Laundry Before Language

I successfully did a load of laundry at the laundromat located just down the street from our hotel. It actually was not a "coin laundry" per se since there was an operator who turned the machines on from behind a counter. The operator was a nice woman though who, although at first looked a little panicked when I told her I didn't speak Portuguese (in English), helped me out with gestures. I did manage to ask "Quando tempo?", which I think/hope means "how much time?" and she answered "Quatro minutos" or something like that.
I took a walk around town, heading over to a drug store first where I bought a toothbrush and shaving cream. I brought the items to the counter and the woman used a computer to ring up the items. She must have punched in about two dozen numbers (the UPC numbers?) and then proceeded to hit a series of keys which included the F2 and F4 keys, before she eventually told me the total. I handed her a R$50, which is what I found solves the problem of not understanding when they tell you the total. I made sure to say "Abrigado" before leaving at least.
I then strode back past the laundromat again, but still had a good 20 minutes, so took a right at the corner and found an ice cream shop. The tubs of ice cream weren't labeled and I wasn't really sure how to order, but eventually saw they had "Milk Shake" on the menu board, so I went up to the cashier and said that. She rang me up for R$6 and gave me the receipt. I walked over to the guy behind the ice cream cases and handed him my receipt, to which he responded by asking me something--probably "what flavor", so I pointed to vanilla. Five minutes later I was headed back to the laundromat sipping on one of the best vanilla milk shakes I've ever had.
When I got back to the laundromat, my clothes were ready for the dryer so I transferred them and motioned to the operator, but she waved me over, gave me a little token, which I then put in the dryer slot. The LED screen lit up with a 25 so I sat down and read my book.
Overall, it took about 2 hours, but it was a nice way to spend the late afternoon, and I got some reading done, not to mention some time to explore the neighborhood.