I have had many people ask me what my daily life consists of here, so I thought I would share a little bit about that. Granted, I'm a bit tardy as I have less than one week remaining before I head to Bolivia, but I'll write about it anyway!
On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I wake up early and go with Carol to drop the kids off at preschool (a really cool preschool by the way, where everything is outside, the kids learn fully through play, and they even have a random tortoise who wanders around the school). She then drops me off at NAS, where I spend 3-4 hours interacting with the awesome kids.
NAS is an incredible organization. They provide a safe place for kids aged 5-13 to come before or after school while their parents generally work. Every day consists of different activities - sometimes it's origami, sometimes it's capoeira (a Brazilian martial art), sometimes it's reading in the library, and sometimes it's free play outside (during which time the soccer balls emerge, the swing set becomes overcrowded, and several varieties of tag are brought to the forefront).
At first it was difficult for me there, as the kids at NAS were very curious about this strange new person and would bombard me with questions in Portuguese, and I really couldn't understand and it was very awkward. However, since then, the kids have figured out how to communicate with me (plus also my Portuguese has improved immensely, but mostly they have figured things out). The most common form of communication involves taking me to the place and demonstrating what they want me to do. Also common are drawings. The most popular of all, however, are the games that require little to no language at all. Like the high five game that goes "up high, on the side, on the other side, down low, TOO SLOW!" Except everybody is getting way too fast... There's also a game where people will tell me to look at the giant 3-headed butterfly (or something equally bizarre) then tap me on the shoulder when I look and tell me, "Foi uma fantasma!" (It was a ghost!)
I can't even express how much I love each and every kid there. It's incredible. I don't know how I'm ever going to be able to say goodbye.
Tuesday and Thursday mornings are reserved for rest, studying Portuguese, communication with my family, and often organizing photos or chipping away at blog entries.
Around 12:30pm, everybody returns to the house. Lunch (which is the biggest meal of the day) is served both at the kids' preschool and at NAS, but anybody who hasn't eaten does so upon return to the house. The kids bathe, and Isabela prepares for her nap.
After 2pm, everything varies. Sometimes there are swimming lessons, sometimes I wander a new safe area while someone has an appointment, sometimes we go grocery shopping, frequently we go on miscellaneous adventures, and sometimes the afternoon is simply spent at the house playing.
I didn't actually notice this until I read it somewhere, but dinner is generally later in Brazil because the lunch is bigger. (I didn't notice because my family at home generally eats on the later side - I recall once eating LUNCH at 9pm). In the USA, I'd estimate that the average dinnertime is between 5 and 7. Here, I'd say it's between 7 and 9 (judging not just from the one family, but from what I've observed as a whole).
Nights consist of Carol's incredibly creative games outside, random dancing with the kids, and a few tv episodes. Very popular here is Tom and Jerry, Mr. Bean the cartoon, and Masha e o Urso (Masha and the Bear - a Russian kids' show).
Alas, it's time for bed. Snore snore!
Weekends are my favorite, as they involve many miscellaneous adventures! One weekend we went to Ubatuba (a GORGEOUS coastal town), one weekend we went to an awesome lake, some weekends we went to kids' parties of various varieties, and most recently we spent an extended weekend in Salvador! More about that later.
So that's life here! It's pretty awesome. The people make it that way(: (and I mean, the warm weather doesn't hurt anything either...)
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Food - The Brazilian Way
I'll tell you a secret: I'm a food junkie. Especially when it comes to fruit and sweets, I lose all control.
I've come to the right place.
The produce department at the grocery store here is easily double or triple the size of the average Michigan one, bursting with unfamiliar fruits and vegetables, or unfamiliar varieties of familiar ones (did you know there are several different varieties of avocado and broccoli?) Brazilians also know how to do sweets the right way, making them not mildly sweet but fully, richly delicious.
I have tried such a great number of interesting new foods that I could probably write a blog entry every single day solely about the cuisine encountered. It's THAT good. However, for the sake of not filling this website with pages upon pages of banana descriptions (by the way, even average bananas are SO flavorful here), I'll spill all the beans here.
Speaking of beans, they're absolutely the staple of a typical Brazil diet, along with rice. Almost every meal includes these two foods in some capacity. Brazilians know how to cook these to be delicious.
I'll break it down into some food categories for easy navigating! Hope you have some food handy, because you will likely be hungry by the end of this.
BY THE WAY: this blog is very long, I'm sorry. I just couldn't keep anything out. Please skip around as desired, but know that the beverages, fruit, and corn categories probably contain the most unique information.
