This past weekend we had all of Joel's immediate family stay with us for the weekend. It was a lot of fun together. We put them to work and they took down the asbestos patio cover. Now we just have to break up the cement and we can have a little garden area. How we will break up that cement remains a great question.
We had a great time spending time with them. Joel's parents prepared delicious BBQ dinner on Saturday night and I prepared some Butter Chicken for them on Sunday. Very different to their usual Portuguese cuisine.
Monday Joel had a flex day off because the electricity was cut at Bosch for the day, so we visited the government offices to start preparing everything needed for my visa. It seems like we are on the right track with some papers getting certified in the US Embassy in San Fransisco. In the mean time while we wait, I can still apply for another 90 day extension to my tourist visa which allows me to stay until Dec 7th. I was super impressed with this government building they have here called Loja Cidadão. Inside they have tons of different agencies of the government, the electricity, gas companies, cell phone providers, Via Verde is their toll system. You enter and get a number for your required department. We went first thing in the morning and were helped in all the departments right away. One stop shop. A big benefit of living in a small city and going first thing in the morning. I had nightmares after visiting the Birth, Death, Marriage Department in Melbourne and spending several hours just waiting to be called even though I had arrived also first thing in the morning. This was nothing like that. Go Portugal. :)
After visiting Loja Cidadão, we headed to Ikea in Porto, to finalize everything for our new kitchen. As we were driving, Joel saw a car, in front of us and said his boss has the same car. We get next to them, and sure enough his boss and wife were also going to Ikea. We decided to get a coffee with them when we got to Ikea. His boss and wife (who was born in the US) had us over for dinner during our first week in Aveiro. They are really sweet and we had a lot of fun with them and their two daughters who are 4 &2. So it was fun to catch up with them again. After the coffee, Joel and I got down to serious business on the kitchen. We had everything already planned online, however in the store we both saw this kitchen and had a little change of heart about the color. We changed from gray colored cabinets to black cabinets with wood counter tops. I think we are a little crazy to be embarking on this adventure of Ikea stuff on our own, but I trust that Joel can figure it out. Now, when it will be done is a great question. Our friend from frisbee, Seb, will help us with the take down process and taking down the wall between the kitchen and dining room and adding a big sliding door. As well as putting in new tile floors, and tile walls, and adding some much needed electricity to the kitchen. Joel plans to assemble the Ikea stuff, and of course I will help with the simple things. Then install it. The Ikea delivery comes on August 11, and then Seb will start working at the end of August and will take 3 weeks or so to do his part... Thankful we have other appliances to get us through the time where we won't have a kitchen!
Which brings me to the Yammi! Or Portugal's store brand of the Thermomix for 1/3 of the price. For those who aren't familiar with Yammi or Thermomix, it is nicknamed a cooking robot. It can do a lot of amazing things for you. But essentially, it is a blender, food processor, rice cooker, steamer, bread dough maker, built in scale, all in one machine. It can make things like risotto, and you pretty much just add the ingredients, set the time, and it does the rest. So easy to set things up, walk away, do other things, and come back and it is finished and ohhh so delicious. I have also started making a lot of natural juice! Apple sauce is another goodie in the Yammi that I substitute in my baked goods for sugar.
My online teaching job has been off to a really slow start. But it seems like with students on summer holidays and lots of American teachers teaching extra classes during their summer break it is normal to be slow now. I taught a class yesterday which was a higher level and was kind of tough to get through everything in the allotted class time. I barely made it before the cut off. Really hoping to get some more classes soon and get the hang of the timing and more in and outs of the curriculum which can only come with practice. But it was really fun, and it is always great when work is fun!
The previous weekend we had a one day frisbee tournament in Lisbon. Our team was really short on players, but we managed to make it through the day. It was fun to check out the frisbee scene and see the level and meet some people. It was also really funny to meet our Colombian friend, Donnie's brother. He never mentioned that his brother was in Lisbon, but Ultimate is a small small world so of course we figured it out right after our game with his team. The team went to an "illegal" Chinese restaurant after the tournament. It was excellent, we ordered a ton of different things and all shared. I guess it is illegal because they don't pay taxes for running a restaurant. It is run out of a home, and their little daughter, the mother and a few people cooking in the back were the only people working. Apparently "everyone" in Lisbon knows about this place so I'm not sure if they just don't care to shut it down, or police "don't know" about it.. Trying to help navigate through the roads in Lisbon is crazy. Google maps gets really confused and telling us to turn where there wasn't even a road, or streets that were one way, or a round about with 8 exits, haha. It was definitely a challenge but I am glad we survived and we were happy to be outside of Lisbon again with normal Portuguese traffic. Traffic outside of Lisbon sometimes means waiting in the round about for two or three cars in front of you.. So different to Melbourne or Phoenix traffic, and we don't even have it bad in Phx. We also got to meet Joel's cousin Celina and her partner Ricardo. They hosted us on Friday night before the tournament. They have a beautiful apartment in the south of Lisbon and we had an excellent time, even though the time was too short.
