Language Immersion/Explosion/Confusion

Greetings from Porto Alegre, Brazil. After a 20-hour (yes, 20 hour) bus ride from Buenos Aires, we arrived this morning and I slept until lunch. Before leaving I decided to swear off spoken English for the 2 week trip...which was fine until we got here and were immediately thrown into all-portuguese all the time. Surprisingly, I understand somewhere on the order of 60-75% of what I hear...but I can hardly speak a word. It's completely different sounds and I need to teach my tongue and throat to do it. Tomorrow we begin our language classes and seminars (in Spanish, thank God)...and yet today we had a city tour in Portuguese. Go figure. Anyway, exciting things that happened today:

1. A Brazilian college professor who was sitting next to me on the bus helped me with an ongoing project: learning to knit. I thought it was tough to learn in english or spanish...portuguese was a challenge
2. I bought a painting I really like at a street fair for about $7
3. I tasted the trademark soda of Brazil, Guarana, and it's awesome
4. I randomly, while at said street fair, ran into a friend from middle school who is living here for a year. I can't begin to explain how weird and random it was

Tonight we're headed out on the town with Brazilian guides (our portuguese instructors). So far so good...showing off my limited language skills: tudo bem. Tchau!