Wednesday, January 4, 2012

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.

2 comments:

  1. love it! Maybe I'll learn some vicariously, and how do you feel about visitors? lol
    -Risa

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  2. Que bom que você esta gostando aqui do Brasil, pelo jeito você esta se divertindo bastante.

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