Journey North Mystery Class Spring 2006

Introducing Mystery Class #9--Curitiba, Brazil
(25.417 S, 49.267 W)

"Oi e bem-vindo do Curitiba!!"
(Hi and welcome from Curitiba!)

The School
Our school is the International School of Curitiba. We are a private school that has about 65% Brazilian students with the rest from Japan, France, Germany, Canada, Holland, Denmark, Italy, Belgium and the United States. We have about 400 students from toddler to 12th grade and our classes have about 10-18 students in them. All of our classes are taught in English except for the language classes. Our students take Portuguese, the official language of Brazil, every year. Some students also take other languages such as French, Dutch and German after school. We have teachers from Brazil and from the United States as well as a few from other countries. Mrs. Branson is our science teacher and she moved here from Michigan in the USA just this year.

Take a Multimedia tour of our school.

Because our school is an international school we all have very different cultures. We like to learn for each other and find out what things are the same and what are different. One way we do this is our International Fair, where families from each country put up booths with traditional foods, traditional clothing and traditional dances and songs.

The Country
We are located at the 25th parallel on the first plateau in the state of Parana, Brazil. We are part of southern Brazil and our climate is very different than what you might expect in Brazil. Right now fall is well underway and the nights and mornings are COLD! Our students come to class in sweaters and gloves to keep warm in our building that does not have central heating.

The City
Curitiba is a city of about 1.5 million people. It is a very special city in Brazil as it is one of the most environmentally conscious cities in the country. There are many parks, and people here work hard to recycle and preserve the environment. Although owning cars is popular here, many people choose to use Curitiba’s world-renown bus system to get around the city. This reduces pollution and is also very convenient.

All aboard
the Tube!

Many people say Curitiba’s weather is unpredictable. Because we are located at 1000 meters above sea level our climate is very different from the coastal areas that are within an hours drive. Our weather is generally mild except for a few hot days in summer (right after Christmas!!). Our spring days and early fall days are usually cool in the mornings and evening but warm during mid-day. Winter can be very cool all day and sometimes we even have frost! Rain comes frequently. It can sometimes rain for three days straight. This is what helps keep Curitiba so green.

Thousands of people came to our city this year to attend an international conference on biodiversity.

This is the logo for the meeting.

We hope someday you can come and visit us!!

Boa tarde! (Good afternoon)