Today when I was at Aroma Café studying over my (uncaffeinated!) morning cup of chamomile, Brazil’s soccer team was playing Mexico on the television. I love the Olympics. Soccer: Brazil vs. Mexico at London Olympics I did Pimsleur while …
I am now a totally uncaffeinated student of Portuguese. Four days ago I quit my morning shot of espresso. Espresso was the only source of caffeine in my life. Studying at a Cafe Caffeine-Free Flags of Many Nations, Rockefeller Center…
My Upper West Side neighborhood is not, to the best of my knowledge, filled with Portuguese and Brazilian institutions. Running errands today, though, I swung by this building someone had told me about: the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, at 70th…
Today was a Monday. This seems like a good day to mention days of the week. Portuguese days of the week are not at all what I was expecting, based on previous encounters with Romance languages. Saturday (sábado<…
Rats. I did it again. A few days ago somehow I managed to scratch, or at least abrade, my cornea again. Technically both corneas this time, according to the doctor, though only one is truly bothering me. Another…
Now that I drink only one espresso a day, I consistently fall asleep early and wake up early. I am no longer a vampire. Verdi Square at Six-Something in the Morning Some New York Early Birds I wake up so…
Sigh. I didn’t mention this previously, but I scratched my cornea about 10 days ago. No idea how. It hurt like hell and made reading a pain. So relatively speaking, I have been doing more Pimsleur lessons than usual and…
Yesterday it hailed. Large balls of ice on a day when temperatures were well into the nineties. At the time the ice started pounding the windows, I was teaching a grammar seminar at a client’s midtown location. For…
In reading through Sheila R. Ackerlind and Rebecca Jones-Kellogg’s book Portuguese: A Reference Manual, I keep getting surprised by how things actually look on a printed page. How they sound in Pimsleur does not always lead…
My niece and nephews are in town from Italy, so today my husband and I took them to Ellis Island. I hadn’t been in 20 years. Dramatic Cityscape from Boat to Ellis Island Lady Liberty The movie they show at…
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