The Ocean

by Jordyn, Tufts 1+4 Participant

I spent a lot of the first semester of my senior year of high school trying to sound smart.

I mean, anyone applying to college is doing their best to play up every redeeming quality they have, especially when it comes to writing. Writing has always been one of my favorite subjects and I felt on top of the world when I was writing my college essays. I remember the day I started pretty well.

A close friend of mine and I decided to start together and to give each other honest creative advice. After about an hour of the occasional discussion thread and the clicking of laptop keys, we read each other our first drafts. A lot of that essay writing was a blur, but what she wrote would prove to have a lasting impact on me. Her prompt was something along the lines of “describe a relationship that is very important to you.” Though many people wrote about close friendships and family, she went off the beaten path. Her essay was about the the ocean.

At the time I read it, I had been to the ocean maybe twice in my life and knew that it was a vital part of Earth, but beyond the relaxing nature of beaches, a deep, emotional connection to the sea was a weird and unfamiliar concept. Since then, her relationship with the ocean has been dormant in the back of my mind until I began to spend more time getting to know the sea. With the end of my time in Brazil looming in the distance, I’ve realized just how close we have become.

Every day I look out my window of my quaint little house on a hill overlooking the Atlantic and I thank my lucky stars that I wake up to something so beautiful. I can walk to the beach in five minutes. There awaits a place to read, a place to meditate, somewhere to swim, and a place to be with friends. Some of my favorite moments of this year involve the beach and the ocean. I went to a surfing competition with my family, I’ve had countless deep conversations with my host mom on walks along the beach, I’ve finished lots of books, and made lifelong connections with Brazilians, other South Americans, and “US-ers” alike.

Through all that time, braving jellyfish and powerful tides, I was getting to know the ocean. I have grown accustomed to the sound of waves crashing on the beach and the idea of sand getting absolutely everywhere. When I think about coming back to the United States, I feel the pang of what Portuguese speakers call “saudades” -a deep, melancholic feeling of missing someone or something very dear to you- for my bit of the ocean here in Brazil. I get why my friend wrote about that connection. It is profound.

My 1+4 Story: Di

This bridge year has made me appreciate the value of self-reflection and spending time alone. My high school was called a “pressure cooker” and no one had the time to slow down and think about anything. I had no direction and felt lost when I graduated from high school. Going to college without taking some time off seems unimaginable to me now because I would have no idea of what I truly want to get out from a college experience. During my time in Brazil, I have read 17 books on my kindle. I am gradually getting into the habit of reading, which wouldn’t have happened without taking a bridge year. I am not only surviving, I am thriving here. I’ve learned to be comfortable by myself. Every book I’ve read, from Americanah to 1984, has taught me something I wouldn’t have gotten out of if I wasn’t alone. Even though I am still not sure what I want to study, I can say confidently that I have more direction in life than ever before. Having alone time has enabled me to think back to my high school life. If you asked me a year ago what my favorite book was, I wouldn’t have had an answer because I was ambivalent about everything. But now, having reflected so much on every detail of my life, I’ve realized how I’ve always enjoyed explaining calculus concepts to friends; whenever I start my homework, I would start with mathematics because I tend to leave my least favorite things last. Before embarking on this journey, I regarded this year as merely something different, but I was wrong about it.  It’s more than something different, it is life-changing.

– Di, Tufts 1+4 Brazil fellow

Love Letter

by Erica, Tufts 1+4 Participant

Dear Spain,

Is it possible to miss you even though I have three months more? The inherent kindness of strangers—their naturally open, welcoming, and talkative nature. The terrazas—why would anyone eat inside when the weather in Madrid is almost always beautiful, sunny, and breezy? The winter sunsets (and sunsets in general). The abnormally long hours of sunlight. The late nature of everything from sleep, work, and school to meals—I feel like I get more out of my day. The free museums—El Prado and Reina Sofia. The social nature of food and meals—people take their sweet time and chat.

The abono card—unlimited access to all of Madrid and Toledo for just 20 euros a month (as long as you’re young and broke)! The informative dancing diagrams on the metro marking every door. The recording of the woman on the metro telling me to watch my step on the way out…what a doll. The Cercanias trains. The abundance of things to do. Madrid tap water!! I’ve never known such quality. The fruterías. The Cien Montaditos and Cervecerías. The music and the way people dance. The fact that loitering in restaurants or cafes is completely acceptable (caveat: El Tigre doesn’t count). The Spanish lisp—I’ve grown to love it and use it(; The primero/segundo plato deals for just 10 euros. The casual beauty in every Spanish city or pueblo. The sunset strolls in El Retiro. The immunity I’ve seemed to develop for gorgeous cathedrals (slightly concerning, but a good problem to have). The ill-fated trips to El Rastro on Sunday mornings to spend all of my money. The one extremely happy, short, little fifty-year-old guy who’s sometimes playing the guitar in the Alonso Martinez metro stop and bounces/does a slight head-bang to the music while continuously grinning. The kebabs—a budget dinner for a standard 3.50 euros throughout the whole city! Patatas. Bravas. TORTILLA. Cocido and padron peppers. Garbanzos and lentejas. The prevalence of chocolate. Pisto—a newly discovered delicacy thanks to my majestic centaur OG travel bud RB. My host sisters’ “restaurant” Foxx—I can dine in for less than ten centimos. Warren and his one-of-a-kind humor and abundance of highly quotable lines. Enrique our sarcastic Spanish teacher. Feeling like a celebrity when I walk past some of the tables at lunch and the kids in my class scream my name just to say hi. The kids in my classes telling me small little details about their lives that they find exciting in the moment. The new student-teachers that I’m constantly meeting. The way people say my name. The besos. The complete Spanish immersion—no matter how much I try to soak it in now, I know I won’t realize how great it is until I leave. Thank you for all that has been and has yet to come.

