The Brazil Course reports:
We had a Tuesday afternoon bus tour of the city of Belo Horizonte, capitol of the state of Minas Gerais and 5th largest city population-wise in Brazil. The first photo is a group one taken in front of a Catholic church (yes, it truly is a church) designed by famed architect, Oscar Niemeyer, a native of BH. The second photo is the backs of some of the students (sorry about that!) with another Niemeyer building in the background. Guess how many stories are actually in that apartment building you see? Ready…8. This is one of Niemeyer’s signature architectural creations.

Tomorrow we have a long bus ride to the historic city of Diamantina where we stay one night and then we are on to Montes Claros. Everyone is having an amazing time…and is learning a lot!




The New Zealand Course reports:
We're now in Rotorua and all is going well

The Aboriginal Australia Course reports:
After arriving in Perth we met our coordinators and enjoyed a nice dinner with our faculty; what a great way to wind down from our long travels. Our coordinators (Adrian and Ben) set up a full day of adventure for Monday. Our group of thirty split up and raced around Perth looking for restaurants, piers, shops, Aboriginal art, historical parks, etc. This race was a great way to become accustom to Perth, learn on our own, enjoy the warm weather, and find different destinations we may need to find our own way to later this week. After venturing around Perth we also headed to the Freemantle Prison and the Western Australian Maritime Museum before eating at Cottesloe beach.

Tuesday morning, our bus left around 9:30 am and we attended our first lecture at Curtain University, Center for Aboriginal Studies. Our class was lucky enough to receive a traditional Nyoongar welcome by Noel Nannup (a well known Aboriginal man) and Darren (our Curtain University faculty member). Noel began by sharing a quote with us; "For some of us, our feet still follow that of our ancestors". This quote immediately made me think of our required reading ("Why weren't we told?"); a lot of our required text spoke about never truly understanding yourself and your culture until you could understand your family history. Unfortunately, many Aboriginal people are still searching for their complete history and as they search for the answers, they trace the footsteps of their ancestors. Noel also shared an Aboriginal story with us, entitled "The Carer of Everything". This story is sacred to the Aboriginal people and challenged us to become engaged in the spiritual beliefs and values of the Aboriginal culture. Many parts of the story took place in parts of Western Australia that we will be visiting in the weeks to come; including Rottnest Island and the Wave Rock. Personally, I found the most intriguing part of his story to be when he spoke about losing all self-centered characteristics in order to be a true carer of everything. It is very easy in today's society to become self-centered and this was refreshing to hear; it made me remember that the common good goes beyond one life and beholds all humanity.

Following our first lecture, we visited the Bernadt Museum (being 75% Aboriginal Art). All of the Aboriginal Art is contemporary, being collected within one year of its making in order to have proper and thorough documentation. Our guide, John Stanton, showed us many artifacts, including carrying bowls, digging sticks, spears, clubs, boomerangs, and grinding stones. We also saw Aboriginal paintings each having their own spiritual meaning. One fascinating fact John shared with our class was that the footprints of Aboriginal people are an identification factor, as faces and fingerprints would be for us as Americans. While knowledge is seen as a privilege for the Aboriginal people, they do keep some things secretive; not sharing certain art, stories, or ways of life with outsiders. I enjoyed learning about the secretive aspect of Aboriginal culture because, we tend to forget that the richness of culture is at our fingertips. More often than not, we as Americans get caught in the materialistic ways of life that surround us and forget that we can exploit our environment and choose a multipurpose way of life.

Tomorrow we leave Perth and I can't wait for what's yet to come.

One of the photos below is of one of our students, Billy, with the books we were given as a gift from Noel Nannup. The second one is a view of Perth and Swan River from King's Park lookout. The third one is three Professors: Lesley Neale, John Mallard and Darren Garvey in the lobby of the aboriginal center at Curtin University. Behind them are three aboriginal flags. One is the Torres Straight Flag, the green represents the land; blue the ocean; and the center is a traditional head piece. The black and red with the yellow center is the universal aboriginal flag. The black represents the people, the red the land and the yellow the sun. Lastly, the center flag with the center is the Goana Flag. The fourth photo is Ross Chernin hanging off a rock on the beach at Rottnest.