Beverages
Juice. It is THE beverage. At the house, we make fresh juice 2 or 3 times a day. At restaurants, at food stands, at parties, juice is usually the only option available, and there are some weird ones! Cashew juice, strawberry juice, mango juice. Watermelon juice is my favorite, and I recall asking throughout my childhood why watermelon juice wasn't widely popular when watermelons are so juicy. The question hasn't dissipated here. It's divine. Passion fruit-mango juice is incredibly refreshing, and we had orange-apple-lime juice the other day which I feel should become queen of the universe.
Pop is available here, but not widely popular.
Also, something I find odd is that meals are eaten without beverages. The thought is that the liquid takes up room where the food could have been, so people will feel full prematurely. Immediately after the meal, the juice is served.
Here's a quick recipe to make juice in a regular blender! (That's how they do it here.)
1. Take away undesired peels, rinds, or shells. Seeds can stay.
2. Put the fruit in the blender, and add water until it's almost covered.
3. Blend until liquefied.
4. Pour it through a strainer into a pitcher. The tiny strainers with the handle and metal mesh work best.
5. Add sugar (because the water takes away some of the natural sweetness).
6. Enjoy!
Fruits
I've tried so many new fruits; my absolute favorite is called caqui (persimmon in English, but I didn't know that so to me it will always be caqui!) It looks like a tomato, but it's very sweet and slimy and very fun to eat. Another very delicious fruit is called pinha - cherimoya in English (why do we have so many long, complicated names for these foreign fruits??) Despite it's ginormous seeds, it is dreamy, though I fail to find the words necessary to describe its taste.
Passion fruit and goiaba (guava) are also fruits that are very popular here that are a bit more difficult to encounter in my end on the world.
Oranges are green, but they taste very similar to the orange ones. And oddly enough, they are still called oranges despite their greenness.
There is great confusion when speaking about lemons and limes, as there is only one word for them in Portuguese - limão (pronounced lee-moan, more or less). Unfortunately, the fruit that is called simply limão happens to be what we call a lime. Regular lemons are called Sicilian limes. And what they call lemon juice, I call limeade. All conversations I have tried to have about either of these fruits has resulted in mass confusion.
It has been surprising how many things I dislike in the USA that are delicious here! For example, pineapple. I can force it down, though it's never my favorite. Here though - oh my goodness!!! A civil war broke out in the house over the last piece, and there was a very good reason for that war! It's beyond delicious. There are little saws on the leaves of the pineapples, which I don't recall in the USA, so maybe they're a different variety. (But then again, I've never bought a pineapple in the USA, so I may be very wrong about this).
Fruits can be dangerous, too! There may not be flying snakes here (contrary to André's persuasions), but there are attacker fruits. I. Am. Now. Terrified. Of. Cashews. Cashews grow attached to a giant fruit. Each individual nut is attached to it's own fruit the size of a small apple (no wonder cashews are so expensive!) The fruit is popular for juice here, and we bought some to try. Naturally, I had to get the cashew out of the shell, so I took a knife and started sawing away. A white oil emerged, covering my hands. Turns out this oil is related to poison ivy, and 4 weeks later, it continues to be a very bad experience. And I never did get to the cashew...
Veggies
Vegetables are pretty similar to those in the USA. The only huge difference I can note is that there are several varieties of a few vegetables I didn't know had several varieties. Like cucumbers and zucchini. Sure, I knew of salad cucumbers vs. pickle cucumbers (or maybe those are the same?) Here, they come in every possible shade of green.
Broccoli also has several varieties. And there is a very spicy lettuce variety called rucola (arugula in English) that takes me by surprise whenever I accidentally encounter it in a salad.
Squash is also popular, and is used in a variety of delicious desserts!
Corn
Yes, corn gets its own subtitle.
I always knew and loved corn on the cob and corn muffins, but here they take corn to a whole new level.
Like corn juice. Seriously the most delicious beverage that has ever touched my lips. It is creamy, made with milk, and oh so sweet. We even made our own the other day, and it was so easy and good!
Corn popsicles are heavenly. Pamonha is delicious (cheese covered in this warm cakey corn stuff). And corn cookies are now my preference to the traditional flour-made ones.
I never would have expected corn stuff to be good, but I found myself craving it every second of every day after I tried it.
Dairy
Milk tastes different here. It is sweeter and has a totally different flare to it. As milk containers differ around the world, I'll also mention that it comes in small bottles or cartons, and is not kept in the refrigerator until after it is opened.
