Top Ten: Alcobaça and Nazaré

At the end of April, we went on our second field trip with Eunice. She took us to Alcobaça, about an hour's drive north of Lisbon, and to Nazaré, on the coast. Here are my "top ten" pics from this day:

Alcobaça is home to the colossal Mosteiro de Santa Maria, a church and former monastery, which we toured.

The inside of the church was very cool. The ginormous columns reminded me of something out of "Lord of the Rings."

The church houses the elaborately carved tombs of Dom Pedro and Inês. Read their ill-fated love-story here.

The monks had to enter the dining room through this narrow doorway. If you couldn't fit through, you were forced to fast!

At the top: Nathan, Doug and Mira Gentry, Jordan, Laura. In the windows: Rusty and Eunice.

Rusty and Nathan being goofy in one of the giant stone sinks in the kitchen.

After lunch in Alcobaça, we drove to Nazaré, a picturesque coastal town. The view from the cliff-top above the town was amazing.

One of the local women selling nuts and figs. She is in traditional dress -- a skirt with seven petticoats.

Admiring the view

This picture is going in our Wedding Anniversary scrapbook for year 11!

Alex Reading

I have been meaning to post this video of Alex reading for some time now. Okay, obviously, he's not really reading. He memorizes books and then he pretends to read them -- with lots of expression, and turning the pages in all the right places. It's very cute. We received this book in a package from my mom last fall, "The Berenstein Bears and the Great Road Race." I read it to him about six times the first day. The next morning, I noticed that he already had it almost completely memorized. A few days later, Rusty took this video. Alex recites almost word for word what is in the book. Pretty impressive for a 3-year-old!

** If you are viewing this post on Facebook, you have to click "View original post" in order to see the video.**

É Assim Que Eu... (This is How I...)

Another writing assignment, which we just completed, was to explain how we do something, using ten steps. We had to write five each... I won't share them all with you, but here are some of the better ones:

É assim que eu vou à igreja (This is how I go to church) - by Laura

1. Eu saio da minha casa às quinze para dez. (I leave my house at a quarter to ten.)
2. Eu ando para a paragem. (I walk to the bus stop.)
3. Eu apanho o autocarro para a estação de Odivelas. (I catch the bus to Odivelas Station.)
4. Eu apanho o metro para a estação de Picoas. (I catch the metro to Picoas Station.)
5. Eu subo as escadas. (I go up the stairs.)
6. Eu ando na Rua Tomas Ribeiro por três ruas. (I walk down Tomas Ribeiro Street for three blocks.)
7. Eu grito para o Alex, "Esperas! Paras! Anda-ca!" (I shout to Alex, "Wait! Stop! Come back!")
8. Eu volto à direita na Rua Filipe Folque. (I turn right on Filipe Folque Street.)
9. Eu ando para a Igreja de Cristo. (I walk to the Church of Christ.)
10. Eu chego à igreja às dez e meia. (I arrive at the church at 10:30.)

É assim que eu faço o TPC (This is how I do my homework) - by Rusty

1. Primeira, nós pomos as nossas crianças para cama deles. (First, we put our children in their beds.)
2. Então, a Laura tira o nosso TPC da mala dela. (Then, Laura takes our homework out of her bag. **TPC stands for "Trabalhar Para Casa." In English, "work for home" or homework!**)
3. Ela faz essa, e eu arranjar chá ou café. (She does that, and I fix tea or coffee.)
4. Eu então ponho a minha cabeça na minha mão e arranho muito. (I then put my head in my hand and scratch it a lot.)
5. Então mais ou menos cinco minutos, eu digo "AAAGGHH!!" em o voz muito alto. (After more or less 5 minutes, I say "AAAGGHH!!" in a very loud voice.)
6. Depois, eu escrevo algumas coisas no papel, mas eu não sei o quê. (After, I write some things on the paper, but I don't know what.)
7. Então, eu arranjo a outra bebida para mim. (Then, I fix another drink for me.)
8. Eu fico muito cansado, e a minha boca abre e fecha, abre e fecha, abre e fecha porque eu não posso parar bocejar. (I become very tired, and my mouth opens and closes, opens and closes, opens and closes because I can't stop yawning.)
9. De qualquer modo, eu faco o meu TPC, mas eu não sei como. (Somehow, I complete my homework, but I don't know how.)
10. Ultimo, eu fecho os meus livros, atiro a minha caneta, e arranjo  mais uma bebida. Então, eu vou para a minha cama e repouso na cama e durmo enquanto minha bebida fica muito frio. (Last, I close my books, throw my pen, and fix one more drink. Then, I go to my bed and lie down and sleep while my drink becomes very cold.)

