Sophomore Rafael Kubala had never been to the United States before he landed here in August. But after stepping off the plane and looking around, it wasn’t unfamiliar.

“I came here, and I was like ‘Oh, it’s just like the movies,’” he said.

Kubala left Sao Paulo, Brazil, with his mom who teaches violin at the University of Sao Paulo. This year, she decided to come study at the University of Texas. Although this is a planned year-long stay in the United States for Kubala, it still came with a lot of uncertainty.

“I was nervous at first, but then I got used to how things are here,” he said. “I made some good friends, so now it’s alright. Everything worked out.”

As Kubala began to get used to a new school environment, he attended events like school plays and football games. Although he may not fully understand all of the rules of United States football yet, it gave him experience with something he can’t really find in Brazil.

“I was really impressed with the infrastructure of soccer here and even more in football,” he said. “I went to some football games, and it was very nice to watch. I am starting to understand a little bit of the game, but there are a lot of rules I don’t know about. It’s fun to watch because in Brazil it’s only soccer, soccer, soccer. It’s like let’s try another sport, let’s see what it’s like.”

Soccer has been a key part of Kubala’s life growing up. He started getting introduced to the sport when he was about 3 years old. 

“When I was first introduced to soccer, I was just having fun,” he said. “I played at my elementary school with 20 kids against one teacher. We took it very seriously, and we would sometimes scream at each other. But then I started doing soccer classes, and I took it seriously, but it was nothing competitive.”

Having played soccer almost all of his life, Kubala naturally joined the soccer team here at McCallum and made varsity.

“The play style is different because here in America people are stronger,” he said. “I think they get it from American football and basketball. The game is more physical here, and in Brazil, we do more skill moves.”

In the several months that he’s been here, he’s found that Austin is very different from Sao Paulo. Sao Paulo has a little over 11 million people while Austin’s population sits at about 1 million. Kubala has started to appreciate some of the qualities of a smaller city.

“I love Zilker Park,” he said. “I think it’s very nice that the river is not that polluted. A lot of people fish there, and that’s impressive, because in Sao Paulo there are two big rivers, but they are dark, black and polluted. You can see bubbles coming out of it. I mean it’s getting better, but I think it’s incredible to have a river clean like that.”

Along with all of the bonuses of living in Austin, there are also some downsides. He’s not able to find some of his favorite foods.

“Pastel and Coxinha are snacks that are more like street food,” he said. “They came from China with the immigrants from China, but [they are] kind of adapted to Brazil. I also like Acai, but it’s different from here. I mean a lot of the snacks are the same here like M&M’s, which we have in Brazil as well as other foods here, but I miss some of the foods.”

And being gone for a whole year he will miss some of the holidays and traditions that are unique to Brazil.

“I’m going to miss this year’s Carnival, which happens in February,” he said. “There are some traditions and some parties that we do yearly in Brazil that I’m gonna miss, but it’s not that big a deal because they happen every year.”

In getting to know more about the country he had only previously seen in movies, there is one thing that is beginning to stand out to him.

“I feel that people here could know more about the culture of other countries,” he said. “Brazil is a diverse country. There are a lot of nationalities in Brazil, and that’s a thing we are proud of. People in America should be proud of being a country with multiple nationalities. That makes the country rich.”