The Home Body

Today is one of those days I just didn't feel very adventurous and I also didn't feel a lot like constantly saying "não falo Portuguese" so I mostly just stayed in the room. I decided, though, not to wait on the maid and left soon after David and went to the pool on the roof with some reading so the maid would clean the room early. While up there, a young college man came in and started a conversation and I had the use that magic phrase. As with most people here, he immediately assumed Espanha. I said não, English. He started to say he speaks a little English but after about two words said, "não falo English." I had my duo language dictionary and we managed to find out that he lives in São Paulo and I live in Kentucky. He asked if I visited São Paulo and I said we drove through on the way to the beach (praia) which I pronounced wrong and he corrected me but I still can't get the pronounciation right. He asked if we had beaches in Kentucky. I said just rivers (rios) and lakes (lagos). He immediately assumed Great Lakes but I said não, only five great lakes but many states have many many lagos. He wished me a good time in Brazil and I said "obrigada" and then I told him I could do "obrigada" "por favor" "onde" (where) and "quanto é" (how much). That brought a laugh and that is universal.

Back in the room, the maid had finished but was still on the floor. I had left a bag of laundry and wanted to be sure she understood. I would have been better off assuming she understood. She brought me another laundry bag. And then called her supervisor to bring me another bag. And then I get a call from the laundry room from someone who only spoke Portuguese. Still not sure about the status of my (actually David's) clothes, I went to the lobby and luckily got THE person who speaks some English. Apparently we are okay. We will see tomorrow if David gets his clothes back. For me, I just rinsed my stuff in the sink. I refuse to pay someone R$4 to wash one pair of my panties.