Greetings friends and family,
July was rather uneventful for us, as we didn't travel anywhere and our language classes ended mid-month. The good news is that we both passed. I don't think I will ever understand their grading system but we both managed to end the school year with 18/20 points. Nick earned his A2 certificate which will enable him to get citizenship after 5 years of residency. I earned my A1 certificate and still need to complete A2. Nick has decided to continue at the school and will be taking a B1 class. He's devoted to becoming fluent as quickly as possible. Seriously, he still studies for hours each day and he and his classmates still meet weekly to practice. I decided to take a different route, along with some friends, and will be taking an intensive A1/A2 course (150 hours spread out over a 10 week period) for which we will earn our A2 certificate, assuming we pass. This is a zoom class conducted from Lisbon and requires that we be in front of the camera for each 4-hour class. For me, another 10 months of taking classes and agonizing over 4-hour tests was just more than I wanted to do, but committing to 10 weeks...yes, that to me is doable. Once I finish it, I will sign up for a more casual B1 conversation class that doesn't require tests.
Once again we had an experience of losing something here and getting it returned, which always surprises me. We went to Ikea to pick up an order we placed and one of us (not me) was carrying a bag full of items (40 euros worth) we had just purchased at a nearby hardware store. Somewhere between the hardware store, Ikea and two short stops at other stores in the mall our bag was suddenly missing. We retraced our steps and asked in each store if our bag had been found but to no avail. Since we needed the items we lost, I went back to the hardware store and purchased the same items once again (while Nick enjoyed a pastry and coffee). The following day I received an email from something called iLost, which apparently is a service provided by Ikea. Basically it said that they found a brown Bolhão bag (which describes our bag) and asked me to verify the contents. I quickly responded with a list and within minutes they acknowledged that our bag was found and we could pick it up the following day. Now, how did they find me .... well here, whenever you make a purchase anywhere, you can include your NIF number, which is a taxpayer ID. By adding your NIF, the taxes paid for each purchase are automatically uploaded to our tax portal, making it easier to reconcile taxes paid at the end of the year. At some of the bigger stores here I'm now in their system so my name will pop up on the receipt as soon as I enter my NIF. Sure enough, everything was still in the bag when I picked it up, including the receipt.
Later this month I will be traveling to Stockholm to meet up with our friends John and Sylvia. Our plan is to spend four days in Stockholm; then take a train to Copenhagen where we'll spend another four days before flying to Amsterdam where we will meet up with Nick and spend yet another four days before we all fly back to Porto.
For most of July our temperatures were in the low 70's and often we woke up to fog, which reminds me so much of Pacific Grove, CA, my hometown. So far, August isn't looking to be too hot either. Fortunately, Porto escaped the heatwave that hit southern Portugal and the Algarve where temperatures were over 100. And pity the poor athletes in Paris where it was so hot and rainy!
One last bit of interesting news here. Portugal is in the midst of developing/building a circular walking path throughout the whole country called “Palmilhar Portugal” (Walking Portugal). This will be 3,000 kilometers (1864+ miles) of trails when completed that will cross a hundred municipalities. One section just north of Lisbon opened this month and 15 portions will be operational by the end of 2024. According to the projections, all 3,000 kilometers will be completely operational within the next 3 years, including some sections that will be adapted for people with reduced mobility. So for any of you hikers, put that on your list of things to do.
I'll be back next month with tales from Scandinavia!
Adeus, abraços e beijos.
MaryLou
Just a couple of photos this month:
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| A view from a rooftop bar where we attended an event a few weeks ago. |
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| This is how our mail gets delivered. |