South of Your Comfort Zone

I love this shot. You get the outside of the panes, the inside majestic wonderland and the very solid feel of the building structure.

I have no words really to describe this place. I think for once the picture speaks for itself.

Just gotta love this place.

And then they turned on the lights.

Communication has been interesting for me here. I have learned really well how to say, “Estou aqui para fazer pesquisa sobre como as campanhas políticas usam os novos meios de comunicação,” which means “I am here to conduct research on how the political campaigns use new media technologies.” This is a bit misleading, however, because my Portuguese is not quite that good. I have trained myself to remember how to say that. Everything thereafter is an adventure. Sometimes I can answer the most complex of questions and then I look like a deer in the headlights when someone asks if I’m going to the center of town that day. It is an uncomfortable feeling at times, but a necessary one on the road to actually learning the language. I have one friend, Tiago, in Brasília who has really taken the time to sit with me and allow me to converse with him. He is patient with me, corrects me when need be, but he gives me time to get my thoughts out, no matter how painstakingly long they are. It has been in these conversations that I actually surprise myself with my ability with the language. “Hey,” says my inner Jason, “I just had a full conversation about pedagogic philosophies in academia.”

The trick to any language, however, is in the rushing river that is everyday conversations. You just have to let yourself get swept up in it and paddle as best you can for as long as you can. It’s ok to rest from time to time, I do so by talking to my wife on Skype in Spanish or through letting someone here practice their English with me. The truth? IT’S HARD, REAL HARD. Everyone around you is speaking not only in an advanced manner in a language you are not totally familiar with, but there is a cultural barrier as well. Even if you spoke the same language, you have to learn about the context in which they live and the experiences they have had that you would never have dreamed of having in your own world. This means everything from the pop culture icons they know, the TV shows they watched as kids, the vacations they have taken, their perspectives on politics and culture itself and most importantly you have to learn about how they view your culture. This can be jarring to many people because the image we have of ourselves is not always the image others have of us.

But here’s the selling point. This “South of My Comfort Zone” experiment in the end opens up so many more doors for me in the long run. Right now, even as I write this, I can feel my mind stretching. It is getting the workout of a lifetime. And just like with physical exercise, the benefits are endless if you stick with it and keep at it. The work is hard, but the benefits down the road are endless.

Até mais amigos.

So I woke up this morning and stepped outside with my coffee to take in the day. I am staying at a very nice family’s house in Lago Norte, just outside of Brasília. My morning there usually consists of watching some amazing lizards crawl around the bushes, sipping coffee and taking in what I think my mind has continued to consider the summer heat. That was until this morning…

This morning I was sitting in the sun looking for the monkeys I have been told show up from time to time to feed on bananas fed to them by the house owners. No go, but I’m determined to see them and am thinking about leaving out a banana tonight to lure them in (to monkey-watch, not to trap). Anyway, I looked up on the powerline above me and saw a curious sight. There were two birds making a lot of commotion and I mean A LOT of commotion. Their feathers were all ruffled, they were squawking and bouncing off of each other. Then it dawned on me! Here it’s the end of winter and spring is just around the corner. These birds were doing what I saw birds in Seattle doing (no explicit description needed I presume) only a short couple of months before.

These moments, however, are like glitches in the Matrix for my mind. The 6:30 sundown was hard enough to wrap my head around when I first got here and now the ides of September are here and my mind keeps on doing double takes. I guess I keep forgetting I’m in another hemisphere entirely.

Até mais amigos!

My Portuguese is getting better by the day, but most of the time I feel like I’m five years old trying to speak on sophisticated matters that I just don’t have the vocabulary for. So what ends up happening is I say what I can to get my point across. At the same time, however, my comprehension is excellent because of my background with Spanish so I can at least understand what is being said.

At first this was a frustration. I’m just not used to being the person with a limited ability to speak. But I have come to appreciate what I now consider to be a unique opportunity, especially for someone who is here to learn and do research, not to teach. Having such a limited ability to talk means that I do a lot of listening. This is the ideal situation for someone doing in-depth interviews with people. In other circumstances it is simply too easy for the researcher to interject with commentary or conversation fillers that sometimes take the interview away from what the person being interviewed wanted to say.

And so sometimes I just have to be alright with feeling like I can’t communicate with people at full capacity. I AM learning and trying my best to get better at the language at every step of the way, but at the same time I have a new-found appreciation for simply listening to people and allowing them to elaborate extensively on who they are and what makes them tick. Otimo!

Até mais amigos

And one more of the Catedral just for good measure. I love this shot.

I have become somewhat obsessed with collecting political propaganda since I got here. They have these flyers everywhere and for every candidate. I really liked the contrast of the Workers Party red with the red dirt in this photo.

My friend Tiago’s take on the Catedral Metropolitana. You can see a shadow of me at the gate on the left hand side. Hi mom!