#7

Boy has it been a while.  Its been a crazy couple of weeks!  The weather is finally consistently amazing.  In May the good weather was on and off, but now we have 80-90 degree days every day :) Thank goodness.  The Surfcastle is filling up, and the beaches are full of colorful umbrellas.  I have continued my routine of morning exercise  stretching, a cup of coffee [or tea], then my shift at the surf shop, and then either yoga, or joining the waves for a surf.  The countdown to my departure is slowly creeping up on me, and I find myself not wanting to leave.  Of course I can't wait to see my family and friends.  Of course.  But I absolutely love my life here in this underrated country.  Every single moment is so great.  Like this morning on my run, some "studly" men picking up a game of tavloo after church.

yea...im going to miss this.

and I'm most definitely going to miss running into cuties like this on my morning walks.

 ...I decided surfing might be one of the hardest sports to learn.  It is SO difficult.  And now that the beaches are so crowded it makes it even more difficult.  It is a complete body work out for sure. But when I come back from a surf to a spontaneous unplugged jam session, it makes me forget about the pain in my triceps.

We were on TV here in Portugal!  This TV show that telecasts popular resorts and travel wanted to interview the Surfcastle.  We aired last night at 8:30pm.  It was really cool to see Joao and Ginjas on TV and to have the crew here all day.

One of our employees for the summer; Alice, left us last week, so we gave her a couple going away parties.  It was weird saying goodbye already.  I feel like we just met, and we were already saying goodbye.  

Friday night we went to Francisco's acting showcase.  

It was a hot sweaty stressful night :) Patricia and I decided we wanted to go shopping before so we ran around the mall for an hour, and then once we got into the City Center all the parking lots were completely full, and we got completely lost.  Then once we finally found parking, we "mapped" it and realized we were a kilometer away from the theater, so we ran as fast as we could so as not to be late and arrived at the theater completely drenched in sweat.  When we got into the theater we realized there was no air conditioning, but stumbled upon a small AC unit in the back of the theater that we parked ourselves in front of for a while.

This was post sweat sesh.  Checking to make sure we still looked presentable. 

I've eaten a lot of fish since I have arrived here.  I don't eat a whole lot of fish back in the states.  Or if it is its all the same fish.  Salmon, tilapia, shrimp... I have experimented with sea bass, halibut, mackerel ..broadening my horizons and my palette.  

I'm also going to definitely miss my wonderful Bosses.  Who have been amazing these past couple of months :)

We went out last night.  It was a beautiful night in Baleal.  

The line up:

Surfing.

Showering.

Putting on mascara [since that's all I wear here]

Dinner.

and...

Dancing.

of course :)

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currently listening to

::You've Got The Love::  Florence + The Machine

#6

Today my parents celebrate their TWENTY SIXTH wedding anniversary!  I always find any opportunity to tell people their story because I think it is so fascinating.  Today I was on a walk with Alice and Paulina and I was telling them that it was their anniversary and they asked how they met and when I told them their story they died.  They were appalled but at the same time fascinated with my parents love story.

I'm pretty lucky to call them mine.

Its crazy to think about.  I guess because I am so incredibly far away from marriage it is hard to think about or at this point fantasize about what a love like that looks like in my life.  It is crazy.  I have been spending a lot of time in prayer here.  And practicing the hard task of listening.  Which is and has proven to be really hard for me.  But I made it my mission while in Portugal to challenge myself and practice the discipline of listening.  It has been easier than I thought.  When you put your mind to something it is crazy what the outcome could be.  I have learned a lot from Him in my month here.  And although I know there is much more to be learned and practiced, it is the most time I have spent in His word in my entire life and it feels amazing. His love has been so so so evident in my time here and know I couldn't have managed without Him carrying me.  I know Him more now than I ever have and I truly believe that life experiences have the power and incredible ability to mold relationships, in this case my relationship with God, but it could be any relationship.  It causes feelings to be tested, and commitment to become evident.  He has shown me through grace and love that He is not going anywhere and I am safe in His arms.  

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Finally the weather is good again here in Portugal.  My time here is winding down.  I have one more month here and have every intention of living it up completely until I leave.  I am super excited about going home though.  And be reunited with these crazy awesome people :)

Can't wait.  Especially this one....

and this one.

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currently listening to 

::Anenome:: Brian Jonestown Massacre

#5

The weather is perking up.  We have had the sun shining for the past week and it has been incredible.  Definite darkening of skin color over here :)

I spent the weekend with Carla, we started our weekend with a bit of a shopping excursion in Caldes (pronounced Cahl-desh) for those of you who like the phonetic version of foreign words.  We didn't get home until midnight, and filled her couch with our bags.

It was a great feeling of accomplishment for sure.  Then we covered our faces with my Philosophy Oxygen Mask and watched a 'Rom-Com".  Of course.

Woke up the next day went for a walk on the beach and then plopped ourselves ever so elegantly on what we call here on the island; Onion Beach.  Do not ask me why its called that.  I have come up with a several theories, one being that since it is a private beach that only locals know about you have to "peel back" all the beaches where the tourists go and there will you find the ever so amazing Onion Beach.  That is the theory I'm going to go with because even Carla doesn't know why its called that.  Then we had lunch at the cafe on the island that everyone goes, and Jeff (one of our good friends) and his brother joined us for a little bit.  We tanned a little bit more by the pool and then decided we were hungry, from our weekend of detox, and ate a little something before performing our second mask of the weekend while watching Silver Lining's Playbook.

Ooh! I added another "first to my list this weekend.  I tried snails!  Yuck

I miss these two :( My best friend Julie's "un-birthday" was this weekend and it was killing me that I couldn't be there.

Its difficult to travel to a place where you don't know anyone, and where you are vulnerable. But I found that if you are content with yourself, nothing, no one, and no loop holes can mess you up.  I think thats life in general.  You never want to depend on someone or something to make you happy.  And when that self realization is established I truly believe we can accomplish anything.  Life is so great.  And sometimes, as I'm sure we have all done at some point or another, I just graze through my life, and it becomes a story of one day to the next.  Not a story about the extraordinary way I chose and choose to live my life.  So lets start.  Ok?  Lets start living, and doing, and changing, and loving.  Of course you gotta show some love :)

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currently listening to 

::Brave::  Sara Bareilles