19 October 2012
It's been busy here in the past week or so. A week ago Wednesday Frank did the paperwork to get the car I mentioned the last post, and on Friday we took possession. It's a cute little red one (you might have seen the pictures on Facebook), and it's a convertible. Frank says he's too old for a mid-life crisis, but there you are. It's perfect convertible weather here. I drove it to the grocery store the other day with no problems (not that I expected to have any with the car, but I had not driven to the store before even though I had walked there). The only hairy bit was that an unexpected bicycle race came down the road. At first I thought it was just a club with a few riders, but a few minutes after the first group of about 20, another couple of hundred came.
Last Friday was a get-to-know-you party at Max's school. Everyone was asked to bring a traditional food or drink from their country, so we brought a three-layer dip of guacamole, bean dip, and salsa. I would have liked the bring Mom's seven-layer dip, but there is no such thing as sour cream here! It was nice being able to drive there rather than being dependent on the bus. Max really likes driving with the top down, but I think we need to keep his sunglasses in the car so that the air doesn't hit him in the eyes so hard.
Then last Saturday Jade arrived! Our plan was to go out to the shelter here in Lagos and see what dogs were available and then get one the next week, but one of their volunteers lives just around the corner from the marina and she was fostering a dog at her apartment that we met. Jade is a Portuguese Podengo cross, although we're not sure what the "cross" is. She had a rough time before coming to us, having been rehomed with a family who left her outside by herself all the time and didn't feed her, so she's pretty scrawny. She weighs about 11 kilos (24.2 lbs.), although I would like to see her gain about five more pounds. She doesn't eat much, but I'm thinking that might be from the stress of being rehomed again. In any case, she is the best-behaved puppy I think I've ever met. Admittedly, she is five months old, so she's old enough to have learned a few things, but it was nice to realize that she's quite well housebroken. She had one accident the first night we had her, but that was my fault because I hadn't learned her signals yet. At night, once she is satisfied that we are all in for the night, she'll go to bed and be quiet until the morning. She can hold it from about 10PM to after 7AM! I'm impressed.
Her downside, of course, is that she's a puppy and loves to chew. Frank's slippers hold a special place in her heart. Why is it that puppies always want what they are NOT supposed to have rather than what they are? Why are slippers and other shoes so much more appealing than rope toys and Nylabones?
The weather is getting cooler, but still nice. Yesterday was the worst day so far. It rained all day long and never got above 62 or 63. The thing that cracks me up is how offended I am that it rained. It's been so nice for so long that I had almost forgotten what rain is like and how dependent I am on the weather being nice to do things easily. It didn't help that it was also the coldest day so far, but we all survived in the end. t went out to school to help out in the afternoon and the kids went outside in spite of the weather if they wanted to. Max did, of course! The teachers weren't kidding when they said at the beginning of the year that all the kids need raincoats and rain boots! I also need to send him another change of clothes because they all get incredibly dirty sometimes too. There is this special mud out there that gets into EVERYTHING, so it's just play clothes for school here!
Max is picking up some Portuguese, and it's obvious that he understands more than he can say at this point. I am doing a course with Babbel online, but that's unfortunately dependent on the quirkiness of the internet. At this point, I can say hello and ask someone where s/he is from. That's more than I could do before, but not nearly as much as I would like to do!
Max has also started an art class here at the marina with an artist who has a gallery here. He's only been once, but he really liked it. They've added another soccer practice during the week in preparation for games on weekends, but Max missed the first one last night because it was pouring rain.
Now that we've got the car and the dog, it's time for me to get into a little more structured routine. Wish me luck, people!
Friday, October 19, 2012
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Max's Birthday and Other News
9 October 2012
I don't think I've updated since Max started back to school on September 24th. He seems to be enjoying it and our transportation situation is working out pretty well. I take him out to meet Lilia (his lift) and her son (who is in Max's class) at about 7:45 each morning. Then he comes back in the afternoon with them, usually by 4:30. The school day goes from 8:30-1:30, when the kids eat lunch and then play and do other sorts of unstructured activities until about 4:00.
The day is structured roughly like this: most of the academic work takes place between 8:30 and 10:45, when they get a break of about half an hour to eat a snack and play. Max usually brings a little sandwich because he's hungry by then, having eaten breakfast at 7:00. Then they go back to work until about 12:30, when they take a quick break for a bit of fruit or something, and then they eat lunch at 1:30. The food is all vegetarian and largely organic and--amazingly--Max loves it! Lilia says he's eating really well. He would never eat this stuff for us! Since he is such a carnivore, though, we do try and cook meat on the weekends for him.
