Today I am thankful for

Every morning when Annabelle and I head out we talk about what we are thankful for.  I like to think we are discussing what we are thankful for, when in reality I'm just talking at her.  Of course I'm thankful for Annabelle, Andy, our family and friends and our health daily, but being over here gives you lots of time to reflect on life, so have been trying to embrace the smaller things.  We try to find something new everyday that we haven't discussed before.  There is something about the sound of ocean waves that is almost spiritual.  I truly am so thankful for the wonderful life we have and blessed to have the support and love from all as we continue this journey.

Portion Control....

How childish am I that when I named this post, all I could think of was Prince's song from my college years.  Everyone else besides my college friends, ignore this first part.  Yes, bad Sally.

Anyway, the drink portions over here are very generous in the wine spectrum, but very cheap in the water.  When you go out to eat and order a glass of wine, like we normally do lunch or dinner, they fill your glass up almost to the top.  You can get a good glass of wine for 2.5 Euro = $4 USD.  Water on the other hand is not as plentiful, so normally take our water bottles with us.

They also all clear the plates.  I would say the portions of the food might be slightly smaller, but they do not leave any behind.  Part of this might be due to the lack of garbage disposals and just the culture.  They appreciate their food and the hands that prepare it.  Every meal concludes with a glass of espresso - which does not bode well with my tum or taste buds.  Andy on the other hand likes it, but it's even sometimes strong for him!

Here are the glasses of espresso to show their tiny size in comparison to the other glasses.

Typical glass of vino.

Pink for Honey

Annabelle has taken a liking to the color pink and found her the other day dressed in a lot of pink.  With October being National Breast Cancer Awareness month I wanted to give a shout out to my Mama and her incredible strength during her battle 12 years ago.  You are an amazingly strong woman and so thankful that your journey resulted the way it did.  Special thoughts and prayers go out to all the women who have battled and are battling this disease.

I love you mom!!!

Laundry

While we do not have a clothes line, like many Portuguese citizens have, we have a drying rack for our clothes.  Yep, there are no dryers, so you hang dry all your laundry on either drying racks or clothes lines. In theory it sounds like a good idea, but when the climate is very wet and you are in rainy season, the moisture in the air does not help dry your things.  So cleaning your sheets and towels have to be well thought out, in the event that they don't dry in 24 hours.  Let's just say Andy had to wear the same pair of boxers two days in a row...yuck!

Here are some photos of our clothes rack, as well as the tiny washing machine.  The drums of the washing machines are much smaller than home and can only fit about 1/3 of the amount of clothes in one load that we are used to.  I feel like I'm constantly doing laundry.  The washing machine is also in Portuguese, obviously, so not knowing what the different settings mean, or run cycles, I have to take the iPad to the basement where the machine is, to translate how to run it :)  

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?