Morangos 03/03/2009

Today I bought half a kilo of strawberries;

Guess how much I’ve paid for them….

Remember, it’s the first week of march.  If february was a normal month in daylenght, it would still be february now!

So, how much I’ve paid for 500gr of strawberries?

75 euroCENTS,  30 good old Belgian Franks.

And they were delicious

Enjoy the view

(P.S.: my strawberries are not in this picture, but in my stomach )

Mondays 02/03/2009

To prove that I do listen to mommie sometimes, here’s some more news for you!

Today is just another monday, but after a well-filled weekend!  On friday there was a goodbye party for Stefan, the first volunteer to leave our family.  So that was a bit sad…

Saturday we all went to a concert of Carlos (a Spanish volunteer from nearby Santarem) with an Irish friend of his in… an Irish pub!  They played nice music and afterwards we had a little party of our own on the street!  Our instruments were a guitar, my highheeled shoes and the clapping of our hands.  Very nice

Sunday is resting day, also for the volunteers.  We took it easy and in the evening we went to a Japanese restaurant near Saldanha.  Also very nice.

Today is monday, so another workingday.  In Tercena all is calm and time for me to go look for some food because I’m starving!

(pictures on facebook only for privacyreasons…)

I am the worst… 28/02/2009

… and most undisciplined blogger of the universe

Once again, it took me a while to write a new post.  I hope from now on, things will get better because I finally have my laptop back!  As some of you might already know, the cable of my laptop gave up on me.  For almost three months I had to use this very old (but incredibly awesome) laptop that could barely run two programs at the same time.  This didn’t really motivate me to try to get to this website, write and upload pictures.  But, now I have no more excuses!

So, what’s been going on lately…  I got addicted to Grey’s Anatomy last Christmas.  I am now watching season 3, but it’s on Chinese servers so it takes forever to load.  But it’s worth it, although I don’t understand why McSteamy has so much succes.

Fortunately, there is more to life than Grey’s Anatomy.  Mentioning this series in my blog will, by the way, boost up my visitor count.  It happend also last time when I wrote about coelho, the rabbit (not the writer).  Now it looks like I’ll have a double hit   Anyways, the weather here has been fabulous over the past weeks.  Untill today, but let’s just forget about today.  Untill today, it was like summer here.  Temperatures around -and above 20°C, blue skies,… I went to the beach several times and got slightely tanned.  And you know what?  It’s february!  Awesome.

I’m a bit sad that it might rain again.  Well, not sad because of the rain itself, but sad that the streets will become dangerous places to roam.  It so happens to be that portuguese people do not know how to handle an umbrella.  They swing it around and about as if they were all in some rainy musical.  We’re talking open ánd closed umbrellas here!  I mean, for the love of god: keep it vertical at all times!!  Oh and when you cross people, you can always lift it up a bit so you don’t stick someones eyes out.  Then again, maybe they do already lift up the umbrella, but since I’m a giant, that won’t help much… Yes, I’m good at dissing the portuguese people   But they also are really nice, sweet and helpfull people.  And they are the best at cooking fish!  I will miss the bacalhau when I’m back in Belgium.  And I will miss my Minipreço too…  Did I already mention on my blog that I will be coming home sooner?  I’ll be back for good the 4th of may instead of september.  Hurray

So, to make up my slow writing, I hereby leave you with some pictures of Alfama, a neighbourhood in Lisbon where I went yesterday with Stefanie, another Belgian volunteer.  Enjoy

New class! 23/10/2008

A quick update on the Portuguese class!

On tuesday I recieved a phonecall from my NEW TEACHER.  Hell yea, my new teacher.  It turns out that my protest (complaining + making a statement by not going to class) worked.  Yesterday I had my first “legal” class with the other teacher and it was really good.  I actually look forward to having class again tonight and learn more!  I am now an expert in naming kitchen equipment in Portuguese.  O tacho, a máquina de lavar a louça, o caixote do lixo,… no longer sound like spareparts of a spaceship to me.  Tonight after class I will know all about a casa de banho, hurray!

Another remark that I didn’t comment on in the comments yet.  Even though the food is greasy (YES IT IS )  I really like it.  Hence my chubbinisation   Yesterday in class I was the proud presenter of the tarte de natas (recipe by Paulo).  Everybody loves it!  Carmen is even going to make it on Christmaseve for her family.  I only have good things to say about Portuguese kitchen, untill the heads of the fish appear on meu prato that is

Vamos a la praia! 19/10/2008

It has been a nice weekend!

Saturday: I stayed in bed untill noon (I really needed that) and in the afternoon I did all my “homework”.  I cleaned, did the laundry, groceries, make dinner for two days (incl. dessert).  It was all portuguese food, thanks to Paulinhos recipies and guidelines   I will for sure get chubby with all the greasy and creamy foods here!  I still have to try Raf’s rabbit (thx for the recipe), I usually don’t like them, but now I’m getting so pissed with coelho that I could eat it   And in the evening I went to party with Cristina, my crazy boss!  We had a good time and made partyplans for next week.  We wanted to go to a place called “Lux” but when we arrived there at 3 a.m. there was a huuuuuge line queueing outside.  So we went to eat a hotdog (I don’t approve chubby comments on this :p).  Next week we’ll get all fabulous again and go a bit earlier.  Watch out Lisboa!!

Sunday: of course, after the wild night comes a long sleep.  It was nice to sleep this long again.  I’m still adapting to the working situation and to traveling to and from work every day.  In the end of the week I really feel how tireing it can be.  So today I had to relax…  I went to the beach with some of the other volunteers and I even took a swim in the sea.  It was so nice, you can’t believe it   At first the water felt chilly, but once you’re swimming, it’s fantastic!  So refreshing, unbelievable for the end of october.  I sometimes forget it’s already fall, I love that   Of course, I have proof of this…  Don’t feel jalous, just be happy for me   Love you all!

beijinhos!!

P.S.: If it can be of any comfort, I was the whitest person on the beach