His class only has six students in it, and it's pretty diverse: two Portuguese kids, two Americans, and two Germans, I think (one from Switzerland and one from Germany). Unfortunately, with all these different languages being spoken (and so much English), Max isn't learning Portuguese nearly as quickly as we'd like. We (Frank and I and Bea's mom, Laura) are hoping that maybe we can arrange for him and Bea to have Portuguese while the others are having English, since they really don't need to learn English in school! He is picking up some, though; I think it's probably a question of just being patient, which is never my strong suit.
Max likes his teacher, Luis (I do too), whose job I would never want to have! He is really great with the kids, very patient and willing to make allowances for the kids who haven't learned Portuguese yet. I was at the school yesterday with a cake for Max and before they had the cake they were finishing up something (I don't know what it was because it was in Portuguese), so I was behind the partition listening to them and Luis was very patient, even when the kids got a bit loud.
The only bad thing about this transportation arrangement is that in Portugal, like Spain, a woman on the side of the road is always interpreted to be doing one thing. No one makes any assumptions in the morning, though, because Max is with me and he's got his backpack on, so it's obvious that we are waiting for a lift for him, but in the afternoon when I am alone it's different, especially because there is no bench or anything to sit on where I have to wait. The situation was not helped at all one day when I ran smiling up to a little white car that had pulled off, thinking that it was Lilia. There are too many little white cars in this country! It wasn't, and the woman in the car gave me an EVIL look. Then I decided that perhaps I should bring a book with me in the future! Where I wait is determined by where Lilia can pull over to let him out. There is a rock, however, so I've determined that the only way to deal with this is to bring a book and sit on my rock and not look up AT ALL until she comes. She always sends me a text before they leave so I know when to get there.
Max had a fun birthday yesterday, although we were sorry to wake him up early for school. In his class, they had a ceremony in which they burned a paper heart with a 6 on it and replaced it with a 7. Max says that when he turns 8 it will be even bigger. Then they sang a song in Portuguese and Max got to wear a crown of laurel. I've posted pictures on Facebook, so in the event that you are reading this blog and we are not Facebook friends, let me know! I was outside the room at this point, so I didn't see it, but I did hear Bea comment: "I can't believe we are allowed to BURN things!" I did point out to her later when she said it to me again that it wasn't as if they were burning the place down and Luis was the person in charge of it. Then I came in with the cake and Max lit the candle. His class sang to him in Portuguese, German, and English, and then they made me sing in French. Max thought the alternative version was pretty funny when I sang it to him while we were waiting for Lilia: "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, you look like a monkey and you act like one too!", so he got Luis to sing that to him in Portuguese and then he cackled. After the cake I left and Max finished off the school day.
After school, Laura picked him up and she brought him and Bea and Vasco over to the marina for cake and presents. The electricians were working on the boat (more of that in a minute) so it was too chaotic here, so we went over by the pool and celebrated there. Our temporary neighbors, who also have a sic-year-old boy, also came. Then later on we went out for dinner and Max ate a huge plate of spaghetti. After dinner he got to Skype (much too briefly) with his aunt, uncle, and grandparents, and then hit the sack. All around a good birthday, I think!
In other news, we finally got our fiscal numbers! Those are the numbers which allow us to pay taxes, but even more importantly, they allow us to do all sorts of things that I am probably unaware of. However, the necessary things that I am aware of include: establishing our residency, switching our health insurance, registering the car, and getting a contract for our portable internet hotspot. It was a pain because as Americans we had to find a Portuguese resident who would serve as our fiscal representative (basically that means she will pay our debts should we skip the country owing someone, which obviously we will not do), so once that was done we went last week and began the process, only to find out that the system was down. Friday was a national holiday so the office was closed, so we all went back on Monday and took care of it. Yippee!!
We are also hoping to have a car this week. Frank found a cute little Fiat convertible without too many miles on it, so once the minor repairs are done on it, we are planning to buy it. It will make our lives much easier to have a vehicle!
Max is very happy that the cord for the Wii came in--he's been waiting for weeks. Now if I can just get it to show up on the TV in color...
The electrician finally came yesterday and fixed all the things on the boat that needed fixing: the radar, the autopilot, and some of the wiring. Now all our lights work--we brushed our teeth with the lights on for the first time in three months!
And finally, the other major thing that we want to do is to get a dog. We've been planning on doing it for a while, but this week I am going to make arrangements to see some. I'm not sure if we should take Max with us or not, but I'm thinking that we should, so he can have some input.
I don't think I've updated since Max started back to school on September 24th. He seems to be enjoying it and our transportation situation is working out pretty well. I take him out to meet Lilia (his lift) and her son (who is in Max's class) at about 7:45 each morning. Then he comes back in the afternoon with them, usually by 4:30. The school day goes from 8:30-1:30, when the kids eat lunch and then play and do other sorts of unstructured activities until about 4:00.
