What a long, strange trip it´s been.

Well, first let me start by apologizing for my lack of blogging activity in the past while, I´m not going to make any excuses but that´s just kind of how things worked out, I´m not happy about it either.
Second, when I return to the states I plan to continue my blogging and patch some holes that I left in that absence streak, so even though the stories won´t be fresh, they will be fresh to you and might still be worth while to read.
Third, I also want to do a kind of last blog from portugal, I don´t know if this is going to be it but we´ll see how things play out.
This year has been monumental in my life so far. A very wise teacher once told me, (this was in third grade) she said something to this effect, ``This year has just flown by for me, do you all feel that way too?´´ My classmates and I all looked around to one another and shook our heads, ``No,´´ we said, ``This has been a whole full year and it feels like it.´´ My teacher thought a little bit and then said: `` I have a theory, you all are around 8-9 years old, and I´m about 40 something (I can´t remeber but that fits the idea.)´´ We were doing fractions back then and she asked ws what fraction of our lives had just passed us by. We did the math. We were 8, she was 40, one year in 9 years of life is 1/9, and one year in 40 is 1/40, we then saw that we had a way bigger peice of pie than she had, and we realized what she was trying to say. I guess what I´m trying to say now is that, even with only 1/17 of my life having passed this year, that I´m already feeling the acceleration and my thoughts and emotions are being whirled up into this bathtub where someone has just pulled the plug. That´s my analogy, metaphor or similie (can´t remember right now) for the point where I am in my experience right now. I only hope I can react quick enough and throw in some good braces (kayak term) to guide myself safely throw the churning water.

University parade

This tuesday marked the start of the annual ``Academic Week´´ which is basically a week of straight partying for all students. The university students had a parade to kick things off called Quema das fitas, or Burning of the ropes, I´m not sure what the deeper meaning or historical context of that is but I bet I could find out. The parade started in the lowest point in Viseu and would work its way up to the city center, or Rossio, the downtown, kind of like the plaza in Ashland, this is where the city hall is and it´s big and nice with fountains, long rows of trees etc. Each section of the universities had a float, for example, the economy kids had an economy themed float, the veterinary students had a vet float, etc. you get the idea. Most of the floats were being pulled by tractors and had a big trailer behind with the float, music, dancers and the most important thing, TONS-O-BEER. Each float had either kegs set up with taps and a mountain of plastic cups or a giant bucket of ice, probably the size of a hot tub, full of beer. Behind each float was a proccession of students from the respective classes all dressed to match in either suits with canes and tophats or t-shirts, or other forms of uniforms, and they were all dancing to the blasting music from their float, drinking and, of course, since the students couldn´t possibly drink all this beer alone, they started having beer fights. These beer fights consisted of throwing cups of beer on to one another, themselves and anyone watching the parade. They got pretty creative in their beer hurling techniques, some making make-shift grenades while others came equipped with super soakers and hoses. It didn´t rain that day but anyone walking down the street would have thought that the area had just been hit by a flash flood, the gutters guided rivers of beer into the storm drains carrying along cans and used plastic cups, the sides of buildings dripped with the amber liquid. Once everyone was thoroughly drenched in beer, had drank enough or just wanted to be nice, the students would open up their floats to the public and would hand out as many cans of free beer one could carry. This went on until night started falling and too many people had taken a trip to the hospital so everyone went home, more or less stoked.

Back to Lisbon

After our adventure in the Alentejo Sebi and I were taken back Lisbon to continue seemlessly on to our next great activity. We went back to lisbon with sebi´s whole family packed into their small suv. Like I said ealier it was a short drive, atleast on west coast united states scale, and we all enjoyed ourselves. We entered lisbon on the east side passing across one of the longest bridges in europe. The bridge put us right in the neighborhood where we wanted to be. At a stop light sebi and I hopped out of the packed car and were off. Our plan was this: Head to the world famous Lisbon Oceanario (big aquarium full of animals from the oceans of the world), lunch, explore, then, last but not least, the main attraction of the whole weekend, the OASIS Concert!!!
We passed through a big fancy mall on our way to the oceanario and, popping out on the other side, found ourselves in the heart of the modern district of lisbon. This area is one of my favorites in lisbon, it is just chock full of modern art, fountains, architecture and it´s situated right on the banks of the Tejo river. This area has a history too, it was once the sketchy part of lisbon, crime ridden, dirty and generally a dump. It was a big plot of land right on the river characterized by old rundown factories, loading/unloading docks, oil refineries and the such. As the industrial sector of lisbon expaned north, this area was left as waste and soon became a scene much like the book I read last year in english, Cannery Row. Well, in 1998 Portugal hosted the Fair of Nations called, EXPO ´98, the portuguese government at the time bought this sorry plot of land and resolved to spice it up. They poured a ton of money in to making the place a cultural center full of modern art and architecture, of course other nations that were to have `booths´ at the expo, like the united states, wanted to help and make the place a success so they too dumped a bunch of money into the area´s restoration. Well, the result was more than a success and it is now dubed one of the best places in Lisbon to visit, hang out, tour etc.
Sebi and I headed past the Pavilhão Atlantico through the Park of Nations under the cable cars to the Oceanario, we entered and took a blitz tour running around like crazed kindergartners. We saw everything from penguins to tropical fish, to some giant deep sea monsters and the most fragile looking dragon fish. It was all really cool but by the end we were both really hungry. We passed through some more cool areas and parks on our way back to the mall to get a bite to eat. There was this one park with tons of exhibits that had to do with water, a big artificial waterfall and a japanese sort of bamboo water garden. Another park was characterized by the ground, all covered in grass, shaped into big un-moving waves. You could run up and down the backs of this waves, about my waist hight 1m or so, and jump and slide down them. It was really fun running, sliding on the grass, and jumping off the waves of grass. It was a trip. In the mall we made a quick stop at a burger king where I got a delicous triple whopper. We decided we should go eat our meal as we waited in line to get in to the concert so we took it to go and hurried over to the Pavilhão where the concert was to be held. Well, we got to the main entrance only to find the place completely deserted except for a couple policemen. We got right up to the gates and were stopped by the cops to do a routine check. I started to eat my burger before we left the mall so I was about 3/4´s done with my beast of a sandwich when we got to the checkpoint. Sebi went through one side of the gate as I went through the other. My cop didn´t do much checking on me, he said, hey, where are your drugs, I said I already took them and that it was too late, he laughed and let me pass. Sebi´s cop was a little more thurough in his task and while sebi was being checked the guard who checked me started up some small talk. He said my burger looked good and I said it was, and that my secret was that the burger was my drug, we laughed and I continued devouring my beefy delight, dripping all kinds of ketchup and meat sauce. It was quite comical really, finally sebi passed and when I started talking with sebi the cop realized that we werent portuguese and asked me where I was from, I said the states and we started talking about that, I told him all about how me and sebi were exchange students and that sebi was from argentina and he seemed pretty interested. So the good vibe was set for the concert.
We got in to find the colossal pavilhão almost empty except for a mas of tightly packed people close to the stage. I went to the bathroom as Sebi went to buy a t-shirt and c.d. promotion combo. When we were both set we went to conquer some spots. We were still a little early and as we waited the main floor slowly filled up behind us. Soon the lights went out and the opening band came up on stage. They rocked for a little while but where really nothing memorable. Free peace they were called. As they left the crowd gave a big surge and sebi and I took our chance to get a little closer. Our move paid off and we found ourselves about 20 or some odd feet away from the stage. The curtain started to rise and everyone settled down, big screens lit up and the concert was on. The rest is history. We saw everything you would expect at a concert of this size, fights, beer, etc. About 30,000+ people in total. Oasis rocked out and put on a memorable performance, of course Wonderwall and all the old hits were the highlights and as the lights came on everyone was left with a sort of dazed look as is all too common after big shows. We joined in the shuffle to exit the building and as chance would have it, shuffled into one of our AFS volunteers who had been at the show aswell. We chated about everything as we shuffled to the exit, eventually parting ways for good. Feeling another shot of hunger, sebi and I made our way back to the mall, this time to mcdonalds where we met another crew of people we knew. We all ate and conversed about the spectacle we had all just seen and then headed as a group down towards the metro. We road the metro together aswell, saying goodbye to one or two of our groups members at each stop. Sebi and I were going the farthest and eventually found ourselves alone and tired ready to go to sleep. Another train ride and a little bit of walking and our wish was granted.
After a couple way to short hours of sleep I was awaken by my alarm clock. It was time to say goodbye to Lisbon. Sebi woke up with my and insisted on accompanying me to the bus station. We met a taxi close to sebi´s house and set off to the station. We made it in perfect timing and I got on my bus, said a deep farewell to sebi and was off. I slept a little on the bus ride home, but no matter how hard I tried, rest didn´t come easily. I got off the bus in Viseu and headed home for a quick shower and then straight to class, afterall it was monday and due to the AFS code had to make it to the majority of my classes that day. It would have been unexceptably rude to have fallen asleep in any of my classes but I think the teachers would have understood, so I didn´t do much and felt an odd sensation as an end to my fantastic weekend.

