Third PLD Meetup Globetrotting

Roberta Barroca

Hello from ATA’s Portuguese Lovers Division… I mean, Portuguese Language Division! Hope you guys are having an extraordinary week; I most certainly am. I had the wildest experience the other day: I discovered a booth with teleportation and time-travel properties. How cool is that?! So, when I found out that the third ATA-PLD meetups would all be held during the same week in different cities around the world simultaneously, I couldn’t help but think it would be a great opportunity to try out teleportation myself. Here’s how it went:

 

I started out in São Paulo. I was craving those amazing pastries one only finds in Brazilian deli-style bakeries (‘padarias’). The meetup in Sampa (as locals call it) took place at Lareira Bakery and Deli on February 22nd. It was raining cats and dogs, even though the city is actually known as the Land of the Drizzle (Terra da Garoa). After a very lively talk, a pastrami sandwich and a glass of wine, I decided it was time to teleport myself to Washington, where I heard the gang was hanging out in Ipanema.

 

So… teleportation has its glitches, after all. They weren’t really in Ipanema, they were at a restaurant called The Grill from Ipanema. However, after a few caipirinhas, it almost felt like we were at Tom and Vinicius’s favorite neighborhood. There were eight people in D.C.’s happy bunch. Some of them had met at the first PLD meetup, had attended the second one, and came back for this latest one. It was a beautiful winter afternoon, but spring was in the air. After more than a couple of caipirinhas, I was hoping Cris Silva was going dance zumba with us. If you usually attend ATA Conferences, you probably know the Zumba Queen from her very early morning classes. I’m pretty sure I was about to convince her to make a few moves when I remembered it was time to move on. Miami, here I come!

 

Welcome to Miami! Bienvenidos a Miami! What a beautiful day for a PLD meetup! I went straight to Monty’s restaurant to meet the crew. Just the ambiance would have been worth the teleportation side effects. The tiki-esque eatery had live music entertainment and a great view of Dinner Key Marina. We were a small yet high-spirited party of five. Our chats went from haircuts to professional certification. Ana Beeck, one of the non-ATA translators attending, gave everyone a lesson of how to slay excuses and go to PLD’s meetup. Although she was in a restrictive raw food diet, she showed up with a big smile on her face carrying her lunch box full of berries. Way to go, Ana! And now, as a way to pay tribute to her Germanic roots, off I go to Berlin. See you there!

 

Guten Abend, Berlin! I must say I was especially excited about this one because Berlin was the first European city to host a PLD meetup. Eight people showed up, three of whom were not ATA members―after all, PLD always stresses it doesn’t restrict its meetup invitations just to linguists who belong to the ATA; all are welcome! Barist was the restaurant chosen for the occasion, being a beautifully decorated Italian restaurant. Many of the translators and interpreters present were in Berlin for the “Elia Together” conference for freelance translators and language companies. We exchanged business cards, talked about the German market, and added each other on Facebook. It was such a pleasant encounter that we lost track of time. When we realized it, the restaurant was closing and we were the only ones still there (that’s such a Brazilian thing to do!). I picked up a flower from a vase, put it in my hair, and off I went to San Francisco, where the meetup was co-organized by the Northern California Translators Association (NCTA).

 

I arrived a bit late at the Belle Cora restaurant because the time-travel feature is still in its beta version. So, when I got there, twenty-four people had already arrived. I didn’t know most of them, but fortunately they were all wearing name tags. The mix was quite varied: translators, interpreters, and language students. The group was so big we almost took up the entire restaurant just for ourselves. As in all the other meetups, I had an amazing time with the Bay Area guys. Teleportation is a bit hard on the body, so I was happy to be headed towards my final destination: Toronto!

 

Tdot’s meetup almost messed up my booth’s teleportation GPS because the brewery’s name chosen for the get-together was Amsterdam. After it finally understood where I was going, I arrived right on time for a nice cold craft beer. The cool thing about this crew was that they all pretty much knew each other already and most of them go to all the meetups.

After so much travelling around, I was ready to go back home and sleep for twelve hours straight. It was a tiring but amazing experience. Can’t wait for the next PLD meetup in September! See you then, Tchau!

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ROBERTA BARROCA ― Formada em jornalismo, mas há quase dez anos se dedica unicamente à tradução e interpretação de conferências na combinação linguística inglês/português. Intérprete associada à International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC) e à Associação Americana de Tradutores (ATA).