Cheddar cheese is very difficult to find here, and is very expensive when it is encountered. Several types of parmesan and mozzarella are easily found here. And grilled string cheese is a thing!
There is one type of cheese that comes in big half-moon chunks and is "the" cheese. I don't know if it has a widely known name, and the only thing I can compare it to is Mexican cheese. White liquid cheese is also common, and a delicious addition to tomato sauces and goiaba desserts.
Bread
Fresh potato bread is the best!! And their form of cinnamon raisin bread is far softer than ours. Warm egg and cheese between the raisin bread is simply the best! We also bought fresh French-style bread to eat with our cheese fondue on International Women's Day, and there is nothing like it.
An interesting sidenote is that I have not yet encountered a toaster here. I should probably ask about that.
Cheese bread, a traditional Brazilian favorite, consists of bread in the shape of a ball filled with cheese. And pastels, which technically aren't bread but I don't know what they would be considered, are cheese-filled thin pastries that are deep fried. They are even awesomer when paired with the corn juice.
Meat
Meat is an integral part of the Brazilian diet, and it looks to be very tender and delicious all the time. Octopus was included in a seafood dish the other day, but other than that it's pretty standard. I'm a vegetarian though, so I don't really have the authority to comment!
Sweets
Nothing else matters. Skip the rest of the blog. Read here.
My sweet tooth has tripled in size, and any self-control I had before coming here has flown out the window.
Mostly due to the widespread use of condensed milk. It had its own layer in the birthday cake. It is the staple ingredient in the peanut candy we had. It is in donuts. And... Guys, I'm in love.
Ice cream is always self-serve, so a person can try as many types as they want to each visit. The only problem with this, as I've discovered, is that they all melt together and it becomes difficult to distinguish one from another. Truffle ice cream is my favorite, with corn ice cream making a close second. There is also papaya, blackberry, passion fruit, coconut, and several varieties of chocolate and vanilla.
Fried bananas, tapioca cakes, churros with doce de leite, carolinas... The deliciousness never stops.
P.S. McFlurries here are the same as Mexican ones, which I once ate while walking through a thunderstorm and didn't even care if I got struck by lightning.
I've come to the right place.
The produce department at the grocery store here is easily double or triple the size of the average Michigan one, bursting with unfamiliar fruits and vegetables, or unfamiliar varieties of familiar ones (did you know there are several different varieties of avocado and broccoli?) Brazilians also know how to do sweets the right way, making them not mildly sweet but fully, richly delicious.
I have tried such a great number of interesting new foods that I could probably write a blog entry every single day solely about the cuisine encountered. It's THAT good. However, for the sake of not filling this website with pages upon pages of banana descriptions (by the way, even average bananas are SO flavorful here), I'll spill all the beans here.
Speaking of beans, they're absolutely the staple of a typical Brazil diet, along with rice. Almost every meal includes these two foods in some capacity. Brazilians know how to cook these to be delicious.
I'll break it down into some food categories for easy navigating! Hope you have some food handy, because you will likely be hungry by the end of this.
BY THE WAY: this blog is very long, I'm sorry. I just couldn't keep anything out. Please skip around as desired, but know that the beverages, fruit, and corn categories probably contain the most unique information.
Beverages
Juice. It is THE beverage. At the house, we make fresh juice 2 or 3 times a day. At restaurants, at food stands, at parties, juice is usually the only option available, and there are some weird ones! Cashew juice, strawberry juice, mango juice. Watermelon juice is my favorite, and I recall asking throughout my childhood why watermelon juice wasn't widely popular when watermelons are so juicy. The question hasn't dissipated here. It's divine. Passion fruit-mango juice is incredibly refreshing, and we had orange-apple-lime juice the other day which I feel should become queen of the universe.
Pop is available here, but not widely popular.
Also, something I find odd is that meals are eaten without beverages. The thought is that the liquid takes up room where the food could have been, so people will feel full prematurely. Immediately after the meal, the juice is served.
Here's a quick recipe to make juice in a regular blender! (That's how they do it here.)
1. Take away undesired peels, rinds, or shells. Seeds can stay.
2. Put the fruit in the blender, and add water until it's almost covered.
3. Blend until liquefied.
4. Pour it through a strainer into a pitcher. The tiny strainers with the handle and metal mesh work best.
5. Add sugar (because the water takes away some of the natural sweetness).
6. Enjoy!
Fruits
I've tried so many new fruits; my absolute favorite is called caqui (persimmon in English, but I didn't know that so to me it will always be caqui!) It looks like a tomato, but it's very sweet and slimy and very fun to eat. Another very delicious fruit is called pinha - cherimoya in English (why do we have so many long, complicated names for these foreign fruits??) Despite it's ginormous seeds, it is dreamy, though I fail to find the words necessary to describe its taste.
