The Fun Stories!

Ola everyone, it's Alli! I will be the one writing about the fun events/crazy Portuguese things. Sorry for those who have read a couple of my emails for parts may be redundant!

The apartment is really cute and nice overall! There are just some weird things about it... there is a twin bed behind a door that has a room the size of a walk in closet that barely fits the bed. The shower window opens up into one of the bedrooms instead of outside. The water heater is literally in a kitchen cabinet and when you turn on the water you hear a clicking sound and when you look, flames actually turn on. For some reason, the cupboard door doesn't even get hot even though it looks like the place should burn down...which would be bad considering we are on the 5th floor, 65 stairs up, no fire escape that we are aware of, and no elevator. The apartment is big with two bedrooms, large living room, and the best view! The sunsets are unbelievable every night. I know how to get back to the apartment from all directions of Vila do Conde which is amazing considering a) my sense of direction and b) there being no street signs. Okay, so I may take the round about way every now and then, but it is healthy for me to be walking!

It is so weird to have to time doing laundry with the weather! There was a pretty intense rain/thunder/lightning/wind storm for 3 days in a row. I thought it was crazy and that the building was going to fall over in the wind and Dan thought it was a “pretty good” storm considering where he comes from. So when it is a sunny day everyone has laundry hanging out to dry (dryers are rare and those who have them only use them during very rainy weather)! During the storm, and during random nights, the electricity likes to go out for about 30 seconds… just enough to make our doorbell ring, make me freak out that someone is outside (not outside our door but down 65 stairs and outside the building trying to have us buzz them in), but then realize that it just does that every time the electricity goes out. Also, many locals have told me that this is a very safe city/country and that currently many Brazilians are moving here to live a better quality of life away from gangs and violence… so not to worry. It makes me feel better but I still like to freak out every now and then.

The first day I was here, I went with Dan to the gymnasio (1.25 mile walk) where he went to lift weights and where they normally play. It is a pretty big, nice arena. They were playing somewhere else for a few weeks because of the European gymnastic/acrobatic competition! Oh my god the coolest thing ever! I watched for an hour! I saw the polish, belorussia, and great britain teams practice. It was insane!! These kids were so tiny. The girls probably weighed 60-80 pounds and couldn't be older than 12, so strong and just doing the most flexible, strong, insane things like a handstand on a girls head with one arm. The guys were short and stalky and flung the girls all over the place and did these crazy lifts. Dan thought I was gonna get kicked out for sitting in the stands, but since they thought I was Nastia (haha just kidding), no one came to talk to me and just let me watch! Dan and I also went back a few days later to watch the finals.

It is extremely humbling not being able to communicate with people. I feel like an idiot. It is not the same as spanish at all! I told one of Dan's teammates "gracias" when he picked me up from the airport and he started laughing and said it is "abrigado/a". I am gonna keep reading my portuguese books to try and learn some of the basics so I don't just have to smile and say "abrigado" over and over. Also, a trip to the grocery store takes about 2 hours with the walk there and using my dictionary to translate the simplest items... yup I am just standing there in the aisle trying to figure out which crackers are wheat crackers or if they even have oatmeal. I bought what I thought was oatmeal and later found out from Lia, the wife of Rui (one of Dan's teammates) that it is baby food! Awesome! However, Dan and I did discover black vodka at the store... it is blueberry vodka but has less alcohol content of regular vodka. It was tasty and fun to celebrate his first Portuguese victory with!

We walk everywhere. I mean we are talking anywhere from 3-6 miles a day. So I have been trying to find a pair of size 49 or 50 shoes for Dan to walk in. I have struck out at 3 different places with responses such as, “what size? You crazy! That is not possible! Haha no way! Oh My God! Are you sure?” Apparently there are outlets somewhere around here that has his size….Anyways, it is great exercise and fun to have the time to walk and explore! We go to a café everyday for internet, wine, or a café. It is really fun because cafes are everywhere! There is a bakery down the street from us that we ventured to… this could be trouble. It smells unbelievable and they make a million kinds of bread all day long. I tried the popular dessert, of course, called “Bolos Berlin” or something like that. It was delicious… bread with sugar and filled with custard. Wow. Sounds gross, but it is fabulous. Actually, there are "pasteleria's" everywhere and the smell lures me in! I have to have strong will power to just say no! I also explore during Dan’s practices and have seen such beautiful parts of the city, churches, and fun little restaurants and cafes. I love the salmon toast they make! We will hopefully venture to church soon, especially since a church shaped like a boat is just down the street!

For the first week and a half I was here, about 10 times each day, preferable during siesta time and actually a time when Dan does nap, these cars like to drive by with a megaphone/megaspeaker.. I have no idea. But it would blast some random talking or music and was so weird. Or the best was when a caravan of about 30 cars would drive by with flags out their window, honking and yelling something. Dan and I thought it was for a futbol game since the fans are CRAZY. So I eventually asked a nice waiter who spoke English what it was… if it was for a futbol game… he got a good laugh out of me. So it is for the election that took place on Sunday. The chaos has finally finished!

