Bicicleta de Bambu RAGE!

This bamboo bike has been giving all of us so much stress but here is the progress we have made thus far! We are nearly done with the bike so we are all excited even though stressed :D

Zero Zero and Exotic Plants

Boa noite~

On Saturday night following our day at the island we met up with one of our PUC friends, Filipe, and went out to a club called Zero Zero (00). It was a very high end club but we all had so much fun--we ended our nights around 4 in the morning! Dancing was fantastic and we danced our hearts out that night. I think Marianne and Jen were the star dancers of the night. The boys attempted to practice their Portuguese as they met many beautiful girls at the club.

The following day we went to see Dr. Ghavami and tour the Jardim Botanical Gardens, which are located right in his neighborhood. Since Dr. Ghavami is so knowledgeable we learned a lot about each and every plant in the gardens, especially the bamboo. I could not finish the entire gardens tour so Marianne, Jen, and I sat at the cafe and had some pao de queijo and pao de batata to revive ourselves for the rest of the night. I bought an Acai berry necklace from the Jardim Botanical shop to support their efforts of conserving and educating the world about the importance of plants!

Tchau, tchau!

Tchau, Rio! (just for a day)

Boa noite~

Hoje we all decided to take a break from the busy city of Rio and ride a ferry out to Ilha Paqueta'. Our trip in the morning began with a bus ride to Centro aka downtown Rio. Bhavna would have been so proud of us since we made it to Centro and back out of Centro safely with no problems. Downtown Rio is very much like downtown Pittsburgh--alive on the days and dead on the weeknights as well as the weekends. People are generally warned to stay out of downtown Rio on the weekends and on weeknights but we were just fine :D I think being in a group of people always helps. The six of us make up a pretty large group so I was comfortable with traveling downtown--plus hopefully my Portuguese wasn't too awful that they knew we were Americans!

The first thing we noticed when we began our boat ride was the haze around Rio de Janeiro--you can see it in the photos above. The haze was gray and hovering just above all the taller buildings that we could see from the coast. Looks like a pollution and salt water vapor mixture to me. We all realized we were inhaling all of that during our stay so it was good to get away for a couple of hours! The cloud of pollution evoked me to think of "sustainability" and the rest of the developed world. Brazil is considered a developing country so it has yet to reach the potential of all the developed powers in this world. I think destruction of our environment is always a part of the process to become a developed country but I always ponder why? We can all be a developed world by saving our planet instead..don't we digress if we continue to deplete what we have left on this Earth? I don't know--these were just some thoughts running through my head.

When we finally got to the island the first thing I smelt was horse poo poo and pee pee!! Yucky. The island has a lot of horse drawn carriages and bicycles that many people can rent--Jen, Preston, Marianne and I decided to go by foot. Chad and Oren rented a bicycle for two and rode it around one half of the island. They went off to do their own thing for the day.

I enjoyed walking around and taking many photos and just absorbing the nature that the island offered. The skies were clear and the sun was warm. Near the port we noticed a lot of polluted water and dead fish so the smell wasn't so nice but on the other side of the port the island was quite beautiful and the waters were calm and tranquil. I loved our time there very much. Near sunset, I returned on the ferry with a decadent and warm chocolate filled churro to travel back to Rio with my mates.

Tchau, tchau~

Bicicleta de Bambu

Boa noite todo,

So here we are in Rio de Janeiro the marvelous city and we are building a bicycle of a beautiful, sustainable material called BAMBU (that is how they spell it here in Brasil). The bicycle is only in its very early stages but by next Monday we plan to have most of the frame at least bolted together. The bicycle itself will still have many steel pieces but the main frame is made from bamboo. I am expecting a lot of differences from our original design but we will have to work our way around it. Oh, the beauty of engineering.

I have noticed some tension rising within the group due to different agreements on how to approach various problems we encounter. We all come back to the hotel so tired from arguing and building and I feel especially tired because I have to use my Portuguese to help everyone out in lab since they have no previous study of the language. I am so wiped. By the end of this trip I know I will have learned a lot of teamwork values as well the importance of always practicing my patience.

More of the bicicleta de bambu will be coming soon.


Ate'~~

O meu Deus

Ola',

Today, Thursday, dia dez e seis do Junho morning we went up Corcovado to see the redeemer. Cristo Redentor translates as Christ of the Redeemer and it is located within the Tiajuca Rainforest on the peak of a mountain called Corcovado. The views from the top were amazing and the tram up to the top of the mountain was a gorgeous ride. SO MANY TOURISTS. That is all I would like to say about that day. After seeing the Christ and taking many many many pictures we went back to PUC to continue our bamboo bicycle, which is coming along quite well! We have till June 27th to finish the bike so wish us luck!

