Cultural experience
By Tanner
The itinerary for our class trip was very exciting and promised great learning and life experiences. I was particularly excited for the visit to the Amazon rainforest which for me had attained almost mythical status after the countless hours spent learning about it when I was young. It was shaping up to be a unique and amazing experience that was unfortunately cut short due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
I was on the rooftop of our hotel when I found out the trip was cancelled, just a few hours after landing in Brazil. I remember getting a few calls and reading the emails in disbelief. It was an unfortunate but uncontrollable event and one that I wouldn’t let put a damper on things. I was lucky enough to be traveling with a fellow classmate and friend and we were confident that we would come up with a plan with the help of BU. We spent the night enjoying the local culture and re-organized our trip the next day. The best option was to fly back a week early, which left us with a few days to experience Brazil.
Brazil’s food is some of the best I’ve ever had. I often find myself craving pizza or a burger after several days of eating foreign cuisine, that didn’t happen with Brazilian food. I actually thought about going to a Brazilian steakhouse soon after landing back in Boston, but opted for a salad instead as I had just eaten a straight meat diet for a week. The people are amazing; we met and connected with several people that I’ll be sure to see again the next time I go to Brazil. The culture of Rio specifically was a great experience. We learned that it was one of the cities where wealth and poverty mixed, unlike a city like Sao Paolo that lacked affordable housing close by.
The views, food, culture, and people make Brazil an unmissable destination, one that I hope my fellow classmates can experience, and one that I’m lucky to have seen.