Eu, tu, ele, ela, você, nós, eles, elas, vocês

Although I have already looked up very BASIC Portuguese things such as counting and conjugating regular verbs in the present tense, I still have a TON of work to do in terms of learning the language of a country that I'm going to be immersed in.. in approximately 2 weeks.

So, this morning, I went to the Central Library and picked up 3 books: a Brazilian Portuguese phrasebook (handy!), Portuguese Verbs and Essentials of Grammar, and 501 (ohh... YES. THE language book that almost everyone owns when they're learning a language) Portuguese Verbs.

So far, the 501 Portuguese Verbs book has been a little intimidating, so... I haven't really looked at that one, yet. But, the Brazilian Portuguese phrasebook seems pretty promising. For example, I've learned:

Desculpe - Sorry/pardon/excuse me
Poderia falar mais desvagar? - Could you speak a little more slowly?
Como é que se chama em português? - What's that called in Portuguese?
Meu nome é - My name is..
Onde fica...? - Where is..?

And, of course, "obrigada, bom dia, boa tarde, boa noite.."

What's been most difficult, so far, is knowing how to pronounce things. For example, the "d's" seem to turn into "j" sounds, sometimes. Also, sometimes words that end in "te" like "noite" sound like "noy-eech."

The other thing that's been difficult is differentiating Portuguese vs. Spanish. There are so many similarities between the languages, yet some subtle changes.. so it's going to be tough knowing when to catch myself.
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So, besides getting Portuguese language assistance, another way that I was productive today was... picking up my Brazilian Travel Visa from the Consulate!! woot woot!

Although I ended up having kind of an amusing experience when I got to the consulate, involving:
Me: (Enter the Room, go to the ticket dispenser for a number)
Security Guard: What are you here for?
Me: Oh! J-just picking up my visa!
Security Guard: What? You're not here to pick ME up?!

Oh... what an amazing job that must be, for the security guard to joke around like that...

ANYWAY. Things went smoothly. Just waited about 5 minutes for the 3 people in front of me to get their visas, went to the window.. handed the guy my application receipt, got my passport with the visa inside within a minute... and.. that was it! :D