Sunny times = Happy times

I know that I start so many posts with the by now familiar phrase ``This last weekend was great´´ but there is really no other way to go about it. I started playing pick up games of american football with some freinds from the other highschool here in Viseu. Every friday we meet up in an abandoned parking lot in the outskirts of the town to play. The scene is somthing like one would expect to find in the days of Sandlot. (great movie) There is a supermarket, a stretch of big road, a big field and us; running, grabbing, catching, laughing, all those great things that come with friends and a ball. We use the lines of the parking lot as yard markers and set up TD zones with our backpacks and bicycles. We get a diverse mixture of kids at our games, girls, boys, rugby stars and math wizes. Now, football is not the easiest of sports to master and therefore I do a lot of explaining and sometimes things meltdown into utter havok, but we have our fun just the same. After this fridays game I went to a jazz concert at the Teatro Viriato. It was an interesting show to say the least. The band was made up of a bassist, pianist, and drummer. They played the craziest experimental jazz I have ever heard in time signatures that I thought impossible to exist and ended every song in perfect harmony and coordination. It was something to experience. They are called Mikado Lab. I think they have myspace and I´m sure are worth a quick google search or other internet magic to hear their unique sound. After the show I went out with some friends. The next day Luis and I went to visit Luis´ parents in Sever do Vouga. The drive to my grandparents house is about 1 hour from viseu, most of it (45min.) spent on a big fast highway with the rest passing by going on small loopy roads in the mountains overlooking river valleys and the likes. Very pretty. We arrived just in time for lunch. Ah, before lunch Luis and I also took a little tour of some industrial area in between Viseu and Sever Do Vouga to see the plant of one of the biggest green energy producers in the world. This company, Martifel, makes everything from windmills to generate electricity, solar panels, to sports stadiums. It was cool just seeing the outside of the process to create one of these monolithic metalic structures. Well, After lunch Luis and I got back in the car to go on another tour, this time it was of the picturesque sorrounding mountains and river valleys. We looped high up to the tops of peaks over looking the river far, far below, and then back down through villages and past farms to the bottom of this river basin to dip our hands in the cool water. We also went to this really cool waterfall that seemed to pop up out of nowhere. Such beautiful country! And so much history too, I think 4 generations of Luis´ family have lived there and still many people from his family still do. We met up with Luis´ dad and went back to the house for a snack. Then we headed to some property that belongs to the family. The property is really cool, its big too, stretching all the way from one roadway about halfway up a mountain until the valley floor where it meets the river. We decided to take a hike and explore the area down until the river. There is an old house on the property and I was told that it was a great place to hold some parties with friends and to bring some people out there to camp. We walked down through the property passing all kinds of cool things, swings hanging off big trees over steep inclines, hammocks, orange trees where you could simply grab an orange of the limb and eat it all juicy and perfect. I was also told that this property was home to many wild boars, although I didn´t see any, there tracks through the mud were plentiful. We heard the rushing of the water long before we saw the river, I started mentally drooling over some imaginary kayaking and started wondering if there were some good rapids on this section of river, maybe even a playwave. We passed a small waterfall and followed it´s flow down to meet the river. As soon as the water popped into sight from behind the dense brush and big trees I saw it, a perfect play wave staring me in the face. I nearly yelled, ``Luis! DO YOU SEE THAT!´´ I said, ``A wave, just perfect for me to go kayaking on!´´ Luis had already seen the video I have here of me playing around on a playwave on the Upper Klamath river so he knew what I was talking about and agreed that it would be good. I sat there for probably ten minutes just looking at the perfection of this wave, long-ish glassy face capped with a nice white boiling top perfect for keeping the boat from washing downriver, and if this were the case, a big long pool afterwards with perfect eddy access and a sandy beach on the side for relaxing, some rocks for sitting, filming, jumpin and everything, just perfect. We walked up river a little more to another spot where the river formed a confluence and the water gained speed and presented another rapid. I would say iniccially class two, maybe three, but I dunno, looked like fun! After our hike, many oranges and some small yard type work we headed back to the house for snack time and then we left.
After arriving back in Viseu I re-dressed and set out for a birthday party in the big mall we have here. I met up with some freinds and we ate dinner, watched a soccer match and saw a film. Sunday was a work day for me as I had to turn in a bunch of drawings for the Design final. We also went out to Vila Nova for lunch and I spent my time drawing out there in the rustic old office of the farm house. Very nice. All in all a goooood weekend. And don´t worry my dear blog reader, I have sooo much more to write about. Much, Much more to come, I garuntee it.

Alentajano style.