É assim que eu lentamente estou a ficar loca (This is how I am slowly becoming insane) - by Laura

1. Eu caso, e depois de dois mêsas, eu vou para o Japão para trabalhar. (I get married, and after two months, I go to Japan for work.)
2. Depois de três anos, eu volto para America e eu fico a mulher do aluno na escola de graduação. (After three years, I return to America and I become the wife of a graduate student.)
3. Eu volto para o Japão, mas então saio depois um ano para tratar da minha sogra moribunda. (I return to Japan, but then I leave after one year to take care of my dying mother-in-law.)
4. Eu tenho dois filhos. (I have two children.)
5. Eu sou pobre e desempregada e sem casa e sem seguro de saude por muitos mêsas. (I am poor and unemployed and homeless and without health insurance for many months.)
6. Eu junto-me à equipa dos missionarios vão para Angola. (I join a team of missionaries going to Angola.)
7. Eu vou para Portugal. (I go to Portugal.)
8. Eu tento aprender português. (I try to learn Portuguese.)
9. Eu vou para Angola. (I go to Angola.)
10. Finalmente, eu faço "check-in" no hospital dos malucos. (Finally, I check in to the nut-house.)

Okay, obviously that last one is a little tongue-in-cheek. I was becoming bored writing about things like "how I make French toast," and "how I make chai," so I decided to be a little more creative. However, I will say that there have been times over the last few years when I have wondered if I might be starting to lose it. Let's hope that #10 doesn't become a self-fulfilling prophecy!

For more "This is how I..." entertainment, check out our teammate Jordan's blog, where you can learn how to make Portuguese yogurt cake and how to learn Portuguese.

Just for Fun

This is what happens when Mommy forgets to brush my hair after my bath:

First Day of Portuguese Preschool

Almost since the day we arrived, we have been exploring our options for a preschool for Alex. We wanted to send him to school while we are living in Portugal, not only for the social interaction, but to give him a jumpstart on the language. After several weeks of looking around, asking questions, and determining what we could afford, we finally settled on O Peixinho Azul. It is a great little preschool with friendly and flexible teachers and staff, some of whom speak English. Alex also has a little girl in his class, Sofia, from Australia who speaks English and is helping to ease his transition. So far, he really seems to enjoy it -- he's making friends and learning some Portuguese. He goes for just a half day right now and comes home after lunch. But it's five days a week, so he is in school while we are having our Portuguese classes. It works out well. The most difficult part is getting him to and from school. There is no bus (that we can ride with our passes) that goes near his school. So, we ride a bus, walk through a parking garage, and then cross a field in order to get him to school. But the exercise is good for us, and thankfully, Sofia's parents give him a ride home most days.

Here is Alex on his first day of school. He was so excited! He didn't even want to come and say goodbye to me when I got ready to leave. I can't believe what a big boy he's becoming!

Adventures in the Alentejo

In mid-April, we decided to take advantage of a three-day weekend and go exploring a little further afield from Lisbon. Rusty rented a car, and we headed east to a region of Portugal called the Alentejo. It was nice to have wheels again, and to escape the concrete jungle we live in for a couple of days. Lisbon is a beautiful city, but at least where we live, it seems like we are surrounded by nothing but high-rise apartment buildings. It was nice to get out of the city and see countryside -- fields, villages, spring flowers, and houses on large plots of land.

