"How I feel at UESC when I talk with foreigners"

Our fun extracurricular activity for Friday this week was spending about two hours with some teenagers from the neighboring city of Itabuna.  The head of our department at UESC, Samuel, teaches a volunteer English class twice a week to students who can't afford private classes on their own.  He invited them to spend an afternoon at the university to talk with me and Sean.  They all came with written questions and were very excited to talk with us.



They had all of the usual questions (What do you think of Brazil, What do Americans think of Brazil?, What is your favorite food here? Where have you visited? etc.) but they were also especially interested in life as an American high school or university student.  When I asked what they would do or experience if they had chance to visit the U.S. as an exchange student their number one response was to have their own locker followed closely by going to a real prom.  "We don't have lockers here in Brazil and we always see students with their own lockers on American T.V. shows and movies," they told us.  "We want our own lockers so we can decorate them and keep all our stuff in them."  The whole locker conversation surprised me and struck me as really funny and interesting - I would have never thought that the idea of one's own locker would be so exciting.


Something else that was entertaining was when I asked what their expectations had been before the conversation.  They said that they thought that we were going to be really dressed up, formal, proper and a little standoffish and cold.  When I asked if what they expected had been true they all laughed and said that we weren't at all like they thought we would be.  It's a common stereotype here that Americans are a little stiff and "cold."  When I try to explain that there are many Americans who are, in fact, quite warm, friendly and affectionate the students have a hard time believing me.




After our class, Sean and I went to a reggae concert given by the weekly cultural events team of the city of Ilhéus.  The concert was really good and it was fun to hang out with some of the older UESC students, most of whom had been to the U.S. at least once and wanted to practice their English.  They introduced us to a lot of their friends who were always curious about Sean.  After asking if he can speak Portuguese the second question which almost always follows is, "O gringo joga bola? / Does the gringo play soccer?"  Some university soccer leagues are coming up and Sean is invited to play so we will soon find out.  No pressure, Sean.

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