quarta-feira, 23 de julho de 2008

Oi! Não... falo... o português!

I'd like to take a moment to mention a dream I keep having. The details are a little fuzzy, but the main idea is that I get to Brazil and realize that I have an extremely gostosa host sister. Like, drop-dead gorgeous I'm telling you. Except that whenever I open my mouth to speak with her, I forget how to speak Portuguese! I end up making a complete fool of myself while she patiently treats me as if I'm mentally impaired.

Bottom line, I'm 90% out-of-my-mind excited!!!!! About 10% extremely nervous and anxious!

I know that everything will work out well, though. Sandra is a great comfort already. Plus, Daniel (my exchange brother) will be there for a week before he flies off to his exchange in Canada, so he'll be able to show me around and make me feel at home.

Well, at this point, I have exactly four weeks before I leave for the Big B, two of which will be spent painting houses for College Pro Painters, the remaining two for packing my life away and hanging out with friends. Many of my best pals are heading off to college even before I leave, so my life is about to be full of forlorn farewells.

Clara leaves the sixteenth of August :( That one will be tough. We're squeezing in as much hang out time as possible these last few weeks!

Again, I love you all.

Kevin

sábado, 12 de julho de 2008

Pants on Fire

Okay. So I'm a liar. I am not actually in Brazil at this moment in time. However, it is easier to just say I live in Santo Andre already so that I don't have to change it once I get down there. Plus, to be honest, I just think it's pretty sweet to pretend I live in Brazil already. That's the main reason I lied.

I'm sorry.

Until I leave, I will be updating this blog to keep track of certain exchange "breakthroughs." These "breakthroughs" may be something as boring as "Yay! I learned a new word in Portuguese!" to something a little more intensely emotional, such as "There's no way I can do this! I just had the most awkward conversation of my life with my Brazilian exchange counselor and I now realize what an obstruction my ignorance of this new language will be!" Hopefully it will usually be somewhere in between. Interesting, emotionally light, something that invokes neither yawns nor tears.

So I am, at this moment, publishing my first breakthrough (I "stopped" putting "quotes" around it because I think "you guys" have "caught on" by now. Okay now back to the breakthrough): I spoke with my host mother on the phone! I knew quite a bit about her from her e-mails, but it was very nice to just hear her voice. I was so embarrassed by my Portuguese that I found myself retreating back to my mother tongue. Luckily/unfortunately, Sandra could understand and speak a little and we had a nice conversation. She asked if there was anything I didn't eat because she wanted to make me a lunch for when she picks me up at the airport. What a great mom! This is already beginning to look wonderful. She is extremely kind and has an undeniably motherly voice. Hopefully I'll be able to speak Portuguese with her next time!

Okay, that's it. So concludes my first blog entry. I don't know if they will all be this rambly, but I certainly hope not. I am getting slightly tired by simply proofreading it. Well, it is pretty late. Maybe that is the reason for my yawns.

Anyway, thank you. I love all of you reading this. Make sure we get some good hang out time before I leave on the 25th of August.

Tchau!

Kevin