the water and all of a sudden there was a dolphin swimming about 15 feet away from us. I was shocked that they got so close to the shore, even more so that they got so close to unbeknownst humans. A very surreal and fun experience to say the least.


Once done getting crispy at the beach, we decided to head back to the hostel to shower and collect our things to head back to Joao Pessoa. We ended up leaving after lunch around 4:30pm and got back into Joao Pessoa around 7pm. It was a very fun weekend, with good people and once in a life time experiences that I am very grateful for.


If you want more pictures of the whole weekend don't hesitate to ask!


- a hero within

$2.50 - Price of Admission

This past weekend was a very fruitful experience. It was the first weekend being in Brasil that I did not take a "relaxation" day, which I am glad for now reflecting on it -- too much is missed when resting (at least that's my outlook on life now).

Saturday, my research adviser here in Brasil was gracious enough to bring my lab mate, her room mate and myself to a very nice lunch at Nau. The lunch consisted of a delicious appetizer, and a pasta dish to die for. The appetizer was a combination of different finger foods, including cheese, shrimp, olives, eggplant and salmon; all of which very tasty. The entree, which at least 4 people could have eaten, was one of the best pastas ever. It included steak pieces and an amazing milk-cheese sauce that made it that much better. After lunch, our professor brought us to Cabadelo to see people surfing. Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so I wasn't able to get any pictures of the beach/surfing on display. It was a nice day, and glad I was able to have a day outside of the university with both students and the professor. This rarely occurs with me, and every time professors are willing to take time out of their days to spend time with students is a very nice and comforting gesture.

Now for Sunday. After getting back from lunch I had a Facebook message, asking me and other students if we wanted to go to a football game. Well, not soccer (futbol), but American football. Yes, there is a professional American football league in Brasil. It's not very big, but there is enough to of a want to have the league.

We cram six people into a car that is meant for five, but four comfortably. Arriving at the stadium, we have to walk through, pretty much, a giant mud puddle to even get to the gate. After crossing Lake Ontario, we had to walk around a barbed wired fence to get to the seats. Oh before we get to actually talking about the seating situation, I should talk about the price of admission. Five Reais (~ $2.50 USD). So before the game even started I knew it was going to be quite a show.

We pay, then go to look for seat. Mind you, this is a soccer field converted into a football field, so the stands are setup in a different way (that is, when the either team would be at one end of the field no one in the stands could see what was happening...whereas in soccer the game usually moves back and forth rather evenly, so this wouldn't make a difference...not the case for American football). We find our seats, which are giant slabs of concrete that were built like steps. Not benches, just coliseum looking seats that felt like you were sitting on concrete...oh wait.

Leading up to the beginning of the game, which was suppose to start at 2, there were a couple crucial things that occurred. First off, something borrowed from soccer, was that both teams lined up at the middle of the field while the Brasilian national anthem played (apparently you don't have to stand for one's national anthem, if you so choose not to). Second, the game started 50 minutes late, because they were waiting on the ambulance to show up. Yep. 50 minutes to get one ambulance to the stadium. But good thing they did.

With all of this waiting (mind you we got there at 1:45, expecting the game to start at 2, and it's now almost 3) the game finally started. Two plays into the game the home teams quarterback blows his knee out. In my mind I was thinking that the game is over and that the home team is just going to get blown out now. They get the player off the field, resume play and in Friday Night Lights fashion the backup quarterback enters the game. After his initial drive (which ended in a punt), he tore it up. He managed to carry the team the rest of the game, where I had very little faith (thinking about pro football in the states, with the fact that some backup quarterbacks are usually not the best substitutes to try and win games with). So it was refreshing to watch a second string quarterback actually be able to come out of the woodwork and do well.

Let's talk about another adoption from soccer that this game of football took to heart. Injuries. The first injury was actually quite severe, and reminded me of Theisman getting rampaged by LT, ending his career. Okay, usually in football injuries are taken quite seriously, but not here. I wasn't keeping track, but there were at least 15 total "injuries" that players sustained throughout the game. After about the fifth injury I started to understand why people were laughing at all of the injuries. It was more fun to watch the EMT's having to keep running on the field to "help" players, who of course were faking (most of the time). As I thought more, it was another adoption from soccer. Oh how I loathe fake injuries, yeah I'm talking to you Giants. This slowed the game way down, so much so that the third quarter lasted for almost 40 minutes (oh the quarters were also only 12 minutes).

