Even more opportunities!

Dear reader,

The last weeks where buzzy as well for me, so I lacked the time to write another post for this blog… But I have experience so much!

First off, my trip to Ouro Preto with Marijn; after two weeks in Belo Horizonte, it was about time for me to get out of the city. And what better way to do that, than with a road trip! For R$ 180 (about €60) we rented a car (FiatPalio 1.0 Fire! Sounds fast, but wasn’t) and a hostel in Ouro Preto for two persons. Really cheap!

The rural roads of Minas Gerais

Because we both loved to travel, we’ve planned a route through the mainland of Minas Gerais following the MG-030. Once in Ouro Preto we have left our baggage in the hostel and did some sightseeing of the city. This meant seeing a lot of minerals, old buildings and loads of churches. Combined with the landscape it was a really nice place to stay!

Beautiful colonial architecture in Ouro Preto

After this nice break, it was time for me to go to Viçosa. As a foreigner who can’t speak any Portuguese, it was quite an experience to book a bus ticked to Viçosa. But fortunately I had some instructions from the Living Lab students about the bus system.

After a trip of six hours through the curvy roads of mainland of Minas Gerais, I arrived in Viçosa where a student ambassador of the UFV was already waiting for me with a sign “Mr. Hoek”. He walked me to the student apartment where the other students where already waiting to give me a warm welcome.

Classic buildings on the UFV campus

After a good night sleep, I was welcomed to the Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV) by the people of the DRI office (international office). They had made a quite impressive meeting schedule for me, in which I met 18 professors in the three days I was there!

But because everybody was so kind and welcoming to me, I had a really good time in Viçosa. I’ve even had lunch at a professor’s home, spend some time with the (international-) students and represented the Netherlands with Robbin & Hannah (VHL students) on an international fair. But ontop of that, I've seen loads of oppurtinities for Dutch Universities!

Some of the internationals at UFV, spot the Dutch!

But when I left Viçosa on Friday afternoon, I realized that my time in Brazil is almost over! But before I could go home, I had to visit Inhotim! Using all my acquired culture skills of (almost) 3 weeks Brazil, I’ve gotten in a bus towards Inhotim and make some friends to explore the park with me. And what a park it was! Beautiful landscaping, impressive size and beautiful pieces of modern art. A real pleasure for anyone who loves modern arts or nature on its finest.

One of the outside pieces of art, Troca-Troca

After Inhotim, all what was left was a goodbye-lunch with Marijn and Bella and go back to the airport, because the Netherlands is already waiting for me and my experiences!

And there I am, sitting in my chair on the HZ University of Applied Sciences, thinking back to my time in Brazil and missing it already! But I’ve had a really great time, thanks to everyone around me! Whenever I come back, I will make sure to bring even more stroopwafels for you.

In the coming weeks, I will transfer all my experiences from notes to journals and reports and share them to everyone who wants/need to know more about Brazil. In a few weeks I’ll hope to tell you about their reactions to my findings and the first spin-offs of my research.

Until then!

Thijs