Passion fruit and goiaba (guava) are also fruits that are very popular here that are a bit more difficult to encounter in my end on the world.
Oranges are green, but they taste very similar to the orange ones. And oddly enough, they are still called oranges despite their greenness.
There is great confusion when speaking about lemons and limes, as there is only one word for them in Portuguese - limão (pronounced lee-moan, more or less). Unfortunately, the fruit that is called simply limão happens to be what we call a lime. Regular lemons are called Sicilian limes. And what they call lemon juice, I call limeade. All conversations I have tried to have about either of these fruits has resulted in mass confusion.
It has been surprising how many things I dislike in the USA that are delicious here! For example, pineapple. I can force it down, though it's never my favorite. Here though - oh my goodness!!! A civil war broke out in the house over the last piece, and there was a very good reason for that war! It's beyond delicious. There are little saws on the leaves of the pineapples, which I don't recall in the USA, so maybe they're a different variety. (But then again, I've never bought a pineapple in the USA, so I may be very wrong about this).
Fruits can be dangerous, too! There may not be flying snakes here (contrary to André's persuasions), but there are attacker fruits. I. Am. Now. Terrified. Of. Cashews. Cashews grow attached to a giant fruit. Each individual nut is attached to it's own fruit the size of a small apple (no wonder cashews are so expensive!) The fruit is popular for juice here, and we bought some to try. Naturally, I had to get the cashew out of the shell, so I took a knife and started sawing away. A white oil emerged, covering my hands. Turns out this oil is related to poison ivy, and 4 weeks later, it continues to be a very bad experience. And I never did get to the cashew...
Veggies
Vegetables are pretty similar to those in the USA. The only huge difference I can note is that there are several varieties of a few vegetables I didn't know had several varieties. Like cucumbers and zucchini. Sure, I knew of salad cucumbers vs. pickle cucumbers (or maybe those are the same?) Here, they come in every possible shade of green.
Broccoli also has several varieties. And there is a very spicy lettuce variety called rucola (arugula in English) that takes me by surprise whenever I accidentally encounter it in a salad.
Squash is also popular, and is used in a variety of delicious desserts!
Corn
Yes, corn gets its own subtitle.
I always knew and loved corn on the cob and corn muffins, but here they take corn to a whole new level.
Like corn juice. Seriously the most delicious beverage that has ever touched my lips. It is creamy, made with milk, and oh so sweet. We even made our own the other day, and it was so easy and good!
Corn popsicles are heavenly. Pamonha is delicious (cheese covered in this warm cakey corn stuff). And corn cookies are now my preference to the traditional flour-made ones.
I never would have expected corn stuff to be good, but I found myself craving it every second of every day after I tried it.
Dairy
Milk tastes different here. It is sweeter and has a totally different flare to it. As milk containers differ around the world, I'll also mention that it comes in small bottles or cartons, and is not kept in the refrigerator until after it is opened.
Cheddar cheese is very difficult to find here, and is very expensive when it is encountered. Several types of parmesan and mozzarella are easily found here. And grilled string cheese is a thing!
There is one type of cheese that comes in big half-moon chunks and is "the" cheese. I don't know if it has a widely known name, and the only thing I can compare it to is Mexican cheese. White liquid cheese is also common, and a delicious addition to tomato sauces and goiaba desserts.
Bread
Fresh potato bread is the best!! And their form of cinnamon raisin bread is far softer than ours. Warm egg and cheese between the raisin bread is simply the best! We also bought fresh French-style bread to eat with our cheese fondue on International Women's Day, and there is nothing like it.
An interesting sidenote is that I have not yet encountered a toaster here. I should probably ask about that.
Cheese bread, a traditional Brazilian favorite, consists of bread in the shape of a ball filled with cheese. And pastels, which technically aren't bread but I don't know what they would be considered, are cheese-filled thin pastries that are deep fried. They are even awesomer when paired with the corn juice.
Meat
Meat is an integral part of the Brazilian diet, and it looks to be very tender and delicious all the time. Octopus was included in a seafood dish the other day, but other than that it's pretty standard. I'm a vegetarian though, so I don't really have the authority to comment!
Sweets
Nothing else matters. Skip the rest of the blog. Read here.
My sweet tooth has tripled in size, and any self-control I had before coming here has flown out the window.
