Pé do meu Samba

Mart'nália and the great Caetano Veloso. Check out the cuíca!

1. grudado - glued, stuck together
2. largar - to release
3. o regador - watering can
4. Tanto faz. - Whichever.
5. deitar-se - to lie down
6. afastar - to stray, to isolate
7. a borboleta - butterfly
8. o sapo - toad
9. mascar - to chew, e.g. mascar chiclete
10. combinar - to plan
11. o rascunho - draft
12. a fita crepe - adhesive tape
13. a armadilha - trap
14. Você pode contar comigo - You can count on me, Melissa.
15. o paredão - cliffhanger?
16. por acaso - by chance
17. o dramalhão - melodrama
18. o calcanhar - heel
19. o paladar - sense of taste
20. cuidar de - to take care of
21. o medo - fright, e.g. ter medo
22. cortado - cut
23. curto - short
24. acertar - to be right, opposite of errer, e.g. A flecha acertou o alvo.
25. desnaturado - monstrous, unnatural
26. aceito - accepted
27. amador - amateur
28. o mano - homeboy, gang member

Frutas

The property (a chácara, or small ranch) appears to be very old, and it has a beautiful row of fruit trees. Here are a few, along with--why not?--the Republican presidential candidate they remind me of.

Laranja - orange. A wild variety. Acerbic and ancient.

Cereja - cherry. Small and sharp; colorful but not quite ripe yet.

Manga - mango. Rotund. Overripe.

1. recear - to regret, e.g. Receio que sim
2. o enteado - stepson
3. a gozação - mockery, ridicule
4. Cale a boca! - Shut up!
5. bobo - silly, foolish
6. o bolso - pocket
7. se esforçar - to exert oneself
8. agüentar - to stand, e.g. Não agüento mais!
9. o cara - a guy
10. comprovar - to prove
11. enxergar - to perceive, to find
12. o repelente - bug spray
13. a demão - coat (of paint)
14. a enchente - flood
15. não prestar - to be no good
16. o bacherel - bachelor's degree
17. Isso - Precisely.
18. a herva daninha - weed
19. estragar - to ruin
20. atrapalhar - to get in the way
21. alagado - flooded, waterlogged
22. a bomba - pump
23. aliás - by the way
24. o moleque - a bro

Chickens

The ladies.

For the past couple days, I have been mowing the lawn, scraping clean the chicken coop, and using the dried grass to reline the hens' nests. It is awesome in almost all respects (handling gasoline and a pitchfork, for example). Scraping the chicken coop is not as much fun.

The co-op (freshly reupholstered).

I found a few eggs in there today--it's a trip to hold a freshly-laid egg still warm from the layin'... oh the delights we city slickers miss out on.

Egg.

1. caçar - to hunt
2. a lagartixa - gecko, e.g. A lagartixa está caçando os bichinhos The gecko is hunting the bugs
3. o reflexo - reflection, e.g., Ontem eu achei que era o reflexo, mas seu cabelo é lilás mesmo Yesterday I thought it was a reflection, but his hair is in fact lilac
4. vencido - expired
5. a tigela - bowl
6. ligar que - to care that, e.g. Eu não ligo que você pensa de este jeito I don't care if you think so
7. o travesseiro - pillow
8. Esto bem - I'm good (I don't want your pudding)
9. o morro - hill
10. bocejar - to yawn
11. a calçada - sidewalk
12. empurrar - to push
13. a barata - cockroach
14. a propaganda - advertising
15. o buraco - hole

If Anything Can Happen

I came across this beautiful song on a podcast I've been listening to. The podcast is called Café Brasil, and the song is "Se Tudo Pode Acontecer," by Arnoldo Antunes, one of the biggest Brazilian musicians of the 1980s. I've given the English a go below. (Also, the bassist in the video looks freaking awesome.)

If anything can happen

If all things are possible

For a desert to bloom

Or a heavy cloud not to rain

Then it's possible someone could appear

And that that someone could be you

A comet could come down to earth

A bolt of lightning in the darkness

The both of us walking hand in hand, somehow

I want this moment to last my whole life

And even longer, in the morning beyond

If it were you and me

If it happened that way

And some more of my vocabulary

1. a grana - slang for "money"
2. bravo - furious
3. a preguiça - laziness
4. a seiva - sap (from a tree)
5. o varejo - retail
6. entre aspas - "quote unquote"
7. mole - soft
8. o caldo - broth
9. sobrar - to remain, e.g. Só sobrou pele "There was only skin left"
10. a gaze - gauze
11. o lazer - leisure
12. lambar - to lick
13. a acerola - acerola...?
14. a tampa - lid
15. resgatar - to save, e.g. Eu resgatei a forminha "I saved the ice tray"
16. encher - to fill
17. o cunhado - brother-in-law
18. arrumar - to come up with, e.g. Ele consegiu arrumar uma mulher "He got some woman to marry him."
19. Tá?! - Capice?!
20. a broa - maize flour cake or fat woman
21. cacheado - curly

Águas de São Pedro

Branquinho, the best dog ever.

So. I am living in what appears to be a rustic hotel and organic garden, about 3 hours inland from São Paulo. My tasks include mowing the lawn, cleaning the chicken coop, watering the many potted plants that litter the place (did you know you have to water potted plants even during the rainy season?), weeding the vegetable garden, moving furniture etc.

It's just me and Angela, the lady who lives in the house on the property (and who is the mother-in-law of the owner?). She is super nice, and since she doesn't speak English it's like having a personal Portuguese tutor, though I understand perhaps 40% of what she says. She cooks, I cook (blechh), we watch the morning news, etc. She has dogs, but she can only let them out of the house when the chickens and turkeys are safely inside their coops, or else the dogs kill all the chickens and she has to buy new chickens.

So far, this looks like it was a good decision. My next goal is going into town (a tiny touristy town called Águas de São Pedro) and figuring out what the whippersnappers here do for fun of an evening.

And, I think I will finish every post with some new words I have learned. Thanks for reading this far!

1. se tornar - to become
2. parir - to have a child, cf. Puta que pariu! Apparently there is a neighborhood in Minas Gerais by this name.
3. dengoso - whiny, mesquin, cf. fazer dengo Angela uses this a lot to describe Magrela, her injured sighthound.
4. o caju - cashew...
5. ningem merece - something like "let's not" when you don't want to do something
6. apavorado - terrified
7. o rastelo - rake
8. o ferramento de trabalho - tool
9. o ciúme - jealousy
10. a grama - lawn, cf. cortar a grama "mow the lawn"
11. ferver - to boil
12. eu trago - 1p.sg. trazer, to bring
13. esquentar - to heat
14. soltar - to set loose, cf. eu vou soltar as galinhas "I'm going to set the hens loose"
15. molhar - to water
16. mangeira - water hose, also mango tree, also a famous samba school in Rio de Janeiro.