Some friends told us about a place to stay in the tiny town of Lavre, called Anema. It is a dairy, run by a Christian Dutch couple. They have a small cottage on their property (with a full kitchen so you can do your own cooking), which they rent very cheaply. It was such a lovely and peaceful place, and I hope we can be frequent visitors there! Alex especially liked watching all the animals, and we all enjoyed the fresh milk, yogurt, and cheese that they gave us.

Amena provided a perfect central point for exploring some of the Alentejan towns, many of which have a medieval flair with castles and old city walls. On Saturday, we spent all day in Évora and the surrounding area. Sunday, we visited Estremoz and Évoramonte before heading home to Lisbon. Here are some pictures of our adventuring.

View from our cottage

A game of four-in-a-row

Pack-mule Dad

Tour-guide Mom

Exploring the castle in Montemor-o-Novo (on the way to Évora)

View from the castle wall -- the round structure is a praça de touros (bullring). Bullfighting is a national institution in Portugal, and many of the bulls come from this region.

The Templo Romano (Roman Temple) in Évora

We climbed to the top of the Sé (Cathedral) in Évora for this great view of the city

Near Évora is the Cromeleque dos Almendres, a grouping of nearly 100 megaliths, or "standing stones," kind of like a mini-Stonehenge.

Alex loved climbing on the megaliths! In fact, when we asked him what was his favorite thing we did this weekend, he said, "The place with the big rocks!"

Rusty took this awesome picture of me and Stephen at the Cromeleque. I think we could almost be models for Hotslings!

The ramparts and palace of Estremoz. The squarish gray structure right in the middle is the keep, the Torre das Três Coroas (Tower of the Three Crowns). We climbed all the way to the top of it for a stunning view.

The castle town of Évoramonte

On the castle roof

View of the town from the castle roof

Site Updates

I've made a few minor changes to our blog in the last few weeks. You may have noticed the tabs at the top of the page, a new feature from Blogger. Important information that used to get lost in the sidebar has now been moved to its own page. You can check our fundraising progress (and even download our fundraising packet, should you so desire) by clicking the "Fundraising" tab. You can view our most recent newsletter, and all archived copies, on the "Newsletter" tab.

I will continue to add tabs over the next few weeks -- a "Contact Us" tab with our current contact info, a "Prayer Requests" tab, and perhaps even a "Wish List" tab. People often ask us what we want from America, and I can never think of anything on the spur of the moment, so this might be a good way to keep a running list of the little comforts of home that are difficult to find or outrageously expensive over here. Eventually, each of the boys will get their own tab as well, so grandparents and other interested parties can keep up with important information like weight and height, clothing and shoe size, current interests, and new skills.

Let me know if you have other ideas for information you would like to see included on our blog!

Life at One Year

The changes that one year can bring will never cease to amaze me.

April 6th, 2009

West Bloomfield, Michigan

And one year later...

April 6th, 2010

Lisbon, Portugal

Happy First Birthday to our sweet, sweet Stephen!

Easter Weekend

We had a four-day weekend over Easter -- Good Friday is a public holiday in most of Europe, and our teacher gave us Monday off as well. Here's how we celebrated this year:

On Friday evening, we hosted our first ever Messianic Passover Seder in our home. A friend introduced us to this lovely Easter tradition in Japan many years ago, and we have talked since then of making it one of our own family traditions. But for one reason or another, we never attempted it until this year. Nathan, Jordan, and a friend from church, "Ze," who lives nearby came to celebrate with us. On the menu for the evening -- roast lamb with rosemary and baby potatoes, strawberry spinach salad, and lemon pepper zucchini. And of course, the obligatory matzah and charoset (an apple, nut, and honey mixture). And for dessert -- chocolate macaroons.

In this picture, you can see the table before we began. In the center is the Seder Plate with the symbolic elements, central to the retelling of the story of the first Passover.

Friday evening also included my birthday celebration. Jordan made me this amazing "Portuguese Yogurt Cake." Such a simple recipe, but so good. Isn't it pretty?

