Costa Alentejana 2006

To continue a tradition of now more than 2 years, this year we enjoyed the June 10th, the Day of Portugal, at the southwestern coast of Portugal: the Costa Alentejana! After a few days of Andre' calling several people at Monte Clerigo, we found a house by the beach (literally 10m from the sand), that dispite being very very simple had the good enough conditions for 5 of us who cared only about being in the ocean and enjoying surfing lessons! It was A M A Z I N G!

After driving the car down the coastline, and having lunch at a beach on the way, we got there on time to still go swimming and enjoy the sunset, followed by a grilled fish dinner at the Ponta Pe' restaurant in Aljezur. We met a guy that owns a surf store and managed to rent some surf boards and suits and set our first surfing lesson at the Praia da Amoreira - an amazing beach!

our first surf lesson was the same day that Portugal soccer team won Angola at the World Cup and our best friend had her first baby boy .. this was a very special day.

Place where we got the boards ..


Good for beginners ...


Waitin' for the right tide ...


Arrifana Beach in the afternoon


Surf girls gettin' ready


Here we go ...


Almost there ...


Ridin' the waves


Sunset ...


Cool


The end of surfin'


Friends


Beautiful Day

B-Day

Today was a very special day, as happens every year this same day. It is a day to look back and weigh all that I have done, all the good and the bad that crossed my life so far and assess if this is the direction I want to continue to pursue in the course of my life. Looking back I have completed some wonderful 29 years and I feel filled with energy for the adventures to come! Thank you family and friends for such a special surprise party! Dispite the jetlag (after all I arrived yesterday ... I am still catching up with all this heat and humidity, comforted by the amazing ocean breeze that invades every little space) I had an awesome day and night!


The food was all great! Mom baked a cookie cake which I love with strong coffee and lemon taste .. Joana brought her experiences of Molecular Gastronomy and the dinner ended with a rasberries ice-cream prepared at the dinner table with liquid nitrogen! After we all tried to do ice-cream with Maple Batter that Karin gave me a while ago! It was delicious!

Kayaking @ Chenango River

Before leaving to Portugal for my summer work, we had the opportunity to kayak at the Chenango River with Molly and Brent. It was an amazing experience, with several zen moments to enjoy. The river was amazing and we were lucky enough to see some deer sitting by the river, lots of birds ... but Brent did not catch a single fish! So we had vegetables for dinner. It was a very good day.

Parabéns Mummy Dear!

Hoje celebro este dial indo que é o Nascimento da minha Madre! Apesar de estarmos separadas por este extenso Atlântico, passo o dia a preparar a ida para Portugal, e a pensar que estou lá com ela de alguma maneira a celebrar este dia tão especial ... graças a esta magnífica tecnologia cibernética conseguimos conversar e ver-nos por longo tempo! Muitas beijocas!

Desde a semana passada que ligar para os Estados Unidos, seja para telefones fixos ou moveis, tornou-se gratuito. A Skype, comprada pela eBay ha uns meses atras, criou esta campanha que vai durar ate ao final do ano, atraves da qual as chamadas sao free usando o seu software que podem instalar a partir daqui.

Assim minha familia, amigas e amigos, colegas e coleguinhas, podem comecar a ligar!

Beijinhos a todos!

Picnic @ Green Lakes

Semester is over, and Kim had the very good idea of getting together, yesterday at 3pm, at the Green Lakes for a picnic. It was a very relaxing and fun afternoon, and an opportunity to stop thinking for a moment about the PhD and all that I have to decide! Karin was there for a while and unfortunately I did not get a picture of her because I only took a group picture late in the afternoon. We had a very good freesbee session .. I look forward to repeat it and probably learn some techniques of ultimate freesbee!

This shows how only a few are able to master ultimate fresbee! There are 3 fresbees in Bruce's direction.


I got it! I got it!



Double freesbee:








It was a really nice afternoon: