8/15

8/15/14

I wasn't feeling well so I slept until 12:30! Then I explored Florianopolis with Cory, Fowzia, Jessica. The firsts thing we did was go to a cafe and order coffee. We all ordered hot milk instead of coffee! I had a coconut cake and it tasted like corn bread with coconut! Then we went to the shops and everything is relativity cheap here. The only thing that was expensive was clothing. The city felt very safe, we all traveled together and never once did we feel in danger of pick-pocketing or being mugged. We were warned about dangers constantly, but I think Florianopolis is safer than Philly is when it comes to getting mugged.
  No one spoke English so it was adventurous finding our own way. Because it was out last night in Florianopolis we went to a bar called Treze where they played a bunch of 90s music. It was so much fun, all of the Brazilian people were so nice to us because they knew we were American. We were so loud, everyone else was quiet. We made anew friends named Guillermo  and Felipe  and they tried to teach us more Portuguese  because we were so bad at it. I learned pineapple is  abacaxu pronounced abocashe!

8/14/14

8/14/14

Today we toured Florianopolis. We got to go near the top of a mountain to get a bird eyes view of the city. What's interesting is that there doesn't appear to be a city planner and most of the buildings are close together and have no real organization.We also saw a 400 year old fig tree in the park! Brazilians are all about conservation, they have supports to help the tree grow. There are also recycle and trash bins all over the city. It's cleaner here too, with less trash on the ground. I know Pittsburgh definitely has more trash on its streets and it is considered one of the cleanest cities in America!

We went to a fishing village and I became friends with a lot of stray dogs! One was really skinny and looked like he had a tumor. Brazil really needs to get more animal shelters, it's really sad that these animals live without love.

We went to see the speaker and he talked about Brasils need for renewable energy at the University, unisul. He talked about Brasils need for alternative energy because the drought hasn't been able to provide enough water for hydroelectricity. There are many challenges ahead, but the speaker was hopeful.

8/13/14

8/13/14

Today we travelled to the wind energy farm. It was really interesting to see that the cows were roaming around the wind turbines. They did this because the land that the wind energy company uses is rented from farmers! This way, the farms get a little extra profit and the company gets to use land in the most optimal places. Unlike the coal plant we saw yesterday, the technology here was all digital. The manager of the company was telling us that he could potentially control the turbines from his house. This allows for inspection of the turbines 24/7, which is critical when even the slightest error can cause less energy intake!
   The turbines are very advanced in that they can stop their blades when they detect "storm winds" or winds higher than 40m/s. When we got there, the wind was at 9m/s and it was really windy. We watched as birds couldn't even fly due to the wind! The birds had to fly close to the ground. It was strange to see how the turbines affected the local wildlife. There were hardly any birds in the sky, when Brazil usually has a lot of birds flying all around. Watching the bird struggle to fight against the wind made me realize that the wind turbines do a lot more damage to birds than I previously thought. After we saw the wind turbines we headed back to Florianopolis!

8/12/14

8/12/14

Today we had free Brazilian breakfast! I had papaya for the first time and it tasted surprisingly neutral. The coffee here is a lot better than America. As soon as breakfast was over we traveled to the Tractebel Energia. They burn fossil fuels for energy to sustain Brazilian electricity. Because Brazil is so heavily dependent on wind and hydroelectricity, when there is a drought or no wind there needs to be a back up energy source. Tractebel Energia provides this alternate resource.
    They plan on expanding in coming years and try to be as green as possible when burning coal. They create music programs for the community as well as replanting parts of the forest that were lost due to deforestation. By getting involved in the Brazilian community by lessening their carbon footprint, Tractebel reverses some of the coal pollution damage done. All of their technology was fairly old, too. Only the monitors seemed to be from the 2000s. When we got there, there was an error blinking on the screen. But we were told to ignore it and it happens because the coal is impure or "dusty", so it messes with the system and it happens all the time. They said because of all of the coal dust, only 40% of the coal burned is used for energy.

8/11- arrival!!

Today I got to Brazil! I was very lucky that Alejandro was on the same flight as me. Because he speaks Spanish, he was very helpful when translating the directions of the flight attendants who helped us get to our gate. I realized soon after I arrived that hardly anyone spoke English!! Usually a lot of people speak English as their second language, but not here! We got to the hotel with Rodrigo and I took the longest nap and shower. When we met up with everyone in the class, we decided to explore Florianopolis' night life. I had a caprina which is a tequila drink with sugar, and it tasted good for being 40% alcohol but that was all I had because it was so strong!
  Once we went out to drinks, we decided to explore the beach. There were a lot of signs warning against swimming because the water was so polluted. The sewage is in the water, so that's why it was toxic. The other side of the island had clean water but we decided not to walk that far.

This post is a test.