Our second fall in Lisbon flew by just as fast as the first.
She Said:
Strikes. Portugal has a lot of strikes. I don’t know whether or not they achieve the desired result for those on strike, but I do know that an hour commute (via 2 buses) on a good day can suck, but during strikes, it double sucks! Throw a rainy day in there…oh boy. On the bright side, Sebastian and I are flying through audiobooks on the way to school AND he’s now coming home with friends or by himself! This is one of the many changes I see happening in Sebastian before my eyes every day: independence. He handles the traffic and rain (and sometimes smelly co-riders) like a champ. He handles late buses or alternate routes without panicking. And best of all, he doesn’t (usually) complain nearly as much as he could!
So, this is our second fall here, and similar to the year behind us, it’s flown by. I started Portuguese classes in September, four days per week for 2.5 hours each day. It’s been wild putting my student brain back on and trying really hard to learn the language. I have a wonderful teacher and a class full of immigrants from all over the world. I’m learning so much, and on paper, I'm doing really well. The trouble lies with understanding in “real life” outside the classroom as the Portuguese people speak SO fast and eat (i.e., don’t pronounce) half the letters in any given word! But I’m trying really hard, and people are so kind as to tolerate my Portanol-merican pronunciation and help me communicate what I’m trying to say.
After a really fun visit from some of our oldest Boulder friends (so great to see you, Girards) and bittersweet observances of the high holidays away from family came Seb’s half-term break. We spent five wonderful days in Venice and Bologna (separate blog), followed by a long weekend away with friends in a Portuguese town called Coimbra. Home to one of the oldest universities in the world, we had a lot of fun not only exploring another really unique and historically rich town but also doing it with friends, which made it even more fun. We toured the university campus and saw a library completed in 1728, which functioned as the university library from 1777 until the first half of the 20th century. I wanted so badly to take a book down from the shelf and check for bookworms! We enjoyed a different kind of Fado music in an old church-turned-coffee shop. While I didn’t know it was on my bucket list, I can now check off peeing in an old confessional!
Since Halloween is not really a thing in Portugal, it was fairly low-key again this year. We did see a few costumes here and there around town, and Seb dressed up as some kind of fake-blood-hatchet-wielding scary thing for school (and found enough candy) to make it official.
While I love birthdays in general, I really hated celebrating mine away from my womb roomie for the second year in a row (sorry, Jay). But I did very much appreciate the effort put forth by my boys to make it fun for me and it was a really nice day. Since we do experiences in lieu of gifts, mine gift was a trip on a vintage Tejo train that is only run twice per year. The trip, from Lisbon to the nominated UNESCO World Heritage town of Castelo Branco, included a historical re-enactment of the journey of King Carlos and Queen Amélia (there were actually people in character on the train playing the parts, though I still couldn’t really tell you who they are historically), a souvenir bag that included a local sweet called ‘Feijadinhas,’ and absolutely gorgeous landscapes throughout the 2-hour journey. To my surprise (and Chad/Seb’s secret doing), we boarded the train to a group of our friends waiting to spend the day with us. We had a delicious lunch when we arrived and walked around town to find…. wait for it…. yep, a castle to climb! We were gifted with great weather and had a really fun day. Not too bad for my 48th trip around the sun.
We’ve had some gorgeous fall/beginning of winter weather in Lisbon, and going to the beach on any given Sunday in mid-November will never get old to me. That, and stumbling on a great meal somewhere we’ve been meaning to go while simply walking around town.
The next round of guests (the Brians) was a blast to have around, and aside from showing them some of our favorite, must-see places around town, we also explored some new places we’d never been with them. We had some great meals, and to their (and our) surprise, they got to witness Sebastian singing a fado duet at one of our favorite places, impromptu! This happened once before when he joined a fado singer in a song he knew, but this time, he sang a few verses all on his own in Portuguese. This kid…
Nope, having visitors is not getting old.
The next round of guests (the Brians) was a blast to have around, and aside from showing them some of our favorite, must-see places around town, we also explored some new places we’d never been with them. We had some great meals, and to their (and our) surprise, they got to witness Sebastian singing a fado duet at one of our favorite places, impromptu! This happened once before when he joined a fado singer in a song he knew, but this time, he sang a few verses all on his own in Portuguese. This kid…
Nope, having visitors is not getting old.
Thanksgiving is a tough day for us to be away from family, especially in a place where it is not a holiday. Once again, we booked Hard Rock Café for the promise of a traditional turkey dinner, but this time with a group of American ex-pats all feeling the same as us. While the food was not really good, it was two hours of Americana that we craved, and that, along with a Sunday potluck traditional Thanksgiving meal with some of the same folks, helped make the holiday a little less difficult to be away from family.
That pretty much brings us up to speed as we prepare for our first trip back to America for the holidays in almost a year and a half. I am very excited to see all the people I’m missing so much. I’m also interested to see how I’ve changed in this time and how being back will feel. While there are many times that living here feels more like a perpetual vacation, I have also very much assimilated, and day-to-day life has become more routine.
Alas, my goal is to continue to appreciate and enjoy each day to its fullest, as best as I can, and try not to worry about what comes next until the time comes. Looking out from the top of the Ferris Wheel at the winter wonderland fair, seeing all of the beautiful holiday lights and vast shoreline in the distance, it doesn’t seem that hard to do…
Happy holidays to all, and cheers to 2025!
That pretty much brings us up to speed as we prepare for our first trip back to America for the holidays in almost a year and a half. I am very excited to see all the people I’m missing so much. I’m also interested to see how I’ve changed in this time and how being back will feel. While there are many times that living here feels more like a perpetual vacation, I have also very much assimilated, and day-to-day life has become more routine.
Alas, my goal is to continue to appreciate and enjoy each day to its fullest, as best as I can, and try not to worry about what comes next until the time comes. Looking out from the top of the Ferris Wheel at the winter wonderland fair, seeing all of the beautiful holiday lights and vast shoreline in the distance, it doesn’t seem that hard to do…
Happy holidays to all, and cheers to 2025!
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