Exchange Report

I flew to São Paulo and arrived a few days before the mandatory instruction days, landing on the Sunday of that week. Beforehand, I got vaccinated, including yellow fever, which is available for free in Brazil.

I stayed at Uliving Paulista, which I'd recommend to anyone. It was about a 25 minute walk to the university, which was very manageable since you're usually walking in groups. Most exchange students live there, with only a few in private apartments or at Uliving Jardins. Paulista is the bigger location and also has a genuinely good rooftop for drinks. Students who didn't live at Uliving weren't as integrated into the community as those who all lived together, so I'd strongly recommend going there. My time wouldn't have been nearly as good without it. They also have staff who speak English and help with all kinds of things. There's a bar downstairs that everyone uses, where people often hang out and drink, and it's also a place where people from outside can join in.

Most courses were very easy overall. The only ones that felt hard were hard in the sense that getting a top grade was difficult, since instructions tend to be quite vague and sometimes what you submit doesn't match the professor's expectations. Professors are always friendly, but that doesn't necessarily translate into a top grade. Overall, the workload and difficulty are much lower than at WU. The campus itself isn't comparable to WU, but I also didn't spend much time there outside of class, since I never studied on campus.

I never used public transport in São Paulo. In Rio, the metro was very nice. As for safety, avoid shady streets once it's dark or getting dark, and take Uber everywhere. It's very cheap, and often cheaper than public transport once you're splitting it with a group, a 10 minute ride could easily cost around 2 euros. Ibirapuera Park is great, it's huge and you can do a lot of sports there. Generally, if you follow a few basic rules, like being careful with your phone and not walking around after dark, you'll be completely fine. Living costs: you can live cheaper than in Vienna, but also more expensively, it really depends. You shouldn't expect it to be very cheap though, overall it's only slightly cheaper than Vienna.

These were by far the best 5 months of my life, and I can only recommend this exchange to everyone. You can do so many weekend trips by bus since it's so affordable, and Brazil's nature is absolutely stunning. Go to Rio as often as you can, it's simply the best city in the world, and I'll definitely be going back one day. Stay at Uliving, I made incredible friends there and it really creates a genuine community. The people there are so friendly, and don't worry if you don't speak Portuguese, it'll work out fine either way. I don't speak it either. As long as you follow basic safety rules, you won't run into any problems. Honestly, I couldn't have wished for a better exchange semester.