Brazilian Fiesta

On Thursday night, Andrew and I were actually socialites. We went to a party with a bunch of people we didn't know, and we had a good time, too!

See, I have this friend Angela, who is from Brazil. She is also friends with David, although we met at different times and she didn't even know that we were related when she met me. David met her in a dance class and I met her in Italian class. She's a great girl and we became good friends.

So, on Thursday night, she invited Andrew and I over for a nice Brazilian dinner. Also invited were a bunch of people who served in Brazil (like my brother), as well as some of her Brazilian friends, and their friends.

For dinner we had beans and rice. What else? There was also lasagna for the people unwilling to try beans and rice, like it's that exotic (jeepers, Andrew...beans and rice...that's all). But it was a traditional Brazilian meal, so what else would there be but beans and rice, or rice and beans.

Interestingly enough, Andrew and I were among the youngest there but were the longest-married couple. It was kind of strange to not be considered newly weds. That's probably the first time that's ever happened in our whole married lives. I'm sure it will continue to happen as we are married longer.

The highlight of the evening for me, though, was rediscovering one of my favorite groups. When David came home from his mission he brought home this CD that I absolutely fell in love with and listened to virtually every day for a very long time. Well, when that group came blasting over the stereo, I couldn't help but force Andrew to get up and dance with me (what's the point of marrying your dance partner if you have to force them to dance? I mean, come on!).

The lowlight was probably that I don't speak Portuguese so felt a little bit out of it. Because we were so linguistically challenged at this party Andrew and I had to speak Italian together just to feel a little less left out. Andrew and David also discovered that they carry on a rather lengthy, albeit pointless, conversation with Andrew speaking Italian and David speaking Portuguese.

I believe their conversation went something like this:

David (in Portuguese): "Hey, I can understand what you're saying."
Andrew (in Italian): "I can understand you, too."
David (in Portuguese): "Cool."
Andrew (in Italian): "Yeah, will you get me some juice?"
David (in Portuguese): "Sure, which kind?"
Andrew (in Italian): "Grape."
David (in Portuguese): "This one?"
Andrew (in Italian): "No, that one."
David (in Portuguese): "This one?"
Andrew (in Italian): "No, that one."
David (in Portuguese): "This one?"
Andrew (in English): "Grape!"
David (in a lot of languages): "Oh."

And thus we see that there were some communication problems at the party.

My favorite was when Angela went up to her husband and asked, "We need plates and what else is it you eat with?" "Silverware?" he offered. "Yes," she said, "the plastic kind."

Ahhh...I love being surrounded by language barriers. Somehow it makes me feel secure.