I don't like your attitude...

A Belgian girl named Charlotte just moved into our little apartment full of estrangeiras. Thus far, I haven't had any stellar interactions with her to make me fall in love with her, but I was overwhelmingly neutral. I can now say with utter certainty that we are NOT going to be BFFs.

I was making a sandwich in the kitchen and she likes to play shadow and be in the periphery of someone else at all times. So, we were really just together in the kitchen in silence, I, making my sandwich and she, occasionally refilling a water glass (I guess so she that would have a reason to be there). When she first picked up the water glass from the dish drainer, a plate moved and made some noise and she wiped her forehead and said "Whew". This is about the 20th time I've seen her make this gesture since she moved in. Either she leads a very stressful existence full of close calls, or it's a sure sign of hand movements to compensate for a low level of English. I know this because I have had entire conversations made up of gestures such as this.

We speak English a lot around the house because Stephy speaks VERY well and Melissa does too. Charlotte, the new girl, does not. I have managed to spend the past few days since she moved in without revealing to her that I speak French. But her piecing together of sentences and constant use of false cognates had me remembering why I hated teaching English to French people so much, so:

I said (in French) "I'm not sure why I didn't mention this before, but
I speak French, so if you want, you know, we can speak French"

Charlotte (in English) "Oh, I zink it better zpeaking in Portuguese. "
Charlotte speaks less Portuguese than any of us. "And the others, they
do not know speaking French"

Me (in French): "Well, I just meant, if you ever want to speak French
with me, it's fine with me. But, I agree we should all work on our
Portuguese."

Charlotte(still in English): "Yez, but I zink for you it's eazier in ze
English".

Did she not recognize just how many tenses I used! If that's how it's going to be... Laura just suggested to me that I mess with her by using unnecessarily big words in English:

Like, instead of saying "I was thinking about taking a walk" say something like "I pondered ambulating around the perimeter of the neighborhood"

Then, she further emphasized her coolness by saying "I'll be going out later with my BOYFRIEND, so if I am not home, do no worry about me!"

Yes, 'cause you know, the rest of us just sit around and knit looking at
the clock.