Bud Thoughts

On our second Thursday here, instead of going home after school, we went to a special class to surf.  I had a lot of fun.  We got used to the water and the wetsuits, I felt like I got used to it faster than others.  We did boogie boarding first, and the wetsuits were super helpful and the waves were really big from a distance.  When we got close to the waves we got used to them.  Mom thought they were big, but they weren't too big to me.  It was pouring rain, which helped getting used to the water.  The water was very salty...and I didn't like when I fell off my boogie board and got salt water in my nose.  It was a mess getting out...we took an Uber with mom and Rita's mom (and Rita).  When we surfed next Thursday it was sunny and hot, and I got up on the board a lot! They make us run sprints to warm up, and we jump waves a lot. My Grandparents came to see me and we had burgers and it was so fun.

Pouring Rain:

Me wiping out next Thursday:

My expectations for the whole entire thing weren't at all how I thought they would be.  Our house is a little bit smaller than I thought it would be.  Meeting people was harder for me because there weren't that many people for me to make friends with.  I eventually made friends with Edith and Tilly and Max, they're all really good friends now and they think I'm weird.  It's a nice feeling because I love being weird.  It's nothing like home at all.  There's no castles in the US, and there aren't very historical places in the US either (well, there's some).  I didn't think everything would be so much closer to each other and smaller.  I really like how much easier it is to get around, the only way to get around the city is by walking.  It's really fun but my legs get tired more often.  It can be annoying but my legs will get a lot stronger by the end of the trip. 

This part is up a big hill: 

The park by our school:

School is so much different from home.  When we're inside we do stuff like "Culture Time" where we learn things like the days of the weeks, how to cook Portuguese food, and its a really good way to learn about the country.  If we didn't have Culture Time I wouldn't know the history of all the castles and stuff like that.  We have English and Math just like at home, though it is pretty easy for me because I'm in the group with 7 to 9 year olds, so I'm one of the oldest.  It feels good to be one of the oldest.  In art class we're doing a project about equality and inequality where we're supposed to make a drawing of inequality vs. equality.  We've just done ideas so far of what we're going to do, but I think it's going to be really fun.  We have this cool thing called "Quest" and its like social studies around the world but it's a lot more than what we do at home.  It shows different ways that we can help, instead of just what's going on.  We also have a Boundless Project where we do a big project to share with the entire class.  I'm doing an Electrical Engineering project that I think will be the coolest one in the class.  Every two weeks we elect and new President and Vice President of the class.  I'm going to run for Vice President.  We're outside all the time and it's very nature like.  It's cold and humid outside...kind of like fall weather but in the winter.  I personally like the fall weather when it's windy, and it's windy here too.  Its just more humid here than at home, which I like.

My school:

Sintra Pillows (Evie made, I don't have a picture of my Pastel da Natas):

Something that I don't like is not having my dog around.  She's always there to pet when you're bored, and I like having her around the house.  But it would be hard to have her here in such a small space.  Living above a gelato shop is really fun.  Going downstairs for food when there isn't anything in the house is great and easy.  The people who work there are very nice to us, and are remembering our names because they know I'll be there for a while.

That's all for now! We are off to Porto this weekend!

First pitfall of the trip...

 It was all going so well...

Last Friday night we had our first big organized social event, a wine tasting event for the parents and a movie/pizza night for the kiddos.  It was great, we got to try great wine while learning more about the history of Portugal while making connections and new friends with other parents in our cohort.  After reconvening with our kids we even hung out til midnight with a couple other families, drinking more wine and eating more pizza...things are really starting to feel like home.

The next morning, a little hungover, we took the morning nice and slow.  Then out of absolute nowhere, Bud threw up.  Within minutes both kids were super sick, and we have 1 toilet to share.  The apartment never felt smaller.  To rub salt in the wound, it was the first warm and sunny day in a long time, and we had a free Saturday with plans to get out and explore.  But alas, it turned into a day of sleep, disinfecting, laundry, sleep, emergency response, disinfecting, laundry, sleep, ad nauseam (literally).

Sunday morning, the kids woke up feeling like a million bucks!  Figuring it was something the kids ate and grateful that all was not lost and it was another beautiful sunny day, we hit the road to Cascais (pronounced kash-kise) a vibrant beach town not far from Sintra.  We loved it, the architecture, shops, beachs, boats, marina, everything was so charming and lively.  At the beach we made friends with the funniest little dogs running in the waves, it was Evie's dream morning. Quite a few people were in the water despite it topping out at around 60 degrees. 