Alex gave me this bulldozer for my birthday! It's the first gift he's ever picked out for me all by himself. Thanks to Aunt Jordan for taking him shopping!

On Saturday evening, Alex and I decorated Easter eggs together. If you look closely, you can see that we are using a Disney Princess egg decorating kit. This is what happens when you have girl cousins and Nyanya mixes up the Easter packages. That's okay -- Alex is man enough to handle it!

Sunday was church of course, and included a performance by all the children.

Then, each child received a chocolate bunny and another gift. This is Alex with his friend Daniel, who is also 4.

On Monday, we went down to the Parque de Nações, the site of the 1998 World's Fair. There is a bunch of stuff to do down there, like an Oceanarium and a Knowledge Museum. We couldn't do it all in one day, but we bought combination tickets, good for one month, that will give us entrance into everything. On this day, we decided to ride the cable car, which Alex thought was great fun.

View from the cable car

Flags of all countries who participated in Expo '98

Stephen and me in the cable car

We went to a park that had a bunch of large musical instruments for the kids to play. Alex especially liked the gong!

Self-Introduction

Lest you think that all we are doing is "the tourist thing" here in Lisbon…

The following is my first writing assignment in Portuguese! (English translation follows.) Keep in mind that, at this point in our language learning (and it will probably always be this way, to some degree), our strongest skills are reading and writing. Listening and understanding what is being said to us, and especially speaking back are still very, very difficult. Even so, being able to write our self-introductions gives us a certain sense of accomplishment and the realization that we already know how to say so much – even if it's only on the level of a 1st-grader!

Olá nós somos os Campbells. O Rusty tem trinte e seis anos. A Laura tem trinte e três anos. Eles têm dois filhos. O Alex tem quarto anos. O Stephen tem um ano.

O Rusty é do Oregon na America. A Laura é uma filha de missionaries no Kenya. Eles são casados já há dez anos. Agora, os Campbells moram em Lisboa. Eles estão a aprender português porque no próximo ano, vão para Angola. Eles são missionaries da Igreja de Cristo.

O Rusty gosta de música reggae, de fazer snowboard, de jogar basquetebol, de ver desportos na televisão, de cantar, de viaja, e de comer a comida da Laura. Ele tem uma irmã. Ela chama-se Ronda, e ela tem dois filhos gemeos. Eles chamam-se Robbie e Johnny.

A Laura gosta de cozinhar, de tocar piano, de lêr, de escrever, de coser, e de fazer os "scrapbooks." Ela tem uma irmã e um irmão. Eles chamam-se Julie e Matthew. A Julie é casada com o Joshua Marcum. Eles são missionarios na Bolivia já há quarto anos. Eles têm três filhas. Eles chamam-se Michaela, Eliana, e Jana. O Matthew está a fazer mestrado licenciatura na religião. Ele vai casar com a Janille Wood em Julho. Os pais da Laura moram em Livonia de Michigan na America. Eles chamam-se Larry e Diane. O Larry é pastor da Igreja de Cristo em Livonia. A Diane é secretaria da igreja.

O Alex gosta de pizza e gelado, de brincar com os carros e os comboios, e de andar de bicicleta. O Stephen gosta de comer e de brincar com o Alex. Ele tem seis dentes, e vai andar depressa.

Eu amo a minha família!

Hello, we are the Campbells. Rusty is 36 years old. Laura is 33 years old. They have two sons. Alex is 4 years old. Stephen is 1 year old.

Rusty is from Oregon in America. Laura is the daughter of missionaries to Kenya. They are married already for 10 years. Now, the Campbells live in Lisbon. They are learning Portuguese because next year, they are going to Angola. They are missionaries with the Church of Christ.

Rusty likes reggae music, snowboarding, playing basketball, watching sports on television, singing, traveling, and eating Laura's cooking. He has one sister. She is called Ronda and she has two twin sons. They are called Robbie and Johnny.

