Typical Portuguese

For the past two weeks we have been laying low in Portugal, being introduced to all "typical Portuguese" things by our adoptive family. Let me explain. A couple weeks ago I mentioned a guy named Mario. We met him in Turkey and he loved us...who wouldn't? Anyway, when he found out we were heading towards his homeland, Portugal, he did what any self respecting grown man would do - send us to his mother's house. That is where we have been for the past 2 weeks and we never want to leave.

The house is in Aveiro, a small city just south of Porto (the 2nd largest city in Portugal and 8km from the beach). While the location is prime and the scenery beautiful, the real selling point of the whole deal is the company. Paula aka Mami aka Momma tells us we are pretty, gives us flowers, makes us necklaces, fixes our worn out clothes, and showers us with kisses. Fernando aka cowboy aka Papa amazes us with his ability to make meals out of the leftovers we pile up in the fridge and his occasional witty English comments. The majority of our time has been spent with Paulino, our brother from another mother, who tends to beat us up and call us fat and ugly. I can't say anything too nice about him as it would show weakness on our part. But, he is always entertaining with his awkward hyena laugh and woman's clothing.

Whilst here we have seen and experienced much, slowly but surely. We spend countless days on the beach, sit down for dinner at 9 or 10, then head out for a coffee. One day we threw an American BBQ for Paulino's friends, complete with a make shift slip and slide, burgers, and way too much food. In fact, people stared at the food like it was going to eat them. Here is a picture of Jess in action on the slip and slide.
Another day we were escorted to a beautiful old palace by the wonderful Auntie Ze and "took a coffee" like typical Portuguese women. One weekend we took a trip to Porto, well known for it's Port wine. The city is gorgeous, though a bit run down, but definitely one of the more beautiful cities I have seen on this trip. And last but not least, we went for a day trip to Coimbra. It was another beautiful city, home of the 3rd oldest university in Europe. Typical of Portugal, we met a friendly lady on the train who proceeded to show us around the whole city with her friends for the remainder of the day, give us all her contacts throughout the country, and set us up with a ride home to Aveiro.

As for now, we are biding our time until we head to Barcelona to meet up with friends from university. We may stay here in Aveiro a bit longer, then go check out Lisbon (the capital), but who knows what will happen at this point. There is a strong possibility that we will get baptized into the Lurerio family this weekend if we can learn out to pronounce the name correctly.

That's all, folks!

Hip Hip Hoorayyyyyyy

Congratulations to the newlyweds, Amanda and Baden Ireland! They got married today in Muskoka, Canada and we wish we could have been there. We hope you had a great time without us (although we know it was probably near impossible).

When in Rome...

By: Eileen Schenck

WHEN IN ROME…..can’t say that too many times (especially if it is your intention to use the phrase inappropriately as often as possible) . The entire Schenck family flew into Rome on the 24^th for our much anticipated reunion with Manda and Jess. Lots of hugs and kisses and then a week long laugh-a-thon.

While Manda and Jess like to “experience” a destination, the rest of us are just tourists—big hats, cameras hung around the neck and sensible shoes—cool sunglasses too. Checked out the Vatican and St. Peters only to find out the Pope was in Australia (probably trying to stay out of the path of destruction that will likely follow Jess and Manda’s exit from Italy); climbed on some ancient ruins in the colliseum, laid on the floor in the panthenon to get the best angle for a picture of the ceiling, and jumped, cartwheeled, wrestled our way around the city posing in front of every ancient armless/headless/noseless and sometimes even bodyless (only the foot was left) naked marble statue we passed. In my opinion you just can’t see too many broken pieces of marble. The ones that were too small to be displayed standing, were put in glass cases--lots and lots and lots of marble.

And what about that Sistine Chapel—boy could that guy paint! However, a trip to the chapel is not complete until the museum guard shouts over and over and over again--“no photo in the Sistine Chapel, no photo, shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, quiet in the Sistine Chapel, no photo” It’s like a song you have to sing all day long, and, we did. As for the Spanish Steps—there are just too many.

We tried, but failed, to “experience” every gelato stand in Rome—I’m no quiter and think we should return to finish what we started. Lots of Italian beer, lemoncello and amaretto. (OK no beer for me, but I had doubles on the others).

We took a day trip to Naples under the pretence of seeing the ancient ruins of Herculeum, but it was really only an excuse to get the “world’s best pizza.” That’s right, we each had our own pie and are proud of it. Was it the world’s best? Manda says it was and I’m not going to argue. Here is a picture of us imitating sculptures... before we engorged ourselves with pizza (click on the image for a better view).

The traveling sisters even had a friend visit them while in Rome. Everywhere they go, someone wants to see them. So, just have to mention that Ryan from Holland, Pennsylvania, stopped by for a visit after spending 5 months in India and because we didn’t want him to feel homesick, we took him to an Indian restaurant—in Rome!!!!

The girls kept us entertained with “original” poems. Clearly, they are getting an ed-u-mocation that inspires them to write their poetry. And the beer helps with the rhyming!.

On the 1^st, Erin headed back to DC, Jas, Eric and I to NY and Jess and Manda to Portugal. (not sure what happened to Ryan). There weren’t as many tears leaving them this time. They certainly have been able to take good care of each other. They looked great, healthy, happy and confident and oh so pretty!

When in Rome…..