Ate' amanha~~

"Embora, embora!"

The 5 hour drive south of Rio to Cambury was tiring but it was filled with beautiful scenery of the coast of South America. I sat next to Diego, one of Dr. Ghavami's master's students and we talked for most of the commute; I learned more Portuguese and he learned more English so it was a nice compromise. He is from Colombia so his primary language is Spanish although his Portuguese is perfect! To get to Cambury from where we were staying at our cabin was about a 10 minute drive and then a 3km walk downhill to the community. My bum bum hurts from walking down hill for so long. 

When we got to Cambury, Eduardo, the main manager of the bamboo community center began the tour and description of the structural aspects of the building. Our purpose was to assess the community center after it was built by Belgian architects (www.bamboostic.be) nine years ago for the good of the Cambury community. The center was in beautiful shape and we learned a lot about how the community uses it's local resources to harvest, treat, and build with the bamboo. Marcelo, our tour guide was super excited to be at Cambury and hear about everything that the community has done with bamboo--I think he was more excited than all of us haha. 

Overall the trip was very good and very eye-opening of the local and rural culture of Brazil, specifically in the context of bamboo! Hooray for bamboo :D

Tchau, tchau~~

Feliz Dia dos Namorados from Rio!

Boa noite,

Desculpe for not writing the blog in a couple of days! Today, June 12th is the Valentine's Day of Brazil and sadly I am not with my namorado so I can't really celebrate. We saw so many Brazilian couples just making out so that was interesting... Anyways, on Thursday, dia 9 de Junho we returned to PUC-Rio for finalizations to our design for our bamboo bicycle. The day at the university was a long couple of hours with lots of arguing and changing our design and generally lots of frustration, but we got it all together by the end of the day. Thursday was a very low key day with no serious sight seeing but it was nice to slow down for a bit after the overwhelming past few days. On Friday we spent time at PUC again and then we came back to the hotel for a late lunch (3:45pm ish--yes, that is Brazilian time). Following lunch I went to purchase a small purse from a store called "Jelly". The store is awesome--shoes and handbags, my two favorite accessories. The purse is so cute! I love it. It fits everything I need inside without the purse being too bulgy. Friday night was super fun. We all went out with Bhavna's Brazilian friend, Tati, to Rio Scenarium in Lapa. It was a LONG night of samba and drinking yummy caiparinhas. My feet were killing me the next day from my heels. Brazilians are amazing dancers--they can dance all through the night! I think they actually do party till 6 am...

Yesterday was a very long, relaxing day at the beach in the beautiful sun and there I practiced my Portuguese skills and bought two pairs of earrings as well as four bracelets from the local vendors. Nothing too exciting--just trying my best to be a carioca, haha.

Today was a very busy Valentine's day. We went to Santa Teresa to meet up with Joao, one of Dr. Ghavami's doctoral students, to cut bamboo at his workshop for our bamboo bicycle. The commute itself was about one and a half hours! We took what is called the "Bonde" up into Santa Teresa and got a beautiful vista of Rio de Janeiro and a glimpse of the "favelas". The bonde was super squeaky along the tracks...I thought I was going to go deaf. Bhavna described the neighborhood as a "sad beauty" which I think fit the scenery of Santa Teresa perfectly. The graffiti along all the beautiful antique French style homes really made it a different feel for the neighborhood. I really enjoy the graffiti in Brazil. To me, it's like a message of emotion from the Brazilians facing poverty or hardships in Rio. When we finally got to Joao's workshop, which is a part of his home (pretty awesome), we met his mother and father and we cut all the bamboo to make not one, but two bicycles out of bamboo. Dr. Ghavami has high expectations for us Pitt students.

Afterwards we met up with Dr. Ghavami in Lagoa and he showed us Lagoa and told us the entire history. It was a nice 3 hours of our day, haha. I do not think Dr. Ghavami has a sense of time at all but I really enjoy being around him and listening to everything he knows about Rio, bamboo, Persia, life, etc.  Now, on Sundays all of Rio is outside either walking, biking, running, drinking coffee, or eating out...our two hour walk from his apartment all the way back to our hotel was very scenic and full of learning experiences of the Brazilian culture. We ended our night at the Hippie Fair of Rio--translated as Hippie Feira. The Hippie Fair had stalls and stalls and stalls of hand made jewelry, woodwork, clothing, paintings, etc. I fell in love with the feira and we plan to go next Sunday to catch more of the stalls before sunset.

Tomorrow morning we are off to Camburi (5 hours south of Rio) at 7:00am in the morning. I best be off now to get some shut-eye.

