Brazil has a similar overarching history to the United States. Both countries have had their own experience with European colonialism beginning in the early modern era, and the subsequent exploitation of continent-sized swaths of land, where the ocean-crossers found plenty of natural resources AND preexisting indigenous groups to disturb. I guess that makes sense because they are both in the “New World.” In contemporary times, one large Brazilian city, Curitiba, and my home for two months, also resembles the U.S. in its melting pot demography. Italian, Polish, German, and Japanese immigrants (among others) arrived here to make a life, and that has allowed for a diverse and utterly lip-smacking culinary scene. But the cosmopolitan atmosphere also gives rise to linguistic collisions as well. For instance, the other day I introduced the word, gesundheit, a term English has borrowed from German, to my guide and translator André, who already speaks English very well. In this language-rich place, he could independently confirm the veracity of my vocabulary lesson with his German-speaking girlfriend and discuss it em português. (Also a speaker of Spanish, his tongue truly is a triathlete.) And later, Je parlerais un peu français avec un étudiant de Guinée. And although my french is of the cobweb variety, c’etait amusant.

By the way, despite the cooler and wetter weather (it rained earlier with the threat of an encore tomorrow), overall I find this "winter" weather fantastic. Bless the subtropics.