Grupo de capoeira Ginga Mestre Agostinho i Århus, professor Renato Munaia

In this article I will be writing about my experiences on two islands in the states of Bahia and Rio de Janeiro. For more in-depth articles with links to the pictures of my travels, please click the links in this article. In the beginning of March, when I still was in Denmark, I didn’t fully understand I would be in Brazil within half a month. It is easy to dream yourself away to a life on the beach, bonfire in the night and perfect social conditions: the economy of Brazil grows and grows, but unfortunately you see Brazil from a polished surface. The experience I got with me from the university in Denmark has helped me with so many things – how to handle the culture chock and have the opportunity to understand my way around Brazil, because coming to Brazil from Denmark is to walk into a different world.  I came to Brazil in March; half a month after the Carnival had taken place. And when coming to Brazil for the first time you’d expect something completely different for what ...

The 5th of April the university year at the University of Brasília (UnB), where I am an exchange student this semester, began. As Brasília is the capital of Brazil and the home city of the Supreme Federal Court, the President and the Congress UnB had the possibility to invite one of their former students, president of the Supreme Federal Court, Joaquim Barbosa, to make a speech at the inauguration of the university year.  Before Barbosa’s speech, there were several speeches from the other deans of the university and there was also a short music session. However the biggest applause came when Chief Justice Barbosa arrived and people took pictures of him as if he was a celebrity. Barbosa expressed himself calmly while he talked about his time at UnB and prised the university for the events and conferences that they arranged. Besides that he talked about how the university now is more democratic and fair and said that interdisciplinary is very important in universit...