A few nights ago I dreamt that I was back at a cafe in Portugal, ordering pastries and coffee in the early evening. It was the first dream I've had in a long while where I was speaking Portuguese, not English. After ordering my milky galao, the sassy-pants barista demanded that I order an aperitif instead of a coffee, on account of the hour of the day. I can't imagine this ever happening in Portugal. It was as if I were in Italy (where I can imagine this happening) and was reprimanded for ordering a cappuccino too late in the day. Flustered, I did my best to apologize for my huge social blunder.
But then, the nightmare. I couldn't remember how to say "I'm sorry" in Portuguese. All I could get out of my mouth was "mi dispiache," which is the Italian.
To make matters more weird, numerous days later (in real life), I still can't remember what the Portuguese is for "I'm sorry." I lived there for over 3 years, and all I can think of is the Italian! Granted, the last thing I did before I moved from Portugal back to America was to take a 2-week intermediate Italian class in Florence. But still. I'm troubled. Somebody ajuda me.
(Photo of the lovely Costa da Caparica: Dsevilla)
Tuesday, May 15
Ajuda Me
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6 comments:
can you ajuda me with my letter writing skills and send me your address via electronic mail?
desculpa. : )
it's funny that you blog about this now, because this is the first night in several months that i'm haunted awake at 1 a.m. by memories of portugal and the nagging feeling that i want to go home. i was laying there, and all of a sudden i was sitting on our living room floor on my 25th birthday blowing up that dumb vonage adapter.
saudades imensas.
Rachel,
The funny thing is, I went for a drive after posting this, and was totally beating myself up for forgetting such a key, basic phrase. The last couple of days I've been saying to myself, "it has something to do with the culpa being mine." Over and again in my head, "culpa," "culpa mia?" "culpa minha?" oh dear.
It FINALLY came to me, not one hour ago.
I really miss Portugal. And you blowing things up in our apartment.
Saudades tambem
BIG sigh.
big ache.
love to you from nashville. hope you're sleeping soon.
desculpa is, i believe, my favorite portuguese word. mostly cuz it's so fun to say. especially if you say it in the short way that you often hear it which just sounds like "scoop!"
jesse will be in portugal soon! lucky one.
desculpa and beijinhos are the only two portuguese words I'll never forget. The first because I said it so much during that week that I came to visit you, and the other because my two portuguese YL girls always used to say goodbye to me with beininhos. :)
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