Bom Dia From Brazil
It’s a long way from Avery Hall and those caffeine-fueled all-nighters.
This is part of a Columbia News series, titled Postcards, which invites members of the Columbia community who are living and teaching or studying abroad to send us updates on where they are, what they miss about not being on campus, and how they are making the most of their situation during this global pandemic.
Once remote classes were announced in March, I went back to my hometown of São Paulo in Brazil, where I have been quarantining since then. Personally, the hardest part for me during this time has been the hyper-self-awareness and hyper-connectivity on social media. I find myself entering a rabbit hole of one piece of bad news after another. Being isolated for nine months has amplified the overwhelming amount of information.
However, I am grateful that I am able to be back home, after moving to the United States in 2012, and surrounded by my family during these uncertain times. I am not out and about though because of the current COVID situation here in Brazil.
What I miss the most about Columbia is meeting my friends in Avery Hall, where the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation is located. I get very nostalgic thinking of the crazy all-nighters full of laughs and coffee, all the frenetic energy before a review, all the bagels from Brownies, all the mess and chaos in the architecture studio. Avery will definitely be the first place I’ll go when I return to campus.
Alice Fang will graduate from GSAPP’s Master of Architecture program in 2021.