Ambling Around

Another view of Viana do Castelo from my running route

Traditional Lisbon architecture

Since my last post, I have really experienced a lot. First of all, I am adapting well to my life in Portugal. School is getting better, I can understand the language pretty well now and I can communicate decently. I have been to a disco (it was a fun, but I had to leave at 2:30 a.m., pretty early by Portuguese standards), passed a few tests, joined a Running Club (and gotten a ton of free running gear from them), gotten used to taking the train, joined the school basketball team (that is really fun!), been to Lisbon and had another AFS orientation.

Well, in regards to running, I qualified to go to the National Portuguese Club Team cross country championships next weekend. They are in Algarve. My club team is great, it is nice to have company while training. The downside is, a lot of the team is hurt, so we are not going to Algarve to compete. I will play in a basketball game with my school instead.

I went on a trip to Lisbon this past week. It was a blast. It is quite a large city with a diverse population. Viana do Castelo and the surrounding areas (where I live) have much less diversity. I saw the aquarium, tried the famous Pastéis de Belém (and scalded my mouth), enjoyed some art, saw the Colombo shopping mall (again, the Portuguese really enjoy malls!) and then took a bus to another AFS orientation. It was great to be able to talk in english, hang out with Americans and just relax in a more natural environment for me. We discussed some very helpful topics such as how to learn the language better and adapt. The orientation was in a costal town (the town was rather empty, probably due to the fact it is still winter). Pictures will come later.

I have been making an effort to explore more in my free time and have discovered new pastries, cafés and sights as a result. At the moment my favorite pastries are the coffee eclairs, these wonderful chocolate filled croissant-type things, a coconut macaroon sort of confection and this cake that is like a roll of dough. I do not know the technical terms for most of them in english, or portuguese for that matter, but pointing to the "bolo" (pastry) I want seems to get the point across.

My subsistence

To conclude this post, I would like to encourage you guys to post comments with any questions you have. I have been growing accustomed to life here, and as a result neglect to mention things that you guys might find interesting or have questions about. Also, suggestions for photos would be good too!

Don't I look so Texan? The flag is in fact Chilean and the hat Argentinean

Portuguese can be difficult to read at times...

Good Grub

In order to bring closure to my last post (which was a while back), I am going to start off with the results from the District "Corta-Mato" (basically Cross Country) race. The course itself was swamp-like, a combination of rain and a couple races prior to mine had turned the park where we were running into a mud hole. I managed to slip, slide and skate my way to an 8th place finnish out of a couple hundred guys, but unfortunately only the top six runners get to go to nationals. In order to get to and from the race, the runners from my school traveled on a charter bus. None of the schools at the race had School Buses (see picture below). After the race, I was introduced to Manuela Machado (feel free to click the link for more information). She is a former world champion marathon runner who now runs a track club in Viana do Castelo. She invited me to train with them, and next tuesday I intend to attend my first practice. In response to a reader request, I included the picture above which was taken from my daily running route. I went for a great run in the country yesterday, and managed to out run a tractor (for a little while at least, the farmers are pretty funny and enjoy racing me).

Enough about running, for now. School is becoming a bit easier as I am able to understand much more of what my teachers are saying. My comprehension is actually respectable at this point, and speaking is becoming easier. I am not fluent, but I have made a lot of progress since I arrived. I have not really encountered any substantial difficulties with a "language barrier", but I do struggle a bit to express ideas sometimes.

We went on a field trip last week. We visited the city of Porto, which is about an hour's drive south of Viana. To kick off the activities, we visited a museum that is intended to give an idea about the life style of upper-class Portuguese in the 1800's. Then, we visited a library and went to a Science Museum. We partook in an overnight Crime-Scene-Investigation activity, but it was not as interesting as the name suggests. The next day we finished up our "investigation" (solution: the son killed the abusive father and the mother tried to cover for him), then went to one of the largest malls in Portugal. Portuguese people seem to be very proud of, and love spending time at malls. Its a rather odd phenomenon. They call them "shoppings". Anyways, the mall was maybe the size of North Star and similar (other than the fact that a lot of the brands are different). I am not a big fan of malls, or commercialism in general, but I loved the food court. They have the usual disgusting fast food chains along with some very good restaurants that serve Portuguese food. I opted for the latter and enjoyed some good Portuguese-style BBQ (hence the title of this post). Its just meat without the sauce, various sides and a fried banana (they are really good).

I have been getting more accustomed to life here, but I really must step up my effort to take pictures so that you guys can see aspects of Portuguese culture that are more interesting than a lack of school buses.

"Boa Noite."