May 21, 2010

One more week of school at GLCA. Have we really been here for a whole year? It is now warm with blazing sunshine during the day and a cool breeze blowing most evenings... much like the weather we enjoyed when we arrived in Portugal last August. Flowers are blooming everywhere...we have forgotten the cold and damp of the winter past.


As the school year winds down we feel a wave of mixed emotions. We are excited about going home. We look forward to lots of hugs from our dear little grandbabies and lots of good conversation with our adult kids and sisters and brothers. Yes, some of you will have to hear more stories about Portugal. Just promise to tell us to be quiet when you have had enough. Of course, we feel some sadness too, because we have made good friends here and will miss many things about our adopted country not the least being the great bread!


A busy couple of months are coming up once school ends on May 28. On May 30, we leave Lisbon for a week in England. Our next stop will be France where we will stay in Paris to explore that city for a week. After Paris, we will rent a car and go on a driving tour of the countryside areas of France for a couple of days. We are anxious to get home but since we are here in Europe we felt it was wise to take advantage and see as much as we could.


Once this tour is over we will head back to Portugal on June 15 and prepare to leave Portugal for the US on June 17.


Once we are back in the USA our summer schedule begins...Mike and I plan to fly to DC to meet Jamie's parents who live in MD. I'm hoping I may be able to shop for a dress to wear to the wedding while we are in DC even though we will only be there for the weekend. Then on July 5 we need to have Nina and Kati up in MI to go to church camp at Lake Ann. We are hoping Lisa will bless us with a new little grand daughter while we are there.


Once back in Charleston we will have a little time to relax before we fly out to CO for Alex and Jamie's mountain top wedding on July 31. After that wonderful event, we will head home and hopefully be able to get to OH for Sange to give birth to our new little grandson. So many blessings!


School starts for the girls and for Mike in mid August...what will I do with my time? Once I have a chance to catch my breath I will be looking for ministry opportunities stateside...one thing this year has made me realize is that I want to be active for the Lord...I've spent too many years sitting on the sidelines...now I want to be a cheerleader for my Savior.

Thursday night Nina and I (Mike)experienced another slice of Portuguese culture. In typical Portuguese fashion, the bullfights did not start until 10 PM. We arrived without tickets hoping for some good seats to be available. As you can tell from the pictures, they were not. Last row at the top and surrounded by nervous smokers. I hung my clothes outside when we got home. That was about the only bad part. The pageantry and color of the opening ceremony, the "dancing of the horses" and the pomposity of the matadors was great. The horses are the real stars of the show as they dance sideways just out of the reach of the bull's horns as it charges. They also "charge" the bull and then feint and dodge at the last minute is a sort of animal world game of "chicken". Really fun to watch, but the most fun is when the team of "intellectually challenged" guys in green caps come out to humiliate the bull by making it stand still. In precise single file, they get the bull to charge and the first guy in line tries to jump on the bull's head and cover its eyes. The second guy jumps on to assist and so on until the last one has no place to hold except the tail. They all let go at the same time and run except the the guy with the tail who gets 'chased' by the bull for a bit, lets go, and then, in true macho fashion, walks away with his back to the bull. Cheers all around as the winners parade around the ring basking the adulation of the crowd who applaud and throw flowers and clothing parts to the heroes who, graciously, toss the clothing back and keep only the flowers.

The whole thing is repeated 6 times before closing about 1 AM. We went home tired, smelly, and looking forward new adventures to come. Who knew it would come so soon.

Last night we learned that Spain is not the only place where one can experience "running with the bulls". While visiting friends across the Tagus River (on the non-city side), we discovered that in this smallish town was a 100 plus year old tradition of a week long festival featuring bulls running through the streets. Feeling our environmentally procured Latin blood rising to the macho challenge, we said, "Let's go!". So we did. The crowd was large and we had to strain to see, but see we did. A bull came chasing people into the city square. A couple of quick thoughts came to me right away. One, this is a really big bull! Remember we were quite far from the action at the fight. Two, at the fight the bull's horns are blunted to minimize the damage should they actually make contact with something soft and vulnerable like your body. This bull's horns looked like it had been to the factory where they make spears and knives and know how to sharpen things to a needle-like point. Contemplating these issues and being totally sober, which most of the "runners" clearly were not, took a few minutes which allowed the bull to move on down the street before I could put myself in a place where it could actually chase me. As fate would have it, that was an opportunity forever lost, as that was the last bull of the night. I have been thinking about going back there tonight but it is raining today and I don't want to get wet. Think I'll read some Hemingway instead.

Mike