After watching our fair share of rugby we felt it was time to do some physical activities of our own. Me, sebi, and some of sebi´s relatives went out to take a tour of the farm. We started out on a quad, piled high with us five, to go chase some pigs. We entered into the large pig area and were confronted by a group of some of the biggest pigs I have ever seen. Some of us jumped of the quad to start hearding the pigs while the others drove the quad around the other side honking the horn to give the pigs a scare. After a good bit of fun we went to look at the other parts of the farm, we saw the barns, the dog kennel (which was home to about 7 dogs all bread for hunting), the giant house, the chapel, the peacocks and other birds, the chickens, the sheep, the vineyards, and the pool. The pool was located in the middle of everything cast under the shadow of a giant water tower. It was nice and sunny but no one wanted to swim with me. We ate a little snack of cake and sweets and then headed out to play soccer. We played all afternoon until no one could take it anymore, luckily before I reached the point of collapsing the dinner bell rang and we all went to take another lap at the monumental soup bowl. After dinner came desert and lounging. We set up our beds soon after and went to hit the hay. The next morning we were up early to pack and get things ready to head out. We went downstairs and met sebis mom, dad, brothers and sister to go to a nearby village for breakfast. The drive out there was lovely, we passed more farms and, before I realized, entered the town. We went straight to the city center where we stopped at a small café to eat some traditional Alentejano pastries. After the meal we went up to the highest point around for miles to where an ancient castle was perched. This castle didn´t have any sort of people running it, we simply drove our car under the old, majestic, crumbling gate and parked next to the main tower within the castle walls. We walked around a little bit taking many pictures. After gazing out on the rolling hills for quite some time we headed back into the city center to see the downtown area. Sebi and I walked around the main square for a little while and met back up with sebi´s dad to go see some very traditional Alentejano rug shops. The rugs they make here are very well known in portugal and are very beautiful.
On the way back to the farm we took a little detour to see more of the vineyards and sorrounding area, we even stopped at an old abandoned school and church that was used when the migrant workers would harvest the crops back in the olden days. When we got back to the farm we packed the car and since we had a little time on our hands we asked sebi´s grandfather to give us a tour of the wine making buildings. We entered into the distillery witch was full of big tanks to distill the wine, they were´nt making any wine at the time but it was still really cool to see. We got the full tour from sebi´s grandpa, it seems that he knows everything there is to know about wine making, temperatures, humidity of the buildings, etc. etc. etc. We saw all the bottling machines, the big barrels to finish the wine (made of the finest imported french wood), all the giant racks of full wine bottles waiting to be sold that reached the ceiling and filed the warehouse. It was a really cool thing, seeing, smelling and tasting all that wine and the process it went through, from grape to bottle. After we saw the farm at the shop that was part wine making museum, part shop and part tourist attraction. We were even given free polos with the farm logo embroidered on them! After the tour we went to have some lunch. We gave our third and final dive into the giant soup bowl before playing another quick game of soccer and saying good bye to everyone and setting off from the farm once more, now our destination, LISBON!

On to the Alentejo!

Sebi and I awoke to a knock on the door from Sebi´s host father. We opened our eyes and grogily looked at the time. WOW we slept in! We said. We dressed and made our way downstairs. I still hadn´t seen any of Sebi´s family since I had arrived and greeted my hosts enthusiastically. I really like Sebi´s family a lot. We were instructed to head over to a nearby café to eat breakfast and wait for our ride to the Alentejo. This cafe by the way is one of the most well known and delicous in Lisbon. We passed through the courtyard outside the cafe dodging tables and people who were enjoying their breakfasts at their own paces, some quite lesiurly and others quite hurried. When we entered the cafe we were greeted with quite a line and ended up waiting a little longer than planned. This however gave us enough time to decide what we wanted from all the scrumptious pastries staring up at us through their glass shelves. When it was our turn we ordered quickly and were once again put up to wait. We both ordered tosted croisants with ham and cheese. These croisants are maybe a little different than you imagined. They are small and dense and covered in sugar. They are cut in have, slapped with ham and cheese and thrown into a toaster press. They come out hot and goey and when you eat them all the ingredients just come together and melt in your mouth. It is truly something divinve. We also drank some fresh squeezed orange juice and just as we were finishing our ride came. The man who was in charge of delivering us to our destination in the Alentejo was Sebastians host uncle. We entered the cafe greeting everyone as he made his way over to us. We started talking about soccer right off the bat. Sebi and his host family are supporters of the team Benfica, and me and Sebi´s uncle support Sporting. These two teams are bitter rivals and we always get into these little bouts of friendly teasing. Well, some other people in the cafe, including some people tending the counter, heard our discussion and joined in. We talked for a little while more and when we realized we had kept Sebi´s aunt and niece waiting in the car, hurridly finished up our gloating and left. We piled into the car exchanging greetings and made our way through Lisbon passing over the big red bridge that reminds me so much of the Golden Gate.
The drive wasn´t at all long, and the scenery turned very pleasant as we parted from the city. The alentejo is a region in portugal where a lot of farming is done. It is caracterized by rolling hills, cork tree groves, and ancient stone walls weaving their way about flocks of sheep and herds of cattle.
When the main highway finally turned into a dirt road I knew we were close to our destination. We made our way ever further into the expansive pastures turning on to ever smaller and smaller dirt roads until I thought we´d hit the point where the light blue, cloud speckled sky met the green of the earth. Our last turn under a big gate set us onto a road lined with tall trees, at the end of the way I could see a group of buildings. When we arrived at the end we parked and all got out. We were not met by anyone as all that inhabited the farm had gone to mass at the tiny chapel. We walked over and saw all the people packed into this tiny chapel. There was no room for us to enter so Sebi and I watched from outside a little bit and then decided to explore. The white buildings were set around a main courtyard that opened up onto the expansiveness of the pastures. It felt as if our little cluster of buildings was a life raft sent into an undulating green ocean. We went to play ping-pong in one of the old farm buildings converted into a play room. After a little while mass was over and me and Sebi were called to greet everybody. We exchanged the customary kisses on the cheeks with all the women and strong, firm handshakes with all the men. When everyone had been introduced we headed for lunch. We entered straight into great dining hall through two big old doors that opened onto long tables and an enormous fireplace in the corner. At the end of the hall sat a steaming pot big enough to cook a human child in. Everyone grabbed a bowl and formed a line behind the pot. As I got closer and closer in line to the pot the aroma started tickling my nostrils. It was a traditional Alentejano soup with chicken, rice, vegetables and other delicous things. We sat and ate and laughed until we couldn´t take any more. After all our bowls were empty and our tummies full, we retired to one of the comfy living rooms to watch some rugby and relax.
Time to go now, but tons more to come.

Music

Hey, I´m just gonna skip around a little bit here, the stream of posts will still come as promised but I just want to write these little things before I forget. I went to a couple concerts in the past few weeks at our local theater here in Viseu. The first show was Rodrigo Leão and Cinema Ensemble. I really liked it a lot. The group was headed by Rodrigo Leão, like you can see from the name, on piano and consisted of a singer, an accoridan/marimba player, violinist, viola, cello, electric bassist and drummer. The style of music was like a mix between tango and modern rock, with shorter songs sigur ros like singing and build ups seemingly leading into infinity broken by sudden silence. It´s really interesting and if you get the chance you should definitely do a google search and try and hear some of their music.
The second artist I saw is called Noiserv. It is the project of only one man, but he manages to create complete and deep songs with the use of a looping machine. This is; he starts out playing one instrument, loops it, and steadily adds more and more things on top and sings and everything. It is very impressing. He also uses such diverse instuments as toy cars, cameras and loudspeakers.
The weather here has been really hot lately, just like summer.

