Saturday, February 24, 2007

Life in language study

Hello, here we sit at the internet cafe, which has become a regular hangout since we can't get an internet connection at our appartment. We seem to have gotten into a routine now that we are over our jet lag, I can't remember ever sleeping for 14 hours, ever. A normal day starts with Gary & I walking over to our language tutor's apartment for a 2 hour class on speaking and writing portuguese. We are certainly re-learning our english grammar! Or perhaps learning some of it for the first time....do you know what a penultimate is? I didn't. We have classes every day of the week, with the weekends to practice, or do homework, which seems to take a lot of our time. The kids have an hour with the language tutor, Mrs. Machado, three times a week. They are getting more confident all the time and are working hard at their homework, some days. The past few days they have even ventured out by themselves, once to find some other kids to play soccer with and the other time to go to the neighborhood pastry shop to buy bread and treats. At the pastry shop there is a lady from South Africa who is quite happy to speak English with the kids, I think they will be spending more time there than necessary! In the afternoons Gary & I usually do our homework, this is a huge effort that sometimes takes four hours. We hike about the city to buy groceries and have walked to a nearby mall three or four times. Since we live on a hill, we are certainly getting into shape, which of course means that it is ok to go to the pastry shop regularly! NOT!!!
We have been humbled by the generosity of people here and their willingness to help us as we figure out how to get around and how to just live here. We are equally thankful for those who have sacrificed for us to be here, we keep that in our minds and hearts as we study. Thank you for your letters of encouragement, we miss you all and think of you often. Drop us a note!

4 comments:

BritBoat said...

I heart pastries. Just thought I'd share. I think living up a hill totally entitles you to more pastries. Again, just sharing.

Nice talking to you today. It brought me joy. Thanks for updating your blog. I was starting to have Goertzen update withdrawls! Those are bad. They come with fever and seizures and A LOT of chocolate! Again, thank you.

Paula said...

Pastry shop!?! I want some good European pastry!

Oh, well. I guess I'll go eat a doughnut. Sigh.

wefour said...

Hi Goertzen family
we heard you speak in the fall at the Kamloops EFree. We've only ;been here 18months but love it. We're on our way to Portugal on March 10th! We being my husband, son (12) and daughter (15) this is our first family trip outside of BC or Alberta, so we're pretty excited! Our destination is Albufeira and 3 days in Lisbon at the end of the holiday. I'm not sure how far you are from either location. I thought it might be cool to catch up with you while we were there but your schedule sounds busy!

dave said...

Looks great- Enjoy it while you can!! Praying for you