Find a suitable apartment?

In Flrianópolis there are basically two possibilities! Either you take an apartment in Lagoa da Conceição, where there are many exchange students and many parties.  However, the university is not that close and you will have to spend some time on the bus, especially in summer due to many traffic jams. The second option would be to find an apartment near the university and live more with locals. This way you have better opportunities to learn Portuguese and get to know the Brazilian culture better. I lived together with a Brazilian and I have had very good experiences. I was always involved, got to know many locals and got to know a lot of the culture. It was also easier to practice in Portuguese, especially since some of the people I met did not speak English.

Security

Despite some horror stories about robberies and burglaries, especially by the locals, one feels relatively safe in Florianópolis. But you should keep your eyes open on the streets. And at night you should rather take a cab home instead of walking alone. Since Florianópolis does not have directly dangerous favelas (poor districts), one feels quite safe there and cannot compare this city with the generally more dangerous cities in Brazil.

The Weather

Unfortunately it is not only warm in Brazil, as we all probably imagine. So you should pack more than the shorts!  There were days when a rain jacket plus sweater was needed. At the beaches it is sometimes very windy and especially the rainfall is different than in Germany. If it rains once, it is really strong and long. There were weeks where it only rained. But of course there were also a lot of nice days with over 30 degrees. You should be prepared for everything, the weather often changes there. The sun there is sometimes underestimated, for example when it stops raining and the sun comes out, you usually don't think about using sun milk. Here you have to be careful, even if the sun doesn't feel so strong, you can get a sunburn very quickly.

Florianópolis

The city and the center are rather mediocre, but don't forget all the beaches around! It always takes some time to get to some beaches, but it is worth it. There is one beautiful beach after the other and they are always different and exotic. Another popular pastime there is hiking. There are many trilhas (walks) there and a lot to see.  You should only be aware that if you live at the university itself, the beach and many of the trilhas are only a few kilometers away.

The Mentality

At the beginning it might be difficult because people in Brazil have a completely different attitude. For you it is much more normal to wait and in many places you have to queue. The Brazilians probably don't mind that much if you watch them like this. Most people are very open and speak directly to you, especially if you need help, it is not uncommon that people even accompany you to a place you are looking for. It only becomes difficult when you want to criticize someone.  This is not so gladly seen, and is usually not understood objectively.

Work at CERTI

The internship at CERTI itself was very pleasant. The colleagues were all super nice and helpful. As soon as you asked for help, the people always did their best to support you. The technical content was on a high level, very interesting and I learned a lot of new things.  A professor was assigned to the internship to supervise it, with whom you could discuss everything. The communication was very pleasant and had more of a friendly, relaxed relationship. Sometimes it was difficult to keep track of things in my work because of the different languages. It is also an advantage to learn a little Portuguese, as not everyone at CERTI speaks English. The lectures are similar to ours at the THI, except that there you write several exams spread over the semester about individual sections of the semester. The subjects were almost all taught in Portuguese, so it would be helpful to learn a little bit of the language before.

Summary

In Florianópolis you can have a unique and great experience. I think you should adapt to the mentality there to really experience Brazil. I had little contact with exchange students and I rather stayed with the locals to learn about Brazil and its character.

Thorsten studies electrical engineering and information technology at THI.