Continuation.

Got on the bus. The bus ride was fine down to lisbon. It´s about a four hour haul, no stops through the heart of portugal. It is a trip I have done a fair share of times but one that I never get tired of. Being on that bus, alone, accompanied only by my Ipod on my way to another great adventure just evokes some kind of feeling in me. A feeling of satisfacton, comfort and freedom. Sounds tacky but doing that on my own makes me feel free, out in the world, going to rondezvous with my friends in a big city. I settle in, listening to the music that fits the mood which seems to change almost as rapidly as the scenery outside the bus window. We go from mountains to plains, over rivers and past lakes until finally the industrial city scape of lisbon breaks over the horizon, rising up, growing ever bigger and more fascinating as our bus nears the metropolis. Of course we get stuck in some minor traffic. After many minutes of anxious ``Are we there yet?´´s the bus pulls a hard right and heads down a beaver slide into the busy bus-port. The scene is that from a star wars film, space ships buzzing around like bees docking and un-docking, loading and unloading of cargo and different species from far off worlds. I climb off the bus in a slight daze, awakening from the calmness that was my ipod and bus seat, and see sebi waiting for me with his cell phone at his ear making some last minute arrangements for the night ahead of us. He says something into the phone and quickly hangs up. With a broad smile on his face and his arms spread even wider he charges. I duck into a football tacklers position and take him around the middle. After that little scene in the crowded bus station, we exchange some quick words of hello, how´s it going and then sebi brings it to my attention that the bus arrived twenty minutes behind schedule and that we needed to put on the afterburners to get everything ready for tonight. After that is was a mad dash. We raced out of the station to the nearest metro, hastily bought tickets and boarded nipping our tails in the closing door. This was our real first chance to have a conversation. We embraced once more and then broke out in laughter, this is it, we are doing it, living the life! We hopped stops, tranfering trains, surfacing to catch the famous lisbon electricals, and finally jumping off at a breakneck pace and sprinting the last 100 yards to sebis front door. Only sebis maid and little brother were home when we arrived. We said quick formal hellos and then went to prepare in sebis room. Sebi insisted that I use his bed so i set my bag down, pulled out some fresh clothes, threw them on, and we were off once more. We left the house and stopped at a nearby bank to take out some money, went back to sebi´s house to drop off his credit card (dangerous to carry it around) and went back to the train station. we got our tickets and arrived on the platform in the nick of time to catch the train. We took the train into the heart of the lisbon night life scene passing pulse-pounding clubs that could be heard inside the train on our way by. Lines of people stood outside in the warm, clear night air waiting to get in some of these clubs. The mood was set. We passed under the big famous bridge in lisbon just before our stop. We got off, standing out a little as we both looked utterly exhausted and hungry as we had just ran this crazy marathon of transport, and were easily spotted by our group of friends that we were planning on meetimg. With shouts and yells of welcome ringing throughout my ears, and those of anyone else on the platform, I was grabbed and hugged by all my exchange student buddies. I was really happy to see them all. We waited around for some more straggling friends and, when the whole gang was assembled, we set of to find our restaraunt. The place was a little farther off than anyone had expected and after a long walk we were all very excited to see the big bright orange, that was the sign and name of the place, shining out in the dark street. We entered and were greeted by warm smiles and bright orange walls. We were seated and given a sheet of paper and a pen. Now, how this place works is really cool, it is basically just designed for teens. They have about 4 basic dishes, you tally how many of each dish you want and thats that. The main draw of this place is the drinks. You pay a small fee, get a basic meal, and all the free drinks you can handle. Soon the restaruant was packed, each long table packed with roudy teenagers. The drinks come before anything else and before you know it everyone is laughing and having a good time, tottally oblivious to the fact that the meal hasn´t even started. Sooner or later the waitress comes bearing our ready-made plates and we laugh and eat some more. After many pictures, spills and stories told, we feel it´s time to let the night lead on. A night to remember. It came to a nice end with me and sebi making our way home to rest and prepare for the day to come.

Coimbra, new girl.

COIMBRA

Last saturday I went to Coimbra for the afternoon. I caught a ride down there with some teachers from Fun Languages (my host parents language school) who were heading down to attend a teaching seminar at the British Council. The drive wasn´t bad, about an hour and a half spent listening to teaching strategies and child-behaviour-control techniques being swapped by the new teachers. We arrived just in time for the seminar and as the teachers filed in, I was let loose. I had over two full hours to get my self lost (and then found) in Coimbra, the intellectual capital of Portugal. I started of with the botanical garden which is home to one of the worlds largest lillypads, I was so unfortunate however, to visit on a day when it is closed to the public. The garden was nice and displayed a wide array of plants from every corner of the globe. After my romp in the garden I marched up the tallest hill in Coimbra to where the University sits perched like an old wise owl overlooking the rio Mondego. I explored around the university for quite some time, reminding myself of Lara from the Golden Compass as I ducked around scholars and found little passages between ancient buildings.
Next my wandering lead me to the city park located above the downtown area. This park is home to some interesting modern art such as two giant metal rings enclosing groups of trees. More wandering, and then I met back up with the teaching team and we went to the local mall (see anterior posts) to look around and grab a quick bite to eat.

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NEW GIRL

This week we got a new exchange student from Boston in our school. She is with the same program that I am (afs) but she is only here for 6 months. It will be interesting to see the first part of someone elses experience from (my) the perspective of someone who has already been there and done that. She is doing well so far, (as far as I can tell) and I think will pick things up pretty quickly. She also has a blog and when I find out the address I´ll post it with something.
Well, that´s all for now. Xau

Fotos.

Here are some fotos of madrid, and lisbon, just some that I haven´t posted yet.

