Samira and Bárbara
Autor: Letras | Publicado: 2011-08-07T21:49:00-07:00

Our Interview with Patrick McAnaney
    Patrick is a student from Washington DC.  He came to Belo Horizonte on March first with the Fulbright US Student Exchange Program and he is staying here to work in a project to study the internal management structures of “wastepicker” organizations in Brazil.
    Patrick is a typical American guy: blue eyes, blond hair and white skin. He seems very happy to be here. Read the following interview and notice how much he likes Belo Horizonte and what he thinks about the city. 
    During the interview, he  talked about a important point for the foreing people: how to deal with the cultural differences.


What is your name?
My name is Patrick, Patrick McAnaney.

For how long have you been in Brazil?
How long have I been here? I came to Brazil February 26, so less than two months. I came to BH March 1º. I am not really counting at this point

Do you enjoy here?
I love here. I have a grant that goes until December, but I decided that I am going to stay here for longer. I am liking here a lot!

You like it so far.
So far. I mean, any time you go abroad to other country, there are going to be ups and downs. You learn to appreciate the ups and to forget about the downs.

What was your first impression when you arrived in BH?
I think BH is really, really pretty. You do not find many mineiros that think that, they look really surprise when I tell them that. But I think is such a pretty city, even from the plane looking down, seeing all the green mountains and then all the trees around the road. I love this city, I think is really beautiful, and I came to spend Carnaval too, so it was fun.

Do you like Carnaval?
Yes, I like it. Well, it was a little weird for me because I was just getting into the city, the Carnaval was starting and no one stays in BH for Carnaval. I was hoping to go to Salvador or something like that, but it is way too hard to go there at this time of year, so I had to figure out what I was going to be doing here. I managed to stay, I went to Sabará and Nova Lima and, actually, I have a friend here, she works with a group of friends that are promoters and they organize “Blocos” every year and it was a lot of fun.

How was your adaptation here in Brazil?
Well, it goes up and it goes down. My Portuguese definitely got better. I mean, I think I had a pretty good base to start with when I came, but there is definitely words people had to explain to me like “bacana”, “cara”, words that you do not learn in class, but I think Brazilian people are very nice. There are been bad parts too, I got schemed here which was really bad. But most of the time I feel pretty save and happy here.

You are not used to the robbery, right?
Well, we have it in US, but here I am more of a target because I really stand out a lot and it is pretty easy to tell that I am a “gringo”, especially when I open my mouth, we have to be careful. But coming back to the adaptation part... every once in a while it gets pretty exhausting speaking Portuguese 24/7 nonstop. I mean, it is great, my Portuguese is getting better very quickly, but sometimes I just want to run away and only speak to my friends in English and forget Portuguese.

Do you miss something that you used to eat in US that we do not have here?
Here is better comparing to other places I went, like Nicaragua, Bolivia,China, because here I can go to subway, but I miss good Mexican food, I mean, I am from Washington DC, but my university was in Texas and it is very close to the Mexican border, so we have a lot of good Mexican food, like tacos, burritos. Ok, now I am really starting to think about it, and how I miss it.

And do you want to come back to Brazil someday?
Yes. I do not even know how long I am staying here, I could be here for years. Brazil is definitely in my long term career plans, it is not just coming to a semester. This is much more like a permanent thing for me.

Do you recommend this experience to other students in US?
Yes! The program I am in is great, I have a grant from the government to stay here and do my research which is very hard to get. You have to do a big application process, have to have letters of recommendations, to show your resume, and have to show all the things. It is really hard to get, but once you get it you can do pretty much whatever you want to. It is very fun, I wake up every day thinking “what I am going to do today?”.

Ok. Thank you.

By Samira Agnes and Bárbara Marra