If I were to walk into Home Depot or Lowes back in the US and look for window screens, I could almost positively find it on my own. If not, I would be able to clearly ask for what I was looking for. Not the case here in Brazil. There have been some serious bugs getting into the apartment, so I decided it was time to get some window screens. I went to the hardware store hoping that I could find them on my own and not have to use my very, very, very limited Portuguese. But no. That would be too easy.
So I looked around for the kindest-looking person I could find and said, "nao quero moscas no meu apartamento" (which I am pretty sure means, "I don't want flies in my apartment").
She asked if I needed "tele para janela" or something like that, which I recognized as meaning window screens.
"Sim, sim," was pretty much all I could respond with (yes, yes).
"lajsdgglkj otro lado ba;ksdjhfas," was pretty much what I understood next, so off I went to the other side of the store.
I still couldn't find them. So I found more people to ask. This time I was armed with more words. My mouth said, "tele para janelas?" and my face said, "please help the poor foreigner who doesn't know how to speak your language."
"sl;dfjasdlfkj 108 askdjfhasd" is what I thought I heard.
So off, I went to aisle 108. It was plants. So I just wandered around for a while and eventually found what I needed in aisle 112.
Maybe not the best hardware store experience, but I got what I needed. And hung them up with pretty owl duck tape.
So I looked around for the kindest-looking person I could find and said, "nao quero moscas no meu apartamento" (which I am pretty sure means, "I don't want flies in my apartment").
She asked if I needed "tele para janela" or something like that, which I recognized as meaning window screens.
"Sim, sim," was pretty much all I could respond with (yes, yes).
"lajsdgglkj otro lado ba;ksdjhfas," was pretty much what I understood next, so off I went to the other side of the store.
I still couldn't find them. So I found more people to ask. This time I was armed with more words. My mouth said, "tele para janelas?" and my face said, "please help the poor foreigner who doesn't know how to speak your language."
"sl;dfjasdlfkj 108 askdjfhasd" is what I thought I heard.
So off, I went to aisle 108. It was plants. So I just wandered around for a while and eventually found what I needed in aisle 112.
Maybe not the best hardware store experience, but I got what I needed. And hung them up with pretty owl duck tape.
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