Brazilians like noise. - Either a bar has no people in or it has one hundred all jabbing away loudly, despite the ever present TV and music system which will both be turned on.  

Tight Jeans - It's usually above 30 C here yet half the women walk around wearing absolutely skin tight jeans ; Are they crazy   

Relaxation - Don't ever try to do any business for the two hours around lunctime, be aware that the whole country seems to shut down for a whole month around Christmas  

Brazilian Time - is about 10 minutes to 30 minutes behind normal time, punctuality is considered a very British Thing  

Sleeping policemen (speed bumps in the road) - Brazil is the home of the sleeping policeman. At almost every road junction there is one even sometimes on the freeway. Often they are so big you scrape the bottom of your car on them. Maybe the oil companies like them, because everytime you get to one you have to change gear and use more fuel. It must be noisey for the people living next to them. 

Teeth - This country has dentists like the US has lawyers. People really care about their teeth ; so being a dentist is big money. I have never seen so many people with braces in their mouths even adults. A foreign doctor I know says this is a complete waste of time since when you are an adult your teeth have stoppped growing; so if you have a brace then the teeth just go back to the old position.   
She went on to tell me other disturbing things... they teach the latest techniques at medical college ,but then when doctors begin working they use the old traditional techniques that people don't use in Europe anymore. In Europe if you have a broken nail; all they do is clean it up; she said here people operate then put the whole finger in plaster which serves no practical purpose. But then doctors are more motivated by money and there are rumours of dubious ethics.  

Alcohol Powered Cars - Sugar cane is turned into a more ecological fuel ;too bad that some of the drivers are alcohol powered as well.  

Music a lot of diversity including -copies Brazilian Black groups trying to be like US Gangsta Rappers  

Voting is Compulsory - you are not supposed to be able to get a job without showing your voting records.  

13 month salaries - The law says that people have to be paid an extra month at Christmas ! and the politicians get paid 3 extra months !  

No Change - I never seen such a country where you have problems getting change. The machines give out notes of 50, but you can`t do anything with them abus or a drink is less than 1, evenchanging 10s is a problem  

No big cars - The import duties on foreign cars are very high so the biggest cars you see are the VWs made in Brazil.  

Football - Not everyone likes football. To those who do often take it very seriously indeed it is a religion, talk about passion ! I can't imagine a Corithians fan and a Palmerias fan sitting down to walk a match ..there would be a riot.  

Hype - It's so commercial here just like the states every time you turn on the TV or radio there's a commercial. It seems that there are more ads than programmes. And the presenters on TV and at live events are so over the top;.... especially the soccer commentators who shout "Go----------------------------------------------------------al ! "\Can you imagine the guy's life at home ? Picture him potty training his child..."come on for Daddy, come on ...YES POO..............................................................................OOO"  
 

showers - everyone knows that water and electricity don't mix, but here you see an attachment on the shower head to instantly heat the water. It's disconcerting to see bare wires above your head.  

Security -  Every building seems to half strong steel bars across all the windows (how many people get trapped inside when there is a fire ?) Half the people must work in the security industry. Is it paranoia ?  

Walking around the park - People use their cars a lot ; to go to work to go to the supermarket; to take the kids to school. A lot of people know they need exercise, but I guess they are afraid to walk on the streets. So they put on special clothes and jogging shoes and drive to one of the tiny crowded parks they have here. Then they walk round and round. 

Family - Sometimes it seems that Brazil is boring and that there aren't many palces for places to go. It seems Brazilians are really devoted to their families and they feel it's important to spend a lot of spare time together.  

Motels - iIt seems that ,because the family is so strong many people live at home with there parents. And because it is very conservative their boyfriend or girlfriend cannot stay the night. So on the edge of every city there are motels. Not the same kind as in the states for travelling holidaymakers and business people, but similar to love hotels in Japan. High walled places with hidden parking so you cannot see whose car is there. 

Independence - People are not very independent, many people go to university in therir hometown, they don't move away to be free. When they do things they always do them groups. My students couldn't imagine travelling alone. This is surprising to find in a country where peoples ancestors must have been pioneers.  

Tower Blocks For The Rich - It's the opposite of the UK where the tower blocks are built by the governement to house the poor and the rich prefer to live in houses with gardens.   
 

Education - the government schools are not supposed to be very good; so everyone who can afford it seems to send their children to private schools and extra classes. There are so many out of hours schools. I guess this ties in with the certificates.  People are coming out of college at 11 at night. I wondered when they ever get any time to do homework, but it seems the concept of self study isn't really big here, people think the work you do in the classroom is enough.  

Paper - Like other Latin countries large emphasis seem to be placed on pieces of paper. So when you apply for a job they care more about certificates you have than whether you can actually do the job or not.   

Vestibular - One of the worst exam  systems I have ever seen. It's one of the most important piece of paper in Brazil . Every person who wants to enter university must take this type of exam. They have to pay for it. And every university has a separate exam, there is not one standard test like in the UK, France or USA. In the UK you apply to 5 different universities , before you take the standard exams. And if you want to wait one or two years before you enter the university no problem. But in Brazil you have to take a separate vestibular for each year if you want to enter in 1998 you have to pass the 1998 exam , it doesn't matter if you got 90 % in 1996.  
In the UK if you wanted to study maths you would choose maths type subjects to be examined on e.g. maths, physics and economics.   
If you wanted to study English literature you would choose different type subjects to be examined on e.g. English, English Literature and history.  
But in Brazil you have to pass every subject. So for example Picasso would not get a university place , because he might not pass the maths part of the vestibular.  
Another thing is much of the teaching uses old techniques it's mostly memorise these dates etc.  
I saw exam paper : for the English part the questions were very difficult , but the answers were all multiple choice , and in the choices some of the answers are very similar. So it's easy to imagine a good student picking the wrong one of similar choices and getting a low mark whilst another bad student makes lucky choices and gets a high mark.  

More Paper - I have never seen a place wih so many photocopy shops. I suppose this is because of the amount of education. 

Meat eaters - Meat is so cheap here, they eat tons of it and hardly any vegetables..surely they are going to have big cancer problems in the future.  
They have these BBQ places call Churrascarias where the waiters bring hunks of meat to your table and ask you if you want a slice. People seem to eat the meat very rare..it's almost still alive. Yuk !  

Self -Service - They have self service buffets here; where you fill your plate and pay by the kilo. I have never seen this in other countries and I think this is a pretty neat idea.  

Knives and Forks - When I first sat down to dinner I thought this is strange they have put the knives and forks the wrong way around. But then the next time ....and the next time. In Brazil knives go on the left and forks on the right.  

Coffee - You don't get a mug of coffee , you get a tiny cups of very strong coffee.  

Beer - It's awful, like American beer. Very weak. It all manufactured in large plants by big companies. It has to travel a long way so it is full of chemicals like anti-oxidants.