A small interview with my Brazilian friend!

Hello everyone! We prepared a small interview with my Brazilian friend for you. Here are some questions that I´ve been frequently thinking about, since that day we started to be in touch. It will remain in English, but I hope you´ll enjoy it and forgive us for the mistakes! Fernanda, thank you so much for this amazing opportunity!! F. and L.

1. My first question is related to traveling. Do Brazilian people travel a lot? Why/why not?

Yes, they do. Because here we have the admiration for the other cultures, we like getting to know with new things, new ways how to live, new places which seem interesting for us. Once my teacher said “Spend your money on traveling, it’s the best thing you can do”.

2. Do they have enough possibilities to travel? (own car for each family, getting over large distances – money for so much petrol ..)

Yeah, they mostly do. But it’s expensive to travel for a Brazilian, because as you can see, the economy here is not as good as in some developed countries.

3. I heard that people in the North America travel a lot. They move house many times in their lives for personal reasons or because of a new job. Is it common in Brazil too? In the Czech Republic it´s different. In average, we move house only two or three times. We prefer to stay near our family, be in touch with them. We don´t like making such a big decisions like moving to some city in a completely another part of the Republic or to a foreign country if it´s not necessary. What is the situation like in Brazil? Could you explain some of your thoughts and opinions about it here?

Unfortunately, it´s not easy to talk about the job situation. Actually, today it´s hard to get a good job. So most of the time, when a Brazilian people have this chance, they move house or town or even the country to work. In my opinion, this isn’t wrong, if I needed to do this…I would.

4. My next question also goes around the transport. Which kind of transport do Brazilian people use the most? And why? Do they use public transport a lot?

In my opinion, they use their own car the most. But here are many buses too, so we can use them a lot. And we can do an excursion: a group of people who go to the same place, rent a bus or mini bus together and they can travel! But the easiest way for them is to travel with their own car.

5. Is it easy to travel around Brazil? I mean, to cross the country, visit every interesting place … Does an average person in your country have this possibilities?

In our state, traveling is accessible even to an average person. But when we talk about traveling to other state, it´s a little more difficult. You know, sometimes we have to take the airplane… For example, I have never got out of my state. But in spite of the difficulties, people travel across the country a lot here.

6. Your country is so large and consists of so many different places (rainforest, mountain chain, Amazonian lowlands, metropolis ..) Does an average inhabitant in your country visit all these places or does they prefer to stay in their own state and visit interesting places only there? Because, we know that your country is a federal republic composed of 27 states.

I don’t have much knowledge about it. But I guess that the answer is yes, most of the times. Brazilian people always has find a way how to travel.

7. So my next question goes in hand with the previous one. In which Brasilian state do you live? Which countries it borders? What is your favourite place there?

I live in the state of São Paulo. Brazil borders Suriname, Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay. My favourite places here where I live are the beaches! I´ve just seen them and I fell in love with the sea, the waves, the blue color… It’s so beautiful.

8. We can dive into another topic now, which is the climate. Could you briefly describe each season in the southern hemisphere?

Sure. The spring is mostly hot! It’s almost like in the summer. The summer is so hot, really hot. The autumn is more colourful, and it rains a little. And my favourite part of the question: Winter. Yeah, it’s cold here, but it isn’t how I’d like it to be, you know, with the snow. But even in any season, it can be hot someday here.

9. Does it snow in your country? If not, do you know why? Could we find some snow in the mountains?

People always say that no. But it has been snowing in some places in the south, like in Santa Catarina, recently. At least this happened some months ago.

10. What the tropical climate feels like? How many degrees of Celsius do you get in summer? Which things, in your opinion, belong to the tropical weather?

Here are days when it´s so hot that it feels like you are beside a fire pit. And after these days, it starts to rain. The degrees are between 35 and 40°C, but it depends on the place, like on the beach here can be more than 40°C. We can connect the tropical weather with the plants that are so green, with the boring insect, the very blue sky and, of course, with the heat.