Volví a Brasil!

Today, I had a long day at work. I was tired and it just wasn't the best day ever.
On the way home, I remembered that I still have Jamba Juice money on my gift card from Christmas, so I decided to go there to get a drink for lunch. They have a drink called Acai Energizer (or something like that). Açaí is a berry-ish type fruit from Brasil. I had açaí ice cream in Brasil, and it was just about the most wretched stuff ever, but its not the flavor thats bad, its the texture. It is like eating blackberries with a mouth full of sand. Anyhow, I was curious about how Jamba Juices Açaí is. So I got that drink. And it tasted good, and only has the ever-so-slightest inkling of sand. The funniest thing to me was that the Jamba girls told me that its ah-KAH-ee is how the fruit is pronounced. They thought it was funny that I pronounced it ah-sah-EE. But isso e o pronunçaõ portugues. That is how its supposed to be pronounced. Not that Im a Portuguese expert! Ha! I can somewhat read it, and maybe understand it if its spoken slowly, especially if the speaker tries for a spanish accent! You know, it was weird in Brasil to talk with people because many of them understand spanish, and I can pretty much understand slow portugues, so I talk to Brasilians in spanish, and they talk to me in portuguese. Once, the phone rang at the mission house where my short-term team was staying, and there were no portuguese-speakers in the house at that time, but usually it was another missionary on the phone, so someone answered it (who didnt speak portuguese). I was elected to find out who it was and what they wanted. Luckily, it was a guy that we knew, so he knew that none of us speak portuguese, and he knew who I was and that I speak spanish, so he went easy on me with incredibly slow portugese pronounced with a spanish accent with spanish and english words thrown in every now and then!

Speaking of talking on the phone in a different language... Sometimes I can talk really well on the phone in spanish - Paty didn't know who I was when I answered the phone at the Delgados. Marlia and I didn't recognize each others' spanish voices on the phone! But, then sometimes I really suck at talking on the phone. For example, my brothers always like me to answer the phone, partly because they don't feel like it and partly because they want a reason to laugh at me. So one day, all three of them were in the living room, and I was elected to answer the phonce. I couldn't understand much of what the lady was trying to say, other than the fact that she said that she was Karla, and I KNEW it wasn't my friend Karla because I'd recognize her voice, but she sounded like she knew me. A pillow flies across the room at me. I let out a little yelp. My brothers laugh. Karla gets frustrated and tells me she needs to talk to Suyapa if Michelle's not there. I tell her I can give her Michelle's phone number. But she already tried it. a DART flies across the room at hits me. I scream and drop the phone - wouldn't you freak out if you got hit with a dart?! Then I realized that it didn't hurt because it's a magnetic dart. I feel like crying from frustration. Iván has mercy on me and takes the phone. I hear him explain that I'm a gringa and I don't hear well on the phone. Thanks a lot. I was actually quite frustrated with my beloved brothers at that point, but I laugh about it now, and I still love them!!