Latané Bullock – Page 2 – The Art of Latte

Heading for Singapore: Expectations

I wrote down some of my thoughts before I left, highlighting what I was most excited for.

As I was packing for Singapore, I put on BBC’s Planet Earth and watched it on repeat. It’s one of the few TV shows I’ve actually watched all the way through. In the last episode of the series, BBC gives a shout-out to SG for it’s Green philosophy. It’s known as the Garden City, and has plans to become a City Within a Garden. I can’t wait to go on runs in one of the many parks and not be suffocated as I was last summer in Bangalore.

Super Trees at Gardens by the Bay, Singapore. Image: BBC’s Planet Earth II: Cities

I’m curious about how the fairly well-defined cultures interact in Singapore. The main ethnic groups are Indian (mostly southern Indians), Malay, and Chinese. How prominent are these cultures in everyday life in SG? How does language relate to these ethnic groups – if someone identifies as part of one of these groups, will they speak their mother tongue?

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Langtang Valley Trek

Here’s a video from little snippets along our Langtang Valley trek. It was an incredible experience despite some trying moments. The second-to-last day, in particular, tested my limits. There were moments where I had the urge to cry as every step brought a new surge of pain. I never wanted to quit walking as we were determined to make it as far as possible, but I remember thinking that I’d rather be crying and walking rather than just walking.

Wangden was a pleasure to travel with – I definitely wouldn’t have been able to complete the trek on my own. Spending all day with someone isn’t easy – we could’ve easily gotten fed up with each other. Instead, I enjoyed every minute of his company. If I wasn’t laughing at his jokes, we were engaged in thoughtful conversation. We had plenty of time to explore topics we wouldn’t have otherwise – it was just us and the trail.

Video edited by Wangden and myself in the days following the trek.

Shooting Stars

This is a reflection that my friend wrote close to the end of her stay at Casa do Campus. I wish I could say I wrote it. Although the words didn’t come from me, I identify with them. They express my deepest feelings about my stay in Porto Alegre.

At first I wasn’t going to try to translate it so as not to miss any signification or nuance, but I suppose it’s worth the attempt.

As she stayed a whole semester rather than just a couple of months, it was an even more transformative experience for her.

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Rio Grande do Sul: The Texas of Brazil

In the short time that I’ve been here in Porto Alegre, many have compared the State of Texas with o Estado do Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. At first, I wasn’t really sure what the deal was besides the obvious geographic correlation. Now that I have a better feel for the region, though, I can clearly see the parallels. Here is a blog post (in Portuguese) written from the perspective of a brasileira (Brazilian) who now lives in the the United States. Among other similarities, she writes about churrasco and barbecue, vaqueiros and cowboys, geography, German influence, and state pride.

CHURRASCO AND TEXAS BARBECUE

Churrasco is one of the first cultural phenomena that I experienced in Brazil. In fact, our first meal in Brazil was a welcoming churrasco. It’s a style of meat that originated in gaúcho (similar to the word cowboy, originally used to refer to a person with experience in livestock and farming) culture. The word “churrasco” seems to encapsulate the way that the meat is cooked, the way it is eaten, and the social gathering that is centered around it. A lot of houses in Rio Grande do Sul have a churrasco-style grill, and churrasqueria restaurants are everywhere. Similarly, Texas is known for it’s barbecue – and not only in the U.S. A fair number of Europeans also associated Texas with this style of cooking.

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Portuguese Opinions

*Please note that, by “Portuguese”, I am referring to the Portuguese from my experience… The Portuguese from Porto Alegre and from the perspective of a learner. There is probably quite a bit that I’m missing out on and don’t understand*

It seems like a lot of things are expressed in the same way in Portuguese and Spanish, so the experience hasn’t been quite as eye opening as the Spain immersion experience. However, as time goes on, I have been catching some more interesting expressions that are quite different from Spanish.

“Meu” and “cara” are similar to “dude,” but are much less stigmatized. “Cara” is literally “face,” and “meu” is “my.” It is very common to throw in a “cara” at the beginning of a phrase, or a “meu” at the end. Although the average person uses them regularly, conversations at Rockhead are saturated with them. Talk around the office is informal, and is characterized by what some may call “bro talk” in English.

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Language Links, Not Barriers (pt 2)

IMMERSION

The language immersion process hasn’t been such a slap in the face as it was the first time around. After spending a year in French (/Spanish) immersion, not a lot has come unexpected in learning Portuguese. I go through the same types of realizations and epiphanies, and use the same learning strategies as in Spain. I’ve experienced the same range of emotions – it seems long at times and is frustrating in many ways, but is rewarding and eye-opening in the end.

In order to fully embrace words and phrases that I hear, I am constantly muttering to myself – I must seem truly crazy to people in public. I talk to myself in English too, though, so that doesn’t bother me. For me, repetition is the best way to practice pronunciation and improve the fluidity of phrases.

Nathalie and Allie have given me extremely weird looks because of this habit. I usually don’t realize that my utterances are even close to audible… evidently they are. This is something that didn’t happen in Spain, and I’m not quite sure why. I think it was because my host family didn’t think much of it when I was repeating their phrases, but in a more public environment it can be quite strange.

