Right away me and my group started learning everything we could about Brazilian infrastructure and culture. On the first day, we toured one of the largest cities in Brazil, Porto Alegre. Just a half hour drive from our hotel, this city hosted beautiful pieces of architecture including the Catedral Madre De Deus. My favorite part of this building was the stained glass art, which I had never seen in person before

After seeing the church, me and a few friends spent some time in the hotel lobby where we met two employees that worked there: Tiago and Carol. We talked to them about their lives in Brazil and thye spoke to us about the U.S. I learned that Tiago is getting his pilots license and loves the way that many U.S cities are planned. One day he hopes to see them from the air while he is the pilot. Carol likes American music, especially Taylor Swift. She was very excited to learn that one of us went to one of her concerts.

After this, we had many company visits where we learned about the power and various other industries in brazil. My favorite one of these was the itaipu dam, which is the largest hydroelectric dam by capacity to output power generation standards. The dam, situated on the Paraná river, was an unbelievable sight to see. Not only was the reservoir absolutely huge, but seeing the thousand ton turbines spin in person was a very interesting sight to see.

Overall, I had a very good time in Brazil. I hope that one day I can come back and visit the friends I made (especially Carol and Tiago).