"Parabens" is "congratulations"and is used quite liberally here. On any given day, I will offer congratulations and receive congratulations many times. Each instance will be without the slightest hint of sarcasm. No matter how trivial or important, each instance will receive an equal congratulatory response. Just had a baby? Congratulations! It's your birthday? You went out to lunch? You tied your shoe? Congratulations, congratulations, congratulations!! In English, this is a real a-hole response, right? In Portuguese, it's completely sincere and heart-felt.
"Estou satisfeito"is "I'm satisfied," but is used as the equivalent to "I'm full" in English after a meal and has no sexual connotation whatsoever. Still, I like it when people make this announcement at the dinner table.
"Entendeu?" is "Did you understand?" but is equivalent to how we would follow-up an explanation of something with "Got that?" or "You know?" When we first moved here I thought I was constantly being asked if I understood what someone was saying (a fair question), but realized Brazilians ask this regardless of what your first language is. They say it to each other, too.
"Como?"is "what?" In Portuguese, it's perfectly acceptable to say only "what?" if you need something repeated and it's not abrasive like it is in English. It is very difficult to explain to Eri, 4, that it's OK to say "como" if you didn't hear someone in Portuguese, but not "what" if you didn't hear someone in English.
Questions:
Being Americans, we are somewhat novel here and always asked random questions by new acquaintances, sales clerks, fellow diners, friends' family and complete strangers. Regardless, the same stuff comes up often. My favorites:
- Do you eat bacon and eggs every morning? (No.)
- Do you eat peanut butter every day? (Yes.)
- Is Thanksgiving really like on Friends? (No, most families fight during major holidays.)
- Have you ever met Miley Cyrus? (No.)
- Do you love Miley Cyrus? (Sure.)
- Do you shop at Victoria's Secret? (Sometimes.)
- Do you eat at the Olive Garden? (God, no.)
- Do you like living in Brazil? (YES!)
Celebrity status:
We brought our bike trailer with us from the states and take it out, at a minimum, every Sunday afternoon. Geoff pulls our two babies and I pedal behind them along the beach-front bike trail, which is awesome because I get to see all the heads turn and hear all the comments. There is nothing like this bike trailer here and people love it. So much so that they hang out of their car windows to take pictures of it on their phones, or take videos of it when we ride through the park. This seriously happens. Every time. We once stopped at a playground and at least a dozen people pulled out camera phones and snapped away. What they do with these pictures, I have no idea. One person once asked if the bike trailer came from China, which it probably did, and someone else asked where she could get one for her dogs.
Some recent pix:
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| It's winter, but still beach weather here. |
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| Eri and her BFF from school, Lavinia, on a Saturday playdate. |
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| You don't have to speak Portuguese to know what this sign says: No peeing on steaming poo! |
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| Two happy guys. |
