Quick recap about Brazil's energy situation:
Brazil is a leader in renewable energy. About 90% of their electricity is generated from renewable sources, and about 45% of their overall energy usage comes from renewables. This is mainly due to hydroelectricity and biomass. Hydroelectricity is a zero-emission energy source, and the plants last for decades. (Only drawback is the concern of rerouting rivers and methane release from flooded areas.) Brazil's main concern right now is actually that they have so much of their power generation from hydro, so that if there is an unusually dry year and the rivers are weaker, Brazil will experience blackouts like they did in 2001 and 2002. Therefore, they are trying to diversify their electricity generation with new power plants. They are choosing between natural gas, which has recently been found in large quantities in Brazil, and renewables, such as wind (which is prominent in parts of Brazil and is growing), biomass (from sugar cane), small hydro (which has less environmental objections than big hydro) and solar (which is still far too expensive).
Brazil is the biggest exporter of ethanol in the world. They produce it from sugar cane, which is a much easier process than converting it from corn (like we do in the U.S.). 90% of new vehicles in Brazil have Flex Fuel engines, which can run on either ethanol or gas. The gas stations in Brazil sell both gasoline and ethanol.
And the U.S., as we know, relies heavily on coal for electricity generation and oil for transportation
Sorry, done with facts now, back to personal reflections.
Through student presentations in class, we learned about common alternative energies including:
Photovoltaics
Hydroelectricity
Flex Fuels
Nuclear
Wind
Geothermal
Landfill Gas/Waste Incineration
Each technology was presented with a focus on how it works, policies governing it in both Brazil and the U.S, and the effects it has on the economy, environment, and society. As there is no one perfect solution to the world's energy problem, we ended the class with a set of debates about several technologies where one side would argue the pros of a particular technology and the other side would argue the cons.
Plant visits:
The plant visits were one of coolest parts of the trip. I really enjoyed going to Tanquinho and especially Henry Borden because we got to walk right through the hearts of each of those facilities. Looking at the pipes coming down the side of the mountain at Henry Borden, it was incredible to think that they could be powering so much of Sao Paulo. I also really enjoyed the Bosch presentation. A lot of people thought it was too long and too technical, but I really appreciated the level of detail, and the way that the presenter framed the problem of flex fuel engine ignitions. It was a shame we could not visit the Angra Nuclear facility due to an electrical worker strike. That would have been cool to see, given the likely future growth of nuclear plants.
Tanquinho Solar Power
Bosch
Henry Borden Hydroelectric
Sao Joao Landfill
Angra Nuclear Power Plant (could not visit)
Here are some of my thoughts on culture (and food):
Sao Paulo is not a tourist city. I knew it would be more industrial and business focused than Rio de Janiero but I don't think that everyone in the group realized that. Most visitors of Sao Paulo are there for business, not vacation, so the city culture reflects that. There's less people there that are familiar with English-speaking tourists, and there are less shops and businesses that cater to tourists. The benefit to that, of course, is that most Sao Paulans that we interacted with were willing to help us. They don't see foreigners every day, so we're more of a novelty or fascination. English is generally spoken there in an international business context, so most people that speak English there have money to spend, which makes other Sao Paulans more willing to try to interact with them or sell them things. So in many ways we benefited from this, because the people we met were extremely kind and would try to help us communicate by using gestures and typing numbers onto calculators for us.
Young people in particular were very friendly. We many several groups of people, at clubs, at the beach, during bar crawls etc, that were always talking to us in English, adding us on facebook, and inviting us to party with them. Felt pretty cool! They were also really impressed with how much we drink, or at least they told us that. At least like 4 different people mentioned it at various times.
Other thing we noticed was that at the clubs the guy/girl scene is way different. Guys there are animals there, they just go right in for it. It's a little rapey really, the girls on our trip were a little bit taken aback and as guys we even felt a little uncomfortable with the scene. The local girls are just used to it I guess, and probably like the attention.
