Anecdotes from Alexandre

This semester, I’ve been living with my host family, Dorlies and Hermann. I’ve also had someone else living in the house with me: Alexandre Noguiera Martins, a student from Brazil who is also studying at the Freie Universität. At the moment, Alexandre is abroad in Colombia for six weeks. When I got to Berlin he showed me around and he’s given me tips on places to visit throughout the semester. For this blog, I’m supposed to interview someone from a different culture. I chose Alexandre, and got to know a little more about him, and now you will too.

First, some general information. Alexandre has been in Germany for just a couple months more than me, and he’s working towards his PhD in Sociology. The ex-president of Brazil, Bolsanaro, was taking a pretty harsh stance on higher education, and Alexandre decided to finish his schooling abroad, and chose Berlin. He’ll be here about three years,

The first thing we talked about is religious background. Alexandre knows that I’m training to be a pastor, and we’ve talked about religion a couple times. Alexandre grew up in Brazil, and like much of the population there, was raised Catholic. From hearing him talk, it seems like his family was pretty serious about it. Now however, Alexandre is, in his own words, “weit aus religiösem Kontext”, or far from a religious context. What was interesting to me was how Alexandre and I both started off as fairly ardent church goers- one catholic, one protestant. Now however, we have very different views of religion. I’m training to be a pastor, and Alexandre has no professed religion.

We also talked about his culture. Brazil to me is a whole other world I really haven’t experienced. It was really interesting to hear him talk about his culture. One part of his culture that he was especially passionate about was how it stresses being open to other cultures. This was really interesting for me to consider. While I wouldn’t say that “American” culture is opposed to that, I wouldn’t say it’s stressed either. Seeing as how Alexandre can speak at least three languages extremely well, and is living in a different country for three years of his life, you can really see how well this trait has served him. Another concept I’ve learned more about in Germany is “Heimat”, or “Homeland”. I’ve come to think of it as a place or feeling that evokes home and safety for someone. Alexandre described his Heimat, and said that it’s the place where he finds warmth and beauty, relationships with loved ones, and his music and food. This is something I could definitely relate to. It seems like home is much more than just the house where you live. It’s the people, the culture, the environment- something I’ve come to miss being out of.

Another thing I asked him is if it was easy to adapt to Germany. For me, it was certainly different, but it could have been a lot worse. For Alexandre, it was very different. In my class back at MLC, we looked at how other countries differed in many aspects. The US and Germany were usually relatively close, but Brazil was very different in these aspects. Alexandre talked about how different the nightlife or food is, or how the weather is different from what he’s used to. It had never occurred to me how much the weather could factor into your perception of a new place. Alexandre said that was probably the biggest difference, since it’s something that’s present everyday. Alexandre said that getting used to Germany takes a lot of energy- and that’s something I can definitely relate to.

While I could have written a lot more about Alexandre and Brazil, I feel like this is a good snapshot. Talking to someone from a different culture is always very interesting, and it makes you realize just how big the world actually is.

Attached is a picture of Alexandre (above), us at Checkpoint Charlie, and the Mona Lisa in the Louvre (below)