November 5, 2018
Growing up my parents spoke Portuguese as a secret code so my brother and I couldn't understand them. I vowed to learn Portuguese so I could know what secrets they talked about. It turns out my high school Spanish worked just as well. I remember the day well, we were all in my dad's small car running errands in Fort Worth. My brother and I were in the back and my parents were in the front talking about something or other when all of the sudden they switched to Portuguese. They said some words I didn't understand but then they said "helado" and I knew enough high school Spanish to pick up that they were talking about ice cream. Foolishly, I said, "Yes! Let's get ice cream" and that was the end of the Portuguese code language with my parents. On my way back from Honduras I was in the airport going through customs and talking with the customs officer and at the end realizing I had been speaking in Spanish. That same summer I remember being in a Targ...