I’ve learned to appreciate the importance of fillers in making conversation natural. They are so fundamental to native speakers that they often go unnoticed. The word “like” in English is probably the most well-known example – most speakers say it often enough that they can’t remove it from their speech even when consciously making an effort to do so. Understanding these utterances in conversation is one of the most significant developments in second language fluency – not only for comprehension, but also for speech.

However, they are particularly difficult to grasp because they don’t usually carry any semantic meaning – rather they serve to connect and frame the meaning in a conversation. Compare this idea to a box built from popsicle sticks and glue – the glue holding everything together and maintaining structure, but going largely unnoticed.

In Portuguese, the realization that “tipo” (pronounced like “cheapoo” in English) is used similarly to “like” in English. It doesn’t convey any specific meaning, but is essential when pausing to think or compare ideas.

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Initial Review: Work and Living

People

Professor Carlos has a huge puggy. A very large, fat, adorable pug. He says “my puggy” with the cutest accent and brightest smile as he shows us pictures. He is our go-to person for pretty much everything. He is picking up English again after almost 30 years without speaking it. I love the way he speaks; he enunciates everything very clearly, with a lot of intonation and expression. He is the iSEED program host, and has visited Rice/Houston multiple times to set up the exchange.

Christian and Chips are my main contacts at work. Christian is the CEO of Rockhead. He is a lighthearted, stylish mid-40s guy that could be mistaken for a 25-year-old. Chips is in charge of a bunch of things at Rockhead: develepment, testing, marketing, publicity. He speaks English really well. He is the leader of the strange-noise-squad (see Work Environment below). He is very personable, going out of his way to talk about American culture; he travels to Game Development Conferences in the U.S. and Europe fairly often. He is going to be in Austin and Houston this Fall – we are planning to meet up and go to a Texans football game together.

Bruno is a student here at PUCRS, but he’s going to Rice this summer! He has taken good care of us while we’re here. I hope the Houston crew does the same for him. We’ve been out to eat with him and his girlfriend, Rosanna, on a few different occasions.

Rafael is an engineering student from PUCRS who did the Rice summer experience in engineering design with Allie and Nathalie. He is pretty busy with studies, research, and work, but he’s been a great help when we’re on campus. He loves cars, both aesthetically and from an engineering perspective (he has a 70s Volkswagen Beetle and truck and city car).

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Language Links, Not Barriers (pt 1)

Language is the window to expression.

Where does language fall, for you, among other forms of expression: music, dance, painting, clothing, sculpture, gestures, song?

Do we reflect our language(s), or do our language(s) reflect us – both on a personal and societal level?

To understand multiple languages is to understand multiple perspectives on life. When considering any two languages, many words and phrases do not have translations because every language uniquely expresses ideas, and even seemingly synonymous words don’t carry identical connotations. Every language equips its speakers to communicate and relate and convey emotions differently. Describing nuanced examples of this is difficult, sometimes impossible, because English words and constructions simply won’t explain them.

Arthur Koestler was quoted saying, “Real creativity beings where language ends.” I don’t quite agree with that; I find that a lot of creativity lies in language. It plays a role in the shaping of our overall take on the world, but it doesn’t hold our creativity and imagination back. I do think, though, that it limits interpersonal communication to some degree.

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7 Steps to An Inspiring First Day in Brazil

〈 Have a look at About the Trip for context 〉

1. TAKE A COLD SHOWER

Always take cold showers.

It’s empowering when you are able to overcome your body telling you to do anything but step into freezing water. I first tried it a couple of years ago after I read a Medium article (similar to this one). I’ve been doing it for a while now, and it honestly never gets easier. There are a lot of times when I take comfy steamy hot showers because I convince myself that I may be getting sick or that it’s too cold outside, and sometimes I’m just too weak to follow through with it. Every time I do, though, I step out glad that I did. It’s helped me be comfortable with being uncomfortable, understand that I decide my mental state, and develop a “just do it” attitude. Apart from the mental exercise, it’s better for your hair and skin and is a plus when traveling and hot water is not available. Nathalie, Allie, and I were discussing cold showers, and I was trying to convince them to at least try it out. It’s one of those things that sounds terrible until you try it. And then it sounds a little less terrible. I teased that it was my goal to get them to willingly take a cold shower before the end of the summer: “I hope you are used to failure,” Nathalie answered. Welp.

2. EAT A DELICIOUS BRAZILIAN BREAKFAST

Complete with 12,532 different types of bread, dulce de leche muffins, cinnamon bananas, seeds of all types, fresh orange juice, 4,786 different cheeses, thin-sliced ham, and strong coffee.

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A Warm Welcome

I arrived at the Porto Alegre airport late this afternoon after about 24 hours of travel. I was running on 4 plane-hours of sleep (one plane-hour of sleep is ~¼ bed-hours in my book) and an airport nap (which looked a little like this), but I was eager to see familiar faces. We waited a bit for Allie, checked in at our hotel, and met our university host: Professor Carlos, Dean of Engineering. But before we had time to think about anything else, Prof Carlos told us that we had been invited for a welcome dinner – a “barbecue” – by one of the faculty members, Ana, her partner, Marcelo, as well as some of their family.

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