On Saturday Dec. 1, 2013 I attended a manditory pre-departure meeting for SDSU located on the SDSU campus. The meeting lasted from 10:00am-3:30pm and was jam-packed with information. It was a tad bit overwhelming but I feel like I learned a lot from the meeting especially from talking to a native Brazilian and an alumni to the ISA Brazil program.
Some of the things I learned from the meeting its self were about culture shock, health and vaccines, and safety. The topic of culture shock was the most unnerving. The SDSU study abroad team said it is natural and should be expected that students, or people in general for that matter, when they arrive in a place where everything from the street signs to the bathrooms are different they experience a phenomenon called culture shock. The symptoms are similar to depression, and can take places around 1-2 months after arrival when all the hype and excitement of being there has faded away some, and the reality that you don't know anything or anyone has set in, another contributing factor is home sickness. When I heard this it made me nervous for my experience abroad, but then I realized that around that time (1-2 months into my trip) I will have family and my boyfriend visiting me, so I don't think I will have a harsh case of culture shock if any case at all. Plus I need to remind myself to always keeps a very open mind and enjoy every second while I am there because it will be over faster than I know it and I will regret not enjoying every once of it I can.
From the Brazilian native and the ISA Brazil alumni I learned a lot of useful site specific information as well. The first and for most is that I need to save more money!! Because I am going to want to travel around Brazil and neighboring countries while I am over there. Another exciting fact is that I will only be going to school three days a week most likely (Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday). That is amazing news because that means I will be able to take weekend trips all over the country. They also talked about safety and recommended that I bring my electronics, however leave my laptop at my host families house (do not carry it with me to class) and when I am carrying around my camera or GoPro, to keep it under my shirt or hidden when i am not using it, not to flash around electronics because that will just draw unwanted attention. Another recommendation they had, were to purchase the ISA cell phone they offer, they said that was the best deal, they also said to purchase a bus pass because you use public transportation to get everywhere. Finally the ISA alumni highly recommend that if I want to learn Portuguese, that I need to start teaching myself the basics now, and sign up for the intermediate Portuguese course in Brazil, because the beginner's course is too easy and I won't learn much while I am there. I am not sure how I feel about that thought, because I need to learn a lot (the basics) before I leave in order to be able to simply keep up in the intermediate course if it is anything like the language courses at SDSU. I need to speak with someone more in-depth regarding the rigor of the classes in Brazil.
All in all I am very excited for my trip, and the pre-departure meeting made it feel a little bit more real. My finals for the fall 2012 semester are next week, then I will be done with class until I leave for Brazil. That is when the true count down of days will begin!