Mostly due to the widespread use of condensed milk. It had its own layer in the birthday cake. It is the staple ingredient in the peanut candy we had. It is in donuts. And... Guys, I'm in love.
Ice cream is always self-serve, so a person can try as many types as they want to each visit. The only problem with this, as I've discovered, is that they all melt together and it becomes difficult to distinguish one from another. Truffle ice cream is my favorite, with corn ice cream making a close second. There is also papaya, blackberry, passion fruit, coconut, and several varieties of chocolate and vanilla.
Fried bananas, tapioca cakes, churros with doce de leite, carolinas... The deliciousness never stops.
P.S. McFlurries here are the same as Mexican ones, which I once ate while walking through a thunderstorm and didn't even care if I got struck by lightning.
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
To be an American Abroad
I'm famous.
And I don't say that in some self-centered way. I mean I have legitimately had people hiding their faces and freaking out as if they just met their favorite celebrity.
It's pretty bizarre, actually.
Before I started traveling to different countries, I thought every country produced all their own music, movies, and TV shows. I believed this because I had not known of any media that was popular in the USA that wasn't created in the USA, so I figured every other country was the same way. False. The USA is absolutely the media capitol of the world, and almost everybody watches and listens to American media that may or may not be translated (or have voice overs) in their language. Disney channel with the actors' and actresses' mouths moving to English but with strange voices speaking Portuguese? It's odd indeed.
Unfortunately, I'm a pretty terrible person to be representing the USA in a foreign country, because I'm not up on the media at all.
Excited children: WE KNOW AMERICAN MUSIC!!! *starts singing songs I don't know*
Guys, I listen to Spanish reggae.....
Excited children: WE KNOW AMERICAN MOVIES TOO!!!! *starts listing movies I've never heard of*
Guys, I watched Tarzan for the first time ever here with you, in Portuguese, yesterday.....
And then of course everyone is disappointed. I'm sorry!
And then there was the guy who was SO excited to meet me and after several hours he finally came over to talk to me, and his question was this: Do Americans drink tea like the British? Haha I love it.
And I don't say that in some self-centered way. I mean I have legitimately had people hiding their faces and freaking out as if they just met their favorite celebrity.
It's pretty bizarre, actually.
Before I started traveling to different countries, I thought every country produced all their own music, movies, and TV shows. I believed this because I had not known of any media that was popular in the USA that wasn't created in the USA, so I figured every other country was the same way. False. The USA is absolutely the media capitol of the world, and almost everybody watches and listens to American media that may or may not be translated (or have voice overs) in their language. Disney channel with the actors' and actresses' mouths moving to English but with strange voices speaking Portuguese? It's odd indeed.
Unfortunately, I'm a pretty terrible person to be representing the USA in a foreign country, because I'm not up on the media at all.
Excited children: WE KNOW AMERICAN MUSIC!!! *starts singing songs I don't know*
Guys, I listen to Spanish reggae.....
Excited children: WE KNOW AMERICAN MOVIES TOO!!!! *starts listing movies I've never heard of*
Guys, I watched Tarzan for the first time ever here with you, in Portuguese, yesterday.....
And then of course everyone is disappointed. I'm sorry!
And then there was the guy who was SO excited to meet me and after several hours he finally came over to talk to me, and his question was this: Do Americans drink tea like the British? Haha I love it.
Monday, March 7, 2016
Eu Não Falo Português (I do not speak Portuguese)
How to pretend to speak Portuguese:
1. Translate desired phrase into Portuguese as much as possible
2. If a word is unknown in Portuguese, say the Spanish word and hope it's close enough to be understood (9 times out of 10 it is)
3. If a word is unknown in both Portuguese and Spanish, either say it in English or leave it out completely
4. Speak slowly and in an accent that is supposed to be Brazilian but is in reality more like Kermit the Frog
5. Add charades
Like I said, I don't speak Portuguese. But surprisingly, this method works 99% of the time.
Although the other day I needed to convey that one of the kids was pooping, but I didn't know the word for it so I was stuck with charades. That was something I certainly never expected to check off my bucket list! Haha.
I've never been in a place where I needed a language so much. In Mexico, we had translators with us at all times. In Denmark, I encountered a grand total of one person who didn't speak English. Here in Brazil though, I've only met a total of 7 people who can speak English, so it's kind of necessary to know it to talk with anyone outside of that.
