Sunny, Sunday, Afternoon

Well, it's Sunday afternoon.. 

Saturday I went to the dentist like a good girl.  It wasn't too bad.  They didn't even give me a shot.  The dentist explained that my tooth was "dead" anyway, and all the nerves were gone, so the permnanet filling would not hurt.  Great..  I have a dead tooth--it sounds so, I don't know..so final.  My tooth is dead.  Lovely.

  I can only imagine what the dentist and the dental assistant were talking about as they finished the burial of my poor tooth.  They spoke Vietnamese, with some English intermixed, with little giggles here and there.  I felt as though I was just a mouth full of dead teeth--defenseless, laying there, closing my eyes from the glaring light, trying to focus on the words of the movie that they put in the overhead T.V., that I could no longer see.   Of course, I automatically assumed they were talking about me.  I imagined their conversation was as follows:

"I wish this woman would breathe through her nose.."

or

"This lady has so many dead teeth in her mouth, it's embarrassing..." 

or..

"Oh my God..this lady has so much food stuck in between her molars she could feed a 3rd world country.."

Languages don't bother me.  I really don't feel too uncomfortable when someone speaks another language around me that I do not understand.  Being bilingual myself, I accept it, and it really doesn't bother me; in fact, I'm fascinated by other languages and cultures--always been.  But, why do we always automatically assume that they are always talking about us? 

I would assume the same thing whenever I got my nails done.  Apparently, I have tense hands.  I was scolded a few times at more than one nail salon that I have to "relax my hand."  How do you relax a hand?  I just can't.  May be it's because I constantly type for a living?  Apparently, my hands can't relax..  May be there is something wrong with my hands?  I don't know.  I just have heavy, stressed out fingers?!?  I have my grandmother's big hands---sorry!  I've had men do my nails who have smaller hands then me.  I guess, that is intimidating?  I don't know, I could just imagine them saying the following, as I make my way through their door:

Oh no the lady with the heavy hands just came in!"

"You take her Aiko!"

"No way, not this time..."

"Her hands are as heavy as bricks!..." 

At work, I have a friend who also speaks Portuguese, and I admit, we do talk in Portuguese, and at times, we do speak about other people in the office.  I'm guilty...minha culpa, minha culpa, of this offense.  I'm sorry, if these sounds really awful, but it comes in handy in certain situations.  Most of the time, however, when we speak in Portuguese, there are certain phrases that just make more sense than it does in English.  It's kind of hard to explain, but, when you grow up in a different language/culture, there are some sayings in Portuguese that just don't make sense in English.  It's like trying to translate a joke from one language to another.  In English it sounds hilarious, in Portuguese it just doesn't. 

What is really funny, is when I'm out shopping, and I notice other people in the store speaking Portuguese..  I feel like a spy, because the automatically assume I don't understand them.  It's pretty funny what people will say when they think the people around them don't understand--it can be pretty darn hilarious.  I've chuckled a few times, and once they find out you just heard the story of why Uncle Alfredo can't wear boxer shorts, to see the horror on their faces is just priceless!!