More on life.

Today I recieved my school schedule. The school system here in Portugal is very different from ours in the U.S. in many ways. First one must pick a study area, these include but are not limited to Visual Art, Social Economics, Sciences, Languages etc. I chose Art becuase I think that would be the area in which I would exceed the most without a full grasp of the language. Within the chosen study area there are still recquired classes; i.e. P.E. , Portuguese, philosophy, etc. and elected classes; Languages, mathematics etc. I chose English for my elected class because I still need English credit in the States. My schedule is very much, I imagine, like a college schedule; I have classes some days, some classes are longer than others, I get out of school at various times in the week and have a two hour long lunch. School will start at 8:25 every day, lucky for me because if I had to get up earlier or later on certain days I would surely find myself in a splendid state of dissaray and perpetual confusion. One thing that I find difficult and particularly annoying about this college-esque schedule is that every other day I´m not let out until after 6:30 in the evening! Not so lucky for my brother Afonso. Some days he has classes in the mornings only, other days he starts after noon. And too what time he gets out on those days I haven´t the foggiest. Another interesting thing about life around school here is that the local convenience stores carry the textbooks needed for classes. I´m not sure if they only stock them this time of year or what, but after recieving my schedule Afonso, Sofia and I went accross the street to this small hole-in-the-wall shop to look for schoolbooks. Another snippit about life here in Portugal that caught my eye is the energy efficiency of everything. It has nothing to do with school but there are no rules to my blog. It´s not that the Portuguese are specifically attentive to Global climate change or anything; it´s just that life doesn´t require them to have the biggest cars or what have you. My frequent drives and walks arond town are always under the constant looming presence of electricity generating windmills in the hills around Viseu. The toilets here even have two flushes, one for small loads and a bigger one for... Well you guessed it. There is also no central heating or air conditioning, each room has it´s own small thermostat used only when need be. All this makes life no less luxurious at all and now in fact I can´t imagine it any other way. I also helped my sister Kika paint her new desk today. We painted it pink. My Portuguese is no longer non-existent but it still has a long way to go before becoming very useful. I also bought a sweet new pair of shoes, sort of like indoor soccer shoes, very euro and stylish. Eating is a pleasant activity here in more ways than one. The food is of course delicious and most meals are eaten as a family. If you´ve read or seen the Lord of The Rings trilogy you can picture our diet here like that. Bread and cheese, chocolate milk and fruit for breakfast. A full meal for lunch with soup and salad. Snack and coffee sometime mid-afternoon. And a big meal for dinner at around eight. We also have a little dog here named Lisa. I like her even though she is about the size of Rocket´s head. I will also be playing tennis, rather learning to play tennis, while I´m here. Every Saturday from ten till noon Afonso, Kika and I will have lessons. Thats all for now. Questions, comments jsut leave me a note.