By Mahad Siad Upon arriving in the beautiful colonial beach town of Paraty, we were immediately captivated by the peaceful serenity that contrasted Rios bustling streets. It was a nice change of pace from the …
Summer 2018
Percussion class at the foot of Santa Marta
By Will Dougherty On the late afternoon of June 18th, we went to Bateria Furação Azul at the foot of Santa Marta, for a lesson in samba drumming. We were accompanied by Professor Sanchez, Vanessa …
Quilombo do Camorim
By Malina Barker Quilombos are historically rural communities established by fleeing enslaved Africans. In these, the residents would all help each other, especially because many who made the journey were injured. On 9 June, we …
Shopping in Rio de Janeiro
By Laura Rodriguez The streets of Rio are the perfect place to find anything and everything at a reasonable price. Walking to class every day, I have been able to observe various types of vendors …
Soccer Game at the Maracanã Stadium
By Omar Espino On Sunday June 10th, we went to support the Flamengo soccer team at their home, the world- renowned Maracanã stadium in a game against Paraná Clube (a team from southern Brazil). As …
Street Culture and Art
By Alyssa Hui When you walk the streets of wherever you are from, what do you see? As I have stayed in Brazil for the past few weeks, drawings, graffiti and paintings are hard to …
Sugarloaf Mountain
By Liliana Teniente On Tuesday, June 19 our group took a trip to the Sugarloaf Mountain, which is one of many monolithic granite and quartz summits that you can see rising up at the water’s …
Lessons in navigating culture and traffic
I’ve been in China for almost 6 weeks now (!) and I’ve been in Tianjin for almost a month. I’ve settled into my daily routine, I’ve learned hundreds of new words in Chinese, and I’ve …
Rise and Grind
It’s crazy that this is the second-to-last week of the first session! I feel like I’ve been here for forever and no time at all, simultaneously. By this point, the routine of homework, class, and …
Summer Palace and Favorite Foods
Yesterday, we went to Beijing again. Only this time, we went to the Summer Palace (Yíhéyuán 颐和园). It was so beautiful there! At first it was a little bit hot because it was 100 degrees Fahrenheit, …