On Friday morning, I left with an excursion through the school for Lisboa, Portugal. There was a charter bus full of us and it took us about 6 hours to get there. We stayed in a hotel and had a great time. Our guide, Angel, took us to many different places around Portugal and told us about each one. The first day, Friday, we went to downtown Lisboa and looked at all the statues and beautiful buildings. We ended up at the coast and then at a castle at the top of a hill. The view from the castle was breathtaking. That night, we stayed in the city and ate dinner at a Portuguese restaurant. On Saturday we drove a little further. The weather was cloudy and rainy but we were able to visit a monestary. The monestary had a cathedral within it, and to me, this was the most beautiful and majestic sight. The details of the cathedral were so intricate and impressive; we couldn't help wondering how long it must have taken to complete. After the monestary we walked to a statue representing the navigators of Portugal. This statue was amazing because of its size - it was huge! We saw another castle after this but it was drizzling and cold (since we were on the coast) so we didn't stay long. We then drove to the beach where the weather (finally!) cleared up. We ate lunch and admired the view of the Atlantic ocean. Eventually we got up the guts to go into the water...my friend Lauren and I decided to put our heads all the way under water. This was so cold that it was difficult to breathe, but very refreshing for those couple seconds. :) That night we went to dinner again, but instead of wandering with the rest of the group, my friends Rachel, Max, and myself found a hole in the wall bar that we went to. There we had delicious wine recommended by the waiter and appetizers: mussels, calamari, and cod rissoles. We felt as if we were really tasting Portugal then. Afterwards we got some port because we were, after all, in Portugal. The next morning, however, something very bad happened. Rachel and I were sharing a hotel room and had been having problems with our clocks all weekend. We were never 100% sure what time it was and we couldn't use our phones in Portugal anyway, except for alarms. So even though I had set my alarm for a super early time on Sunday morning, it somehow failed to go off and we ended up missing the bus! The guide was certain he had counted everyone present, but we obviously weren't, so we had to take a cab to the bus's destination. The cab ride was expensive but it was also an adventure. Our taxi driver spoke only Portuguese and drove very fast. After finally arriving to our destination, we were amazed with our location. We were in a town surrounded by a fort; we were even able to walk along the top of the fort where the view was amazing. We then went to one last cathedral where we were able to witness and Portuguese mass before heading home.
My classes have been very good. I feel like I'm finally getting used to being here. I've started to make my own routine similar to the one I have when I'm at home going to school. This routine makes me feel less helpless and that I actually have something to do with my time. I'm also getting to know people in my classes and that helps immensely.
The weather here is tricky. It is absolutely great that it is drier and there is no humidity, but the mornings and nights are cold while the days are very hot. This makes it difficult to figure out what to wear to class! It's cold when we walk to class and hot when we leave.
I will post Portugal pictures tomorrow!
It sounds like you are definitely making the most of your time in Europe. I loved the story of missing the bus and making an adventure out of it. "Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the sooner we will be able to treat life as art." Maya Angelou
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