Ola!

Welcome to my travel blog for Sao Paulo, Brazil!

My name is John Jamieson. I just finished my middler year studying chemical engineering at Northeastern University. I decided to go on the Sao Paulo dialogue because I wanted to experience something new, and this dialogue sounded perfect. Living for a month in South America studying alternative energy and Brazilian culture? Sign me up.

Growing up, I traveled a lot because my dad is a pilot for Delta Air Lines. I've had the rare opportunity to visit Paris, Rome, Berlin, Amsterdam, Nice, Frankfurt, Venice, and Brussels for family vacations over the years. I also went to Costa Rica on a high school trip. But I've never been to South America, and I've never stayed longer than a week. So I'm looking forward to seeing what its like to actually live in Sao Paulo, to be more than just a tourist.

Alternative energy is the future. That much is certain. The only question is how long will it take to shift away from fossil fuels, and which sources of energy will make the largest contributions. When I heard that Brazil got 80% of its energy from renewable sources, I was shocked. What? How? Does anyone in the U.S. realize this? Brazil is gifted with fertile soil and large rivers. Perfect for hydroelectric dams and the growth of sugar cane, which can be converted to ethanol and used as fuel. (Ethanol was tried in the U.S., from corn, but we all know how that has turned out.) Brazil also has a tropical, sunny climate, perfect for photovoltaics. So while the U.S. doesn't have a lot of these things..we should be able to come up with something.

As far as Brazilian culture goes, this is a very historic time. Brazil is putting itself on the world stage by hosting the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016. Not everyone is happy about this. In fact, people are downright pissed off. They're facing tax increases to pay for hosting these events, and meanwhile the hospitals, schools, and infrastructure that Brazilians rely on are being ignored. I'll fill you in with more details of this in a later post, because we learned a lot about the situation today in class.

I'd like to share as much as I possibly can with you, so I'll try to update my blog at least every few days. I'll post pictures, and talk about what's different here. Years from now, it'll be cool to look back on, too.

One more thing: The name of my blog, "Tudo Bem". This is a Portuguese phrase we were taught in our survival lesson. Literally, is translates to "alright" or "all is well", but it is a universal expression that can be used in a variety of ways. For instance:

Pesona um: Ola. Tudo bem?
Pesona dois: Tudo bem. E voce?
Pesona um: Tudo bem.

In English,
"Hello, how's it going?"
"Good. And you?"
"Just fine."

Pretty convenient phrase to know if you only know a few, right?