Um Dia

Oh goodness. Where to start? 

Today was full of Ups and Downs. But I must note that the "Ups" were about as high as they get! 

First off, I woke up at 6am to get ready for the first day at Itaipu Binacional. I guess that now would be a good time to note that we explored the Brazilian grocery store last night and truly thought that I did a decent job at finding edible food (oh how wrong was I). So this morning I started to pack my lunch and make a PB&J. Well, what I thought was peanut butter (a life force of mine) was certainly not. Needless to say, I was not looking forward to eating at noon. 

 

So at this point it is 7am; time to leave for the bus stop. All we know/have been told is to get on the bus down the street from the hostel, take it to the central station and change buses to head to Itaipu via Vila C. The whole trip should take no more than 40 minutes top. Sounds easy enough right? WRONG. There are about 20 different buses at the first stop. We sat there for 15 minutes completely bug-eyed until eventually we just hopped on one and hoped for the best. Well it was a success, we made it to the central terminal. This is where trouble struck...hard. The bus we thought we were suppose to take Never showed up. We tried to speak as much Portuguese/Spanish as we could but surprisingly no one seemed that helpful. We tried our original tactic and just boarded a bus and prayed, repeatedly. Well, turns out it was possibly the right bus but we got off on the wrong stop (silly Americans). However, here the lovely brazilians were warm and helpful, calling Zalmir, the vet we are working with, and he arrived 15 minutes later on a white horse (pickup truck) to save us from our traveling nightmare. PS. It was 915am. I call this a fail.

Now, get ready because here comes the "Ups" and there are quite a lot. 

Most importantly, I get a super official looking badge. 

But I suppose what is more important is that Zalmir Cubas is, simply put, wonderful. He is hilarious, friendly, thoughtful, open and encouraging. His English is quite impressive and he makes sure to teach us Portuguese when we ask, and even when we don't! The morning consisted of introductions, drinking mate (Brazilian tea our of a strange cup with a metal straw), a tour of the veterinary hospital and lots of laughter.

They are incredibly interested in each of us and the US culture. We talked for a long time and met many people, all incredibly welcoming. Zalmir and Marcos are the two in charge but they have students, as well as other biologists, vets and zookeepers associated with their program. We found out that this week will be helping anesthetize monkeys and obtain blood samples, help with avian exams and even a deer necropsy tomorrow. During the tour, we were able to see and do more than expected, such as enter enclosures for the Harpy Eagles (they have a breeding program for these endangered animals).  

Aren't they precious? This one is 5 months old. We also were able to learn all about the drugs and anesthetic protocol they use. It was exciting to see how much I understood and how much more there was to learn. Zalmir is a wonderful teacher, really wanting you to learn and even more so, wanting to learn from us at the same time. I have a feeling these next couple of weeks will be some of my best yet.

Oh quickly I should mention...lunch is 2 hours! And we get it delivered! (My shopping fail turned out to be no problemo after all.)

After lunch,  Zalmir took us to the main part of Itaipu Binacional and set p a private technology tour of the Itaipu Dam. This hydroelectric dam produces more energy than any other in the world and is one of the largest dams, second only to one in China. This was one of the most impressive tours I have ever been on. However, we hit a minor bump before we could begin...well more specifically, Rica and I hit the bump.

Turns out the facility has it's own rules, such as "No Shorts, No Tour." Low and behold, guess who are the only two people in a 20km radius wearing shorts? Rica and yours truly. (Oh FYI,  Rica is my roommate.) So, Zalmir called up Marcos and he brought us his pants. Yes this is a true story, Rica and I had to walk around for 2 hours in giant man jeans. This was probably the most unfashionable I have looked in my adult life. Unfortunately, not my whole life...I regretfully went through some poor (understatement) clothing choices from age 6 through....18. You will definitely Not see photos of this, at least not on this blog. But let's just say that it was bad enough that I caught a group of teenagers on a tour taking a picture of my pants from behind and laughing while talking in a different language. Sadly, I didn't need to literally understand the words, to actually understand why they were laughing. Thank you Marcos for adding to my top 5 most embarrassing moments.

All in all, once I decided to embrace the clothes, I had a wonderful afternoon! The dam was amazing and I learned so much. The amount of iron and steel used can reproduce 380 Eiffel Towers and the concrete, 208 stadiums. Color me impressed. However, my favorite part of the tour was that the dam is shared between Brazil and Paraguay, directly on their border. So I was able to get a photo split between the two countries. While my passport may not have received a stamp, it is technically another country to add to my "visited" list! 

Like I said, a day filled with highs and lows but the highs definitely won. Can't wait for tomorrow. Until then, I remain in a state of bliss and wouldn't have it any other way!

(Um Dia = Day One in Portuguese)