The Texture of Portuguese, and Other (Almost) Sensational Experiences

Portuguese...Today is my third full day speaking Portuguese and having to actually communicate coherently with it and explain why the hell I am here. Let me first declare that it is not the hell that learning to speak fluent Spanish in Nicaragua was five years ago--probably because I speak Spanish now and it is similar enough to Portuguese that I can recognize words and fake it a bit by changing accent and word endings. Haha. But really, the real declaration here is how unbelievably, incredibly pleasurable it is to speak this language. It has a texture like honey, thick, sticky, and viscous, or, to use a different example, like those little square Brach´s caramels wrapped in clear plastic that you find sometimes in bowls on small tables in the entryways to people´s homes. You pop it in your mouth and it sticks to your teeth, your gums, the roof of your mouth, while it slowly melts away to leave only a sweet caramel aftertaste. I feel like a child playing with this language--I can make it slide out of my nose, dive off the tip of my tongue, or stay puffed up in my cheeks--the sounds one makes with this language are truly liberating!
And I say this not because I am on my second glass of wine here in my room, alone in front of my laptop. No, I say this because it is just so.

So...it was my first day of "work" today. Professor Rubens picked me up in the morning and
took me to FEAGRI (Faculdade de Engenheria Agricola--Faculty of Agricultural Engineering). He introduced me to all the lab-mates (fellow graduate students), and then we sat down with Professor Julieta to talk about my goals and thoughts on what I would do while I was here (this is where I had to justify my existence in Portuguese). Julieta is who I will effectively be working with. She is part of the group that does rural development studies here at UNICAMP.
Julieta is very cool, very critical of "agronomic" thinking, excited about my ideas, and ready, I think, to keep me on task here. She wants a work plan of sorts after I visit COOXUPE (the coffee cooperative) for the first time next week, which will be good, I think. I will go to COOXUPE for a couple of days next week and am very excited about that. For now, I am working this week on a presentation of some preliminary market data, to have something to bring to the cooperative as information.
I went to the bandeijão for lunch with the lab-mates. The bandeijão is a humongous cafeteria-type place that is subsidized by the government, so it is basic food, very cheap, close to a dollar with a student ID. I don´t have one yet, so we borrowed someone else´s so they would let me in. Lots of fun, lots of rice, beans and kovi (greens, very popular). The bandeijão serves 5000 people every day for lunch!
The lab-mates are great! Agmon the lab technician has adopted me as his new project, I think, and I already know his whole family via fotos.
From there I attended a 3 hour lecture on modes of agricultural production in Brazil (focusing on soy and coffee!!) and then Rubens took me home. Leftover feijoada for dinner with a cup of Brazilian red wine in my room. A great first day.
I walked around the neighborhood a bit after I got home, so I feel more comfortable and less isolated than yesterday. I will probably feel even better after I walk to campus tomorrow (if I can find my way!).

See ya...