EVERYONE is so nice and helpful here. It is amazing. It does not compare to any place in America. Literally, if you ask someone something and they don’t speak English, they will walk into the nearest store and get someone who does. They will write stuff out for you with the best directions possible, give you names of places to eat, shop, exits to get off on the metro, and in my case their “911” number which is “112”. We are starting to recognize people in our little city… and they are starting to say hello to us in the morning too! Except for Dan’s landlord who told one of his teammates, in Portuguese, “That guy has a Portuguese girlfriend?” His teammate tried to tell her that I am not Portuguese and she just kept saying that yes, I was Portuguese! Ha! Got her fooled with saying ola! And a te amana!

As Dan talked about, his team seems to be getting better! He is getting more comfortable attempting to lead a team of 10/12 non-english speaking players. A few other guys know enough English to have a little conversation, but when they start yelling stuff out on the court, Dan has no idea what is going on! Dan’s coach is about 5’6” and craazzyyy. Apparently he is telling players he will punch them in the face, shoot them in the head, and every other word he says is “fodus” which is the F word. If he isn’t saying he will kill you, then he is patting you on the back and clapping because he is happy with what you just did. Yes, he got yellow carded at their game and yes I thought one of Dan’s teammates was going to punch the down ref. haha. Dan’s coach, his name is Hugo, has the cutest 3 year old son named Afonso who wears a little team jersey and runs around wild and was even sitting in the ball cart at one of the practices. The line that Hugo likes to say to Dan when he is mad is, “Dan, you have eggs between your legs? Eggs between your legs?!?!” Supposedly it translates better in Portuguese… meaning are you a girl? Then the next play he will run around with his hands above his head and clapping because Dan did something good. Hilarious little man! After Dan’s team won, he said the team was celebrating like they won the super bowl: kisses on the cheek, Hugo ran and jumped into the arms of a player, and to top it off, Hugo ran up to Dan, smiled and slapped him across the face, followed with a hug. Hahaha.

When people ask why I am here and I explain that Dan is playing volleyball for Vilacondense a few people have responded and said “oh yes, the American!” There was a little article on Dan in the local paper last week with his picture in it and something saying how the team has an American that is 201 cm tall and a blurb about his bio!

I went to the Friday “market” in the center of the city. What a site! A huge area just covered in tents with fresh fruits and veggies, shoes, purses, socks, live chickens and hens for sale (with ladies dressed in all black, swatting at the chickens whenever they tried to fly out of the box, even though their wings are clipped), clothes, ladies embroidering and making lace table cloths, kitchen ware, fresh fish and meat, pastries and fresh bread…. And tons of people! It was fun chaos! I was too overwhelmed to buy anything… just got a few of the tiny little wine glasses to drink Port wine with for 0.75 Euro. What a deal! The market is right next to a huge, beautiful church where Lia and Rui got married.

The church is very, very old, built sometime in the 1400s and is right next to the club headquarters for Dan's team.

I spent an entire Saturday with Lia when Dan was out of town. It was great! She speaks English! She called to see if I wanted to have lunch. Well, it turned out I was gone from 10 AM- 1 AM. We went to a fish market (literally octopus and all kinds of fish just lying there on ice... I made Lia stand by it so I could take her picture) where she bought some fish and made me a fabulous lunch… fish baked in tons of salt. I mean the fish cooked with the head, skin, and tail on it… I got to see her house, her dog, go to her volleyball game (she plays for a team about 40 minutes away) and then went to her sisters house for dinner! It was quite the Portuguese experience! We laugh because Lia bought a Portuguese/English dictionary as well so that when we are trying to explain something to each other and can't find the word we just say "stop!" and look it up. For example, Lia told me we were going to eat "puppy" for dinner at her sisters. You should have seen my face! She realized it was the wrong word, and with the help of the dictionary realized that she meant "hot dog". Lost in translation.... She is honestly one of the nicest people I have met and her family is the same way. Her sister speaks pretty good English and Lia’s 11 year old nephew is going to the English academy so he practiced a little with me. They invited us over for Christmas. All they wanted was for me to keep eating… haha… and dessert and coffee and tea and more dessert.

Overall Portugal is beautiful and everything is so historic! I am going through my Portugal book and finding places we need to visit and also getting recommendations from the locals… the list is coming along, especially with Lia having her own list of places Rui and she wants to take us! Dan has a weekend off this month of games so I am sure we will take advantage and go explore the country (if he doesn't have practice)!

On about 3 different corners near our apt are ladies holding buckets of fish on their head and barrels of fish on the ground around them, selling them to crowds of people! It's nuts.. I wish I knew how to be-head a fish, skin it, and make something delicious out of it. Oh and crossing the street, you think the cars will hit you, but they don’t. They love to drive super fast and brake hard. They also drive past you when you are 6 inches away from the car.

We are having a great time now that we feel settled and laugh at minimum two things a day that just amaze us! We are VERY spoiled in America. When people think we are from England, then find out we are from America, and where from, etc.. they say, “wow. It is like another world!” and one guy asked Dan why he is so white if he is from California. Haha. We think the guy had been drinking… while working… at his café, which is normal at any time of the day here.