Greetings!

Just like after any vacation, waking up early to go to school was difficult. Half of my school has been closed off and under construction since last summer. The newly renovated half was opened the day we arrived back to school. The half we were using is now closed down for construction. The workers moved the trailer like classrooms to the new side of the school because there still aren’t enough classrooms open inside the school. I have a few classes in the outside classrooms, but most are in the school. They repainted the school a brilliant mustard yellow. The color is so obtrusive and it burns your eyes to look at it when the sun reflects off of it. The inside is much calmer, though they must like bright colors because every classroom door is bright red with reddish/pinkish plexiglas in the middle. Sadly, the classrooms are painted a stark white. The teachers don’t move class to class so there is nothing on the walls. Everyone seems to like the renovations though. Besides the paint colors, I can’t complain. The new half is a lot nicer and fresher than the old side. We also have a huge new gym. It’s not finished yet though and I don’t know when it will be open.

On Wednesday I celebrated my 18^th birthday. My host sister passed her driving test so she drove me to school. I had lunch with my friends in a restaurant decorated with bull fighting posters and pictures. The food was delicious and we had lots of fun.

I don’t believe I’ve talked about how Portuguese greet people. When you greet someone, you give him or her one or two kisses (Guys to guys give handshakes or just say “hey”). You start moving to the left so your right cheek brushes their right cheek and then give an air kiss. Some people kiss cheeks if they know you better. The next step is tricky. Unfortunately, you can’t tell just by looking at a person if they give one or two kisses. You have to pull back slowly and see if the person moves to the right to kiss your left cheek or if they pull back. If they go in for another kiss, you have to do the same or else it’s awkward. While meeting someone for the first time I gave one kiss then pulled back, but the other person leaned in. I proceeded to lean in, right as they were pulling away. We clumsily knocked cheeks for the second kiss and it was very awkward. After that experience, when meeting new people my host sister tries to whisper to me or hold up one or two fingers to let me know how many kisses to give. There’s definitely an art to the Portuguese greeting. Now if people are across the street you don’t have to run over to give them kisses a wave will suffice for that. Sometimes people just say “hey” when they greet each other and just skip the kissing part, but you never really know what they’re going to do. Portuguese also kiss goodbye too.

This past weekend I was supposed to go to Galeana. My host sister’s father was going to pick the cows for breeding. They have a mock bullfight so they can find the most aggressive cows and use them for breeding aggressive bulls. It rained all last week and over the weekend so it was canceled. It is tentatively changed to this next weekend so hopefully I will get to go. Instead of going all the way to Galeana, we went to visit their grandparents in Evora for the weekend, which was nice. We’re supposed to have thunderstorms for the rest of the week, but at least it’s not snow. For an end statement: Beijinhos! Kisses! (It’s something Portuguese say when they’re saying good-bye to someone on the phone, someone in person (after giving actual kisses), or an ending for an informal letter.)

Pictures from Galeana and Evora

Easter Vacation

Vacation is almost over. As always it has gone by too fast. I was in Galeana for the first week. The surroundings of the farm were a sharp contrast to Santarem. There were fields upon fields, dirt roads, and the nearest village of Granja was about 15 minutes away. Granja had houses and a church. The nearest supermarket was over 30 minutes away. I could see a town in Spain from the farm I was staying at. The girl’s father’s house on the farm in Galeana was adorned with bull hides that covered the floor as rugs. There was a bull head mounted on the wall in the entrance room. The girl’s father has over 200 cattle on the farm. The bulls go to bull fights when they are four years old. He had different fields for each different age group of bulls. He also had cows in separate fields. There were also pigs on the farm that were raised for meat. We sat in the bed of his truck and their father took us into a field where the bulls were. The bulls live in paradise. There was a huge lake, green rolling hills, olive trees to provide shade. The bulls ran when they truck came close. We had to be very quiet so we would not scare them. Bulls are supposed to be raised with as little human contact as possible. In a bullfight, they become aggressive when their space is invaded and they are taunted. Bulls have very bad eyesight. In bullfights, they use a bright red or pink colored flag to wave to get the bulls attention. They are so focused on the brightly colored flag it distracts them from the person waving it. I was relieved to know they probably couldn’t tell us apart from the truck. Their father pointed out the bulls that were leaving the next day for bull fights. Each bull had a number branded into its hide so they could be picked out easily. Most of the bulls were black; a few had white spots on their hides. Some bulls go to Spain for bullfights others stay in Portugal. We drove into a pasture where the cows and calves were grazing. There was one old bull in the field with them, one of the few lucky ones that came back to the farm after the bullfight.

