Today, upon request, I took Marcelo to Walmart. He does not have a vehicle and was very interested in seeing my Jeep Wrangler. On the way to Walmart we talked about how crazy drivers are. He said traffic is much more "organized" in Brazil. "In the United States, people do whatever they want!" While I agree that there are some crazy drivers, I still wanted to defend my country. However, before I could respond a woman proceeded to cut me off and go speeding down the road. I ended up just agreeing with Marcelo.
We discovered that we both love country music. Some time during the semester I am going to take him to Billy Bob's and teach him how to two step. He has been once before, but the country dancing in Brazil is much different than what people do at Billy Bob's. I then played a CD of my favorite band, Relient K, for him. To my delight he really liked them! At our next meeting he is going to play a different sort of Brazilian country music for me.
Once we got to Walmart, we made our way through the aisles and picked up everything he needed. I found it interesting that his shopping list was written in Portuguese. Some of the items he had to describe, but we had no trouble until it came to Kleenex. He described it as "lens paper" so I thought he meant the special paper or cloth used to clean glasses. However, I realized he meant tissue paper when he started pretending to blow his nose. Our little Kleenex debacle was probably quite a spectacle. This was his second time at Walmart and he was very impressed with the variety of items it contains. There are Walmarts in Brazil, but they are all too far away from his small town for his family to do any shopping there.
When we got to the checkout, he started putting his things on the counter. To my embarrassment, he even took the one item I needed to get and placed it among his things. He refused to let me pay for it, saying it was the least he could do for driving him there. Any guy who has no reservations in buying a new acquaintance a box of tampons is definitely all right in my book.
I couldn’t help but laugh at the end of your description of your trip to Walmart. I did find it funny that he must have been so amazed with this store—something we tend to take for granted I think—but I thought it was very comical that he purchased your personal item! I guess other countries aren’t as embarrassed about silly things like we are here in America. Very interesting post! Can’t wait to read more about you and Marcelo! :)
ReplyDeleteHi Jenny, I laughed too. Quite an unexpected image. Thanks for driving Marcelo to Walmart. That was quite thoughtful of you. You seem to be having good experiences together, and I am glad. He is learning a lot from you, and perhaps you are gaining something too. I look forward to reading more. dw
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