Second part of winter break.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!
After returning to Viseu after Lisbon we spent a couple days on the DL. (Down Low) Relaxing. The package my parents sent me arrived and Sofia and I went to pick it up. Everything was there and intact! Thanks Mom and Dad! After a quick opening of the package we hopped in the car and set of for Madrid! After about four hours we were greeted by Madrid´s city-scape. On the way to our hotel (which was 5 stars) we passed under the two famous leaning towers in Madrid. It was late by the time we made it to the hotel so we hit the hay immediately to prepare ourselves for tomorrow. We woke up early and caught the bus right outside our hotel and made our way to The Musem of the Prado. (Museu del Prado) We waited in line for a while and then got our tickets and went on in. We started with seeing some masterpeice paintings and then some masterpeice sculpture. Next we went on a tour of the biggest malls in Madrid. I think the act of Mall touring has become a very portuguese thing. When I was in Lisbon, even though we were in a small suburb of Lisbon called Estoril, we went to the local mall to check it out. Other friends of mine here on exchange have noted the same phenomenon. I´m not a huge fan of shopping and thus was a little un-enthusiastic about the possibility that my first day in Madrid would be spent seeing the inside of giant shopping complexes. Well it turned out that after our mall blitz we would be going to see the center of town called La Puerta del Sol and Plaza Mayor. That was pretty cool and fun. We saw the whole spectrum as far as street performers go. We rested at the hotel for a little while and then went to a really cool restaurant that serves very typical food from Madrid. The madrid style food is like gourmet bar food, small sandwiches of steak and other things. The next day was gonna be big. We slept in and at about noon made our way to the royal palace. This was the first actual palace I had ever seen, the roayal family indeed still lives there and thus was closed to visitors. We looped around the outside of the behemoth house and then ducked into the adjacent cathedral. After walking around a little bit more we went to an argentinian steak house for lunch. That was good. Now we´ll fast-forward to the night of new years.
We left our hotel around 9:30 p.m. and went driving around to La Puerta del Sol. We parked our car in the hippest parking garage I have ever seen and did the last couple of blocks to the main square on foot. The real festivities wouldn´t start till later but there was no lack of people there getting an early start. There were street vendors selling various things that lit up, one of these such items was a pair of sunglasses with rims that had lights in them. An oxymoron. Think about it. There were also people selling mixed alcoholic drinks in the streets. We ducked into a café for a quick bite before we headed into the square to stake out our spots. Well, tons of things happened that night, music, lights, fireworks, countdowns, very much you see in New York´s Times Square. After the stroke of midnight the tradition is to eat twelve grapes and make a wish on each one, we had bought tins of grapes for each person and all ate them in time with the other million or so people who were downtown with us. Once everyone finished their grapes the crowd began to surge as people tried to leave the densely packed square. We were caught in a current of people and made our way back to our car. I probably saw more things during the walk back to the car than I had seen all day as far as interesting people doing interesting things goes. I was offered Marijuana multiple times, saw many fights and met a suprising amount of americans, all in the short walk to our car. Well, the distance was short but it took us well around an hour to make the trek. Someone should write a book on the behaviour of people in giant crowded situations.
The next day we left madrid and headed to salamanca to meet up with some friends for lunch. That was cool. And that´s all for now.

First part of Winter Break.

I went down to Lisbon for christmas. My sister, Avo and I were picked up by my host uncle´s Chauffer and Mercedes in Viseu, we then drove down to lisbon. We dropped all our stuff off at the hotel, snacked, and then I hopped on a train and went to meet up with Sebi! We hung out and met up with our Mexican pal Tlaloc. I had some trouble with the train schedule but all was well. The next day the fam and I went to walk around Estoril. We had lunch and all and then I went for a swim at the hotel pool, OUTSIDE!!! The day before christmas! We then went to have christmas eve dinner with Sofia´s family. This is the most important part of the holiday. We hung out and then had dinner. The tradition is to eat Cod-fish and turkey. After dinner was dessert of all kinds of baked goods. Sugary donut like pastries. The next day we walked around again and then had lunch back at Sofia´s family´s house and the left. On the way home we stopped at an old castle town called Obidos. The whole town is tricked out for christmas. There were all kinds of things there from Christmas tree row (a street lined with christmas trees) to fake sledding to zip-lines. The whole set up reminded me of the country fair with people dressed up, booths, the smell of good food, fun, laughs, all set in an epic location. This whole shindig was set up in a circle around the base of an old giant castle. It was memorable. Here are some pictures.

