Falando como uma carioca

So word on the street is that tomorrow it will be February, which means that I have been here for almost a month. Quê?! In many ways I still feel like the same gringa who naïvely arrived in Rio with a single bathing suit in her suitcase, skin the color of a fresh bed of snow, and the strict intention of using a money belt at all times. Mostly, though, I'm surprised by how settled and adapted I am beginning to feel.

Just HOW settled and adapted am I, you ask? I now have a Brazilian phone, the price of which I haggled down by more than 30 reais. I've developed a decent knowledge of Rio's public transportation system. I'm darker ("oranger," as my dear sister has noted) than I've ever been in my life, thanks to my Brazilian-style bathing suit. I know when I'm being ripped off, for certain items at least, and most of the time I know how to get myself a better deal. I've discovered my favorite spots for açaí, sucos, pão de queijo, and caipirinhas, as well as the cheapest grocery stores (and the ones that give free samples!). Someone on the street asked me for directions the other day (I didn't know the street, but that's beside the point). Most importantly, however, I can really feel my Portuguese improving, and this is the most rewarding adjustment of all.

I really love the Portuguese language. I always have; when I think about it, it's really the main reason why I decided to come to Brazil in the first place. When I first arrived, I was rather disappointed to find that no carioca I've met speaks in the same clear, moderately-paced, comforting manner as my Portuguese teacher in Davis. Most of what I understood was individual words which I could then put together to extract the bigger picture, but in retrospect I think a lot was totally lost. I definitely don't understand everything I hear now, but listening to the accent, rhythm, and inflections over and over has definitely gotten me closer to my goal of fluency. Thanks to hours and hours of eavesdropping, language classes, and just good ol'-fashioned conversing, I actually get the difference between when someone is asking me a question and when they are making a statement. Consequently, I don't spend as much time smiling and nodding my head with a spaced-out look on my face, which is always good I guess, although I tend to do this when people speak to me in my native tongue, too.

But while the structural components of Portuguese are all well and good, I have found that the most fun part of this fabulous language is its slang. Props, Brazil, your colloquialisms are mad cool. Almost every day I hear new words and phrases that I love, and I find that my use of the Portuguese language is largely centered around trying to steer conversations in a direction that will allow me to fit them in. Here I have included a short list of some of my favorite words and expressions:
-Que chic! (pronounced "shee-ky")- How chic! I like using this one to describe things that one wouldn't traditionally think of as chic. For example:
"Look! I walked into a pole and now my toe is bleeding and purple!"
"Ooooh, que chic!"
-Chata - stubborn/annoying. Seems like this would be an insult, no? Maybe, but apparently chata is also a common term of loving teasing and endearment. I wish I had found that out before I spent weeks slowly building up a fiery grudge against one of my language teachers who told me I was annoying (or so I thought) every time I got up to go to the bathroom during class. Which was a lot.
-Estupidamente - stupid(ly). Used as an adjective, not an adverb, to mean "really/extremely/hella." Example:
"Quero uma cerveza, por favor, estupidamente gelada!" (A beer please, STUPID cold!)
-Okay, so this one is more of a pattern than an individual word or expression, but here goes: Brazilians have made a habit of increasing the number of syllables in a bunch of English words to make them sound, in my opinion, way more adorable. Here are a few: picky-nicky, lappy-toppy, backy-packy, flippy-floppy... the list goes on.

I hope you have found as much entertainment in these words as I have, although I would imagine that you would have to hear grown adults very seriously warning you to avoid carrying around your lappy-toppy in your backy-packy for yourself to feel the full comic effect.