Class Group 32 – Antonio Carlos de Campos’s story “The group that chose to travel to Asia had the opportunity to visit the Great Wall of China, in Beijing. All aimed at managing to get to the top of the climb and there was a massive move of solidarity between collegues to ensure the achievement. Along the way, one could clearly see the group’s desire to make it to the end, the physical and mental strength all had to resort to, to overcome adversities and the humbleness it takes to acknowledge that sometimes, we simply are not up to the mission. At the top, in the end, happiness for having managed and partying amongst those that made it.” Class Group 34 – Leandro de Souza Lima Ventura’s tale “We were enjoying supper at a vineyard in Lyon when one of our friends – Luiz Coimbra – started singing Happy Birthday to one of our classmates – Ana Maria Costa. The owner of the winery then decided to bring a birthday cake to celebrate the date. However, the point was that it was not her birthday, but rather no more than Luiz fooling around. She was so embarrassed that she had to accept the gentlemanly offer made by our host. It was great fun, we seemed more like kids out of high school, much like in our younger days.” Class Group 35 – Edélcio Aparecido Fonseca’s hair raising tale “Our class group often uses the motto ‘what was done in China remains in China’. An interesting event occurred when we were going to visit Voith’s factory and the bus driver turned the wrong way and proceeded slowly into a heavily trafficked one way lane in an avenue, in Beijing. The entire class group immediately became very anxious but our ‘Chinese’ guide lightheartedly said ‘that’s normal, calm down...’.” Class group 38 – Danilo Ricardo Bono Zimmermann’s story “A really nice moment of integration took place during our trip to the US. We were at a bar in Memphis that featured great live music, when, timidly, one by one we started to occupy the dance floor and stir the place up. The evening’s highlight however was a singular dance performance that one of our teacher colleagues let loose… and nearly stomped on a tiny and pretty Chinese lady dancer…” (Story complemented by Professor James Wright)
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