River

I went down to the Texas Beach trail today. I have a vacation coming up, during which I will have to carry my water for the night. So today, I stuck 2 bricks (weight a little under 9 lbs) plus my camera in my bag -- just to test it out. I did about 2 miles on Texas Beach. Definitely could feel the weight!





Garter Snake --



Remember that I often harvest a few Pawpaw fruits in late Summer? I kinda wanted to find the trees when they are blooming. Somehow I expected the blooms to be bigger!

Uma Resposta Inesperada -- Even Though

I did a good job tonight explaining a pesky English phrase to my Portuguese speaking friend. I did this with the help of another friend here having wine with me tonight.

I received a message from my Portuguese speaking friend asking me to help him understand the phrase 'even though'. The request gave me pause as I tried to think of how to explain it.

With the help of wine, my other friend and I were discussing and searching Google, and the friend realized that 'even though' is an unexpected RESPONSE to a situation. The situation itself is not necessarily unexpected, but the RESPONSE is unexpected.

So, one of the examples I gave in this audio is "I bought a new car, even though I am quitting my job next week" -- buying a new car is an unexpected thing to do when you are planning to quit a job.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ydo8vg2428f3upa/EvenThough.mp3?dl=0

We native speakers "know" what phrases mean, even though it can be hard to explain them. (Do you see what I did there?)

And the Portuguese friend seemed to understand perfectly! I mispronounced 'resposta' in my recording, lol...