A chegar ao fim de Junho

So, school's over, my last day was last Thursday, June 9th. 
   I went to Lisbon for Festa de Santo António, it was really one of the craziest things I've ever seen, even for Portugal. The whole city of Lisbon basically shut down, all the streets in all of the center of the city were shut down. The night started out with dancing broadcasted on t.v. and the Portuguese president talking, but once it turned midnight Festa de Santo António became really crazy, the streets were so packed you couldn't even really move. There was so much music and people dancing in the streets; it was really insane.  When we wanted to leave we basically couldn't because you couldn't move, and then once we finally got out of all the festival we had to walk for about 40 minutes up the Avenida de Liberdade to find a taxi because all the streets were shut down, and filled with trash.
It was cold and rainy in Sweden until the last day I was there and it was really nice weather. Sweden is really nice and the people are pretty friendly and the nature's great. But, Sweden definitely busted my wallet: $9 for a sandwich and $30 for a one way train ticket.
   Today is Sunday, yesterday was my going away party, my class and I went to a dinner and then to the dance club in town. It was pretty fun. On Tuesday I'm going to take the train to Lisbon and my mom and sister are coming in from the U.S. for vacation, it's going to be really weird to see them after six months. It seems like I haven't even been here for that long, everything seems so normal here, but when I think back to things like my first day of school or my first weekend, my first meal in Portugal. It just seems like forever ago. The time here passed by really really fast and I regret not doing a year program because now I'm finally fluent in Portuguese, I've gotten really close with my class at school and it's going to be hard to leave. That being said the situation wouldn't have been any different as the year program(only 9 months in reality) kids are feeling the same thing. It's hard to think that you have to go back to the U.S., but at the same time I can't wait to get back. There's things that are 100 times better in Portugal, but things that bother me to no end about Portugal and think that the American way is a lot better. No matter where I am I'm going to miss the other place. After my mom and sister leave I only have three more days here in Portugal. My semester is coming to a close, and it's hard to think about it.




   Anyway here are a bunch of photos from the last month or so:

AFS Camp in Aveiro

Lisbon:

Sweden:

Going away Party:

Boa Noite!

Only in Portugal...

Here's a list, mostly I noticed these and wrote them but some other AFSers also contributed. 


The Ambulances only put on the flashing lights, not sirens and drive normally through traffic.


Are stop signs timelessly ignored(maybe it's because they're all in English? Nah, Portuguese just don't want to slow down)

Traffic lights don't really exist, only round-abouts where people fight to get enter and exit

There are over 1,000 ways to cook Bacalhau, and it's everywhere

Electrical plugs look like this

Buying 5 cases of non refrigerated milk at a time and storing it in the garage




You know the Pingo Doce commercial by heart

You park on the sidewalk, even asking the person standing there to please move away.


You think that you can catch a cold with a draft or by sitting in the spring sun. Cold drinks are also thought to bring on the dreadful "gripe". And don't let anyone have a shower after eating as something terrible could happen to them.


You think Brazilians speak incorrect Portuguese and will not read a book written in Brazilian Portuguese.


You think that 2am is too early to go to bed and that 11am is to early to get out of bed.


Your parents make you eat 3 servings of dinner at each sitting otherwise they think you don't like the cooking.


50% of all the girls you know are named Rita, Inês, Sara, or Maria


You know you've been here a while when you taste your salad and think "this needs more salt"




When your throat hurts and your host mom says its because you drank cold juice that morning


When it's forbidden to take a shower 3 hours or less after eating a meal


Ham and cheese sandwiches are a staple


Not to mention rice and orange soup

I can't really think of any more for now, but I think that's enough.