The marina area had clearly been recently upgraded and was full of all of these posh outdoor eateries, so we grabbed a table and decided to just sort of dine out for a while, European style.  The menu had an odd assortment of things, mostly Italian but then also sushi and the like.  It was great, albeit kind of all over the place.


We capped off our time in Cascais by riding this adorable Ferris Wheel right on the beach front.  The views were great, and we all laughed and joked and took pictures.  The kids kept insisting the Erin and I have "romantic kisses" and it was all very cute.

Our last jaunt was to a secluded beach (Praia de Crismina) on the western coast to catch the sunset.  It was a bit of a long Uber ride to get there, but well worth it as the cliffs, beach, waves and sunset were all beautiful.  It felt like we were at the end of the earth, especially since we were almost at the most western tip of continental Europe.  But while we were there, I felt that awful feeling of impending doom.  I had caught it too, we weren't in the clear, and were a million miles from home.  

My phone died and Erin didn't have Uber fully installed on hers (weird right?) and I couldn't figure out how to bypass the authentication texts to our US number. The kids were wet and it was getting cold fast as the sun had set. It was the most stressful 10 minutes of phone ninja followed by the most stressful uber ride I've ever had as I counted the seconds until we got home.  And as the kids put it, once we finally got in, I sounded like a dying walrus.  As I got wrung out like a dishrag, I rewound the past few hours of sushi, creamy pasta, sangria, more sangria, long uber rides, and aggressive kissing; I was filled with so much regret.

The true MVPs of the weekend...they did a lot of heavy lifting

But, if you come to Portugal, visit Cascais.  It's lovely!

Added to note: Erin had a milder version of the virus the next day (I'm admittedly jealous but happy for her), but we are all on the up and up now. The weather is sunny and nearly 70 and we are enjoying every second!

Settling in to life in Sintra

This week, we've been diving headfirst into our new city, and the vibes are pretty awesome!

I knew we'd be doing more walking, considering the hills around here, but Sintra takes it up a notch. It's practically built into the side of a mountain, with steep, narrow walkways going all over the place. It's charming as heck, but my legs have been feeling the burn daily. Last Thursday, Erin and I thought it'd be a fun idea to hike to the top of the mountain. The climb up was really cool with tons of cool old architectural artifacts mixed in with unique vegetation and some small waterfalls.  But instead of retracing our steps, we went down the other side, turning a simple hike into a nearly 4-hour workout. We were wiped out.

The weekend led us to Quinta da Regaleira, this huge estate near Sintra with a giant garden and a palace.  The palace itself was cool, but I don't think I've explored gardens quite like these.  The whole place felt other-worldy, like we were in a Zelda game, especially at the Initiation Well – this deep mossy well with a spiral staircase to the bottom.  We even explored pitch-black underground grottos.

Sunday meant hopping on our first train to Lisbon. The rain kept us from roaming the city, so we hit up the Lisbon Oceanarium and the Pavilhão do Conhecimento - Ciência Viva, a cool science museum for kids. Both spots were way impressive!

Getting used to our new routine means figuring out how to work efficiently. The office our program provides is nice, but it's a bit of a climb. I often end up there after dinner for meetings in the central time zone – not the best part of my day.  Since I'm one of the few in our cohort actually working a 9-5 corporate job on US time, I'm usually the only guy in the office into the late hours.  But I love our mornings now. Erin and I get to enjoy a chunk of the day together before the work and parenting chaos hits. Some mornings, it's group yoga with our cohort; others, we check out farmers markets. And sometimes, it's just a chill breakfast and coffee at a local cafe. It's a nice change of pace!

Evie's First Impressions

        School has been very fun. We walk to school and the road is narrow but pretty. I really like my teachers and I have made lots of friends. I thought that there would be less kids my age but there's six of us and we're all kind of one group. I have gone out with them a few times and they seem like really nice people. Everybody has a different story and I really like hearing about different lifestyles. The older kids are with the younger kids a lot, and sometimes its fun but it can get a little crazy, or a lot crazy. All of us play soccer in the parking lot most recesses and I'm not complaining, all the other kids do dance or ice skating, so it's easy for me to score on them. We have to do a presentation of some passion or something in front of our parents and I want to write a song. 

