#4

It has been a whileeeeee.  I need to get better at posting!  As relaxed as these last few weeks have been I have definitely stayed busy.  I have my routine now...

• Wake up in the morning, go for a run/walk/bike ride
• Sit on the terrace and do my daily devotional, listen to my Reality SF sermon, and spend a little time writing in my journal.
• Surf
• ...and then end my day working in the surf shop. 

In the midst of my crazy packed and awfully stressful schedule :) I hang out with Carla a lot, and have made a few great friends here at the Surfcastle that I really enjoy spending time with.  Ginjas has been in Indonesia for the past couple of weeks so we have had a lot of fun together while he has been enjoying the surf in the middle of the ocean.  Last weekend some friends of friends from Lisbon came and we had a fun weekend BBQ-ing, and drinking good wine, and laughing a lot.  

                                                                    .bbq with the boys.

                                  .hes as big as the car.                                                  
Every morning I have been exercising with Carla which has been so nice, and last night we had a sleepover.  We made dinner, and talked, and watched a movie, and wore our retainers :)  It was a perfect night.

There are some cute guys here.  Very cute :)  We will see what summer brings!  

xoxo.

---

currently listening to 

::#beautiful:: Miguel feat. Mariah Carey

#3

Okay.  I have been here a little over a week now.  Its definitely a lifestyle I am getting used to, but sometimes I find myself feeling bad when I am outside tanning at 1 in the afternoon.  It is a mentality that needs to shift for me if I am going to embrace this time here.  I need to learn to be okay with relaxing and with spending hours in the sun doing nothing but hanging out with friends and bronzing my body.  It's just so weird.  And a complete 180 from what I was used to at home.  Now that I have been here a week and I have gotten used to the lay of the land, there are a couple of small changes I have already noticed I need to make.

--------

#1.  The bread here is delicious.  But bread=the devil.  So bread starting right now is cut out of my diet except for 1 day a week.  I will allow myself one bread day a week.  I have also learned that I need to start grocery shopping for myself, because I've learned that they don't really like salad in Portugal.

#2.  Yoga needs to happen every day.  No exceptions.

#3.  Tomorrow begins the journey of me learning how to surf.

#4.  I need to spend some more time in self reflection.

Its time to get life in order.  I need to face the fact that I can only be on vacation and free of all thoughts for so long, and then I need to give myself goals to achieve.  I only have so much time here.  Not only in Portugal but in life.  We all have such a short period of time on this planet.  We should start allowing our lives to reflect that.  Seriously. Im convinced we all need to do this. So come on.  Let's do it.

---

currently listening to 

::Midnight City::  M83

#2

Its been a few days; I know. I'm sorry.

I've been too busy falling in love...
     with Portugal.
and maybe a couple other things :)


These past few days have been pretty darn great though.  Friday night we opened the bar here at the Surfcastle, and I made a new best friend.  Carla is Ginges' girlfriend and we instantly connected.  We had SO much fun that night.

Then on Saturday we had Joao's birthday, where about 30 family and friends gathered despite the gusty winds of Baleal to celebrate the big 3-7.  The Porto verses Benfica game was on and Joao was very very excited.  It was a disappointment when they lost, but when a loss is followed by Octopus over rice, the Portugese seem to be okay with it.

After the game, and after dinner everyone started congregating in the bar where Carla and I were bartending.  We had music blasting and people drinking nonnnnnn stoppp.  Francisco and I had to go to a bar next door to the surf castle and buy more beer because we completely ran out.

 The day after was very relaxed.  Joao invited me to lunch with his family which was really nice.  

...and then Joao, his brother, sister in law and I went along the coast for a couple of hours checking out some new beaches.   

  .met some sweet fisherman.                                                                 .looked at this.

.and this.

Then we got back to the Surfcastle and went for a bike ride, and saw this beauty :)

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 currently listening to

  ::Stay:: Rihanna feat. Mikky Ekko

xx.

#1

I'm here.  

And I can't say 'finally' because this was an adventure that I can honestly say I did not have enough time to mentally prepare for.  Which I have realized in retrospect is the perfect way to do things.  It didn't even really settle in that I would be living in Portugal until I was at the Vodofone booth waiting for Joao to pick me up.  'Finally' would imply that I have been waiting for this moment and counting down the hours, and although I am so excited to be here now, I was so busy making sure everything was in perfect condition with work and family and friends that I didn't have time to settle in the thought that I was leaving in 4 days...1 day....16 hours...

On my way over here, I began to slow my mind down and start to internalize some feelings.

 

 .easy to think under these conditions.

First realization since I have begun this journey:

• The best way to get ready for a trip, adventure, journey, and life, is to not think about it too much. 

My entire life, I plan. I am a planner.  Type A...all the way. But I have noticed recently that planning certain things are so unnecessary.  Sometimes planning ruins plans yea?  I've noticed that in my own life at least.  At the end of the day, whatever is going to happen, will inevitably find a way to happen.  And if it doesn't happen today, it will happen tomorrow. I believe in fate.  God's fate.  Strongly. 

The Surfcastle is beautiful.  It is my second day here, and I have met people from Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Poland, and Greece.  Within two days.  If this isn't living my life the way I always dreamed of then I don't know what is.  Immersing myself in a culture different from my own is one of my many fates.  I think thats why I love San Francisco.  It is one of the few cities in the US that is so culturally diverse.  It is so naive for us to think that life is only to be lived in one place for our entire lives.  The only way we get through life is to live life. Everyone's definition of that is different...but we can't be afraid to take a risk every once in a while. 

Today we had our first staff meeting.  Its so interesting to see how different cultures conduct their business and how they find different things effective.  Joao and Ginges would randomly go at it in Portugese debating how things should be run.  Its such a passionate culture.  From a business standpoint, I have some ideas of how business could run a little bit smoother.  They get very easily stressed out so my goal this summer is to help out as much as I can and prevent this from happening...

.yes...that is a beer on the table at 11 in the morning.

The sun is shining, we just opened up the bar and im jiving to the beats of some Portugese house music while smelling the hint of mint and lime:  an essential for the mojitos that Joao is preparing for us.  

... Je ne sais pas!  I could get used to this.  

.xx.