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A cidade das luzes.
I am currently living in the prosperous city of lights; Ponta Grossa, Paraná, Brasil. It is not a charming city, but it serves it’s purpose well. Ponta Grossa, comprised of 300,000 inhabitants, is home to several universities, and is the primary hub for agricultural industries in the Campos Gerais region. My home has become a small collective dormitory like building that houses nearly 30 other students. My single room is equipped with a dresser, desk, and bed, as well as paper thin walls that offer the soothing sensation of the particularly boisterous boy adjacent to me. Almost as if he is breathing on my neck, I feel his presence upon me. Although I rarely see him, and have never spoken to him, I have become quite acquainted with his living habits. When I do see him, it is primarily masked by the shadows, for he is the most rare and exotic animal I have come across thus far upon my travel. He has recently taking a liking to the band Creed, listening and attempting to play their songs on guitar for a minimum of 4 hours a day. Other melodic 
jams which accompany me as I lay in bed in an attempt to fall asleep include “Carry on My Wayward Son” by Kansas and Alice Cooper’s infamous “I’m 18”. These facts only further develop my hypothesis that the country of Brazil is stuck in a past wave of American music and media. Although this data does not personally confirm my presumptions of the era being the 1980’s, I have never met as many people that enjoy 80’s hairs bands living this close in proximity to one another. It is just fascinating, however, I did not come to this foreign country to examine the current fads in Brazilian culture, but rather to develop better and more productive farming methods for family farming communities linked to the largest social movement in South America, The Landless Movement (MST). I am currently working on 
three different assentamentos, family farming settlements, which vary in both size and successfulness. It is interesting to compare and contrast the differences from the more established assentamentos, to the just recently formed, still not legal, Assentamento Zapata. I hope to further research the social struggle which these inhabitants have undergone, and how better methods of production and legislation can further advance their quality of living.
I am currently living in the prosperous city of lights; Ponta Grossa, Paraná, Brasil. It is not a charming city, but it serves it’s purpose well. Ponta Grossa, comprised of 300,000 inhabitants, is home to several universities, and is the primary hub for agricultural industries in the Campos Gerais region. My home has become a small collective dormitory like building that houses nearly 30 other students. My single room is equipped with a dresser, desk, and bed, as well as paper thin walls that offer the soothing sensation of the particularly boisterous boy adjacent to me. Almost as if he is breathing on my neck, I feel his presence upon me. Although I rarely see him, and have never spoken to him, I have become quite acquainted with his living habits. When I do see him, it is primarily masked by the shadows, for he is the most rare and exotic animal I have come across thus far upon my travel. He has recently taking a liking to the band Creed, listening and attempting to play their songs on guitar for a minimum of 4 hours a day. Other melodic 
jams which accompany me as I lay in bed in an attempt to fall asleep include “Carry on My Wayward Son” by Kansas and Alice Cooper’s infamous “I’m 18”. These facts only further develop my hypothesis that the country of Brazil is stuck in a past wave of American music and media. Although this data does not personally confirm my presumptions of the era being the 1980’s, I have never met as many people that enjoy 80’s hairs bands living this close in proximity to one another. It is just fascinating, however, I did not come to this foreign country to examine the current fads in Brazilian culture, but rather to develop better and more productive farming methods for family farming communities linked to the largest social movement in South America, The Landless Movement (MST). I am currently working on 
three different assentamentos, family farming settlements, which vary in both size and successfulness. It is interesting to compare and contrast the differences from the more established assentamentos, to the just recently formed, still not legal, Assentamento Zapata. I hope to further research the social struggle which these inhabitants have undergone, and how better methods of production and legislation can further advance their quality of living.
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