On The 25th Day

I'm so bad at updated this blog! I'm sorry, I've never been good at "diaries." But here goes, the weather in Lisboa has gotten so much better it's making me really happy. Around high 60s in the day and sunny (most of the time) and low 50s high 40s at night... it's crazy how much the weather changes my mood. Classes started last week, so on top of my Portuguese language course (which is going.. and going... no real results yet) I'm taking Portuguese + Brazilian Literature, The European Union and Migration + Globalization in Portugal. It's all pretty interesting, just really really hard to pay attention to broken English for 2 hours each class. But I'm excited, it'll help me learn Portuguese and the teachers are all extremely nice.

There's this park by my apartment I've been going to a lot, called Jardim da Estrela (Star Park).. It's amazing, families and pups hanging out all over the place just having picnics or playing games. It's seriously like a movie. I wish I could take Cody :( There's this cafe there too that has awesome food, my go-to-lunch: tosta. Basically a panini with cheese and some other jazz. There's actually around 3 main park areas around my apartment and I live so close to the main attraction of Lisbon, I really love it. I constantly go around my neighborhood by myself for a walk or espresso and think to myself, "I can't believe I'm living in Lisbon for 3 more months." hahah- it's true!

Today I went across the river with my host mom (she leads excursions/tours around isolated areas of Portugal)... I can't remember the name of the town we were in for the life of me, but, it was where all the trade and commerce went down in 1915. Really old, interesting, amazing view of the river and the bridge that resembles the Golden Gate in San Fran! The bridge was originally named Salazar Bridge but then Salazar got overthrown and since 1974 it's been called the 25 de Abril Bridge (that's the date). Fun fact. The little trip was fun with my host mom, she's so kind and funny... but there's definitely a language gap. And most of the people on the excursion were older and knew very, very little English sooo that was hard. But so nice :)

Hmm... that's all for now. I'll update this more I promise. (mom, dad.)

Jardim de Estrela, that park I was talking about... so perfect!

Where I went with my host mom...>>

Pastel de Nata in Belem -

said to be the best place to buy this pastry, I agree! :)

Brennan and I, chillen at the sheep by our apartments.