pergunta pra ela

On the day of the U2 concert, Brasileiro and Brasileira had to work until about 8. Bummer for them, and potentially for me, because I had a choice between going to the concert with them and missing Franz Ferdinand, or going early with their friends who didn't speak English. I opted for early, because I really wanted to see Franz, but I was a little worried about the day with "K" and "F."

F and K live out in the country somewhere. They don't really have to use English in their daily lives. But it turned out, after Brasileiro and Brasileira took their superior English skills to work with them, F could put together a sentence in English if we worked together on it. (We'd set our feet, lean in, and stare while he said one... word... at... a... time.) I learned the important Portuguese phrase "Pergunta pra ela..." ("Ask her...") from K, who would periodically nudge F and say, "Pergunta pra ela...." Early on she made him explain to me that she was a nice person, really, she just didn't know how to speak English, so I should like her anyway.

I was a little concerned about sitting on the ground in the stadium for four hours with K and F. I mean, we could communicate about showers and lunch, but idle chitchat was a little tougher. But when we sat down, it turned out that one of the dudes in the group next to us wanted to practice his English, so we had a completely inane conversation about movies and music. He was a Metallica fan. Then it turned out another of the dudes had studied in France, so I was able to display that I am not a complete buffoon, I can speak some foreign languages - just not the one of the country where I happened to be at the moment.

K took some pictures of us with her camera phone, but Brasileiro hasn't sent them yet, so you'll just have to imagine: a lot of people and a really freaking big stage thing. It was quite a nice afternoon, really. We were out of the sun, the rain stopped before we got there, and there were people to talk to.