Weekend in Lisbon and Foz do Arelho

So, I have soo much to say, I hope I can do my weekend justice. Here it goes. Last wednesday my friend from argentina called me and asked me if I wanted to stay with him in lisbon for the weekend. We decided that it would be better if I skipped school friday and we would take an extra day to see the city. So thursday night I hopped on a bus in viseu and was off. I arrived in lisbon 4 hours later at 10 pm. Usually the trip isn´t that long but the bus stopped through coimbra and other places and I thought it was really cool to see them. I was greeted by sebi and his host mom at the bus station and after some sleepy hellos we headed to the house. Sebi´s house is located in one of the best neighborhoods in lisbon, the same one with all the embassies and old monuments. The first night we hung out and talked and after a quick bite to eat we went to bed. We woke up early the next morning to get a jump start on the city. We did the usual morning routine (shower, food) in record time and were out the door. The weather was perfect. It was the day after some rain but the sun was smiling down upon us. Windy but great. We walked a couple of blocks down to a train station were we bought tickets from a cool machine and waited for our train. A couple of trains passed before ours, but when it came we were ready and got on easily. We rode the train all the way into the city and then changed onto a metro. We got off the metro in downtown lisbon. It was really cool, the metros in lisbon are really clean and nice, with art all in the stations and the walls are white tiles with arching ceilings. When you exit the station in downtown lisbon you are greeted with views of the castle of saint jorge and the cathedral. Well, we headed through the shopping district, passed under a big famous arch/clock tower, saw the square of commerce and headed up through the narrow labyrinth of streets to the cathedral. The cathedral is really really cool and really really old. The coolest thing about it is that it was built over an old muslim center that was built over an ancient roman city. So you have three layers of history sorrounded by modern lisbon. SO COOL!!!!!!! after that we headed up to the castle that dominates lisbon with its ever vigilante, ancient eye. As we worked our way up the hill to where the castle is situated we passed another ancient roman site that was once a theater capable of holding over 4,000 spectators. This ruin was so cool as it was a giant chunk cut out of the lisbon hillside. We got up to the castle and realized we needed to buy tickets to get in. We waited in line talking in portugeuse and when we got up to the counter we showed our portuguese student cards and our lisbon metro tickets and got in for free! The castle was probably my favorite thing, it is just this amazingly beautiful old castle with cannons and everything overlooking the whole of lisbon with a view stretching out to the ocean. WAAAY COOL. After running around the castle for some time we rolled back on down to the city center where we climbed up this famous tower constructed by eifel or a student of his. We walked all the way up to the top, even though there were elavators (they cost 4 euros to use) and soaked in the amazing view from yet another amazing vantage point. This time we could see back to the castle from whence we came and could see our next destination: The ruins of (ah, can´t remember) some epic name that sounds like it belongs in the Lord of the rings. We went there and were so stoked to find that is was waay more than either of us expected to see. The ruin is of an old cathedral that was nearly completely destroyed in the earthquake/tsunami/fire lisbon experienced long ago. It is really cool because the ground is all grass now but the walls and the arches supporting the giant vaulted cieling are still there, but nothing else, it reminded me of the great hall in Hogwarts with a magic cieling. The walls are really cool too, especially on the outside with all the old architecture. In the back of the ruins is a small restored museum with relics from all over the world including mummies from peru and everything. After this we left to go have lunch and see the biggest christmas tree in all of europe. We walked up the avenue of liberty and caught the metro at the top. We took the metro back down to the city center where we met an electric, a kind of trolley famous in lisbon, that took us to Belem. Belem is one of the most beautiful city places I have ever encountered in my lifetime. Belem is the name of the area in lisbon where the ocean meets the river and the land is all low and green. There is a really famous pastry shop that we eventually went to, a giant monastary, the tower of belem which is a unesco world heritage site, the monument of discoveries (commemorating all of portugals history in navigation) and the cultural center of Belem which is a very pretty building that does everything from the fine arts to school trips. First we went to the monastary but were dissapointed to find it closed for the night. We meandered through the beautiful park until the Monument of discoveries. This monument is sooo cool, it is a giant white marble statue with carvings of all the great portuguese explorers. It is probably 5-6 stories high and has an elevator in the middle of it that allows you to go to the very top. We did this and when we got to the top were greeted by (according to yahoo.com) the biggest moon of the year. It was like that because that was the time when the moon was closest to the earth in it´s orbit. But yeah it was sensational. After that we tried to get into the tower of Belem but again were dissapointed to find that its doors were shut and it´s windows dark. By this time we were exhausted so we went to get something to eat in a nearby cafe. After a quick bite we walked back to sebi´s house, tired and happy. We rested for a good while and then decided to go get dinner with some of our other exchange friends from lisbon. Me and sebi hopped on a bus and we all met up in a big mall about 20 min. away from sebi´s house. We met up with two other guys and went to find some dinner. We stopped at a pizza place and sat and ate and laughed so hard for quite a while. After that one of our friends had to go home so we decided what to do next. We went to the movie theater in the mall to buy some popcorn (the sweet kind is really popular here) and ended up buying the biggest box we could. After that we adventured around the mall for a while with our popcorn until we just couldn´t take it anymore and when all the stores closed we left. We got home and I was able to meet the rest of sebi´s family, we relaxed for a while and, as the clock struck midnight, were suprised by sebi´s parents who came to give me a birthday present. I didn´t think that I had told them it was my birthday and I sure wasn´t expecting anything from them, but I was presented with a polo and a t-shirt from sebi´s host fathers winery/vineyard. I was very suprised and thankful. After that is was sleep. The next morning (my birthday) we woke up, showered and headed to catch our bus to the AFS lunch. We took a taxi to the big bus station and quickly found our bus and our seats. We still had pocorn left and some candy from the night before that we brought with us for the drive. Just before it was time to go, two last passengers got on the bus and started looking for seats. As they neared the back of the bus, where me and sebi were seated, we recognized them as fellow afsers and invited them to come sit with us. It was such a coincidence. It just happened to be the two students from greenland, one of which was mine and sebis room mate at the last orientation. During the ride we ate and laughed and slept until we arrived at our destination. When we got off the bus it was raining and cold. We still werent all the way to where we needed to be, so we hired a taxi and were on our way. Our final destination was Foz Do Arelho, a beach town famous for it´s beauty and restaurants. It reminded me a lot of the oregon coast with the dunes, the wind and the rain, and the city nestled in a cove sorrouned by cliffs. We were the first ones there and decided to take our time and go on a walk down on the beach. We explored all around the dunes and the rocks and sebi got hit by a wave. His pants were soaked and he ended up being wet, but not entirely misserable, for the rest of the day. I found some great rocks, only like the kind you find in oregon, and then we were met by some more students. The lunch was great; just a lot of friends laughing, telling stories and merry making. AFS payed for everything and even gave us all santa hats. I was sung happy birthday by everyone and just had a genuine time. Sebi and I hitched a ride back to lisbon with another family and, exhausted once again, were thankful to be home. We were greeted at the door by all of sebi´s family and more, that day there was a big soccer game on tv and a lot of people came over to watch, and I was grabbed and sung to once again. This time there was a cake and we all just had another great time. Sunday was great too. Sebi slept in a little longer while I made pancakes from scratch for everyone so say thank you. I was told they were the best pancakes that anyone of them had ever eaten! After a good breakfast went out to tour belem once more. First we went to the tower of Belem where we went all around the old fortress and admired it´s beauty. After that we got in to the monastary and saw the tomb of Vasco da gama. There is another world history museum there and we saw tons of stuff from all over the world, including more mummies and ancient roman artifacts like some of the first gold jewelry in the world. It was really cool. We made a stop at the famous Belem pastry house and bought some pastries for me to bring back to viseu. We were then picked up by sebi´s parents and brothers and treated to lunch. We went to the famous beach at Guincho where we ate at a well known seafood restaurant. I saw a plate there that cost over 140 euros, some sort of lobster I think. After a great meal we went to see the beach and the old fort, take pictures and be blasted by gale force winds. When we just couldn´t take it anymore we all took shelter in the car and went on a tour of the high-class beach towns. We saw the biggest casino in Europe and much more. We arrived back at the house at the perfect time, I packed and we headed out to the bus station. I took the pastries and was off. When I got home it was late and I was asleep before my head hit the pillow. I had a pretty much normal week, I recieved almost all of my grades from the first period and it´s looking like I´m going to do more than just pass! School ended for me yesterday and now I´m just looking forward to a great christmas break! More later, if I remember any details or anything.

Saturday night.

It was a dark and stormy night (really), so we went to dinner at Louis´ brother Miguel´s house. We drove through the evening on the main freeway and just as the last bit of light dissapeared and the sky turned black and the fog engulfed us we turned off onto this small mountain road seemingly leading a lone windy path into the hills. After rounding some dark corners, illuminated only by the cars head lights that shot light which refracted off the fog sorrounding us in a bubble of grey light, we broke through the smoke thick fog and were presented with the view of a large valley speckled by the lights of of a hundred tiny houses. We wove our way down into the valley only to criss-cross our way back up the other side where we finally encountered our destination. As soon as we pulled into the driveway we were greeted with open arms and open umbrellas by Miguel. We entered the warm house to see a table set with all kinds of delicious things to eat. There was pizza(baked traditionally in a stone oven), these really good peas called Piu-Piu´s, and tons of other delights. We ate and merry-made and ate some more. And after eating and drinking as much as we could we had cake and other traditional portuguese desserts like chocolate salame. (not really salame but it´s like a chocolate roll thing, it´s really good.) After somemore hours we left and headed home. When we got back on the freeway we were met with snow! We slowed down and enjoyed it a bit. After that, comfy in the warm car, I fell asleep. This morning over breakfast we watched on T.V. and saw that our snow had made the national news. Cool. It´s still cold here and outside has been un-appetising lately. Até Já.

Weekend of Ice!

