Minor Setbacks

As I exit the honeymoon phase of being in Brasil, after being here for three weeks, I’m really starting to see that not everything is rainbows and butterflies. Most things have been great, especially the food and my town, Londrina, but we’re hitting some bumps currently. For example, the Federal Police changed the registration law just as I was coming to Brasil, and I may now not have documents that I need in order to avoid the fine and register. Any person staying in a Brasilian town for an extended amount of time is required to check in with the Federal Police, pay money, and check a bunch of paperwork signed off on. I prepared for notarized passport copies, paying the fee…. But I did not anticipate needing the original copy of my birth certificate to get notarized. As well, when I tried to sign up for the Federal Police appointment online it only gave me one option in the pull down bar, and only one time, which was May 25th. I need to be registered within three months of entering Brasil, and this May date exceeds that. I’m starting to get a bit anxious about that.

A short theory lesson on how I understand Brasilian Universities work. There are two major university categories that you can choose from- public and private. In opposition to how the USA school systems work, public universities are harder to get into but free and private universities are easier to get into but costs thousands of dollars. In order to get into public universities you need to take a “vestibular” test specific to each university, and I have not met any student who passed it on the first try because it is very difficult. The public universities receive their funding almost solely from the government, because they are free of cost to the students, and it looks like a lot of the campus buildings have not received much renovation since they were built.

UEL,Universidade Estadual Londrina, the university that I am teaching at, is a public university. Specifically, I am working with the letras department and english education major students. UEL seems to be going through a series of strikes due to funding cuts, which my friend says he experienced since 2015 when he attended UEL. The most current strike ended as I was arriving in Londrina, and I was hoping that UEL would quickly get back on track. This, unfortunately does not seem to be the case. With so much time off filter with the strike, UEL staff members and professors are still trying to get back on their feet. Orientation was supposed to begin March 19th and classes March 26th, but today we received a bulletin that the beginning of the term will be suspended. Translated from the Portuguese post, “In a bulletin sent to faculty, undergraduates and technical-administrative staff on the night of this Saturday (17), the Rector of UEL informs that it is suspending the beginning of the academic calendar of graduation of 2018, scheduled for this Monday, March 19.”

At this point, we’re not sure when we’ll be beginning classes, I’m not sure what teacher I will be assisting in classes, and a lot of things will be up in the air for a while. Plus, this means that I don’t know when the second Portuguese class that I want to take will begin. I would say it’s stressful, but a lot of this is out of my control, and I realize that, so I’m trying to make the best of it and I’m still going to help out on campus as much as I can.

http://www.uel.br/com/agenciaueldenoticias/index.php?arq=ARQ_not&FWS_Ano_Edicao=1&FWS_N_Edicao=1&FWS_Cod_Categoria=2&FWS_N_Texto=25985