Un abrazo muy fuerte,

Erica

My 1+4 Story: Evan

“This experience has been incredible. I have learned so many things about Spanish culture, food, history etc. from talking to my fellow teachers at the school or the kids who are always eager to talk to a tall, blonde Americano. Everyone has been very welcoming to me and always helps me with my Spanish language skills. I’ve seen much greater improvement in the English level of the classes that I spend time in than those that I go to less often, which is a sign of the difference I have made so far. I’ve also noticed in myself a deep desire to keep learning. I see kids every day who do not take advantage of their opportunities in class, and I cannot help but think that I have done the same for much of my time in school.

Being in this service-learning program has been a very enlightening and beneficial experience to me and if you are curious, I strongly encourage you to take a closer look at the program to see if it interests you. With all of the stress that built up for me in high school, I would be so incredibly overwhelmed if I were at Tufts right now. And being away from school for a year has only increased my desire to go back to Tufts and continue with my education. The program staff and my 1+4 peers have been so supportive of  me.”

-Evan, #1plus4spain fellow, shares his #my1plus4story on his #tufts1plus4 bridge-year!

Family Life

by Sophia, Tufts 1+4 Participant

I went last weekend to visit my host family in Curitiba, the city that I stayed in for two weeks when I first got to Brazil for In-Country Orientation. My family in Curitiba is a couple with no kids, and they are both doctors, (financially comfortable and extremely well-educated), and spoke English. I was very much in my comfort zone, living with the same language, socioeconomic status, and habits I was used to. I remember worrying when I was there that my experience wasn’t “Brazilian” enough or simply different enough from the life I had just come from in the US. Visiting them for the weekend was a nice little vacation back into my American life of speaking English and having a clothes dryer. Seeing my family and Curitiba again after four months also allowed me to compare the Sophia of September who had just arrived in Brazil, homesick and terrified, to the more confident, Portuguese-speaking Sophia of January.

My host families in Curitiba and Florianopolis (my “permanent” homestay where I’m living from September to April) are very different; they are of different education levels, socioeconomic status, and general outlooks on Brazil and the world. Visiting my family in Curitiba made me notice those differences even more clearly, and also made me realize how happy I was to be living with my family in Florianopolis. I loved Curitiba, but have said over and over that Floripa is a better place for me to spend my bridge year. When I got home from Curitiba on Sunday afternoon, I walked to my grandmother’s house with my mom and sister for our almost-regular weekend visit, something I had done in Curitiba too; both when I was there for two weeks in September and on my most recent visit, I had spent a lot of time with my host mom’s family, having frequent meals and spending weekends with them. I realized that in both my Brazilian families, their families were their closest friends who they spent the most time with, even when they were adults, which was a custom different from my family at home. We see my grandparents on both sides once or twice a year, and cousins more often, but still nowhere near once a week.

I wonder whether this is a Brazilian thing or just a coincidence, because I know in my family in New York I only see my grandparents/aunts/uncles on holidays, and most of my American friends are like this too. Talking to my fellow bridge year participants I realize that Brazilians are generally closer to their extended families, possibly because they as a culture are less geographically spread out and move far away from their hometowns for university and later life less often, or possibly just because the institution of family is considered to be more important in the national culture. The importance and value placed on family is one of the things that has helped make me comfortable here, and certainly something I want to carry back with me when I go home. And by that I mean the US, although at this point, my house and family here have begun to feel so natural that when I was in Curitiba I found myself missing “home”, Floripa.

My 1+4 Story: Steven

Being back on the Tufts campus now, I can know that taking a bridge year through Tufts 1+4 was one of the best decisions I’ve made so far! I am certainly doing a better job at being authentically “me,” I’ve gained a better understanding of who I am, what this world is, and how I want to impact it! I feel more comfortable in knowing where some of my passions lie and how I can use them to fuel the rest of my life. I know that I want to let my curiosity take me around the world, letting my newfound experiences guide me! Besides that, my bridge year has given me the chance too to share my amazing stories with friends, gain a new fluency in Portuguese (one that I am furthering here at Tufts!), and take advantage of all the resources Tufts has to offer!

Steven is now a first-year student at Tufts, where he plans on studying biochemistry and community health.