^Last night, after everybody goes to bed and I finally allow
myself to do it (i don't let myself do it during the day - too
much fun - and minds out of the gutter, please - I know how you
are) - I popped into a random video chat room ("Hangouts") on
Google+ - where you can talk with up to 9 people at once. In
this room, there were a few brazilian men and women about my
age, maybe a few years older.
They didn't speak any more English than I spoke Portuguese. But
we all had each other laughing the whole time. After I used up
the few phrases I horribly mispronouce (which got them laughing)
and they used up theirs (one of the women in the room managed to
get out a "Hello! How... are.... you?" and a man could just
barely say "Good morning") - I started to use Google Translate
and tried to pronounce what I saw, without really knowing how to
read portuguese aloud. THAT'S when everybody, including me, got
a severe case of the giggles, especially when I made sense.
The whole thing lasted maybe 20 minutes before my woefully
underpowered netbook decided "I'm not strong enough to handle
video anythings", gave up on me and knocked me out, I closed up
shop and went to bed with a smile on my face: I just visited a
foreign country I will never see, talked to people I will never
meet, in a language I will never comprehend and they did the
same with me.
The absurdity of the whole situation was hysterical and an
honest laugh shared among strangers is especially wonderful, for
you have made temporary instant friends, all with good
feelings.^