Laura likes cooking, playing the piano, reading, writing, sewing, and making scrapbooks. She has one brother and one sister. They are called Julie and Matthew. Julie is married to Joshua Marcum. They are missionaries in Bolivia already for 4 years. They have three daughters. They are called Michaela, Eliana, and Jana. Matthew is doing his master's degree in religion. He is going to marry Janille Wood in July. Laura's parents live in Livonia, Michigan, in America. They are called Larry and Diane. Larry is a minister for the Church of Christ in Livonia. Diane is a secretary at the church.

Alex likes pizza and ice-cream, playing with cars and trains, and riding his bicycle. Stephen likes eating and playing with Alex. He has 5 teeth and is going to walk soon.

I love my family!

Our First "Field Trip"

Our Portuguese teacher, Eunice, designates one Friday each month a field trip day. We don't have classes that day -- instead, we get to do some sightseeing with a very knowledgable tour guide! Our first field trip was with teammates Nathan and Jordan, and fellow students Kevin and Angela, who have since departed for Angola, where they will be working for about four months.

We spent some time wandering about in the Alfama distict of Lisbon. We saw a couple of churches, meandered through the Roman Theater Museum, and eventually wound up at the Castelo de Sao Jorge (St. George's Castle). After exploring the castle, we had lunch at a cafe before heading home.

Enjoy the pictures!

A line of tram cars

The church of St. Anthony (the patron saint of Lisbon)

Lisbon Cathedral

Group picture on one of the steep alley staircases of Alfama

The guys exploring the castle walls

Group picture at the castle, with a gorgeous view of Lisbon in the background

Lunch at the Pois Cafe

**Thanks to Eunice and Angela for several of these photos (our camera battery died pretty early in the day)!**

An Afternoon in Downtown Lisbon

In the last few weeks, we have had several opportunities to explore our "home-for-a-year" of Lisbon. Here are some pictures of our first expedition.

It rained for a solid week when we first got to Lisbon, and then we began our language studies, so the first chance we had to really get out and explore was about two weeks after we arrived. We took advantage of the sunny weather one Saturday and headed downtown.

We went to the Jardim Estrela and let Alex burn some energy on the awesome playground!

Next time, we'll have to remember to bring bread to feed the ducks!

We rode the tram (it's free with our bus passes).

We walked down narrow cobblestone streets that looked like they hadn't changed a bit in about 3 centuries (minus the cars, that is).

We stopped for a bite to eat at an outdoor cafe -- tostas mistas (grilled ham and cheese sandwiches) and coffee.

And Stephen practiced walking.

The cafe had a great view of the rooftops of Lisbon...

... and the river (over on the other side, you can see the enormous Cristo Rei statue, a replica of which is in Lubango, Angola).

Welcome!

Here is a short video tour of our apartment in Lisbon, for those who might be curious about where we live and what our home looks like. Hope you enjoy!

NOTE: For those reading this post on Facebook, you have to click on "View original post" (at the bottom of the note) in order to view the video.

Portuguese Classes Begin

So, we have survived our first week of Portuguese classes. In fact, we are midway through our second week, trying to keep on top of our homework, to stay afloat on a vast sea of vocabulary, and to train our mouths to make sounds they aren't at all used to making. We are being challenged and stretched as we take on this task of learning another language.

And yet, at the same time, we are finding it easier than we thought. My French (I took two years in high school) is coming back to me and proving very helpful, and Rusty is finding the little Spanish he knows comes in handy. (French and Spanish are both Latin-derived Romantic languages, like Portuguese.) But beyond that, our experience with Japanese makes any other language seem easy by comparison. I already feel like I am in Portuguese where I was in Japanese after 6 months, mainly because I can already read and write Portuguese. I don't have to learn two separate alphabets and a bunch of Chinese characters just to figure out what things are at the store, or read a menu, or read the songs at church. Never, never underestimate the importance of literacy in our modern society or when learning other languages!