The day is structured roughly like this: most of the academic work takes place between 8:30 and 10:45, when they get a break of about half an hour to eat a snack and play. Max usually brings a little sandwich because he's hungry by then, having eaten breakfast at 7:00. Then they go back to work until about 12:30, when they take a quick break for a bit of fruit or something, and then they eat lunch at 1:30. The food is all vegetarian and largely organic and--amazingly--Max loves it! Lilia says he's eating really well. He would never eat this stuff for us! Since he is such a carnivore, though, we do try and cook meat on the weekends for him.
His class only has six students in it, and it's pretty diverse: two Portuguese kids, two Americans, and two Germans, I think (one from Switzerland and one from Germany). Unfortunately, with all these different languages being spoken (and so much English), Max isn't learning Portuguese nearly as quickly as we'd like. We (Frank and I and Bea's mom, Laura) are hoping that maybe we can arrange for him and Bea to have Portuguese while the others are having English, since they really don't need to learn English in school! He is picking up some, though; I think it's probably a question of just being patient, which is never my strong suit.
Max likes his teacher, Luis (I do too), whose job I would never want to have! He is really great with the kids, very patient and willing to make allowances for the kids who haven't learned Portuguese yet. I was at the school yesterday with a cake for Max and before they had the cake they were finishing up something (I don't know what it was because it was in Portuguese), so I was behind the partition listening to them and Luis was very patient, even when the kids got a bit loud.
The only bad thing about this transportation arrangement is that in Portugal, like Spain, a woman on the side of the road is always interpreted to be doing one thing. No one makes any assumptions in the morning, though, because Max is with me and he's got his backpack on, so it's obvious that we are waiting for a lift for him, but in the afternoon when I am alone it's different, especially because there is no bench or anything to sit on where I have to wait. The situation was not helped at all one day when I ran smiling up to a little white car that had pulled off, thinking that it was Lilia. There are too many little white cars in this country! It wasn't, and the woman in the car gave me an EVIL look. Then I decided that perhaps I should bring a book with me in the future! Where I wait is determined by where Lilia can pull over to let him out. There is a rock, however, so I've determined that the only way to deal with this is to bring a book and sit on my rock and not look up AT ALL until she comes. She always sends me a text before they leave so I know when to get there.
Max had a fun birthday yesterday, although we were sorry to wake him up early for school. In his class, they had a ceremony in which they burned a paper heart with a 6 on it and replaced it with a 7. Max says that when he turns 8 it will be even bigger. Then they sang a song in Portuguese and Max got to wear a crown of laurel. I've posted pictures on Facebook, so in the event that you are reading this blog and we are not Facebook friends, let me know! I was outside the room at this point, so I didn't see it, but I did hear Bea comment: "I can't believe we are allowed to BURN things!" I did point out to her later when she said it to me again that it wasn't as if they were burning the place down and Luis was the person in charge of it. Then I came in with the cake and Max lit the candle. His class sang to him in Portuguese, German, and English, and then they made me sing in French. Max thought the alternative version was pretty funny when I sang it to him while we were waiting for Lilia: "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, you look like a monkey and you act like one too!", so he got Luis to sing that to him in Portuguese and then he cackled. After the cake I left and Max finished off the school day.
After school, Laura picked him up and she brought him and Bea and Vasco over to the marina for cake and presents. The electricians were working on the boat (more of that in a minute) so it was too chaotic here, so we went over by the pool and celebrated there. Our temporary neighbors, who also have a sic-year-old boy, also came. Then later on we went out for dinner and Max ate a huge plate of spaghetti. After dinner he got to Skype (much too briefly) with his aunt, uncle, and grandparents, and then hit the sack. All around a good birthday, I think!
In other news, we finally got our fiscal numbers! Those are the numbers which allow us to pay taxes, but even more importantly, they allow us to do all sorts of things that I am probably unaware of. However, the necessary things that I am aware of include: establishing our residency, switching our health insurance, registering the car, and getting a contract for our portable internet hotspot. It was a pain because as Americans we had to find a Portuguese resident who would serve as our fiscal representative (basically that means she will pay our debts should we skip the country owing someone, which obviously we will not do), so once that was done we went last week and began the process, only to find out that the system was down. Friday was a national holiday so the office was closed, so we all went back on Monday and took care of it. Yippee!!
We are also hoping to have a car this week. Frank found a cute little Fiat convertible without too many miles on it, so once the minor repairs are done on it, we are planning to buy it. It will make our lives much easier to have a vehicle!
Max is very happy that the cord for the Wii came in--he's been waiting for weeks. Now if I can just get it to show up on the TV in color...
The electrician finally came yesterday and fixed all the things on the boat that needed fixing: the radar, the autopilot, and some of the wiring. Now all our lights work--we brushed our teeth with the lights on for the first time in three months!
And finally, the other major thing that we want to do is to get a dog. We've been planning on doing it for a while, but this week I am going to make arrangements to see some. I'm not sure if we should take Max with us or not, but I'm thinking that we should, so he can have some input.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)