Going to New Orleans

    Before I came to the United States, I knew a little bit about a government mobility program for Brazilian students. I saw on television many commercials about this great opportunity, and in my university, I saw some guys going to other countries with the goal of studying there. I was interested in enrolling into this program, but how I could begin to study in another country? Because I did not know anything about another language, I could not to read, to write or just listen to something in another language, it was so hard to me.

    To go to a country with English speakers was all that I wanted, but I did not know anything about English. Then, I had decided to enroll myself for Portugal. There is a good place too, and I could see more people speaking in English than in Brazil. Sometime later, I received great news that I would change my destination. It was good for me, because the Brazilian government will give me a language course in the country that I chose. Then I could accomplish my wish to come to the United States and begin to learn English. I had many challenges before I arrived here, so I needed to fill out many documents and send them to my new university here, all of them were written in English. My family was happy because I got what I wanted, but at the same time they were sad with my departure.

    When I arrived in New Orleans, I could already see great differences from Brazil. The first thing that I saw was a kind of racial segregation. There are neighborhoods just with black people and neighborhoods with white, and each one with your traditions and customs. Of similarly way, I could see universities for black and white people. My university here is a historically black college and it is hard to see white guys studying here. I have never seen this before. In Brazil I do not know universities alike here, we do not have colleges or universities especially for black or white. There universities are frequented by both.

    Each day I saw how much I would need to learn English. In my first months, I was not able to talk with native people. I tried to start a small conversation, but I knew only to ask your names, after that I stopped the conversation. In the first week, my friends from Brazil and I were enchanted with the streets, the cars, houses, people, food and mainly with the culture and custom here. The streets, the lifestyle and clothes are really equals to the movie’s streets. Gradually I was improving my English and I saw how polite people are here, however at the same time I saw how Brazilian people are more capable to express emotion.

Jeremias Serafim