You Say Churrasco, I Say Barbecue

Normally I like to come up with these posts in advance. Write it. Let it sit for a few days and then make them beautiful. Well, today I have decided to part from tradition and write something after I have been out drinking after I was already up until 2:30 am the night before...out drinking. I am convinced the beer helps my Portuguese. I am going to write this one time and I am not going to read it over to proof-read or anything like that. The main reason is because I am tired and I am going to a costume party tomorrow.

So as many of you know I am returning to the good ol' US of A in December. I came down here with a little money and big dreams. I didn't want to come back to the USA for a while. Brazil is a society based in the relationship. You have to get to know people before they make you one of their own. I needed to do this. I needed to build these relationships, these friendships that will get me to my dream. I am not sure what my dream is but I know that I am going to keep moving forward and focusing on the present and I know that dream will show itself.

For example. Tonight I called up a new friend who I am going to go to the party with tomorrow and asked him if he wanted to do with me to buy my ticket for the party. He said yes. We went to Diamond Mall and I got my ticket for $15 reais. There was also a futbol game on and I was one of the local teams here. We decided to go somewhere to watch the game. We ended up in a typical barzinho that served great churrasco that my friend knew of. I was planning on one beer. Rubem, my friend, doesn't drink and he was driving, with my meal that we shared...of course.

Rubem loves to speak English and speaks it as ofter as he can. The table behind heard us speaking English and made a smart ass, been drinking for a while comment that had something to do with us speaking English. He tried to say this in English. I turned around and asked if he spoke English in English and then I said in Portuguese: "I understood, yourGo English is perfect!" His wife and he began laughing embarrassedly. They couldn't believe that I could speak Porutuguese. After some small talk and the game ended, tied, my friend and I moved to the couples table behind us and proceeded to have conversations about all kind of things...in Portuguese.

After 3 or 4 more beers we had talked about the American School of Belo Horizonte, business, importing, exporting, marrige, and then some. Bottom line: this guy was helping me to think of ideas on how I can stay in Brazil and I am sending him my resume next week in Portuguese and in English. Who knows what will come of it, but I am making the connections that I need to be making. I am becoming one of them. I don't think this would have happened if I had not been able to speak Portuguese. Thanks Cris!

Good luck! I am going to bed...