Muses on Moz: Changing Languages...

After a little lapse, I'm back. I've had six days in the house to myself--Matias and the kids went to his hometown, Chimoio, last Friday. That's the longest I've been alone in my house in nearly 10 years. Unbelievable. So I should have had plenty of time to write... and I was thinking of all the things I could write about-- how Dona Veronica, the accountant at work, told me I was getting fat and made a pose like a body builder; or my new best friend at work, Luigi, an Italian from Naples. He calls himself a Neopolitan, not an Italian. He's married to a wonderful Roman Italian named Sarah, who effortlessly melds being a progressive independent woman while retaining many of the characteristics of the quintessential Italian mother and wife (i.e. she calls Luigi 4 or 5 times a day at work and they yell at each other on the phone). Luigi is a lot like me in an Italian man's body-- we both do everything fast and nothing calmly. So we get along great.

But, when I choose what to write in the blog, I inevitably come back to the kids, because watching them go through all the changes here is endlessly entertaining.
Nalia
Nalia came to me the other day and asked very seriously, "What is prahncing?"
"You mean praaancing?" I replied.
"No. Prahncing."
"Well, it's... like galloping in a very happy way." (I am not good at defining these things). "In the U.S., we call in praaancing."
"Well, I'm going to say prahncing, because that's how my teacher says it. ... And mommy, you should know that Elio has started saying 'waTer,' and not 'waDDer,' like the Americans do. I don't understand why Americans say waDDer anyway because it's spelled with a t. Why do English and American people talk differently anyway?"
Wow, that was a question. So then I had to explain about how they colonized the U.S., but we don't talk like them because our countries are an ocean apart, and with the distance, over time, people pick up different accents.

Nalia has kept her American accent for now, but she's experimenting with words like prahncing and she finds words and phases like swimming costume and being cross with someone very funny, so once in awhile, she'll slip these in to make us all laugh.

Elio is a different story. Nalia is right. He has started saying waTer. He is also starting to speak English with a Porgueuse accent: "loook Mommy." "Seet down." "Thees is mine." I think it's endearing and cute, so I don't correct him. It's really amazing to me (and makes me v. jealous!) how fast children can pick up languages. Elio has been here four months and speaks Portuguese fluently.

My new language is Italian. I hear more Italian than Portuguesethese days at work . This is because 1) there are two Italians in my office (Luigi and Francesca), and 2) Italians generally like to talk. Also, Italian is more like Portuguese than I ever knew. So I'm understanding a fair amount and try to speak once in awhile.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of our recent trip to the beach in Bilene, and my trip to the middle of nowhere (once again) for work.