"Five questions and one cafézinho" with Myriam de Graaf

1. Brazil Centre: First of all, Myriam, we would like to know how the research stay at the University of São Paulo has contributed to your research and scientific career, and how it has affected your professional life.

Myriam: When I was there, I mostly just worked on the same project that I already worked on in Germany, but our supervisor in Brazil was one of the collaborators on that project. So, it was really nice to be able to just talk to him in person, rather then via Zoom. You know, to be in the same room together. We worked from the hospital once a week, and the people there had some papers lying around that they still needed to finish. So, I contributed to that, too. Mostly in the scientific communication, structuring the paper, helping to translate it to English, proofreading, stuff like that. So, that hopefully also gives me two new published papers that I collaborated on. They have been submitted, so…
 

2. Brazil Centre: Let’s move to the second question then. Did you face any difficulties in your research stay? If yes, which were they?

Myriam: I cannot recall any very big difficulties. The main disadvantage was that we were there during corona. We mainly worked from our apartment during that time, so I was glad I went together with my colleague, Frederik, so it was very nice to at least be able to work together. Sadly, this did limit the amount of people that we met, so that was a bit hard during our time there. But it also had its advantages, because we had an apartment complex with a pool. So, we would start work early and then take a very long lunch break to chill by the pool in the sun, so, that was very nice.

Another disadvantage was, maybe not knowing the language. It is very hard to predict who knows English. Like, some people would know English and some wouldn’t know a word, or maybe just pretend they did know a word. Maybe I should have started learning Portuguese a bit sooner. And then not just via Duolingo, because the main thing Duolingo taught me was animal names and food names. We were lucky that there was another bachelor student back then who joined us, who could speak some Portuguese. On the trips we took, we always went with the three of us, so we had like our own translator and he actually knew how to hold a conversation. I knew more animal names than he did, but he could actually hold conversations, so… It’s a toss up to which one was more practical. (laughs)

Another challenge was, that at first me and Frederik were kind of hesitant to go anywhere just the two of us, because we heard from a lot of friends, families, and colleagues that SP could be dangerous and we had to be careful. But we slowly started to realize that, at least in our neighbourhood Pinheiros, this wasn’t the case at all (or at least not more so than any other city). So, for me, the 1-month mark was kind of a turning point. We felt more comfortable, figured out how to best use our transportation options (Itaú bike, metro etc.) and we just started doing a lot more exploring in the neighbourhood: visiting restaurants, going to the markets or museums. The markets were a very different experience than in Germany or the Netherlands, every stand wants you to taste about everything they sell, which was a nice way of trying some exotic fruits (do make sure to ask the price, because I don’t remember how much we paid for a kiwi, but it was quite a lot, haha).

There is one more thing: at first, I didn’t realize how essential the CPF was (which is similar to an ID number). I had heard of it before, and people told me I could get it. I thought “I will see” and didn’t prioritize getting one. But in hindsight, we really should have gotten it. It's so much easier because they ask for it in so many places. For example, we needed  it when we got our Brazilian SIM cards, so we ended up using our supervisor’s CPF. The only problem was that it meant he was also charged for our cards. So, I highly recommend getting your CPF as soon as possible. I later found out that it’s quite easy to get a CPF online, even as a foreigner. It costs about 10 reais, so it’s not expensive at all. In the end, we didn’t get it, and we got used to managing without it, but it would have been much easier if we had. You end up needing it in a lot of unexpected places. For example, at the corona test centre, I had to use my passport because I didn’t have a CPF, but they weren’t used to processing passports, so that cost a lot more time and effort than necessary.

3. Brazil Centre: How did the research stay affect your personal life?

Myriam: During our stay a lot, of course! But now it doesn’t really affect my personal life anymore, other than that I’m the annoying person, who is always like “Well, when I was in Brazil…” – I’m that person now (laughs). And maybe there are smaller changes that I don’t even notice. Nothing life-changing like the guy who was there with us, who met a girl, fell in love and is now moving back to Brazil.. However, I think I did learn a lot, not only about research, but just by being around new people in a different culture.
 

4. Brazil Centre: Would you recommend this experience to others?

Myriam: Yes, definitely. First of all, because it’s a lot of fun. Brazil is a really nice country with friendly and kind people. And it’s very pretty! The nature is just beautiful. Some of my favourite moments were when we took trips, and just took random walks down the mountains and stuff like that. The absolute highlight were the waterfalls at Iguaçu.

We also noticed that Brazilians are generally a lot more open than most Europeans. One good example of this was very early in our stay, when Luis was invited to the birthday party of a good friend of one of his former students(!). And we could come too. Luis also took us to a lot of places, which was really great. We went to this really cool restaurant (As Véia – O Velhão, http://www.velhao.com.br)  a bit outside of São Paulo, which I would definitely recommend. He took us to Embu das Artes which hosts (among others) a market of hand-made goods: a good place to buy some presents for the people back home! We visited the training grounds of Corinthians, where we got a tour by the physical therapist (which might seem random, if you don’t know we’re from the institute of sports science), and we went to their last home game (1-1, Willian carried that team, nice atmosphere, saw a proposal, etc.). And we did a lot of other cool things that I cannot recall right at this moment. Mostly a lot of eating (so many rodizios!).

Another nice tip: the cinema is already quite a bit cheaper than back home, but – at least at our local cinema in Pinheiros – they had this thing on Tuesday nights where you could go in for only 10 reais (less than 2 euros).  

These are just some of many nice experiences. All in all, I would definitely recommend it! A maybe now that it’s not during corona, it will probably be even better!

5. Brazil Centre: Let’s go to that expression “Lost and found in translation”, could you express this experience in Brazil with a word, with a phrase, with a quote?

Myriam: When I saw that question, I said OK, I should have started preparing sooner than half an hour before (laughs).
So yeah, I did not think of something.

Brazil Centre: No problem! So, let’s go straight to our cafézinho moment. Did you make your Coffee?

Myriam: I have coffee and tea!

Brazil Centre: As you already know, the cafézinho moment is when you feel free to tell us about a blunder, an anecdote or a remarkable story about your experience in Brazil. In short, a story you tell over a cup of coffee.

Myriam: Yeah, a lot of moments. But they’re all just small moments, like, I don’t know, randomly seeing monkeys when walking around, making coffee using corona masks because we were out of filters, that kind of stuff. I don’t know if I have any really nice stories. Like I said, in conversations, I have had many stories to tell, “Oh, when I was in Brazil…”. Just yesterday that happened, we were talking about languages, I remember sitting at the hospital where we worked once a week. There were a lot of people who randomly spoke German over there. That surprised me. My German is not so good (laughs). So I was just sitting there, working, thinking half in Dutch, half in English as I usually do, and then people were speaking Portuguese to me and around me, and German as well. That really made me realize that four languages are just too much for my poor brain, haha.

Myriam, thank you so much for your testimonial! It was really nice to hear about your experiences and see how beautifully you reflect on your time! We´re glad you were able to gather such valuable experiences during your time in Brazil and congratulate you on your successful stay! We wish you all the best for your future!