A week in review, and a rollercoaster of one at that!

Another week, another post…

Yet again I apologize for the time in between posts, it’s ridiculous that I should have so much time and not be able to post…then again most of that time is spent on train rides. Now let’s go over this week shall we?

Friday – Some friends of the Nunes’ arrived. They had two daughters and a son. After dinner Ines, Fred, their daughter Raquel and I went out to get coffees with some of their friends. It was cold and I felt sick and they wouldn’t leave until like, 1:30 in the morning, which really sucked because we had to get up early the next day. Not exactly a very fun night.

Saturday – We went to Ponte de Lima, which is a medieval town where Fernando works as a professor. His school was originally a monastery built in the 12th century, so we went on a little tour. After the tour of the school we went to the town to see some of the architecture and monuments and things. They had a bridge built by Romans! And there’s a market here that’s been taking place every other Monday for 2000 years! That’s how much history is here…Once we had eaten lunch we went to this nature walk thing, and the landscape here reminds me a lot of New Mexico or El Paso…dry with the sort of piney trees and rocky mountains. Saturday night I went out again with the other kids and this time was a lot more fun. People talked to me and I could talk back.

Sunday – I went to Porto with some of the other AFSers. It was so much fun. We ended up eating a late lunch/early dinner at this Turkish restaurant (Elif helped us with the names of the foods), got some Mochachocs, and walked across this bridge overlooking the River and all the wine factories and stuff. I love hanging out with them, they’re the only people who really get me here…And Johannes and I and maybe Raven might go to a Nightwish concert in April!!! That would be soooo awesome.

Monday – gosh…I don’t even remember what happened Monday…a whole lot of nothing! But I did get two packages from home – AND MY PASSPORT!!!!

Tuesday – yea…kind of the same…nothing happened, except I picked up my passport at the post office

Wednesday – this is the day that I have all day at school…leave the house at 10 ‘til 7 and get to school at 8:15…I hate it. After school though we had an AFS group meeting with my counselor (Nuno, he’s awesome- sort of like chic nerd, he's got the emo glasses and everything!) and some other Porto AFSers, and we went to eat and just talked. Nuno said that I’m progressing fast with the language and if I try really hard I might be able to become fluent by the end! But when I told this to my host dad, he said he didn’t think that was the most important part and that he didn’t think I could do it. When I got home I really had to go to the bathroom so I said a quick hello and went upstairs…unknowingly I apparently offended them though…

Thursday – I got up and didn’t have any clean clothes and my host parents got kind of angry that I hadn’t taken my laundry sooner, but I didn’t know! Thursday night they sat me down for a sort of “serious talk” and I asked me if I was happy here…and you know…I’m not really, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell them. I don’t like taking 2-3 hours just commuting to school every day, and I feel like it’s hampering my ability to make friends. But my host family said I’m not making enough of an effort and that I’m too passive with friends and school and activities. I felt so cornered and accused. My host mom was just spitting out one “I don’t understand why you do this!!” after another. She said she didn’t understand why I had to go to Porto Sunday to be with the other AFSers instead of staying with the family. And that she didn’t know why if I was bored I hadn’t tried to look for anything to do BUT I HAVE!!! I went to the Centro de Juventude to see if they had anything to do but they said they didn’t and I’ve been asking about dance schools… They kept mentioning that it was okay if I wanted to switch families, like they wanted me to or something. I’m kind of confused about all of this, and Nuno is going to be gone to Switzerland for 2 weeks so I’m not going to have him to ask what to do or to talk to. I have a lot to think about…

Friday – today I vowed to be positive and keep an open mind – and it was so much fun! I talked to this girl Manana on the way to school. She lives in Vila do Conde but is the only other person here who goes to Garcia da Orta. She’s really nice and invited me to play tennis with her on Saturdays. Even she said it's hard to live so far from the school, and she's Portuguese. I can see myself being friends with her though, and it’s cool she lives close! We even like some of the same movies, and I think maybe she'd like to have a friend in Vila do Conde as well. And thankfully she’s one of those people who are really patient with my language skills…hopefully that can grow into a friendship or something…I might even meet up with her this weekend and introduce her to Kip.

Later, my stupid Filosofia teacher made me do the test, which I had no idea what to do for it, let alone what the material was about. Estupida…

After school, Julia and I went to her house and had a snack and just talked for probably an hour. It was so nice…then her friend Sara came and the three of us and her family had dinner. Afterwards, Julia, her family, and I went to see a small concert of Fado! It was held at a Jesuit center and was raising money for a charity. We walked up this stone path lit was candles into a dim room with curtains and scarves and pillows and candles everywhere. First was a group from Coimbra, 3 men with guitars and 3 men singing. They wore the traditional black fado scarves and sang very melancholy songs. Then there was a break and Julia, me, and a few girls from my class at school and their friends went outside to talk. It’s a lot nicer being in an environment away from school, it’s easier to open up to people. Then there was a group playing music more typical of Lisbon, which is a brighter sound and louder…but that could be because we moved to the front where you could sit on pillows on the floor instead of in folding chairs. Unfortunately I had to leave around 11:45 (I hate being so far from Porto…) and came home…AND KIP IS COMING TOMORROW!!! I’M SO EXCITED!!!!

I miss home so much…every last one of you!!!!

(by the way - I have a photobucket now, just go to photobucket.com and search for worldtravelercaro, the same name as this blog)