Coming off of two normal days--at least, as normal as two days can be when you're travelling the world with a program meant to shatter your ideals and preconceived notions about culture, politics, and humanity.
Yesterday, we focused our entire class on water and the water crisis in Sao Paulo. While the rains in the past few months have all but mitigated the dangers of drought, Brazil was facing a drastic water shortage not so long ago. Interestingly, this drought was actually compared to California's drought quite a bit--scientists from both my state and from Brazil met in order to discuss different solutions and issues faced.
Like how cool is that? The world sometimes feels so small, in a wonderful way. Every time somebody mentions California or I see someone wearing Hollister (which is, like, every other minute), I get warm little butterflies inside.
It makes me feel like everyone loves my favorite place in the whole wide world almost as much as I do!
One of my favorite things about Sao Paulo is the nightly thunderstorms. They always begin right around sunset, and I lay in bed listening to the pouring rain and crackling thunder. The deep rumbles rattle the windows and reverberate through my room. It's the epitome of coziness, cuddling under my blankets and listening to the fierce rage of nature right outside. It's lovely!! Today, I actually got out of bed (shocking) to watch the light flash and scurry across the sky. I watched with awe and appreciated the stunning view.
This morning, I was treated to another beautiful view that nature gifted to me when I had to wake up at 5:40 AM. (I know, dreadful--check this out though.)
Yesterday, we focused our entire class on water and the water crisis in Sao Paulo. While the rains in the past few months have all but mitigated the dangers of drought, Brazil was facing a drastic water shortage not so long ago. Interestingly, this drought was actually compared to California's drought quite a bit--scientists from both my state and from Brazil met in order to discuss different solutions and issues faced.
Like how cool is that? The world sometimes feels so small, in a wonderful way. Every time somebody mentions California or I see someone wearing Hollister (which is, like, every other minute), I get warm little butterflies inside.
It makes me feel like everyone loves my favorite place in the whole wide world almost as much as I do!
One of my favorite things about Sao Paulo is the nightly thunderstorms. They always begin right around sunset, and I lay in bed listening to the pouring rain and crackling thunder. The deep rumbles rattle the windows and reverberate through my room. It's the epitome of coziness, cuddling under my blankets and listening to the fierce rage of nature right outside. It's lovely!! Today, I actually got out of bed (shocking) to watch the light flash and scurry across the sky. I watched with awe and appreciated the stunning view.
This morning, I was treated to another beautiful view that nature gifted to me when I had to wake up at 5:40 AM. (I know, dreadful--check this out though.)
look at this sunrise!!
only a few moments later!!
I was absolutely stunned. I stood by the window, sipping my coffee, watching the sky welcome the sun, warmly, joyfully, lovingly.
The reason I was up at such an ungodly hour was actually pretty cool: my class had the opportunity to visit a hydroelectric plant in a city about ~2 hours from Sao Paulo's city center. After being surrounded by crowds of buildings (beautiful, yes, but somewhat suffocating), the dense rainforest-y trees and rolling mountain views totally reinvigorated me. It was stunning!!!
terrible pic through the bus window, but hopefully you get the gist
The plant, named Henry Borden Hydroelectric Power Plant, provides power by drawing water from the Billings Reservoir (funny, because I'll be spending my entire summer in Billings, Montana! small world). They produce electricity through some pretty complicated but v impressive technology.
oooo
ahhhhhh
Our group embraced the hardhat/goggle/ear-plug lifestyle--Sally and I especially.
are we cute or nah
The plant also had a dog (stray? pet? who knows?), so naturally...
You just can't keep me away from 'em.
I basically passed out on the ride back to school, missing the gorgeous forest views, but I'm happy knowing that I'll be back in the wild in just two weeks for spring break! #thefalls
I chilled for the rest of the afternoon, watching Netflix and hanging out with my host family. Stoked because my newest host sister (the youngest daughter of my host mom) returns home from a study abroad program in Australia tonight!!! Don't know if I'll actually stay awake until 11 PM to meet her--but still very exciting.
Anyways, this is super short, probs because I'm tired and distracted and restless for the weekend, but I am truly and seriously loving Brazil.
Buh bye for now,
Aubrey
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