How my ICLR in Brasil went (2) • Jinsung Lee’s Personal Homepage

This post continues from the previous post: How my ICLR in Brasil went (1)

Day 2. My poster day!

Apparently, caipirinha was a quite strong drink for me 😅

Suffering from a slight hangover, I thought this morning could be the best moment to try açaí.

Did you know? Açai is a must-try thing in Brasil.

The bus to ICLR was about to depart at 8AM and I stopped by a cafe in the hotel lobby to get an açaí drink.

The problem was that Brasileiros are so chill and you normally do not get a drink in 5 minutes. I arrived at the cafe around 7:55-ish, and had to wait and see the lady beyond the cashier taking the whole chunk of frozen açaí, melting it with warm towel, crushing it for several times to scrape açai from the container, and repeating the melt-wait-crush cycle until she gets an enough amount of frozen açaí to make a drink. I was in such a worry and could not really sit still, so I was wandering inside the cafe back and forth. And, the lady said “SIT DOWN” in a very clear English 😂

By the time she finished making my drink, it was already over 8. Now it felt like the açaí drink’s price went up by about as much as the Uber ride to the conference.

One fact I’ve been missing was that the bus itself was also run by Brasileiros. Surprisingly, the bus was still there!

It was 8:08 by the time I hopped on the bus

The açaí was very sweet and SUPER THICK. That paper straw made me struggle a lot to fully enjoy the drink. Good hangover solver, but was not an everyday drink for me.

After 30 minutes, I arrived at the conference. I had my poster session this day, and had to stay until quite late.

Intrigued by the morning brasilian cafe experience, I tried another brasileiro’s soul food.

There were quite nice cafes inside the venue

Pão do queijo. Literal translation: bread of cheese

Pão do queijo was one that I was recommended to try when I get here in Rio.

😲

Koreans also call bread in a portuguese way: pão and 빵 sound the same.
Pão and pau are brasilian words that sound really similar (for me they are not really distinguishable), and the other pau means stick or wood which is often used as a slang to indicate a male genital…, so be careful!

My honest review: quite salty 🫤

Maybe the cafes inside the conference were not the best place to try this brasileiro’s soul snack?

Hmm…

Some oral sessions happen in a very small classroom

Language diffusion is definitely on trend these days

One of my biggest interests: Mamba 3 had their poster

Some posters and oral…

Unless you uber outside the venue, there was no other option than having your meals from these food stands. I saw many people complaining about it but I kinda liked it. The price was not really justifiable considering the price of Brasil, but it was convenient and quite fun.

I also often had a lunch with random researchers

I was very surprised when I checked where my poster stand was, since it was not in the middle of hectic poster stands, but on the side where people can casually see while walking. Perfect spot to grab random people’s attention.

my poster was quite close to food table too 😆

Poster session happened in a huge hall named Pavillion 4.

Poster session was 2.5hr-long . And I was not sleepy. — Poster session was **2.5hr-long**. And I was not sleepy.

Minho and Sangjun . We used to work together when I was an intern in Naver — Minho and Sangjun. We used to work together when I was an intern in Naver

Rio Brasa

A good meal is a must after an exhausting poster presentation

The atmosphere

Servers come with random steak and knife in their hands

Green means you want more meat, and red means you are done eating

I still don’t know what exactly defines churrasco, but it matched pretty well with the well-known conception in Korea: multiple servers carry around a chunk of meat of any type, and the customers can either accept or refuse to have it with a double-sided token that indicates the approval. One of my labmates Dongwon told me that churrasco could be served with a more casual style, like a typical street food rather than served in a fancy restaurants, but this time I had no chance to try it that way. This was a free meal for me anyway, so.. 🤷🏻

Crème de papaia. A huge portion was served

Typically served with a liquor poured on it

Hyunseok , Minkyu , Minji , Sangjun , me, and Minho . — Hyunseok, Minkyu, Minji, Sangjun, me, and Minho.

Day 3. Christo Redentor e Pão de Açucar

Going to the conference always took 30 minutes

Today’s coffee place. Mate is also a thing here

Wanted to have an iced coffee, and I figured out how to have one here

Duolingo lesson 1: Com gelo (with ice) worked

Brasilian coffee is known for its good quality and it’s very good, but only when it’s hot.
Clearly it is not meant to be served over ice. This was my last attempt to do so 😅

The oral session was very fun. Karen devoted her whole research life to analyze child’s behavior to figure out how intelligence is acquired. Go see her lab and the presentation video; her presentation skills and visualization are on another level… I was very impressed!

