Portuguese

Initially I thought Annabelle and I would take language classes to get ourselves immersed in the culture, but don't think they offer any adult/children classes.  My aunt Anne gave me this awesome book before we left that has been really handy for your basic communication.  I think once we are back from the holidays we will explore classes, but for now it's fallen to the bottom of the list.  It has been extremely frustrating not being able to communicate with people and I feel like all I say is "Nao fala Portuguese, eu fala Ingles"

I have been trying to teach Annabelle a few words and she has done a good job learning them and will even say them to the workers in the complex.  Her favorite word so far is "Bom Dia" and it's pretty cute to hear her say.

First Euro Trip Ahead

We planned our first inter-Euro trip and am SO excited to visit Barcelona.  It has been one of the places we've talked about visiting and when Abbey and Eric reached out about meeting them there, we thought it would be the perfect opportunity.  Seeing that we waited to decide if the timing would work and booked our flights only 1 month out, they were more expensive than typical inter-Europe travel, but wanted to ensure we got 1 of our destinations under our belt prior to coming home.  While we have a list of places we want to visit, we also don't know how conducive it will be to travel with Annabelle everywhere.  Why not try it out?

As it stands currently the top things on our list to do/see in Barcelona are:

- La Sagrada Familia - Can't go to Barcelona without seeing La Sagrada Familia, the work of Antoni Gaudi. The construction began in 1882 and is still underway, with an estimated completion date of 2014.

- STARBUCKS - Have I mentioned how much I miss Starbucks, well yes Barcelona has 15 of them.  We plan to visit there all 3 days...maybe even twice a day.

- La Rambla - Most famous street in Barcelona filled with shops, restaurants and entertainment along the 1.2 kilometer stretch.

- Eat, Eat, Eat - tapas, tapas, sangria and more sangria!

- Time with the Johnson's - how excited we are to see them and have friend time!!

Here's to our first trip and fingers crossed it's a good one!

Lunch at Miguel's

Saturday afternoon we were invited over to Miguel's for lunch.  Miguel, is a co-worker of Andy's and the gentleman that came to our rescue and showed us our "now" home.  Remember that Miguel character who I thought had NO idea what we would want or where we would want to live?!?  Well thanks to him we live where we do!

Miguel is one of the 3 Sa siblings who work at WireCo and have been wonderful during our move here.  We arrived to their home greeted at the door with Sangria, a beautifully set table and kids for Annabelle to play with.  Both of Miguel's siblings, Rodrigo and Christina were over with their families, as well as the Pintos (Andre and Carla).  We had a very lovely meal (all homemade) - fish soup, salmon, succulent roasted potatoes, salad, wine, homemade ice-cream and berry cheesecake.  As we were dining the wives were telling me places in the city I needed to either shop or dine.  They even drew me pictures of the main street and mapped out where everything was (so sweet).  After we finished dessert and espresso the 4 wives loaded up in the car and drove me around pointing out all the places they had just told me about. I was not expecting the welcoming I received and sincerity of them all.  It was nice to hear first-hand from locals on where to go.  Our 1:30 lunch wrapped up at 6:00 and it was one of the better days we've had here thus far!!

I was trying to take some pictures of their house and of the kids, but also trying to do so without looking like a) a creeper and b) just an overbearing/obsessed mom.  

 They ordered pizza for the kiddos and thought it was so cute that Annabelle was sitting on Rita's lap, drinking her juice box and eating pizza with the big kids.

 Miguel has a very beautiful home and one of the nicer ones in Porto.  The pictures don't do it justice, but was trying to capture the style and decor of the culture.  This last picture is looking in to their house from their steam room/extra lounge area. And yes the houses/apartments are that close to one another.

Annabelle and Alfonso (Andre and Carla's 28-month old son).  Thankfully the two like one another and have played together a few times that they are getting more comfortable with each other.  So comfortable, that she bit him earlier in the day because he was trying to take her cars.  Oh dear...I thought we were over that stage...maybe it's her way of flirting? 

Home Alone

Andy had to take his first out-of-town trip to Germany this past week, so Annabelle and I were left all alone in Porto!  I was dreading him leaving for many reasons, but mainly because that meant we were going to be all-alone and miss his company at night. We filled our days/nights with the following and managed to make it through.

- We had the car which meant we got to go to the mall 2 days in a row!  Made my first Euro fashion purchases.  They involve some floral and leather :)
- We got drive through McD's for dinner...
- Watched Toy Story and Something Borrowed night 1.  Watched Beethoven Christmas and Bridesmaid night 2.
- Bought a year pass to SeaLife.
- FaceTime'd with the fam and friends.  (Annabelle needed to see someone else besides me).
- Went on our first lunch date.
- Had our worst temper-tantrum EVER in the middle of Toys R' Us and could not get her to settle down.  I'm talking arched back, wailing, threw her pacifier across the store, all the while I'm trying to checkout and buy these dang babies with my arms full of shopping bags and groceries.  Is it bad that I wanted to get my phone out and video tape just so Andy could see what I experienced?!?
- Started our Christmas lists :) Have I mentioned how excited we are for the holidays this year?

 Thankfully he had a safe trip back and we are SO happy to have him home!!

Sea Life

Today I took Annabelle to SeaLife for a new experience.  The Porto SeaLife is literally down the street from us and we walk by it numerous times a day.  I've always wondered what it was like, so thought with Andy being gone and the rain continuing to fall, we needed to check it out.  We ventured down there and it was really great.  She was fascinated with all the fish, the sharks especially, and had herself a good time.  We got to experience the feeding of the sharks, where they let the public feed the sharks and rays.  They provided everyone rubber gloves and a handful of fish that we threw into the cage at the same time.  Better yet we met a really wonderful family who had a daughter who was Annabelle's age and guess what? They spoke English!!  It was so refreshing talking with them and letting the girls run around together and explore.  They even gave Annabelle some of their treats they brought for their daughter, as I came ill-prepared.  As we explored around and let the girls play I asked if they were from Porto, hoping they lived right next door, only to find out they were from Holland and here on holiday.  Just my luck...

Regardless, Annabelle had a good time and I bought an annual pass.  See you soon SeaLife!!

 Yes they made us stand in front of this green backdrop to get a photo before we walked in :)

 Some shark pictures for you sisters!

Take out the papers and the trash...

Another 'new' experience over here is having to take out the trash and sort it.  Sure this might be the case in some of the bigger cities in the US, but for us, it's new.  In our complex there is a special room, that you have to unlock every time you visit and then sort your trash by glass, plastic and trash.  Seeing that we don't have a garbage disposal and are constantly cleaning the stopper out, we are taking the trash out daily.  Oh and I forgot about Annabelle's dirty diapers.  Annabelle thinks it is fun to take it out, but when it's raining ALL day, it's more of a hassle.

Like I've said it's the small things...like the luxury of putting your trash in the cans inside your garage.

 Trash house up on the left.

 Inside the room...and it smells horrific.

Annabelle helping take out the trash...yes in her high heels.

Birds...

No Annabelle was not chasing birds again, rather we had one in our house.  It was a rainy, cold day and I had just settled on the couch to catch up on some emails, had slightly cracked the big doors to let some fresh air in, when this little bird came flying in.  It scared the heck out of me, but I quickly realized it was a little bird.  So I jumped up, tried to shoe it out and it was having a difficult time finding itself back into the wild.  I grabbed my camera, took a couple pics and wished Annabelle was awake to experience the bird frenzy.  After I sat back down and processed what had happened I realized two things:  1) the bird had pooped ALL over and 2) the thought of ever getting Annabelle a pet bird, which yes I have mentioned while being over here, is out the door and not an option!