body speak
2014-03-01 @ 10:10 a.m.

after the winery, and before we went to the farm, we stopped in porto alegre to spend time with my extended family. i have so many cousins there and we all went out to dinner. it was a long table of about 25 of us if i remember correctly. we sat next to those who could speak english, that way i didn't have to bother my mom and grandmother all night about translating our conversations. we all talked about the differences in brazil compared to the united states like the cities, the crime, and even the language. it was really fun, and there is the only photo i grabbed from the night with most of my cousins. after dinner, we went to my cousins house, toasted with local champagne and s and i tried our hardest to understand the Portuguese conversations. being that we don't speak the language, instead we had to rely on context, body language, tone of voice, facial expressions, the look in their eyes, and you get to know someone so much more that way with no prejudice on what they said. to get to know someone by their emotions, a language all humans speak, it's incredible. this bond is not just family, it's good people. this, visiting the "homeland" where family still lives, it's so important. we're only disconnected by miles and country lines and language, but the bond is still there.