Are you cold?

Coming from Recife, Northeast Brazil, and landing in Minnesota has presented me with some great and utterly funny moments, specially regarding the difference in climate. Some other ones involve my transition to living in English: I have studied it, spoken it, "thunk" it and even dreamed in it. But, until I moved here, I had never lived it. Now I do.

But back to when I didn't, it kind of worked this way: You hear it, you read it and most likely you can even spell it, but when it's your turn to pronounce it, that's something different. So, one cold winter, years ago, I was freezing. To what Chris says:

- Are you cold?
- Yeah, I even have goo spumps!

'Til this day we still call it goo spumps. It's just cuter. I meant goose bumps, or course. Funny name for it, though.

On another occasion I was telling Chris' parents about my uncle, who loves fishing and can cook seafood like no one - It's simply delicious. He's cool like that: fishes his own food and prepares it awesomely! So there goes the story and I'm trying to remember the name of this thing he makes in coconut rice and they're trying to guess:

- Is it a fish?
- More like a creature. It's big, tons of long arms...
- Squid?
- Nooo... Oh, I remember now! Octopussy!

As soon as it came out of my mouth and I heard it, I knew it wasn't right. Too late. They laughed and teased me for a good part of our commute to the restaurant. I knew it was octopus, but it didn't quite hit me in time. Speaking in a different language is a bit of a guessing game too.

Once, at the Minnesota State Fair, I was craving those fried pieces of delicious cheese:

-Chris, I want those fried cheese thingies! The cheese curbs!

They were cheese curds, but just as delicious.

But honestly, even after living in English and sometimes being lazy to read or speak in Portuguese, I still manage to come up with new "just-guessed" words. They're the best. There will be more to come.