Fatima Holguin- Blog Abroad
Blog #1
6/15/2025 Study Abroad location/school: São Paulo, Brazil Oi a todes! Meu nome é Fátima Holguín e vocês sejam bem-vindes ao meu blog! Hello everyone, my name is Fátima Holguín and please be welcomed to my blog. Before I begin, I want to introduce myself and the study abroad program I am currently in. I am currently entering my second year of graduate school at the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at UNM where I am currently pursuing a master’s degree in Spanish with a concentration in Hispanic Southwest Studies. I am also a TA for Spanish as a Heritage Language, so if you are interested in learning Spanish at UNM, I could be your TA! Anyways, as of the writing of this blog I am currently in São Paulo, Brazil! I am currently partaking in the Summer in Brazil study abroad program sponsored by Tulane University and CET. The program duration is six weeks during which, I will be enrolled in two courses: Advance Immersive Portuguese and Contemporary Social Issues in Brazil. Furthermore, we will also be taking excursions to explore the city and to other places in Brazil. This is my first study abroad experience and also my first time in Brazil, so I am very excited to share with you all my study abroad journey. As the purpose of this study abroad program is to learn Portuguese and Brazilian culture, I will also share my language learning journey and experiences with Brazilian culture. Tá bom! Let’s start with my arrival to São Paulo. I had to take three flights (total flight time of 18h) to get to São Paulo by the date the program was to start therefore, when I arrived, I was completely exhausted and not in the state to take any pictures, therefore we have no arrival pics I’m sorry! Regardless, here are my first thoughts on São Paulo, the first thing I noticed is how green it is, there is much flora across the city and although over here it is winter season, the trees and plants are all still very much in bloom and fully green. Also, because it is winter season, it is very humid but in a cold way, not a freezing type of cold, but a rather chilly one, with lows of 50°F and constantly cloudy and rainy days, it might not seem like it’s too cold, but trust me it gets to ya, also there is no air conditioning or heating in most buildings so temperatures inside buildings are usually just as cold as the outside (if not more)! Also, this is a city of skyscrapers, the city is full of them, if you thought NYC was bad with tall buildings, just wait until you visit São Paulo. It is an enormous city with an equally large population; therefore, it is very common for Paulistanos (term for people who live in São Paulo, the city) to reside in apartments located in these very tall buildings. I’ve visited Mexico City in the past and I think that both cities are very similar, especially when it comes to both cities having a vast population. Alrighty, so those were my first impressions about São Paulo, however I am writing this blog one week after arriving, and I will end this blog by sharing my first encounters with experiences that left me in cultural shock. First, it is the fact that there is no heating inside buildings, which has made it super cold inside my apartment and I because I did not pack much winter clothing, I am a bit unprepared for the conditions and have caught a bit of a cold. Also, another cultural shock is that people actually go shop at shopping malls here. Unlike the U.S. where we have these giant mostly empty malls, that give vibes of liminal spaces, here in Brazil, shopping malls are full of stores and full of customers shopping the latest trend. This was rather shocking, but what was more shocking was the fact that I basically got scammed in my first night in Brazil…LOL. We visited a nearby shopping mall, that was as I said very busy but also was way out of my budget. Regardless, it was our first night and we need to purchase some toiletries for our six weeks stay in São Paulo and we headed into a store called ‘Mundo do Cabeleireiro’. This was a store dedicated to beauty and hair products and had employees that were available to personally help customers. However, it was obvious that our group looked like foreigners, because when I asked for help finding a hair product I was redirected to the most expensive product, and they were adamant about promoting the most expensive products. And of course, I fell right into it, because after showing me a product similar to the one I was looking for, the employee distracted me by initiating a conversation, in which I shared it was my first time in the country and well I was excited to share the news so I did not check the price in reais (Brazilian currency) and obviously did not know what the price would be in dollars. Well, that was that the employee kept taking me to buy different products, some which I did take, again not checking the price, not really thinking about what I was doing. And where does that take me…to buying almost $100 dollars’ worth of beauty products I did not need, when I tell you I almost passed out when I saw the charge in my credit card… I was so mad, because I knew I got played and what’s worse is that in Brazil there is no return policy. Yes, you read that right, if you buy something you must keep it, whether you want to or not. That was another cultural shock! One that left me very mad for many days, and one that makes me feel grateful that we have a return policy in most stores in the U.S. So, lesson learned! ALWAYS check the price of any item you are about to purchase and do the currency conversion! Make sure you are not overpaying in dollars! It is easy to travel to a foreign nation and think that you are getting a deal because the foreign currency is weak. Muito bom, agora nós vamos finalizar com algumas frases em português que eu aprendi recentemente. ‘Cara’= some guy ‘Legal’= cool and could also be used in the context of legality. ‘Conchinha’= literal meaning is a little shell but used by Brazilians to name the act of cuddling or ‘spooning’. Apparently in Brazil, there is no big debate about who should be the big spoon or little spoon! Legal isso é tudo por hoje! Tchau! -fátima
Blog #2
