Bonding in Brazil

Guest post by Marii Beshir, Sr. majoring in Finance and Information Systems. Marii received a Global Business Center Study Abroad Scholarship to participate in the Foster School’s Exploration Seminar to Brazil

I remember our first night in Sao Paolo we went to the Skybar to check out the view.

One of my favorite parts about Brazil so far is the people. I was recording the view when someone asked me if I could take a group picture of their friends. They then proceeded to ask me where I was from and we talked for hours. I introduced them to the rest of the group and we all split into different groups. One of the guys I was talking to showed us Brazilian funk and the Portuguese version of Rihanna’s new song. We started comparing American music to Brazilian music and they said they knew how to do the whip. We played the “Watch me” song and they all started to dance along. I adored them and realized how universal music truly is.

They got excited and asked us if we knew a bunch of Seattle related things like Grey’s Anatomy, the Space Needle, and more. I realized how small the world was when they kept making references to things in pop culture that I thought only people in the US would make. I remember getting excited when I heard one of the guys make a Julius reference from Everybody hates Chris.

Overtime, by interacting with other Brazilians I realized Brazilians are generally very friendly people. They genuinely are fascinated by foreigners and take the time to get to know you. This was so foreign to me, coming from Seattle where the Seattle Freeze is very apparent. Fast forward to Brazil where you learn more about a person from hanging out with them for a couple hours versus taking months to get to know the same amount of a person from Seattle.