One of the more popular majors at UESC is "Geography" which studies a mix of geology, agriculture, land management and tourism. I think it's one of the hot majors because of all of the field trips the students get to go on - at least two a semester. About a month ago, Loni and I were invited along on the geography field trip to Petrolina, a city 12 hours to the north by bus. The focus of the trip was to be vineyards and researching the possibility of wine tourism in Brazil. It wasn't a hard decision whether or not to participate.
One of the funniest things about the trip for me was the bus ride. We left at 6am and I assumed that the bus ride would be relatively relaxed and easygoing and filled with seat-partner conversations, ipods, books and naps. I was so incredibly wrong that it is still a little shocking. A Brazilian bus ride is a far cry from a Gringo one. Right away at 6am the students cranked up their ipods and portable speakers and started singing and dancing in the aisles. Someone pulled out their triangle and everyone started clapping to the rhythym. Loni and I looked at each other as if to say, "Twelve more hours of this?" The other chaperones, the head of the department and another professor, looked surprised that we were surprised. "Just wait," they said. "They haven't even gotten started yet."
Impressively, for the next twelve hours, the students kept up the singing, dancing and instrument playing. At about 10am the alcohol started to appear and things got even louder (rules about staying in seats and drinking on buses are a bit looser here in Brazil). When we finally arrived at about 9pm I, once again, wrongly assumed that everyone would be tired and want to go to bed. Nope. Because the next day's activities didn't start until 10am the group decided to make a night of it.
The next five days passed in a similar fashion and we had a lot of fun visiting different vineyards and doing plenty of wine tasting. I've learned my lesson about Brazil, however. If you're going to risk assuming anything, just assume it's going to be a party. It always is!
Post a Comment