One very cool thing that happened in the game though, was one of the students from my lab (who plays on Joao Pessoa's team) scored a touchdown. That was a nice addition to the the day as a whole too.

The last part of the game that made me laugh, was that none of the spectators knew the rules. So, being in a foreign country, I finally knew a lot about something that I never thought I would have to explain.

I have a quest for each of you. Try to explain these two things to someone who has very very little exposure to American football: 1) why teams get to keep the ball in between the first and second quarter as well as between the third and fourth. Oh, and the explain why the team who got the ball at the beginning of the game, regardless of having the ball at the end of the second quarter, does not get the ball at the beginning of the third quarter. Good luck. And 2) why the clock stops, and how the clock can stop when a player runs out of bounds with the ball, or when there is an incomplete pass. I don't even want to get started on penalties!

It's not until you're in a situation like this one, that you're glad you have procedural memory to take care of these things. Thanks procedural memory!

End score of the game (as posted by Sportscenter):
The team I was rooting for: 56
The other team: 2

As comical as wrote the above, it was very cool to see people come together to actually want something such as American football in Brasil. Also, as I said to a couple of people I was with, "I hope in 10 years American football actually makes it big here, so these guys can feel like they did something worth doing." This day made me appreciate the love of the game, that much more.

Overall, everyone who went to the game with me had a blast, which is a positive for everyone in the situation.

- a hero within

Two Weeks Left; Bittersweet

With my stay in Brasil coming to the three-quarter mark much has been accomplished, but there is still much more to do here as well as the end of summer in Oswego. With two weeks left, I have a presentation tomorrow on my research so far, as well as one in my last week here. On top of that, I've been consulting other research teams with their projects -- separate from the two projects I'm currently working on. By the end of my trip here, I will have helped five different development groups with evaluating their user interfaces; needless to say, I've done a lot here.

With all of the research done this summer, my research adviser here in Brasil has expressed interest in another student and myself submitting papers to two different conferences. One in Sao Paulo and one in Paris. Yes, Paris. If I could get an opportunity to be a) published and 2) go on another international expedition for the research I did at an international university, would be quite an honor. This also makes me feel as though I'm actually doing work on an academic level, which before this trip was not really the case. It still felt as though I was doing "undergraduate" level work, but now that I can reflect on my work over the past year I know this is not the case. I am grateful for this experience here in Brasil.

As for my last two weeks here, what to do what to do. Well, Saturday we have planned to visit this guy. He doesn't take a day off throughout the entire year (that is, he plays every night through the sunset). More information here. This has been something on everyone's bucket lists since coming to Brasil, and quickly became part of mine. Hopefully, we'll be able see him this weekend.

Let's talk about my agenda once I'm back to the States. Well, after getting back into Oswego, I get a three hour break (if all goes well) and it's back to work. Marching band season is upon us, and I'm quite excited about this years show/band. Based on Orwell's classic novel 1984, and music by Mackey. Did I also mention, this is my last year (after 5 years! wow!) of working for Oswego's marching band? Yeah, it is. Ups and downs aside, I've told myself that this year (regardless of placement) will be the best year anyone has had who has been involved with the Marching Bucs. I'm ready to get the season started, and quite pleased to have seen pictures of a GIANT drumline for the 4th of July Parade this year. So if any Marching Bucs (past or present) are reading this, let's make it a good season.

More to come about how the rest of my stay in Brasil is, but for now I'll leave it at that. Oh and this:

- a hero within

A Stare Says A Million Things

"I feel like 100 bucks!" In the USA, staring is something of a taboo. Take for instance a mother talking to her child in grocery store, "don't stare, it's not nice." The child has no idea that it is "wrong" to stare at someone, most the time (as of late) I would chalk a child's stare up to curiosity. But you think nothing of staring, until you get stared at by a multitude of people. Here in Brasil everyone from the program has been stared at in some fashion or not. Whether it be clothes we are wearing, our physical appearance or any number of other things, be stared at is something of normalcy for us here in Brasil.

At first, the staring really got to me.

But, now that I've been here for a while, I think of the idea of the child scenario from above. People are just curious, and in the end they aren't doing anything harmful by staring. It has also made me think of myself, and how much I probably stare at people in the States. Of course, when you see something that seems out-of-place to you, you can't help but stare.

