language roller coaster

so far i would describe my experience in brasil and trying to learn portuguese as a roller coaster ride - filled with lots of thrills and spills and emotional ups and downs - the high of having my first meeting totally in portuguese (along with drawings and lots of body language ;) and chatting randomly with taxi drivers - through to the lows of blank stares (mine!) when colleagues speak to me at a million miles an hour or i try to make a sentence which draws similar blank stares from the brasilian listeners....

today was a classic example of this language roller coaster - the low would have to be that somehow, every time my manager hears me speaking, i am speaking in english! and she puts her hand to her ear and says "is that Portuguese or English?".... ;)

but the high would have to be going in the elevator to the cafetaria at work (which for the abn'ers in Amsterdam is like a proper restaurant here with waiters and tablecloths etc!) and chatting with my team mate in portuguese...we were pretty engrossed in the conversation so we didn't notice the CEO in the elevator with us...but when we left the elevator he congratulated me on learning portuguese :D