I've started volunteering at a place where NOBODY speaks English. There are tons of kids there, and they are all super curious and will bombard me with questions. Sometimes I understand and can answer, but sometimes I simply don't know a word that is vital to the question, so I can't. It's interesting to see how different people respond to this. Some people laugh and hug me; some people just give up and go do something else; some people speak louder and louder because that's probably why I can't understand; some people repeat the question 15 times even after I have expressed in multiple ways that I don't have the necessary knowledge to answer; some people get this very disappointed look and just stare at me while my heart breaks.
I've discovered that there is nothing in this world that physically hurts my brain more than spending 3 hours having multiple kids talk to me rapidly and in a foreign language at the same time. My brain just fries. It would be a challenge even if they were speaking English, but in Portuguese I don't stand a chance!
There are many people, though, who are willing to slow down their speech and act out their words to converse with me. I am SO appreciative of these people! It's so much better than remaining strangers!
Something that really surprised me about Portuguese is that things are said very differently than in English, so a direct translation often makes no sense. Somebody asked me a question the other day and I understood every single word individually, but the question still made no sense to me at all. I never imagined that could happen! For example, "everybody" is said as "todo mundo," which directly translates to "all world." I guess this is logical, but it would be bizarre to say in English "all the world danced" referring to the 20 people at the party...
Questions are hard, because I have to make sure I understand completely so as to not give any drastically false information (after accidentally telling somebody the other day that I have kids, I'm a bit more wary!) Statements are easier though, because I can generally grasp the main idea, then use the tone to decide in what manner I should respond.
It's definitely a journey, and I'm so appreciative that the people I encounter here are happy that I'm trying, rather than frustrated by my mistakes (although I'm sure they're frustrated on the inside!)
I hope you are all having wonderful days! And if you have time, start learning a foreign language, it'll be very worth it someday!
Tchau Todo Mundo(:
1. Translate desired phrase into Portuguese as much as possible
2. If a word is unknown in Portuguese, say the Spanish word and hope it's close enough to be understood (9 times out of 10 it is)
3. If a word is unknown in both Portuguese and Spanish, either say it in English or leave it out completely
4. Speak slowly and in an accent that is supposed to be Brazilian but is in reality more like Kermit the Frog
5. Add charades
Like I said, I don't speak Portuguese. But surprisingly, this method works 99% of the time.
Although the other day I needed to convey that one of the kids was pooping, but I didn't know the word for it so I was stuck with charades. That was something I certainly never expected to check off my bucket list! Haha.
I've never been in a place where I needed a language so much. In Mexico, we had translators with us at all times. In Denmark, I encountered a grand total of one person who didn't speak English. Here in Brazil though, I've only met a total of 7 people who can speak English, so it's kind of necessary to know it to talk with anyone outside of that.
I've started volunteering at a place where NOBODY speaks English. There are tons of kids there, and they are all super curious and will bombard me with questions. Sometimes I understand and can answer, but sometimes I simply don't know a word that is vital to the question, so I can't. It's interesting to see how different people respond to this. Some people laugh and hug me; some people just give up and go do something else; some people speak louder and louder because that's probably why I can't understand; some people repeat the question 15 times even after I have expressed in multiple ways that I don't have the necessary knowledge to answer; some people get this very disappointed look and just stare at me while my heart breaks.
I've discovered that there is nothing in this world that physically hurts my brain more than spending 3 hours having multiple kids talk to me rapidly and in a foreign language at the same time. My brain just fries. It would be a challenge even if they were speaking English, but in Portuguese I don't stand a chance!
There are many people, though, who are willing to slow down their speech and act out their words to converse with me. I am SO appreciative of these people! It's so much better than remaining strangers!
Something that really surprised me about Portuguese is that things are said very differently than in English, so a direct translation often makes no sense. Somebody asked me a question the other day and I understood every single word individually, but the question still made no sense to me at all. I never imagined that could happen! For example, "everybody" is said as "todo mundo," which directly translates to "all world." I guess this is logical, but it would be bizarre to say in English "all the world danced" referring to the 20 people at the party...
Questions are hard, because I have to make sure I understand completely so as to not give any drastically false information (after accidentally telling somebody the other day that I have kids, I'm a bit more wary!) Statements are easier though, because I can generally grasp the main idea, then use the tone to decide in what manner I should respond.
It's definitely a journey, and I'm so appreciative that the people I encounter here are happy that I'm trying, rather than frustrated by my mistakes (although I'm sure they're frustrated on the inside!)
I hope you are all having wonderful days! And if you have time, start learning a foreign language, it'll be very worth it someday!
Tchau Todo Mundo(:
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