The other thing I noticed about couples, outside of the club as well, was that they were very public about their affections. It was common to to see couples of any age kissing on the metro, or getting a little intimate on the park benches in Ibirapuera. Definitely would have attracted attention in the U.S., but seems to be the normal here.
Things are really cheap--except laundry!
Most of the things I bought in Sao Paulo either cost less or the same as they would be in Boston. In particular, taxis, alcohol, and food were all very cheap. We got a pretty good lunch buffet for R$ 15, which is only about $7. And the cachaca I got at the supermarket, granted it was the low grade cachaca of course, but still, 0.5L bottle of 39% alcohol, cost me a mere R$ 2.24, or just $1.
Laundry, on the other hand, is super expensive! They don't seem to have normal laundromats that operate on coins here. Its all done as like a service, where they charge by the item/by weight, iron all your shirts, and fold everything and drop it off. I'm not sure what locals do, maybe they just don't wash their clothes as often, or maybe they have access to a washer and dryer through their residence or something. Because I washed like 2 grocery bags worth of clothes and it was like $30. Rough, huh?
Two more interesting things about paying for things:
1) Always bargain at craft fairs, and even some indoor shops. It's just the custom there, so sellers will mark their prices up, and some people will just pay the full price, while those in the know will offer a much lower number, around half or so, and then the seller will go around 75%, and then some kind of deal will be made.
2) Expect change to be approximate. This was funny to us, because in the U.S., its very rare for a cashier to give you back a penny more or less than you deserve. In Sao Paulo however, change will be rounded as much as $1 on some purchases, in either direction. It just makes transactions quicker, and usually cancels out in the long run.
Maybe the hardest thing to get used to is the plumbing. Not being able to flush toilet paper is a pain in the ass (hah). It was like that in most of Costa Rica too, but at least in the city there you could!
The national drink of Brazil is the caipirihna. It's made with cachaca, sugar, and a fruit of your choice. The standard is lime or lemon, but there were also strawberry, pineapple, passionfruit, guava, grape, red fruits, cashew, mango, apple, and whatever other fruits you can think of. The fruit juices were great and there were so many exotic fruits that I can see why the caipirihna is the perfect drink for Brazil. I tried most of them and liked strawberry the best I think. You can also substitute vodka for cachaca for a few extra reais. Motto of the trip: Keep calm and have a caipirihna.
The food was really not that different from the U.S. Because Sao Paulo has a mix of nationalities, including large Italian and Japanese influences, there was a ton of pizza and sushi. They also had dessert pizza though, which we loved. Hamburgers, french fries, pork, beef, spinach, hot dogs, corn, carrots, and other foods were all common. Very different from when I was in Costa Rica, and they literally ate rice and beans for every single meal.
They also love mayonnaise, and it makes appearances in a lot of foods in normally wouldn't in the U.S. They also do the thing where they mix it with the ketchup, 50/50, and use that with their fries. Between that and all the other fried, battered, and salty foods, I'm not sure how they don't have some serious obesity problems.
Even with less than healthy food, most people were in decent shape, and in the Ibirapuera park, people were in incredible shape. Probably an extreme sample, because these are the active people that are running, biking, shooting hoops, and rollerblading through the park, but man there were some seriously built people. Probably helps being able to be outdoor and work out all year round, instead of just half the year like in NH.
People also have a strong distrust of the media and the government, maybe even a hatred in the case of some of the political leaders. This might have just been Gustavo, so take it with a grain of salt, but it did seem like Brazilians were much more likely to believe their peers on social media than whatever the mass media was showing them, in terms of the protests, and which side was more violent or instigated.
Other things I took note of:
"Brazil time" was our joke anytime we were late to something, since Brazilians aren't as concerned with punctuality as we are.
Cops are more casual and friendly than in the States. They actually took pictures with us whenever people asked, (though they wouldn't pose like they were arresting us...bummer)
They like Charlie Sheen, Robocop, Spongebob, Game of Thrones, and plenty of other things we like in the U.S.
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