Note: as I was typing this post I thought I might go ask Claudia if I was correct with pintinho...and the way I formulated the question in my head was "what is the word for the child of a chicken." I imagine this would have been hilarious...I can't help that I have a limited vocabulary, ok!
Classes, even aside from chicken babies, are going really well. I was moved up to the new group on Monday. It is no longer too easy - in fact it is incredibly difficult. But, I think I am improving and I think I need to have more confidence. I think I am better than I think I am...hrmmm. I am also trying to work on thinking more in Portuguese, which takes some concentration. A fun game I play is to translate whatever song is in my head...it can be pretty funny, especially when I try to sing it out loud!
The BEST part of my day happened on the subway (btw, the subway has a women only car (o carro das mulheres) at certain hours in the morning and the evening and it is pretty much awesome). I was 1 stop from mine and the man next to me looked over and asked me if Ipanema was the next station. I shook my head no and was already starting to reply when I realized that he had asked me in Portuguese and I had understood him. This caused me to trip up a little, but I managed to recover and tell him no, what the next station was, and that Ipanema was after that station. I am sure it was incredibly broken Portuguese, but I am still pretty pleased about it!
Work is going. Some things are really frustrating, but I think that is actually helping me learn to adapt to different situations.
I am still trying to run a lot, and I think it is going well - I am running faster and farther, and I really like challenging myself and coming up pleasantly surprised!
Paulo and Claudia arrived from China today, and before they did I expressly said that I we are done speaking English at home. It is REALLY hard, as even when I do understand what the heck people are talking about I usually can't form a response at all, let alone quickly enough to be part of the conversation. But, it will happen eventually, I think. I keep (and Paulo, too) having to remind Claudia and ask her again to only speak Portuguese with me. I imagine it is really frustrating for her to have to speak to me so slowly and try to understand what the heck I am saying...so I hope to improve so it is easier!
Off to study more...