We are in class for two hours every day, Monday through Friday. And each day, we also have work to do at home. Some of the work is book work -- conjugating verbs, translating sentences, memorizing vocab, listening to and repeating mini-conversations. But there are other things that our teacher also considers "homework" -- like reading Portuguese children's books aloud (which will also help Alex with his language acquisition), using the Portuguese we are learning in class as we are going about our daily lives, even watching Portuguese television! She actually encouraged us to pick a Portuguese soap opera to watch every day (they are easy to follow because of the melodrama and overacting), and when Alex is watching kids' shows in Portuguese, even if we are doing other things and not giving our full attention to the television, we can count that as time spent in exposure to the language. The important thing now is to immerse ourselves as much as possible in the sounds and get our ears used to hearing it. I am already finding that I am able to pick out words and hear where sentences begin and end, where at first, it was all just a jumble of sounds. So, that is encouraging. And then there are other days when I can't even order a cup of coffee properly or remember the correct response to "How are you?" Ah, the ups and downs of learning a second language!

We really like our teacher, Eunice Carapeto. She expects us to work hard and treat language study seriously, but she is also understanding of the fact that we have a family and therefore aren't able to give as much time to our studies each day as a single person or a couple without children. On our first day, she told us to be sure to reserve a day every week for resting and relaxing (so we don't burn out), and not to change a lot about our family life just because of language learning. She also told us to keep a hobby because learning a language can be a frustrating and humiliating experience, so every once in awhile, it's nice to do something you are actually good at! I sure am glad I brought a few scrapbooking supplies and an album to work on. All in all, really sound advice for people living abroad and trying to learn another language.

Eunice has told us that around the 3-month mark is when we will notice that we are able to actually carry on a meaningful conversation. We so look forward to that day. For now, we stumble around, butchering the language and risking being laughed at, because there really is no other way to learn. We have to become like little children again and be willing to make lots of mistakes in order to make forward progress.

Life at Eleven Months

Having an eleven-month old means that we're just a few short weeks away from the big first birthday. As April 6th rapidly approaches, I can't help but reflect on where our family was this time last year... living with my parents in Michigan, unemployed, waiting on a sponsoring church, wondering if we would ever get to Portugal, let alone Angola. It's pretty amazing what God has done in just a few short months (although, I confess that it makes me tired just thinking about all the traveling and moving we have done in Stephen's first year of life)!

Of course, the major milestone in Stephen's eleventh month was his first international trip. Developmentally, he is pulling up and cruising along the furniture. He can stand alone, but he has yet to show any interest in taking steps, even with help. He would much rather crawl... it's faster! No new teeth yet, although I'm pretty sure the top ones are about to make their appearance any day now. He eats voraciously and drinks water from a straw cup. He loves balls, playing with Alex, riding in the Kelty, reading books, and opening drawers and cupboards all over the house. He is very curious about the bathroom, and we have to keep the door closed all the time, or he will go in there and pull up on the toilet (or, since we live in Europe now, the bidet). He has become quite the ham -- whenever he sees the camera come out, he breaks into the biggest grin. One nap a day is the norm now, and this makes it easier for Rusty and me to have focused time for Portuguese homework in the afternoons.

I love the picture below, even though it's a little unfocused. It captures Stephen's great smile with the two little teeth on the bottom, and he is wearing a Portland Trailblazers sweatsuit that used to belong to his cousins, Robbie and Johnny!

Our FOUR-Year Old!

It's hard for me to believe that Alex is 4 years old! True to form, we are celebrating yet another birthday in yet another city. As Rusty said, just before we left Nashville, "Alex has moved more times than he's had birthdays." For some reason, that made me sad, but I'm holding out hope for permanency for our family someday.

Alex turned 4 on February 28th, which also happened to be a Sunday, our first Sunday in Portugal. Since we knew it would be a busy day, and since we had his party before we left Nashville, we had told Alex not to expect much in the way of birthday celebrations. We promised him a family party with cake and presents later in the week. So, imagine our very great surprise when the church had a surprise cake for him after the service! I wish we had a picture of his face as the entire Lisbon Church of Christ sang a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday" in Portuguese. Unfortunately, neither Rusty or I knew it was coming either, and we had left our camera at home.

