World Cup

I never quite understood soccer before coming to Europe. Now it is something that I wish that I played when I was younger. Since the beginning of the World Cup, it has been a great time of sitting in cafes and seeing Portuguese as well as tourists from around the world consumed in the game. There are a few different locations here that have large television screens set up for people to watch the games. Tomorrow I will be going with some friends to watch the big game between Portugal and Brazil. Attached are some pictures from the Germany vs. Ghana game that I watched in downtown Lisbon.

So I was just looking at some of my older blogs, and one of them was about the fact that I had already been here in Lisbon for six months. Now I only have six months left in my time here in Portugal. Through the next six months, I just want to truly give all I have to everything here. I don't want to hold anything back. It's crazy how fast time flies by. Learning that time does fly by so fast is something that I will take from my time here.

However strange it may seem, I tend to forget that I am living in Europe. I forget exactly how different things are here. I walk by buildings that are 400 or more years old and forget how amazing that is. Here in Lisbon there are even Roman aqueducts that I see on occasion. I guess that’s one downside to becoming adjusted to a new place is that you tend to ignore what was so amazing to you in the first place. Here are some pictures that demonstrate my life here.

American Food

Over the Christmas holiday, I went home to spend time with family and friends. I arrived back in Portugal on the 3rd of January. I never realized how the time difference can truly mess with your body. Because I was in the States for the two weeks, my body had time to adjust. Now being back I feel so tired. I’m sure in the next week or so I will be back to normal. Being back in the States wasn’t as strange as I thought it might be. I didn’t experience culture shock like I expected.

One thing that did take me back was when I went into the grocery store in Aledo. In comparison, the grocery stores here are similar in size, just different in variety of products. Here in Lisbon, there is an overflowing variety of cheeses. Now I like cheese but the thing that gets me is how do I go about testing one when it will cost me 10 Euros to purchase it and try it out? That just isn’t in my budget. Another abundance that is here is obviously seafood but also surprisingly, yogurt. There is a huge aisle filled with yogurt, all sorts of yogurt.

So after getting used to the variety in these areas, it took me back when I found numerous amounts of different types of salsas, barbeque sauces and sodas. I was extremely envious of all the deliciousness that lined the shelves.

All in all it was a great trip home but am glad to be back getting into the swing of things again. Please do continue to keep me in your prayers that I don’t get over anxious to go back to Texas but that I do truly enjoy and put everything into the last of my time here as well as speaking Portuguese and all that goes along with living in a foreign country.