4 Week Update

Well - I've taught 2 weeks of school and met all my students. Three of my girls are Greek, two boys are from Nigeria, another student from Zimbabwe, one that's Portuguese/German and another Portuguese/American, and the last is British/Portuguese. My students have a variety of English accents. I love listening to the ones with a British flair to their English - who knows if they enjoy listening to me that much! My students are warming up as the days go by and opening up more. During our morning break and lunch/recess time I have a chance to get to talk with them more one on one. The high school students also have their break then so I'm getting to know the 8 students in high school as well. Since I'm with my students at break plus lunch/recess I feel like I don't have much "free" time during the day to collect my thoughts or get organized for the afternoon. That's one thing I do miss.

Yesterday was an Open House where I met with the parents of my students and we had a picnic lunch that followed. Of course I was nervous, but it was good opportunity to meet parents and share with them a little about myself. They were all very pleasant and I'm glad I had the chance to meet them. The Open House was scheduled to begin at 11am. There were probably 2 families there at 11! The Portuguese culture is not driven by clocks and a schedule. By 11:30 we began the meeting and families continued to trickle in. Each family brought a main dishes that was traditional to their country. I enjoyed sampling a variety of yummy foods yesterday - desserts included. Someone even brought homemade vanilla ice cream!

I'm feeling more like the apartment is home now. I planted some flowers in the window box outside my bedroom (top picture) and a a few on the balcony (picture above). There were already window boxes with dirt in place. I'm going to keep thinking about what to plant in the remaining boxes that are empty. Quite a few pigeons like to sit in our window boxes and the balconies in the building. I'm hoping once there are plants they may try to find other places to land. The flock of birds will often fly overhead on my way to and from school. They seem to "own" the area.

I have not had much chance to explore Portugal yet since I've been so busy getting things ready for school and teaching. As I meet more people at church some have offered to take my roommate and I to do some sight-seeing. Today I was encouraged to meet a lady from Toronto, Canada who is teaching 4th grade at another International School in Portugal. She and her husband have been teaching internationally for quite a few years. She was very friendly and we talked about getting together after church one Sunday. God has been good in helping me feel settled and making this my home for the year.