Do you believe Brazilians are warmer and friendlier than Americans, or other people?
After my Post Graduate work in California, I thought I'd conquer The Amazon river...!!! I started in Peru, worked my way through Columbia and flowed into Brazil...!!! WOW, while my Spanish was strong in the previous two countries... my Portuguese was non existing...!!! But I met the most friendly, interesting and forward people in my many years of travel...!!! Though the Amazon river was hot, sticky and insect infested... the hospitality of these warm and loving people was overwhelming...!!! I had planned to travel for one year but I ended up staying five years and left with a wife who has given me two intelligent and beautiful boys...!!! I didn't conquer the Amazons, though I did travel all the way to the Atlantic capital of Belem... The Amazons conquered me...!!! There is too much to tell...!!! Sure there was a lot of violence, danger and in a big city sense of advanced culture there was a lot to be desired... but that's only if that is what you desire...!!! I didn't.. so the small "cities" that seemed more like river towns, were rather rustic...!!! Yet, that simple life was the fabric that made these Amazon people so attractive to me...!!! Sure, my Americans dollars probably made me attractive to them... but their folkloric festivals and Indigenous version of Carnaval captured my most basic instincts and wanderlust...!!! Oh yeah, and this is a picture of my beautiful wife from Juruti, Para...!!!This is a ditty by my wife's father and brother playing a cover of some song that I can't remember the name right now but ... the river pictures, I took with my Canon AE1 ...!!!
How do UCLA students compare to Berkeley students?
I agree with a lot of what Mahnoor Wasi Ghatala says. UCB and the Bay in general have a culture of hardcore work. From Berkeley to startups, many people are super ambitious and seeking power in one form or another; this requires a lot of work. For example, as a student, I wouldn’t drink more than one day a weekend because I didn’t feel I had the enough time over the weekend to spend hungover. I had homework or internship work I needed to do.I grew up in southern California so I also have a view into both worlds. Mahnoor is right again when she says more people say hi to each other in southern California than they do in the bay. Not sure what it is, but my friend (who is also from SoCal and who went to Berkeley with me) and I were often thrown off when we’d say, “Hi!” to someone and he or she would just look blankly at us in return.In regards to academics, I would say that students at UC Berkeley win by a good amount here. You can look up major rankings online to see that UCB often has the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd position in regards to quality of a major in the US. This is ESPECIALLY true in engineering and sciences. You can also compare the number of UC Berkeley grads at “premier” companies vs the number of UCLA grads to get an idea of the difference.This all being said (and me obviously being biased), I was very close to choosing UCLA over UC Berkeley because, well, LA is awesome and it has beaches. And really, really good looking people. It has more space. It’s prettier. It’s friendlier. It has normal sized streets. It has palm trees. It’s sunnier and warmer. It’s also home. UCLA also has really good football and basketball teams (UC Berkeley is actually really good at all the other non-mainstream sports, like swimming, gymnastics, rowing, etc.)All in all, I think you’ll probably find super social and warm students at Berkeley and insanely smart and hard working students at UCLA. Both schools are awesome places. What really matters is how much advantage you take of each place :).Edit:I’ve changed my mind on the whole “what really matters is how much advantage you take of each place” idea. I think that if you were certain you wanted to start a start-up, you should pick UC Berkeley. If you want to pursue music, go to UCLA. Some places are just better for things than other places, even if you’re doing the most to take advantage of each place! It’s not very popular to have this anti-humans-can-do-anything-anywhere point of view, but I think it’s true!
What do residents of Johannesburg think of it being voted the world's unfriendliest city?
I’ve just moved from the world’s most liveable city (Melbourne, Australia) to Johannesburg. All I can say is it is the friendliest city I have encountered.What Jozi suffers from is a perception problem through bad press from expats and the media.I thought I’d look at the statistics. First, why do people move? And then how many and to where.According to Stats SA, some 95,000 white people left South Africa since 2011 (though white migration has now slowed).Between 1986 and 2000, 304,112 white South Africans left; Between 2001 and 2005, 133,782 whites emigrated, dropping to 112,046 between 2006 and 2011.About a quarter each emigrate to Australia and the UK. And the remainder split over the US, New Zealand, Canada and other countries. Meanwhile between 2000 and 2010 annually 247,000 people migrated to South Africa, 75% from the rest of Africa.Twenty years ago the reason for leaving South Africa was fear of violence as the Apartheid system was dismantled and chaos ruled. Nowadays people leave for fear of political instability and economic fears with the Rand having traded at a low for nearly a decade now.You know what though?People also leave the UK and Australia too for better jobs or sunnier climes. About 168,000 people leave Australia each year while 475,000 arrive, according to 2014–15 figures from the Australia Bureau of Statistics.In the UK 339,000 people left the country in 2016 while 588,000 arrived. The main reason is they leave for work and a better life-style or to be near family. The most popular destinations being Australia, Spain, the United States, France and China.In fact, many migrants to Australia move on after five years or more to countries including New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, the UK and USA. According to one report more than 80% of South Africans eventually move from Australia.Anecdotally, South Africans miss their home country. Even expats lament leaving when their stints are over.