A First Glimpse of Portugal

Well we’ve been in Portugal for about two and a half months, and I’ve fallen a bit behind on these blog posts.  If you did not get our June newsletter, here is a link to it http://www.maf.org/document.doc?id=3939 and it explains our move and landlords.

(Standing on top of the university's clocktower in Coimbra)

Right after we sent that letter out our first Portuguese course started, and it is an accelerated course that crams a semester’s worth of language learning into one month.  You feel like you are breathing Portuguese, but we did learn a lot in a month!  I have even had people tell me my Portuguese is “the best” and “perfect,” but Holly thinks that has more to do with a culture that occasionally values politeness over factual accuracy . . .

Seriously though we were both very impressed with the course.  My Spanish background allowed me to test into the second level, so Holly and I were in different classes, but we both really liked our teachers and were very impressed with how the program is set up.  Holly’s class only had 6 students, and mine had 15, so student teacher ratios were really good.  The students are from everywhere; my class had students from every continent except Africa and Antarctica.  Most of the other students were just there for the summer, but there is a Venezuelan couple in my class who will be with me the whole year.

Portuguese is in some ways very similar to Spanish, but different enough that it can really mess you up.  It has much more complicated sounds, and, like English, two words spelled identically can sound different and mean different things, and two words written differently might sound the same. . .

Next week Lucas will start daycare and Diego will start Kindergarten (both in Portuguese), but for the summer course that was not available, so my oldest sister Jenna flew out and watched the boys while we were in school.  I’m still not sure what we would have done without her, and she did a great job getting Diego to eat new things (this is hard), and helping them adjust to life over here a little more gradually than just throwing them straight into a Portuguese school.  While she was here (but luckily for us on a weekend) Lucas started crawling, and he has quickly learned to climb steps and open things.  Unfortunately his motor skills are way ahead of his risk assessment, so he’s keeping all of us on our toes.

(Lucas - 9mo)

In August the University shuts down, so we had some time to see more of Portugal.  Jenna’s husband Carl flew over and the six of us spent a few weeks travelling.  We mainly stayed in people’s houses (with Airbnb), so we were able to keep practicing Portuguese, and even learn some new vocabulary.  New places meant we had to keep interacting in Portuguese in different situations: getting directions, finding restaurants, looking for diary free food, etc.  I also got a few chances to try and explain MAF in Portuguese.  Portugal is a beautiful country with some of everything, and we have not even been to all the regions yet.  Everyone is very friendly, and it is the cheapest European country I have been to, so you should come visit us!

Next week classes start again with another accelerated course, and then in October the regular semester long course begins, so the pace will be a little more sustainable.  Diego is excited to start school, but please pray for him as starting kindergarten in a different language is quite the adjustment!

Thank you again for all of your support, and we will leave you with a video of Diego giving a tour of our house here: