Through the eyes of Kait!

We have turned over the blog to Kait for this update...not sure what we were thinking!

As I sit here, watching a Jane Austin classic, I can´t believe how fond of Portugal I have become. Here are my top 10 reasons why I love Portugal/ living in Portugal.

1. The coffee is stronger, better and generally more enjoyable.

2. The streets are cobblestone.

3. They are more passionate about soccer, than we are of hockey.

4. They have «novellas» (Soaps, soapies, soap operas...) on TV all day long.

5. You can fit more people on a bus.

6. The bus drivers are all former race car drivers. They have two speeds, fast and faster.

7. The streets are narrow and the drivers are fast.

8. The english shows aren´t dubbed, they have sub-titles, which makes learning the language so much easier.

9. There are pastry shops on every corner. On one street there are 10!

10. The Portuguese love shoes more than me, there must be a million shoe stores in Oporto.

Now in my opinion, for every pro there is a con. 10 things I have learned to dislike while here.

1. I get the worst «caffine hangovers» I have learned my lesson, only one «cafe» a day.

2. Though the streets may be romantic, they are annoying to walk and ride long distances on.

3. When they celebrate a holiday they use fireworks, all day and night long.

4. The acting on the soaps is really bad, probably worse than any episode of Degrassi ever recorded...ack!

5. When the buses are loaded, my nose dies, because it gets really smelly.

6. The bus drivers stop suddenly. it is amazing that I have not suffered any internal injuries.

7. I have no con about the narrow roads or fast drivers, except that I fear for my life when a bus zooms past.

8. The english shows all start at eleven at night.

9. I visit the pastry shops on a daily basis, I feel like I have gained 200 pounds.

10. I have no complaints about the shoe stores.

So really I have only 9 cons...wait 8 for my 10 pros. All in all I find this country lovely and beautiful. It has bewitched me and I love it.

Well, there you go, life in Portugal through the eyes of Kait. The boys will be sharing over the next couple weeks...should be interesting.

At Work...no really!

I figured I should take some time and show you all that we are actually studying and learning portuguese. The following pictures were not staged to hide that we are travelling around the country and living like gypsies.The kids are also working twice a week with the same tutor that Tami and I meet with during the week.

Our tutor says that things are going well and that we are indeed making progress, although sometimes I think she is just being polite. Tami and I figure that after we leave our lesson she collapses in a heap of tears and mourns the destruction we have wrought on her beautiful language. Well, maybe I am being overly harsh, but it sure seems my mouth wasn´t designed to make the sounds I need to. In spite of it all we are enjoying things immensely. God has blessed us and we can´t thank all of you enough for your support and prayers. We are making friends with a family that owns a little coffee shop close to our apartment. We are praying that we will take advantage of opportunities to share the gospel with them.
On the weekend we went into the city to check out getting monthly bus passes for all of us. Where we live is like living in Airdrie outside of Calgary. We caught the bus into the city and found the Transit offices fairly easily. After taking care of the passes we headed to a large shopping mall in another part of the city. We explored a bit had supper in the food court and then headed outside to catch our bus home. Did I mention that it was raining buckets? We waited in the tiny shelter with a bus load...no really...of people. Our bus arrived about 30 minutes later and we all piled on and started to head home. We realized we were on the wrong bus when we saw the town hall for Matosinhos. That´s like catching the bus in downtown Calgary for Airdrie and finding yourself heading out of Calgary for Okotoks. Oooops! The bus driver was kind enough to let us off at the right stop to catch the proper bus. Did I mention it was raining buckets? We waited about 20 minutes in the tiny shelter before catching the correct bus home. We had to switch buses at another stop where we again were in a tiny leaking shelter for 30 minutes till our final bus arrived. We have been enjoying our little sight seeing excursions around the city of Porto...no really! We look forward to hearing how things are going in all of your lives. Until next time «adeus»