On the Wrong Side of Orographic Lift

27 de maio de 2012


Portuguese Words of the Day:
paralelepipido = tile/stone on the ground
Carpádio=menu
Preguiça=laziness
Cozinha=kitchen
Garfa=fork

With my frantic language worries, I haven't actually described Joinville. I know that I have to learn Portuguese as fast as possible and take advantage of every opportunity that I have. Therefore, this post will be dedicated to describing everything that has happened since arriving in Joinville on Tuesday.

Joinville is a small city of about 600,000 people located in the state of Santa Catarina. I believe that it is located in a valley between mountains. If it isn't a valley, then the city must be located to the east of the surrounding mountains, and therefore it rains a lot. I imagine it is because of orographic lift--when an air mass is forced up the mountain, the cooling of the air results in precipitation. I haven't looked on a  map of the physical features of the area, but that would be interesting to see if the other side of the mountains are dry. However, since arriving here, the weather has been relatively nice, and it only rained a couple of days.

Joinville is also a "working city," so there isn't that much culture (or that much to do). There aren't any parks, and everything is relatively spread out. However, there are three main shopping malls-Gartem, Mueller, and Cidade das Flores, universities (UDESC and UNIVILLE), and companies.

The first full day I was in Joinville, I went to the AIESEC Local Committee (LC) office and met many of the members of AIESEC. We crossed the street to the Gartem Shopping center and had lunch there. After, I met Elisson, my "AIESEC buddy," who showed me around the downtown and the bus system. The downtown area is much busier than the rest of the city and features two of the shopping centers and other stores. Furthermore, there is a large amount of German influence here as seen in the architecture and the street names.

In terms of transportation, Joinville is a small city, but it is relatively spread out. Buses are an important form of transportation, especially for the students and are generally rather crowded. To get from my house to Instituto AMAR, I have to take three buses, get off at the motel stop, and then climb up a mini-mountain. The journey can be found in a promotional video for Instituto AMAR here. Luckily, Camilo works close by and can give me a "carona" in the morning to save 30+ minutes of travel time.

Downtown Joinville

On Friday, I began the first day of work. Instituto AMAR is a non-governmental organization that promotes civil society and helps those who need assistance in Joinville by teaching courses, selling clothing for very cheap, among other projects and initiatives. On Friday night, there was a get together for AIESEC-ers, with both the Brazilian students and students from all over the world. I met people from Tunisia, Portugal, Italy, and Japan to name a few countries. Even though everybody is has different backgrounds and speaks different languages, everybody was curious to know about the other cultures.

Today was a day for being relaxing. We didn't wake up until 10am, which is very late here (back at home, I could sleep until 1pm or 2pm...). Normally, the work day starts around 8am, but people wake up earlier to prepare for the day, etc. Many of the students begin work or classes at 7am and don't sleep until 12am or later. It is quite the work hard, play hard mentality. But even with working all day, the people here still have time for family and friends, which is really good. They are busy, but aren't in their own world.

Um pastel com frango e caldo de cana

As I was saying, today was a day of relaxing. The sun was shining (and I was able to wear sunglasses for the second day in a row), and we went to Dona Francisca and the mountains. It's interesting that just five minutes away from the house, the landscape turns to a more country-feel. Per usual, we ate pastéis (see the picture) and caldo de cana com limão (juice made from sugar cane) and then went to the mountains.

Daniel and me in Dona Francisca scenic point