6 Week Orientation

So this weekend was our 6 week orientation. It was crazy amounts of fun.

Friday morning Johannes and I were supposed to meet at 9:00 for some coffee, but I was 15 minutes late and he was 25 minutes after that, so all we had time for was (you guessed it) a quick pastry/slice of cake. A few awkward chocolatey cheek kisses later, and I was on my way...well sort of. It took me a few minutes to figure out where to go in the street to get to the bus station. I did catch the bus eventually for the 3 hour bus ride to Lisboa. A guy behind me was speaking in English and when I asked him if he was American, he smugly replied "Canadian and British" and ignored me the rest of the trip...stupid prick.

When I arrived in Lisboa, Martina was the first person I saw, followed by Isabel, Adrienne, and Ben. Then I met three of the four Argentinians: Gabriele, Ursula, and Hugo (who WAS esteban from James' musical). We got on the bus and headed to Vila Nova de Milfontes. Alyssa (YAY!!!) and the orther Argentinian Andres met us in Setubal. We met Mariana in Vila Nova de Milfontes and walked to the hotel (there were tons of random slugs on the ground, quite strange). That night we ate dinner, went over rules, then just hung out for the rest of the night. Alyssa and I had this thing about a banana, hilariousness. We stayed up until about 4 in the morning doing random crap and talking. Alyssa's host family is MESSED UP! Her host parents are getting a divorce and they're basically crazy...

Saturday I had to get up for a 9 o clock breakfast (yuck), which the hotel totally skimped out on...all we had was bread, yogurt, and coffee, while in the other part you could have cereal and all this other stuff. We stayed in Camaratas too, which are big rooms filled with about 20 bunks each. All of us were wondering where all this AFS money goes, we spent all this money and don't even get real hotels. The bathrooms were really nice though, Alyssa andI were going to sleep in them...but not really.

Anywho, Saturday we got up for breakfast and then did some really pointless activities. We had lunch and after lunch and after some more pointless activities, they let us wander the town. Alyssa, Ben, and I found a clothes store, a candy store (amazingness...), some supermarkets where we discovered that sour cream just does not exist here, and wandered down to the beach. After the beach we had 30 minutes to go back to the Supermarket to pick up some stuff for my Mac and Cheese dinner dish for the "international dinner". We were running through the streets
of Vila de Milfontes to make it back in time, only to find out we had 30 minutes longer than we thought. After that, we made the Mac and Cheese, ate the dinner (Ursula made Empanadas and Tuna Pie things - both were AMAZING). After dinner we did this talent show thing that was sort of dumb, but somepeople sang and played guitar so it was sort of fun.

The volunteers took us to this Turkish Cafe where we had cappuccinos and just hung out, it was a really cool place, the decorations were awesome. The rest of the night we all just hung out talking a stuff. It was crazy fun...Alyssa and I hung out in the sort of common room, and the night shift nazi kept coming down and telling us to be quiet, even though we were WHISPERING! Then we went to the kitchen to get some cereal, and the night shift nazi FOLLOWED us and kept asking what we were doing, so we just had to tell him we were getting water...nazi...Later we took some videos, I don't remember everything exactly but it was pretty awesome.

Sunday morning we got up for breakfast (which we saw they had set out the night before - teh nast) and took a walk along the beach. We had to do a few more pointless activies unfortunately, but we still had time to eat lunch and hang for a bit. When it was finally time to go, we all parted with beijinhos and promises to meet up again soon.

Those of us going by bus had to take a taxi to Sines, then a bus to Lisboa, and then another bus for me to Porto. It was long, but I had music and books...my phone did die, but whatever, I got home alright...and I did fall out of the bus walking down to meet Ines, equally painful and embarrassing.

Today I had a lesson with my Portuguese tutor, and I must admit that after a weekend of speaking mostly in english, it was a bit hard getting back to speaking mostly in Portuguese. I'm starting to make friends here, Ana Lucia, Pia, and I might hang out in a weekend or two. After school I went with Manana - we had some pastries, went on the metro together, I helped her with her English homework, and her mom gave me a ride home. Tomorrow we're meeting to walk to the metro together, and this weekend I think we may play some Tennis.

Well, I believe that's it...or at least all I had the patience to write. Stay tuned =)