+ movement is its own reward for babies — + *movement is its own reward* for babies

Forgot to take photos before a bite (or two),
it’s a quite famous-but-pricey ($6) gelato here

Today I had two places to go 🇧🇷🙏✝️⛰️☀️🚠

A pleasant spoiler you can have on the way

Christo Redentor

Tip: book your ticket several days earlier, and avoid 11:00-15:00. Else you’ll have to wait 2 hours

This train comes soooo infrequently

A/C only allowed for the driver

Was bigger than expected, and instantly felt that it was worth every minute of wait

You’ll see 100 people spreading their arms

Pão de Açucar

It was still 15:30pm when we finished the christ, and there was another place to go…

Stopped by a cafe nearby until our reservation time comes

Above are the views you can see from the cable car, and once you go up there, you’ll see things in better resolution

You can take another cable car that goes there.

Click to enlarge. You’ll see the christo statue

It was fun to find Christo Redentor from far away. I didn’t know it ignites at night

We had to wait for a long queue to take the cable car going back. There was a group of researchers from ICLR too, of course.

After an exhausting day… we need a good meal

Terra Brasilis

It was already 8pm when we got back from Pão de Açucar

Moqueça de camarão. For me, it was quite similar to Thai seafood soup.

The food was overall great, and it was A LOT. Total price was about 400 reais, which is about 77 USD. For three people having this plenty of meal? It’s a steal 🥷💰

look at how our creative server Fabricio served a straw with coke.

The restaurant was near a beach, and apparently a lot of people were having fun at the beach even at 9pm

On the way back to the hotel. The Uber driver was super friendly, and I started to understand Portuguese a little bit. The driver said I was speaking Portunhol (Português + Espanhol) 😅 (Video credit: Minho)

(Was a quite casual convo)
😯: Ipanema and Copacabana beach must be very touristic right?
😎: Very very. Next week, Shakira will come to perform in Copacabana beach
😯: Shakira? The singer? When?
😎: 2nd (of May)
😯: But we need to go back to Korea at then…
😎: Nah, it’s totally fine, what I was saying is that even more tourists than usual will come because of Shakira
😯: Oh… (pretend to understand)

By the way, this is what happened on the day Shakira performed:

Source: Reddit. More than 2 million people have come!

Well this could’ve been the end of the exhausting day…

until my local friend Luana told me there is a chance to visit one of the most popular clubs in Rio!

You need to somehow register yourself to enter the club, which is something a foreigner struggles to do.

Boteco Belmonte Leblon

By the time arrived at the hotel, it was already over 10pm, but I changed my clothes and headed to the bar where Luana and her friends are.

Of course people watch football in the bar

I forgot to take a picture with her friends: Fernando and Julia, who are from the same state where Luana is from (Maranhāo). They said they visited Rio to watch The Weeknd’s concert; so I also sought for the leftover tickets. Of course there were none.

Bosque Bar

This bar, or nightclub, is apparently one of the most popular bars in the neighborhood.

Fernando went back to his home, so it was only me, Luana, and Julia

The entrance, where you confirm your registration. Luana did all the talk for me.

I know one cannot really tell from these photos and videos, but music and atmosphere here were quite wholesome. Once you step inside, there is no closed roof, so it essentially works as an outdoor club. Because of that, it remained quite breezy and fresh even with that many people.

One culture shock was that you see a lot of people kissing just after a couple times of back and forth conversation. Sometimes, an eye contact is enough 🤯. Julia kissed more than three guys in the club, and that only counts the guys I witnessed with my own eyes (she disappeared for hours 😂).

There were very few Asians in the club (seemingly only me), until a group of Asian students came in. Dumping a bunch of Asian people here in this aggressive and open Brasilian club culture… I know how it feels like…

Their reactions were exactly the same as mine; a bit intimidated, no good dance moves, and zero interaction with local people.

And that one asian guy approached me.

(Both shouting)
🗣️: HEY, JUST WANTED TO SAY HI BECAUSE YOU ARE ASIAN
😯: YOOO HAVING FUN? HOW DID YOU GUYS END UP HERE
🗣️: WE ARE STUDENTS FROM (some U.S. state) UNIVERSITY (…)
HOW DID YOU HOOK UP A GIRL HERE?
😯: ???

Apparently he saw me speaking with Luana, and he thought I made a breakthrough blending into this Brasilian club culture. Sadly, I wasn’t really different from the asian group of students.

Anywayssss….. it was overall good memories and fun experience.

By the time I came back to the hotel, it was 4am ☠️.

Day 3 was very long, but my mission to fully enjoy Rio hasn’t ended yet.

I’ll come back with the last post that sums up the whole trip!

(to be continuned …)