,WOW, I really don´t know where to start. This weekend was just so much fun. Even though I didn´t even leave Viseu I felt like I did so many new things. Okay, so chronologilcally: Friday I had school, then after I went to make some photocopies,(really cool) and then I went to the bus station to pick up my friend Sebastian Lande, who is another AFS exchange student, at around 6. After we met up in the bus station we headed to go get a bite to eat. I know this really good café really close to the bus station that has these amazing things called Lancheiras, they are like these... I dunno, I guess you could call them pastries, with ham and cheese melted together on the inside. They are probably as big as a slice of pizza, the same shape too but they are semi-round and only one unit, not a slice of anything. They dough is done to perfection, a nice light brown, gooey on the inside and just crisp on the outside, the cheese and ham are layered together and moist and melty. They are so good and are only 1 euro and they really fill you up. Well, we took our Lancheiras and went and sat in the plaza and savored our delicious snack. After that I showed him the central city park and we headed home. After dinner we went to this really cool talent show at the local college. The college really reminds me of SOU in that it´s not super prestigious but it´s fun, has a heart and has good education. This talent show was a benifit for Autism and was packed, a really good sign. The first half of the show wasn´t all that spectacular, a bunch of music performances of mixed age groups, none of which would even compete at the AHS talent show. Then there was a little break with free food and drink, and then the second half. The second bit was infinitely better. There was an acoustic duo who performed, one guy with a classical guitar and the other guy with a traditional portuguese guitar. The portuguese guitar is reallt cool, it´s like a cross between a mandolin and a turtle. It has twelve strings and is shaped like a dome, and the neck is really cool with a hook like thing on top. Well this group was really cool and inspiring. The rest were ok but not really memorable, and then the grand finnally. A TUNA! No, not the fish. A tuna is a special kind of college music group with about 20-30 men all wearing big black cloaks and huge, black, wide brimmed hats with guitars, ukalelees, portuguese guitars, basses, flutes, you name it and a really important instrument:Tamborines. Well this tuna was called TUNADÃO (Dão is the region in which I live and where the college is) and apparently they won a tuna competition or something and are well known. Tunas can be found in colleges all over the Iberian peninsula and are the equivalent to pep-bands in America but really traditional and prestigious. Well, all the guys with instruments made a wide half-circle around the center of the stage and started singing and playing really loudly and boistrusly. Don´t get me wrong it was really good music and it definitely recquired skill but it sounded like someone gave instruments to a frat party and started singing the fight song. Now, this is what Tuna is but somehow it felt more full of art than beer if you catch my drift. As the music kept roaring you could feel a definite build up in the atmosphere of the place and then bam! The guys with Tamborines and flags blasted out into the middle of the stage and started, litterally, beating them selves with their instruments in time with the music. After a minute I realized they were dancing and was awestruck. The flag bearers where twirling away and the guys with Tamborines were doing acrobatics and throwing their instruments, and the whole time the music was blasting and everything fit perfectly together. It was really, really, really cool. Amazing, inspiring, what you want. This lasted till about 1 in the morning and then we headed home exhausted and passed out.
Saturday: On Saturday we woke up and made breakfast and then headed out on an epic bike loop of Viseu. We started with going to Fontelo, the biggest city park, then weaved through the narrow city streets to Sé (Central Cathedral area). There we saw that Sé was closed for about another hour and a half so we decided to head out and return later. After this we went around the town and saw all the monuments. We decided we didn´t want to take the bikes with us back to Sé so we ditched them at home and headed back. At Sé we went into the big main Cathedral and were let into the museum section for free, so we went all around and took pictures and admired the view and all the old stuff. After that we went to the Museum Grão Vasco where we saw all kinds of really cool art. Then we hit up the museum in the other church and headed to Forum (a mall in downtown Viseu). We grabbed a quick lunch in Forum and then we had to recharge Sebastian´s cell phone. After this it was really cold so we went home. For dinner we all went out to my favorite pizza restaurant Piazza Di Roma. We ate and merry made there until late and, after meeting up with some friends of Louis and Sofia´s, we all went home. Know before I say this next part let me tell you a little story. Or more, A History. I´ve never been one for sports video games, I dunno, something about them just doesn´t really appeal to me. What that is I´m not sure, or not willing to say risk offending all you sports enthusiasts out there, Kidding. Well, anyway, I´m just not that great at them and, I pride myself as being a lover of the finer things in life and, not to say that video games aren´t, but... So Afonso is really good at this one sports game called Pro Evolution Soccer and he plays it all the time and I would say he has mastered the art of domination in this particular video game. I dared play him once and found myslef sacrificing my players with red cards at the end of the game just to put a little hurt on Afonso´s, albeit virtual, team. I lost a whopping 8-0. After this I haven´t really gone near the game. Well, After dinner me and Sebi headed down to the basement for a game of Foosball, now Fooseball I have grown to like and would normally be down to play it but we were both really tired so I opted for something less arrousing (we tend to shout and jump around alot when we play Foosbal) and offered we play videogames instead. Sebastian was up for that and when he saw we had Pro Evolution Soccer he said we must play. I warned him of my pre-disposition and he said not to worry. Sure enough he wooped me hard the first game and sent me sneaking of like a dog with its tail between its legs. Sebastian felt bad after this slaughter so he offered to train me in the art of PES. After a couple matches of practice and explination I felt I was ready to test my skills in a real game. This time the score was a little more even and I think he ended up winning by only one point. (In hindsight I see he was going easy on me still) Afonso came down after not to long, and jumping at the opportunity to get out of the losers seat I suggested that Afonso play Sebi. It just so happens that the master (Afonso) was ``out of practice´´ and lost to Sebastian by one point in a sudden death shootout. The next couple of games Sebi continued to assert his dominance and I continued to slip lower in my seat. It was time for bed.
Sunday:Sunday we woke up late and headed straight to the farm for lunch. We ate well and I took Sebi on a tour of the place. We played more foosball and a round of ping-pong before leaving. Instead of returning home we were dropped of at the Palacio De Gelo or Ice Palace to walk around. This is one of the Biggest Shopping malls in all of Portugal and is a 10 minute walk from my house. I think it´s like six stories of sheer shopping madness. The Ice palace has a bunch of unique stores but there is one in particular that is really famous. The Minus 5 ice lounge. The Minus 5 ice lounge is a bar entirely carved out of ice. It costs 13 euros for 30 min. and the bar is kept at a chilling -12 degrees celsius. When Sebastian saw this he said we just had to do it, A because we are exchange students and we must take advantage of every experience and B he saw a show about this on tv and he said one time in his life he would go there and tell his grandchildren about it. So, we went in. I only had shorts on but they gave us full gear to survive in the sub-arctic tempuratures, JK. We had a blast and took well over a hundred pictures. After we went back around the mall and saw a for real Formula 1 racing car. After that we ran out of time and had to deliver Sebastian back to the bus station. We got on the bus and made it home fine and we are left with the memories (and ton of pictures) of a really worthwhile weekend!

Politics.

