One week!

It feels like way longer.

Yesterday was my host mom's birthday, so there was a party. I was not initially aware of this, as I think they either didn't tell me about it or I just didn't understand them. I thought she wasn't going to be home from work until 9:30 PM, like usual, so I almost went to the beach in the evening, but fortunately decided not to go since the party had already started when Georgia, my host sister, and I got home.

The party was incredibly language-work-intensive, but was probably the most fun I've had with my host family since I've been here. It was great to talk to other native Brazilians who weren't Gracilene and Georgia, and I think I did pretty well! In general I understand when people are talking to me, if they talk slowly enough, but I miss most of what they say to each other. Sometimes there are words that I would understand if they were written down, but spoken they're just different enough that I'm completely lost. I spent about ten minutes yesterday trying to understand "ventilador," which is the word for fan. I thought it was something about "vinte," or twenty, and something about somebody's back. We got there in the end, though. I supremely enjoyed hanging out with my host cousin, Julia, who is absolutely marvelous, and the daughter of a friend of the family, Barbara, who thought I was the most hilarious thing in the world for not understanding her.

Whoops, gotta go - tchau!