We went to visit a 14^th century castle about a 30 minutes drive from Galeana. The castle was positioned on the highest point so the view was magnificent. Inside the castle walls is a village that is still home to many people. There is a church, gift shops, cafes, and houses. There was a small bullfighting arena used for concerts and shows now. In the U.S. something that is considered to be old is 100 years old. Here if it’s 100 years old, it’s practically brand new. Their history is so immense that “old” is considered to be anything that has been around for 1,000 years.

For the second week of vacation, I stayed outside of the city of Evora. Evora’s history dates back more than two millennia. The city of Evora is surrounded by a tall stonewall. My host sisters and I did a little sight seeing. We visited Capela dos Ossos, the Chapel of Bones. A monk in the 16^th century made it his life’s work to cover the inside of the chapel with human bones. There are thought to be over 5,000 skeletons that were used. The bones are cemented in the walls and skulls line the painted ceiling. Even more ominous is the inscription above the entrance, “Nós ossos que aqui estamos pelos vossos esperamos” which translates to “We bones here, for yours await”. It was interesting but very creepy. We wandered the streets trying to find a certain shop where they made homemade ice cream. Finally after asking five people (four of which sent us in the wrong direction) we found it. They had homemade chocolates, crepes, and ice cream. We each ordered two scoops of creamy chocolate and sat in the shop watching the tourists come in with their hiking boots and fanny packs. We wandered up the streets to the Roman Temple of Evora, also known as the Temple of Diana. The temple was built in the 1^st century A.D. It has been destroyed and reconstructed many times. Still it was an impressive piece of architecture.

I celebrated Easter at my host family’s relative’s house near Evora. Easter is not a big holiday in Portugal, which I think is odd considering most people are Catholic. Only a few people went to church from their family. The one tradition is to have lamb on Easter. They also like to eat chocolate and candy covered almonds. We got chocolate eggs, but no Easter baskets like in the U.S. It is not typical to dye eggs here in Portugal. My mom sent an egg dying kit from NY and we got to dye some eggs then had an Easter egg hunt (mostly for my 8 year old host sister, but we all had fun).

While you all in NY can enjoy your week of vacation, it’s back to school for me. I just counted and I have about 9 weeks of school left. Where did the time go? Last night, my host sister and I dug out two bikes from storage, put air in the tires and biked around Santarem. It’s slightly nerve wracking to be biking on the streets when a car passes. You have to squeeze up to the barely existing sidewalks and try to make yourself seem smaller. We went to the park in Portas de Sol (the Sun Gate) and swung on the tire swings, dragging our feet in the sand as the sun set. Distant U.S. pop music was playing from a nearby café. My host sister takes her driving test on Tuesday and hopefully she will pass. She offered to drive me to school on Wednesday (my Birthday) to which my other host sister replied kidding, “She actually wants to enjoy her birthday, not be in a hospital on it!” Until then, the bikes will suffice. Winding our way back to the apartment we were still hot wearing t-shirts and flip-flops. The weather has been around 70 degrees and they say it will just get hotter. I got some sun this vacation so I don’t stand out as the vividly pale foreigner. It’s actually funny; when people first see me they think I’m from Eastern Europe, not America. Enjoy your vacations!