Ola everyone.
As I write this (February 27th) it is our last night in the rental apartment. Tomorrow we're moving into our new place that isn't finished quite yet but ... it will get done eventually.
Much of February was spent running around looking at paint colors and tiles for a backsplash, ordering a few more pieces of furniture, arranging delivery dates, packing for the move (we're really tired of packing and moving) and then postponing delivery dates because the place isn't quite ready. Fortunately, Ron left us a good bed for our guestroom which is where we'll be sleeping for the next week or so and two patio chairs which will have to suffice until we can once again schedule deliveries. We're happy with the paint choices I made, so that's the good news. The bad news is that the apartment above us has some kind of leak in their bathroom which has been undetected and is messing up the walls above our showers. Now the owner must fix his problem so that our walls can be resurfaced and repainted. You're probably thinking about moldy walls but there actually isn't any mold and they don't use drywall which tends to develop mold easily. Our walls are brick covered in concrete with a smooth mud finish ... in our case a wet mud finish. Fortunately we can still use our bathrooms.
My observation, based upon my one experience here, is that workers don't start until later in the morning or maybe in the afternoon and then work until 6 or 7 in the evening or, it could also be that our job is much smaller than this firm typically handles so maybe we get sandwiched in between bigger jobs?
Our moving company arrived last Friday (it was too late to change the date without a significant penalty) so all the boxes that we had shipped here last year are now sitting in the middle of the living room/dining room and den along with six suitcases filled with clothes, art supplies and bedding and various other items. What remains we've been taking over in smaller amounts on a daily basis. Thank goodness for those big Ikea bags!
It's been a very cold February here, though nothing to compare with the extreme weather many of you have been experiencing. Porto has been experiencing an unusually cold February from everything we've read and heard from a few Uber drivers. Most evenings we're in the mid 30's and the first half of the month was very rainy. But in spite of all that, the tulip trees are in bloom all over the city, as are the camellia trees and bushes and the rhododendrons.
A few weeks ago we attended another Internations event at a downtown bar/diner. We enjoyed the evening and all the people that we met and talked with including a couple from Chicago who live about 30 minutes north of Porto in Vila do Conde; a salesman from France, a couple from the UK and Ireland, and a Brazilian doctor who invented a medical device that is currently in the testing phase here in Portugal before further tests take place in the U.S.
Last night after dropping off more of our stuff we headed over to the Vietnamese restaurant for our weekly dinner. While dining two gentlemen at the next table were speaking English and obviously heard us talking as well so they stopped by our table as they were leaving to say hello. Turns out that they also used to live in the San Francisco Bay area ... Alexandre was a science professor at UC Berkeley for a number of years before they moved to Porto where he continued to teach at the University of Porto. Now he's a member of the Portuguese Parliament and heads up the committee on Climate Change. He told us that Parliament just approved a very ambitious climate initiative that his committee devised, though he said the Communist party (one of six political parties here) voted against it because it wasn't extreme enough. He's anxious to see if it all gets implemented. His partner, Richard Zimler, is an accomplished writer and journalist. We of course exchanged contact information and hope to meet up with them again. The restaurant owner told us that they too are regulars.
Before I drift off from exhaustion, here are two new facts I recently learned: Portugal is the 4th most expensive country in the world in which to buy a car, and most cars, from what I just read, are 20+ years old. I don't know where they got this information because so many cars that we see are newer and very expensive brands as I've mentioned before. Now fact number two is really interesting ... When Portuguese have children, parents must select a name from a government list of approved names, and nicknames are not allowed. We apparently have a czar overseeing name giving. The reason for the strict naming law is to abide by tradition while protecting the child from abuse. The Portuguese law considers that naming a child isn’t a right but rather a responsibility and children are entitled to the protection of the law even when considering name giving. Parents usually select traditional Portuguese names but when in doubt, they must consult an 80 page list of approved and rejected names. They also must be gender specific. Most people have one to two first names and two surnames (one from the mother and one from the father) although they can actually take two surnames from each parent, which makes for very long names (like our landlord who has one of the longest names I've ever seen). Nick is adamant that we're not having any more kids so we don't have to worry about this, thankfully.
Update: Today is March 1st and no, we have not moved into our new place because the renovations are still underway and there is way too much dust from sanding and from drilling up part of the concrete floor in the master bathroom. We wanted them to update the sewage drain now before it becomes an issue (it was originally done in 1974). So here we are in the most charming little hotel in the Cedofeita district of Porto just relaxing and enjoying some time off from the stress of the last few weeks. Honestly, if any of you ever plan to visit Porto and want to stay in a cute, cute place (other than in our guestroom) that even has a little kitchenette ... this is the place to go ... Oporto Street Sa de Noronha.
Adeus, abraços e beijos,
MaryLou