        Everything in Portugal seems a lot closer the houses, roads, restaurants, and our home. My bed is four feet away from buddy's. The castle on the hill might be the coolest thing ever, it lights up at night and its so pretty. I love our house and from what I heard its the best one, no one else has a gelato shop under theirs. The gelato shop under us is so cute and the gelato is really good. There's a toddler up stairs and it makes a lot of noise but at least it goes to sleep early. My teacher is a little strict and reminds me of my grandma, except the strict part. Everything is greener then I expected my parents say its like Oregon but I have never been. I really like it here its totally different then Minnesota, in a good way. We've only been here a week so I'm super excited for what's ahead of us still.

Our home tour (before we moved in): 

Outside:

Sintraductions

Well, here we finally are. Months of planning and thinking and researching and we made it. The journey was expectedly long but generally smooth, although my body is hell-bent on reminding me that I'm not in my 20s and the backache I developed from our flight to Paris is rough. Also, we were too late to give Buddy dramamine on our descent and poor guy puked a ton on the first flight. He recovered quickly, and we did not make that mistake on the Paris - Lisbon leg. But, 40-something year old backs and jetlag notwithstanding, Sintra has already charmed the pants off of all of us. Figuratively, mostly.

We were greeted with a driver at the airport and two members of Boundless Life at our apartment, with welcome goodies and info. The drive was terrifying, but the apartment is lovely, full of light, some storage, gorgeous details and the most incredible view of a valley park, all the way up into the mountains and castles. We had an hour or so before dark after we arrived and there was a little pop up market on the pedestrian pathway directly outside of our apartment, which we explored before finding a cute restaurant with the best sangria. At night the moorish castle is lit up at the very top of the mountain, and they still have Christmas lights up everywhere, and all we have to do is look out the floor-ceiling windows and juliet balcony. The best part of the apartment though is that we are directly above a gelateria/pastry shop. The friendliest older couple, Maria and Fernando, run the shop and we met them first thing this morning when we enjoyed savory crepes and pastries. The prices are great, the location better, the patio and little dining area full of tiles and moulding; we will be there often. 

Sintra the town is out of a storybook. Steep, stone walkways adorn soaring cliffsides of temperate rainforest and beautiful, ornate and colorful architecture. The sun was shining, it was mid 50s and super pleasant. We expect some rain tomorrow, so we headed to the grocery store which is always a fun adventure in a new country. The checkout worker didn't speak English and our Portuguese didn't help a whole lot either. But we stumbled through, stocked up on supplies, and spent the rest of the day exploring, hiking around, and eating. The higher up the mountain you go, the narrower and more like Greece the streets felt - every which way a new little alley/path to go up, and they become pedestrian-only quickly because they are so narrow. Buddy and Evie were super energized by it all (maybe partly because they had had much better nights sleep than Brian and I), and Buddy would just excitedly squeeze my hands and say Portuguese phrases over and over. "Muitas Coisas Boas!"

There is still a lot to get used to, like the washer dryer and the coffee maker and the bathroom with no toilet (we have two bathrooms, but one just has a shower and a sink). Another Boundless family lives above us, one with a toddler. This toddler had a hard time last night. Like, I thought maybe we lived below Lily from the show Barry (IYKYK). But it's hard to be a jetlagged toddler; the jetlag has been harder on us than on previous trips too. Many of the other families met each other already at brunch, but we have just been doing our own thing organizing and exploring today. Tomorrow we will meet everyone at the welcome ceremony, and the kids wills start school. We are all excited and a little nervous. We are still very much in the transition mode of this journey, and look forward to getting more settled and finding a routine. But, so far, é muito bom.

T-3 Days

We're noobs when it comes to blogging, but we're giving it a go because it seems to be the easiest way to keep friends and family updated on our adventures and misadventures in Portugal. We are leaving Minnesota in a little over 24 hours, the U.S. of A. in 3 short days, and will be pretending to be organized and calm until then. 

For those who don't know, we are living in Sintra, Portugal for the next three months and working remotely / going to school. We are using a program called Boundless Life, so we go with a cohort of 23 families, with kids ages 2-12. There are 10 different nationalities in our cohort, from Polish to Argentinian, but I would say around 60% are American. The kids will go to school together in a program based off of the Finnish education system, in Spanish and English (and a little Portuguese). Brian and I will continue working our jobs remotely at the shared workspace, though we may be some of the only ones that have to keep "regular" hours, as many of the other families have a flexible set up. We have been working on our Portuguese and are very excited for this journey!