Ate' logo~

"You have beautiful honey eyes."

Oi, oi!

Today the IRES headed out to PUC-Rio again to begin the 2nd workshop collaboration between the University of Pittsburgh and PUC-Rio. The first workshop was in 2009 with the IRES during that time. First off, PUC-Rio is abbreviated from Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro. 

The workshop went from 10am till 7pm but it was an exciting day filled with lots of discussion (about bamboo), laughter, delicious food and amazing students as well as professors. I met many graduate students today--Diego, Joao, Andre, Andrea, Lorena, Flauvia, and Daria, They were all from different places around the world and from different backgrounds. Listening to their research and their work so far completed was amazing. I was empowered to make sure my research was just as inspiring and innovative as all of theirs. We hope to accomplish great findings as well as meaningful and progressive research for bamboo.

At PUC-Rio Dr. Ghavami, a Persian professor who went to complete his undergraduate study in Moscow, Russia and then went to England to do his PhD and following that coming to Brazil, is the KING of bamboo. At PUC-Rio he became interested in bamboo--it first was a hobby then it became his primary work. His passion for nonconventional materials such as bamboo and other natural fibers is endless. The energy and motivation he brings to the future of construction and the future of engineering applicability cannot be described with words. He is quite an inspiring professor as well as a unique individual with great ideas, beliefs and hope for humanity. I was speaking with him today at lunch and I really enjoy his personality as well as his stories about his travels. Asia came up in the conversation and eventually my nationality so we talked about Korea a bit and he commented that I had beautiful "honey eyes". He explained to me the phrase as a Portuguese phrase relating honey to a wonderful natural delicacy and that I guess explains my eyes...either way Dr. Ghavami has become one of my favorite people in this world--someone who I will never forget. Because first for allowing us this opportunity to be in Rio de Janeiro and second, inspiring us to continue to be the change in our world with the force of bamboo.

Boa noite~

My homies and our ventures so far

Boa noite~

A photo of my team-- the IRES fellows. IRES stands for "International Research Experience for Students" and is a program funded by the NSF to provide international and research experience for undergraduates in engineering. We were all chosen to come to this beautiful city but we have a long road to travel by the end of this month.

Today, we met the professor who will be leading us in the structural engineering lab of PUC in Rio--the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. Dr. Khovami--such an intelligent being! His energy and passion for bamboo is inspiring and I look forward to working with him the rest of our stay here.

Yesterday we went up to the famous mountain called Sugar Loaf or Pao de Acucar in Portuguese. The views were amazing and the weather was just right for a day out in Rio. Following our travel up and down the mountain we went to lunch at a "pay per kilo" dining hall and then headed back to Ipanema to lay out at the beach for a while before the sun set. Ahhhh it was a beautiful and relaxing day. We ended our night with some great pizzas at the supermercado across the street from our hotel...yum yum.

Our hotel is in an amazing location that makes it easy to get around in Rio. If you ever want to visit Rio staying at Mar Ipanema Hotel is a place I would suggest and the breakfast in the morning is quite good.

By the way--coffee here is AMAZING. I love it, enough said.

Tomorrow we will be at a workshop with PUC all day but I hope to make some Brazilian friends and go out dancing perhaps? and continue to practice my Portuguese ;-)


Ate amanha~

And the IRES have arrived in Rio!

Sunday, June 5th, 2011 we arrived in Rio de Janeiro at 8:18am precisely. What a first day in Rio...we did so much walking and made multiple attempts to speak Portuguese but I do not think our efforts went too far with the cariocas :-D we did our best though! From walking along the beautiful and vast open beach to drinking expresso at one of the many distinct cafes here in Rio, we experienced a nice Sunday routine very similar to that of a carioca. We will be seeing Pao de Acucar (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2360/2132801675_5d42694f90.jpg) tomorrow morning and I hope to put up pictures by tomorrow night so stay posted!


Tchau, tchau!

Departing Soon

All of the IRES fellows are sitting at the Pittsburgh International airport awaiting our flight to go to Atlanta. I think we are all very excited in our own little ways--the girls might be a bit more excited than the boys ;-) We should be boarding very soon but once we get on that plane--we are ACTUALLY making our journey to the city for kings--RIO DE JANEIRO. All of us are ready to use our survival Portuguese we learned a few weeks just before leaving Pittsburgh this afternoon. I hope to improve my listening and speaking skills but we'll see what happens :-D. We can all work together as a team and help each other out. I am sure our trip will be very fulfilling and many memories will come from the weeks we all spend together researching, building and socializing in Brazil. Oh, the announcement has been made--we'll be boarding soon!

Till next time, yinz. Tchau!