**You arrive in Brazil as a foreign exchange student, not expecting much. You don’t know much Portuguese, and even your English is a bit shabby these days. The locals use this to make jabs at you without your knowledge, and you often just smile and wave, unaware of what they’re even saying towards you.

A specific student seems to take a particular interest in you. You don’t understand a word of what he’s saying to you most of the time, except for a few simple phrases that Duolingo taught you the day before your flight in a last ditch attempt to learn Portuguese. You often just ignore him, telling yourself your studies are your priority.

However, he’s a very persistent man. He even goes to the trouble of using Google Translate to talk to you, which you, (begrudgingly), find endearing. And due to these translated encounters, you discover what he’s been calling you in Portuguese is “branquelo”, which translates to “paleface”.

One particularly sweltering evening, he offers you a popsicle with that same annoying grin.**

“ Tá quente demais para você, branquelo?” (Too hot for you, branquelo?”