Weekend

On Saturday, Jan. 23 I went with my host family to do some errands. We went to a pasteleria in Santerem. They had rows and rows of delicious looking pastries. One typical Portuguese pastry is phyllo dough in a mini pie shape filled with an egg mixture that is baked until it is browned. They had all kinds of cakes and donuts and fresh croissants. You could also get coffee there. I have yet to see anyone drink a cup of coffee. They have espresso that they serve in tiny tea cups a little bigger than the size of a shot glass. After purchasing some pastries and rolls we headed off to some more shops. We went to a bakery to get more fresh bread. The bread they get has a very hard crust, but is really soft of the inside. Perfect for spreading all the great cheeses on. They have really good goat cheese and other milder cheeses that are served with lunch and dinner. After the bakery, we went to a magazine shop and then to their "mall" to get me a portuguese/english dictionary. Then we went to the butcher shop. My family was surprised that I didn't have a butcher shop in my town. "Where do you get your meat?" They asked. "The supermarket." I replied. The butcher has the meat displayed behind glass. First pork, beef, lamb and then poultry. They told me if you want goat you have to call ahead to get it. The butcher had another display of sliced meat and sausages.

For dinner Saturday night my host family's relatives came over. We had an indoors barbecue. We all sat around the kitchen table. There were two portable stove tops placed in the center of us. They had a square base and a teflon circular plate on top. There was some fuel in the base that made a flame under the plate so it was like a gas stove top. There were platters of meat and everyone took what they wanted and cooked it themselves on the hot plates. After dinner, my host sister and I watched an episode of Glee.

I have been keeping in touch with the other four American students who are in Portugal. We've commented that our host families are more American than we are. They watch all the American movies and TV shows. An important thing to do, or not to do I should say, is to have no expectations. It's hard, but it makes everything easier. If you don't have a preset mindset about how everything will be then you can be much more flexible when it doesn't go according to plan (and you can be surprised). There were also some stereotypes that us foreign exchange students related to the Portuguese culture, which weren't entirely true. For example, not all Portuguese take their time and have a slower pace than Americans. My family rushes around everywhere. Plus all Portuguese are not shorter than Americans. My family is very tall. The mother is close to 6 feet so me thinking I would be with people my height, yeah not really. ; )