It's also fun to think of narratives for the people staring at us.

For instance, every time somewhere starts staring at me or the group I'm with I make up a story in my head. "They are probably staring at us because we are the famous band 'YOLO' from Canada, on tour for two months." These self-helping narratives help get me through some days where the staring gets to me. There's also the fact that at times people aren't staring at me, but are staring at others from the group. This almost upsets me more than when people stare at me. I get defensive, in my mind of course, because I think "what if I was staring at you, just for the way you looked? Would you like it?"

Of course they wouldn't.

It is getting better though (as fun. says).

Smiling doesn't work, most of the time. Anytime someone does stare at me (and makes eye contact), I try to smile. At the university, most everyone smiles back. While not being at the university, the smile tactic does not work all the time. Which begs for the question, is it a cultural difference, or not?

To tie in the "I feel like 100 bucks!" quote from above, this is my new outlook on staring. Every time someone stares at me, or anyone else in the group, I'm just going to assume we all look like 100 dollar bills, and that everyone wants us; hence the staring.

Remember, this is not to be bitter; very much so a learning experience just living in a different part of the world. Which, in the end, is ultimately better for a person like. It helps me become more conscientious about those around me, which, in my opinion, people from the USA are not...

...at all.

-a hero within

Humans and Computers...Interacting?

Since I am in Brasil doing research in the realm if Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), its only fitting to discuss what HCI is and what I am currently doing in Brasil. As you may assume, HCI is the discipline where humans interact with computers. Yes. But, there is much more to it than this simple idea. It would be like saying Math is the discipline dealing with numbers. Okay, but there is more to math than just numbers, even though that's the basis of math. Well, humans interacting with computers is the basis for HCI, but there is much more that both humans and computers can delve into. I'll start with a definition, as well as my idea of what HCI is.

According to ACM SIGCHI, HCI is, "The discipline concerned with the design, evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and the study of the major phenomena surrounding them" (Hewett, 1996). This is taken directly from SUNY Oswego's HCI webpage. The definition gives insight into what someone who works in HCI does (which can be quite helpful for job interviews). Still, the definition does not completely capture the essence of what HCI is; still too much of an abstract idea for something that is very application driven (unless you were told, before coming into the program, that you will come out of the program as someone who has a"theoretical" HCI skill set. Which I'm slowly starting to believe, but there is still application within the realm of theoretical HCI).

The bet way to describe what HCI is, is to discuss HCI in terms of application. Before this summer, applying HCI occurred in two places for me. One, in the context of a classroom where we were learning the skills needed to apply HCI methods (see the HCI methods course for the program) and two, Project I, where students are expected to think of a research study within the realm of HCI, and then conduct the research. Here in Brasil, it is applying HCI methods to help others improve upon their applications.

Currently, half-way through my stay in Brasil, I am working on helping two groups with improving the interfaces of their given applications. For those of you who don't know what I mean by interface, just think of the thing on a computer that a human has to interact with (the window that you are currently viewing this blog in is called an interface, you can do something here, mainly read my blog!) One application is a website for T-Health and another application is using the Kinect to manipulate objects on a computer screen. As of right now, initial user-testing has been done with the Kinect application (and improvements are currently being made for it from what was found during the user-tests) and at some point this week the website for T-Health will be tested with users.

You may be asking yourselves, "okay, this is great and all, but how can you just test people and know what they want; you set up the study, so it'll just be biased? right?" Not completely. Since there are standards and methods that need to be used to make studies valid, objectivity comes shining through. Only knowing what I've been taught in classes, figuring out the best method of evaluation is tough if you've never had a lot of experience doing it. But, I was given resources down here on a method of evaluation that came from Brasil, called Communicability evaluation. There is a sense of "learning on the job" so to say, when it comes to HCI. Picking the right method for each project is the toughest part, and going about different methods of evaluation is sometimes the best way to go. Plus, not testing is the worst thing to do. As we say in HCI, testing one user is better than testing none.

If you still want that magic when it comes to thinking about HCI and don't want to accept anything I just said, I have no qualms with you thinking that I do this too:

-a hero within

References:
Hewett, T. T. et al, Curricula for HCI, ACM HCI, URL : http://sigchi.org/cdg/, 1996.