Let me step back now to Sunday. Sunday was a free day. The students slept in, worked on their projects, soaked up the sun and relaxed. It really was the only free day we had in the six weeks we were in Brazil so the key word was RELAX!!


Monday we visited Coplacana which is a cooperative in Piracicaba with 8,000 members. The cooperative maintains all the resources the members need from a supply store, to seed, to banking, to hospital, to a dairy, to a farm fair, etc. It is a pretty amazing cooperative.

Tuesday we had Professor Nussio who is a beef specialist at ESALQ but who is also well known internationally. He spent time in the morning showing us the herd at ESALQ and discussing nutrition, breeding and research being done in Brazil. He discussed the differences between processing, storing and feeding sugar cane silage and corn silage. We heard more about the pasture fed cattle and how different they are than US cattle. The students celebrated Caroline’s birthday in the evening.
Wednesday we had an interesting tour of Faber-Castell. Do you know what they make? Take a guess! If you think about Crayola you are really thinking about Faber-Castell! Crayola pays Faber-Castell to produce many of their products. We saw the production from start to finish of colored pencils. We saw them labeling both packages of Faber-Castell colored pencils and Crayola colored pencils. Both originate in Brazil. We saw the packaging in Portuguese and English. Everywhere you looked in the factory you saw colors. It was a kids paradise!!



In the afternoon we visited the TAM Airplane Museum. It was newly built and did a nice job with the history of aviation, especially in Brazil. Many of the airplanes had actual lessons you could listen to on earphones you carried with you. It was a well done display of planes.
Tonight we have our closing dinner with the host families. It is all you can eat pizza. Brazilians love pizza just like Americans but the pizzas are quite different in Brazil. You will need to ask your student about the pizza. I am sure they have experienced more new toppings than they could imagine here in Brazil.
Tomorrow the students have a free morning to pack and do last minute shopping. I am sure some will soak up some last minute sun. We will have a lunch of fresh fish down by the river and we will leave the hotel for Sao Paulo about 4:00. I want to take this time to thank Professor Fernando, Professor Pedro, Professor Caron and Cristina for their patience in teaching us about Brazil. Also, Ana Vitoria, Caroline and Henrique for their translating, socializing, planning and keeping us on task. Shirota, you are great!! It takes so much time and dedication to support study abroad programs such as what you offer AZP. Thanks so much for this 12th year of the program. Parents, families and friends, thank you for allowing your students to participate in such an experience as AZP. They will be different when they return to the states. They will be more confident, inquisitive and appreciative of what they have in the United States. They may want to do another study abroad. They will want to eat certain foods. They will want to talk about their experience. I will warn you, they will want you to listen. They will also be very tired. Students, you are great! Thank you so much for the opportunity to spend six weeks in Brazil with you. I also want to thank Mike Crackel for assisting with the blog. To everyone, safe travels and we will see you in Columbus.