Hi everyone,
This week is the continuation of last weeks
Letter from Brazil. Hopefully all of the photos
are visible now.
Jason
___
I spent most of my week with native English
speakers. Particularly, there was Dick Weiss,
mentioned in the previous e-mail, my postdoc
supervisor Tony Kirby, Bradley Williams (from
Johannesburg) and Jonathan Clayden. For the
chemists, yes, Jonathan is one of the authors of
_the_ textbook - but he's also the author of ca.
150 research papers and a really impressive guy -
and he's probably only 7 or so years older than
me. We ended up spending quite a bit of time
together during the week, including going into
Florianopolis one afternoon (yes, we did skip a
shortened afternoon).
In many ways Florianopolis is an ordinary city.
Sure, its neither Sydney nor Boston but that's
not really about facilities and the like, more
the culture and background (everything does have
a clearly Latin influence). While there were
areas that we passed that were definitely
run-down, this happens everywhere (see NYC
comments previously) and there did not appear to
be the mammoth gap between rich and poor that you
hear about from the larger Brazilian cities.
Again, there was the occasional high concrete
fence with wire on the top around a particularly
nice house/group of houses but it was
surprisingly unobtrusive. Jonathan and I
wandered around the market area, where we could
have bought pretty much any part of any animal we
chose (seriously - trotters, tripe ...) and a
range of fruit and vegetables that I could
identify approximately half of. (Oh, and an
entire wing was dedicated to shoes ... go
figure.) Jonathan was particularly impressed by
the fish markets which, while not on the scale of
the ones in Sydney, certainly did showcase,
particularly the range of, the local produce -
and it was clearly still swimming that morning.
We also took the opportunity to purchase some
cachaça. This is the local liquor, a rum made
from the fermentation of sugarcane rather than
molasses. It's often served as caipirinhas,
which tend to involve the introduction of sugar,
lemons or limes and ice. We had been introduced
to this the night before at a 'Brazilian
Barbeque' organised for the conference - they
were great but a little too easy to drink and
when a jug (I've been in the US too long ... I
nearly typed pitcher) was placed in front of us,
we knew we were in trouble. We happened to find
a little store near the fish markets which had a
wall of bottles to choose from - in the end,
without information on to the quality, I went for
the ones that looked pretty ...
It is probably worth making a note on the food
and drink in Brazil (at least what we were
exposed to at the conference). I'm fairly sure
that we got served 'fairly plain' food for most
of the conference but it was fine. Lots of meat
(in fact, vegetarians were in real trouble) and
the barbeque mentioned above was fantastic - it
was a lot of meat cooked over a massive fire
(which also made that room very smokey). The
area has very good seafood though that was saved
for the conference dinner. The wine was quite
good (mostly Chilean) but it was other drinks
that proved interesting. The range of fruit
juices available (some of which I'm still not
sure I could identify) was great though somewhat
confusing first thing in the morning. There take
on pizzas (including dessert pizzas) was also
entertaining.
It is possibly worth noting that, in many ways,
my trip to Brazil can be summed up by the
conference dinner. It was supposed to start at 8
pm but when we wandered into the venue (which was
down at the end of the street overlooking the
beach - we hadn't been told where, we just
followed people) ten minutes after eight, we were
clearly early. The whole evening proceeded in a
state of comfortable disorganisation with no
speeches and lots of alcohol being provided
(though no caipirinhas - we were slightly
disappointed). After the meal had been had (very
good local cuisine), there was some demonstration
by people that we can only assume were
professionals performing local dances - though
with no announcements, we were only guessing.
The band providing the music then continued and I
can only assume (by the reaction of the locals,
particularly the singing along) that they were
doing the Latin American version of "The Greatest
Party Songs Ever". Everyone was encouraged to
dance, so much so that the local students were
going and dragging people up to the dance floor,
which very soon spilled out through most of the
room. (The table I was on got targeted by
Adriana Pierinni (somewhat of a matriarch of
Argentinian chemistry, from what I can tell),
though I ended up being dragged up by one of the
local students which was much less intimidating.)
After about fifteen minutes, noone was not
dancing (including _all_ the visiting academics,
irrespective of age - including Cliff Bunton who
turns 90 next year ...) so much so that dessert
was served to people on the dancefloor! After
about three encores (including a song that had
been played so often that night that I almost
knew the words) the band finally (much to the
chagrin of everyone there) stopped. As at all
good conference dinners, everyone picked up as
much alcohol as they could carry, and went and
finished it - in this case on the beach! (I did
consider going for a midnight swim but it was
waaaaaayyyyy too cold.)
The flight back was uneventful but very long as I
had four separate segments (one of which was
actually 'backwards' if you look at the direction
I wanted to travel) each with quite a long stop.
But I got back (as did my luggage - given some of
the horror stories in Florianopolis (Jonathan's
arrived more than halfway through his time there
...) I was pleased.) The big shock was that
Boston appeared to have decided to skip a season
almost entirely because it snowed extensively the
day I got back.
Some photos around Boston recently can be found at ...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=152419&id=570906321&l=91c00f1aa7
A reminder: Photos of the Brazil trip (hopefully
all uploaded now) can be found at ...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=152413&id=570906321&l=18b7d5f98a
Next week: A report on "The Holy War" - that is,
the Boston College Eagles at Notre Dame Irish
College Football Game and associated travels to
Chicago, South Bend and Mishiwaka.
[Don't believe me on the name - see ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_War_%28Boston_College_vs._Notre_Dam... ]
--
Pre-Sig - I am travelling extensively over the
next month and e-mail is likely to be limited.
Please expect delays in responses until the end
of October.
Dr Jason Harper Present Address:
School of Chemistry Merkert Chemistry Centre
University of New South Wales Boston College
Sydney NSW 2052 Chestnut Hill MA 02467-3860
AUSTRALIA USA
UNSW CRICOS Provider Code 00098G
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