Finally, I have made some of the videos I have been meaning to do for ages!
Ice Skating Party
A casa
Lots of love,
Nicole
xox
We had a great time spending time with them. Joel's parents prepared delicious BBQ dinner on Saturday night and I prepared some Butter Chicken for them on Sunday. Very different to their usual Portuguese cuisine.
After visiting Loja Cidadão, we headed to Ikea in Porto, to finalize everything for our new kitchen. As we were driving, Joel saw a car, in front of us and said his boss has the same car. We get next to them, and sure enough his boss and wife were also going to Ikea. We decided to get a coffee with them when we got to Ikea. His boss and wife (who was born in the US) had us over for dinner during our first week in Aveiro. They are really sweet and we had a lot of fun with them and their two daughters who are 4 &2. So it was fun to catch up with them again. After the coffee, Joel and I got down to serious business on the kitchen. We had everything already planned online, however in the store we both saw this kitchen and had a little change of heart about the color. We changed from gray colored cabinets to black cabinets with wood counter tops. I think we are a little crazy to be embarking on this adventure of Ikea stuff on our own, but I trust that Joel can figure it out. Now, when it will be done is a great question. Our friend from frisbee, Seb, will help us with the take down process and taking down the wall between the kitchen and dining room and adding a big sliding door. As well as putting in new tile floors, and tile walls, and adding some much needed electricity to the kitchen. Joel plans to assemble the Ikea stuff, and of course I will help with the simple things. Then install it. The Ikea delivery comes on August 11, and then Seb will start working at the end of August and will take 3 weeks or so to do his part... Thankful we have other appliances to get us through the time where we won't have a kitchen!
Which brings me to the Yammi! Or Portugal's store brand of the Thermomix for 1/3 of the price. For those who aren't familiar with Yammi or Thermomix, it is nicknamed a cooking robot. It can do a lot of amazing things for you. But essentially, it is a blender, food processor, rice cooker, steamer, bread dough maker, built in scale, all in one machine. It can make things like risotto, and you pretty much just add the ingredients, set the time, and it does the rest. So easy to set things up, walk away, do other things, and come back and it is finished and ohhh so delicious. I have also started making a lot of natural juice! Apple sauce is another goodie in the Yammi that I substitute in my baked goods for sugar.
My online teaching job has been off to a really slow start. But it seems like with students on summer holidays and lots of American teachers teaching extra classes during their summer break it is normal to be slow now. I taught a class yesterday which was a higher level and was kind of tough to get through everything in the allotted class time. I barely made it before the cut off. Really hoping to get some more classes soon and get the hang of the timing and more in and outs of the curriculum which can only come with practice. But it was really fun, and it is always great when work is fun!
The previous weekend we had a one day frisbee tournament in Lisbon. Our team was really short on players, but we managed to make it through the day. It was fun to check out the frisbee scene and see the level and meet some people. It was also really funny to meet our Colombian friend, Donnie's brother. He never mentioned that his brother was in Lisbon, but Ultimate is a small small world so of course we figured it out right after our game with his team. The team went to an "illegal" Chinese restaurant after the tournament. It was excellent, we ordered a ton of different things and all shared. I guess it is illegal because they don't pay taxes for running a restaurant. It is run out of a home, and their little daughter, the mother and a few people cooking in the back were the only people working. Apparently "everyone" in Lisbon knows about this place so I'm not sure if they just don't care to shut it down, or police "don't know" about it.. Trying to help navigate through the roads in Lisbon is crazy. Google maps gets really confused and telling us to turn where there wasn't even a road, or streets that were one way, or a round about with 8 exits, haha. It was definitely a challenge but I am glad we survived and we were happy to be outside of Lisbon again with normal Portuguese traffic. Traffic outside of Lisbon sometimes means waiting in the round about for two or three cars in front of you.. So different to Melbourne or Phoenix traffic, and we don't even have it bad in Phx. We also got to meet Joel's cousin Celina and her partner Ricardo. They hosted us on Friday night before the tournament. They have a beautiful apartment in the south of Lisbon and we had an excellent time, even though the time was too short.
Finally, I have made some of the videos I have been meaning to do for ages!
Ice Skating Party
A casa
Lots of love,
Nicole
xox
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