Lucy CP-2

My second meeting with Tayana was another awesome time. This time it was a midnight breakfast at IHOP. The International House of Pancakes ...ah, such culture.
Tayana got a blueberry ice cream sundae (we had thought earlier that we would be going out for ice cream but everything was closed), and I got these cinnamon pancakes (incredible) with 2 eggs and sausage. Yums.
Tayana and I talked idioms on this date, and how funny some could be. I told her how confused I'd always been by "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth", until I realized that it was meant to allude to the Trojan horse. She knew the story and could understand the idiom. She said she didn't understand what it meant to say that you were "bouncing off the walls" or "climbing up the walls" in English. I tried to explain, but we both agreed idioms in any land were a strange lot. We also talked common regional phrases in the U.S. versus Brazil. I explained "Bless your heart" as a Southern phrase I'd grown up with, and she said the exclamation "Bah" could be used to express any emotion in her region of Brazil. In speaking of Brazil we used my new Iphone (I got it this week and I’m not an Apple person, so it’s taking some time) to pinpoint her home in Manaus, in the Amazonas of Brazil. She talked a bit about the city there, and her family and showed me a picture of the Rio Negro meeting the Amazon River which I’m attaching here. Absolutely amazing… How have I never heard of this?

We also talked classes and what the CIES program was like. We both agreed it was a shame to have met now, when she’ll only be in the U.S. for another month. She’s having a very busy semester, and even though she is looking forward to Brazil, she is making new friends and can tell that her English has improved a lot.
I’m hoping to find something fun to do with Tay next week, even if it’s just time at an area park. If you have any ideas, pass them along!