After church, we had a late lunch at a nearby restaurant, and then made our way home. There are no evening services, so we enjoyed some family time, complete with chocolate crepes just before bed. (Don't be too impressed -- they were frozen. All I did was warm them in the microwave and put the strawberries on top.)

One INCREDIBLE four-year old!

Hello from Lisbon!

Or I guess I should say, “Olá de Lisboa!” We have been here exactly one week now. We left the United States last Wednesday evening and, after a layover in Frankfurt, arrived in Lisbon the following afternoon. It was a fairly uneventful journey, for which we are thankful. Both the boys were sick, Alex with an ear infection and Stephen with a bad cold, but they still travelled well. We were met at the airport by a veritable welcoming committee consisting of our teammates, Nathan and Jordan, our language teacher, Eunice, and the minister at the Lisbon Church of Christ, Ricardo, along with his family and the church van (to help with hauling our embarrassingly massive amounts of luggage from the airport to our new home).

Our apartment is in a suburb of Lisbon called Loures. (Actually, the name of our town is Santo Antonio dos Caveleiros, which in my opinion is a ridiculously long name for a town, but whatever.) It is a 3-bedroom, one bath furnished apartment on the second floor (which in Europe is considered the first floor), and I think we will be very comfortable here. We live right next to a very pretty park – we actually look down on it from our bedroom windows. Ana, the lady who will be babysitting for us while Rusty and I are in classes, lives in our building. She speaks English and has already been so helpful as we settle in here. We are about a 10-minute bus ride away from the school and a large mall/shopping center… and there is also an IKEA going in very close to us! I will put some pictures up soon, so you can have a “virtual tour” of our new home.

It took us a few days to adjust to the different time zone. We are 6 hours ahead of U.S. Central time here, so the boys, especially Stephen, were waking up at odd times during the night for awhile. After a week, we are all sleeping better at night. We are also adjusting to apartment living again -- I had forgotten how noisy it was! The other night, the neighbors upstairs were doing some remodeling in their bathroom – at 11:30 p.m.! And the neighbors below us yell at each other a lot. I’m sure after we’ve been here awhile, we won’t even notice the noise anymore, but it is going to take some getting used to. I’m adjusting to things like hang-drying all our laundry again, washing all my dishes by hand again, and grocery shopping and cooking in a foreign country with foreign ingredients (always completely overwhelming to me for the first few weeks).

We have been busy unpacking and putting things away in our new home and exploring our neighborhood and figuring out where things are – like the closest stores, bank, and post office (all within walking distance of our apartment). We’ve tried a few nearby restaurants, and we’re learning the bus lines, and which busses we can ride with our bus pass (and which ones we’ll be kicked off of). We will start language lessons on Monday. At Eunice’s suggestion, we decided to take a week to settle in before beginning our lessons. She says families with kids tend to have a better adjustment if they do this. And, since she has taught over 300 missionaries, I am going to trust that she knows what she is talking about!

On Sunday, we worshipped with the Lisbon Church of Christ for the first time. We were welcomed warmly and look forward to building relationships with the Christians there in the coming months. It takes us about 45 minutes to get from our apartment to the church. We take a bus into Lisbon and then ride the subway a few stops. Alex, of course, loves riding public transportation! I wonder how long it will take before it becomes old hat to him. He has already made several friends close to his age at church, and I am glad for that. Not only is the social interaction good for him, but I think having friends his own age will really help with his language acquisition.

Stephen, so far, has been an absolute delight to travel with. He is so mellow and laid back, and he smiles at everyone – and of course everyone smiles back! When we are out and about, Rusty usually carries Stephen in the Kelty, and he loves to just look all around, or nap if he’s tired.

So, there you have it – a glimpse into our first few days of life in another foreign country. I’ll try to get some pictures up soon – although, truth be told, we don’t have many yet since we haven’t been doing very much in the way of “touristy” things.