So I just realized I hadn´t posted anything over the presidential elections in the States. Here the elections were a huge deal, everyone was really supporting Obama but they all seemed really pessimistic to me. I think with him winning their views were changed. I watched some about it on t.v., talked about it with friends, family and teachers. I was happy when I heard Obama had won, even though it was the next morning! I would have had to stay up until 2am to have watched the whole thing and that wouldn´t have been a good idea as I had school the next day. I guess that kind of sums up how I felt about it. Not that it wasn´t historically, internationally and ridiculously important, I just new there wasn´t much for me to do and I would rather sleep than stay up with crossed fingers. Well, I don´t know if you´ve heard but here in Portugal the new Ministry of Education has been giving the teachers a hard time. The Ministry apparently assigned a whole bunch of pointless tasks to the teachers like grading one-another and filing stupid reports etc. The teachers really didn´t take kindly to this as they are busy enough already and think this is all utterly beurocratic and a waste of time. The Ministry of Education didn´t really have a good rep in the first place and was the subject of a lot of criticism. Well with these new assignments the teachers just kind of boiled over. There has been a lot of protests in the streets and a lot of hullabaloo over this in the news. Today our Portuguese teacher lectured over this and we got to the subject of teachers rights etc. One thing that she said that really stuck in my mind was, something like this; she said that she remembered last year, when the Ministry didn´t have a lot of power and didn´t assign a ton of lousy tasks, when she only had to work afternoons on some days and how she enjoyed waking up at nine every morning, going to get coffee, walking the dog and doing other things before having to go and teach. She also said that the majority of teachers here only teach as a ``Hobby´´ or ``Part-Time Job,´´ and that they don´t want to spend their out-of-school time correcting tests or doing things related to school. She said that now, with stricter scholastic regulations, she was waking up earlier and spending more of her free time evaluating students and doing other things pertaining to school and that is worth picketing for. Boo-Hoo. I always thought that the European countries had way more sophisticated schools and valued education at all costs, and that learning wasn´t about grades, money or jobs, but individual growth and inspiration and finding answers to lifes bigger questions etc. Now I dunno. I still have plenty of faith in the majority of the Portuguese people being bright and valuing education and all the values I previously listed but maybe the beurocratic motives of the government and teaching staff are askew. Maybe the Portugese Government very realistically wants to create more industry in Portugal and be a more competitive nation in the global economy because in the recent past Portugal hasn´t been this way. And by teaching kids directly for a profession is a good way to get a lot of them out into the cities working and putting Portugal ``on the map´´ economically speaking. But I think kids should be learning as much for future professions as for personal growth and understanding. I have always thought the goal of an education is not just for cranking out products efficiently or being machinelike in whatever area of work one may choose but equally in becoming an intellectual, conscience being. I think there is a lot of room for debate on this topic but I´ll leave it at this for now. I just want to add this to all the kids in Ashland at AHS, or anywhere in anyschool for that matter, that most of your teachers spend a good 80% (really rough estimate) of their week hours to support you in your journey through highschool. I remember last year hearing stories from Ms. Hernandez about how she spent all weekend grading our lousy (Joking) essays and how she wanted to inspire us with projects to better our community. It might be a lot of work from everyone but I feel it is really benificial to all. So be thankful for that I guess. Até Já.

Tidbits.

Today was interesting and full. I woke up at 8.25 for my first day of my new class: History of Portugal. I will only have this class once a week and it´s just for me to be able to learn a little more about Europe and Portugal and their relationships between the rest of the world. It went fine and I think it will be really cool. After that I had Art. Right now in Art we are practicing with ``China Paint´´ as the translation goes, it is a runny black paint that you use with an apparatus that resembles a scalple more than an art utensil. I keep slicing gashes into my paper and spilling ink everywhere, it is really frustrating. After that I had math and lunch, both went well. This week is another ``List´´ election, this time we are electing a list to be in charge of the senior class trip. It doesn´t really pertain to any of the other students but there is loud music and all the other perks (minus food) :( of the last elections. After lunch today I participated in the Math Olympics at my school. The questions on the test were really hard and I´m only somewhat confident of my answers. We´ll see how that goes. I hate that feeling when you know there´s something else to say but you just can´t remember. Oh well, maybe next time.

Discovering.

This last weekend I discovered the magic of a very special place here in Viseu. I´ll get to the details later but I think that´s a good opening sentence :) On Saturday I woke up early as usual and had tennis lessons with Afonso. I think I´m getting the hang of tennis and look forward to the lessons each week. After tennis I went home but still felt like being active so I hopped on a bike and went to explore one of the city parks. This park is named Fontelo and it´s slogan is ``Center of life,´´ justly so I think. Fontelo is situated just outside the heart of Viseu and provides some of the best views of the commanding cathedral ``Sé´´. I have been to this park before, but only to one section and that´s the soccer fields. Fontelo is home to four full size soccer fields complete with stadiums and the likes. Apparently the national team trained here for the EuroCup a while back. These stadiums are situated in the very front of the park right behind one of the last standing Roman gates of the city. I´ve been to the soccer fields to watch some of Afonso´s games which have all been very exciting. Next to the soccer stadiums there is a basketball/handball stadium, a tennis stadium, a building for squash and raquetball I think and a large picnic area set under rows of giant sicamores. All this is merely only about a third of what Fontelo has to offer. As I ventured deeper into the park I rode my bike up and down winding trails past special zones set up with excersise challenges called a ``Maintenance Circuit´´ as the translation goes. I also stopped at a bouldering boulder. For those of you who don´t know what bouldering is, it is a form of rock climbing where the climber never gets very high off the ground, does not use ropes, and generally tries to make lateral and technical maneuveres on the rock face. I was stoked when I found this feature, the boulder itself is really big and split in two, it has a lot of moss on it in some areas but other than that is good to climb. On one side the boulder even has steps carved into it to get up on the top an easy way, and on the tallest side has mounted clips for carabiners. After I left this spot I found a cool dry creekbed that lead to a waterfall and a pond with ducks and a swan. Then I found a bridge and a path that I followed to a little house in the park where I think the caretaker lives. The house was sorrounded by probably twenty brightly colored Peacock just roaming around, and there were probably about 4 more in the trees and on the roof of a small chapel across the path. I didn´t have my camera with me at this time and missed out on a great photo-op. After this the path lead to a playground, more excersise points, more boulders(which didn´t look as good as the first) and a lot of green space with trees and the likes. I think I will be spending a lot more time here as it provides me with a place to feel like I´m ``In the woods´´ and can really relax in a peaceful environment. After roaming the back of the park I headed up to the front to meet Louis to watch another of Afonso´s soccer matches. We tied 1-1 if I remember correctly. On sunday I woke up and made Chocolate Chip Pancakes for the whole family. That went well and I was tottally stuffed. Just as I was feeling like I could move after that behemoth of a breakfast Sofia informed me that we were heading over to Hotel Montebelo for the buffet. Well, after another meal (even though I didn´t/couldn´t eat as much as usaul) we headed home to make gifts for Christmas. We took shoe boxes and decorated them with christmas-ie things and put toys in them. These shoeboxes with toys will be given to an organization that will then distribute them to poor families on Christmas. After that I went to go see ``007 Quantom Of Solace´´ with Afonso and Louis. This is not a movie review blog (although I´m sure those exist) but I thought the new 007 fell instantly into the category of ``Sequal´´. And that concludes my weekend.

Photos.

The walled city.



Here are some Photos of Salamanca, school and stuff.

This is a fat birds nest on a church.


This is downtown Viseu.