Tomar

It was a holiday from school today (we get a lot of unexpected holidays where we don't have to go to school yet no one can tell us what the actual holiday celebrates, I'm not complaining though) so Derek and I decided to take advantage of the day off to go see a city about two hours outside of Lisbon by train named Tomar. It definitely felt a lot more like a small city in the interior of Portugal, much smaller and quieter yet absolutely beautiful. A few of the main sights there that we saw were the church of Sao Joao Baptista, located in Tomar's main square, and the Convento de Cristo located high up on the mountain overlooking the city. The Convento de Cristo was basically a huge castle and palace that was a lot of fun to explore (we even got to get in free because it was a holiday, another unexpected blessing!). The convent was founded in 1160 by the Grand Master of the Templars, and was used by Henry the Navigator and Joao III. It was a magnificent castle, one of the best I have seen so far without a doubt. Tomar on the whole was a lot of fun to see and explore, I'm glad I got to see another one of Portugal's beautiful towns. 

Traditional Fado Music

The type of music that Portugal, and specifically Lisbon, is most known for is called Fado. It is normally a music that expresses "saudade" (longing or sorrow for what has been lost). It is played in what are called Casas de Fado, which can be found all throughout the city in back streets and alleyways. It is been a popular music for over 150 years, and it is sung by both men and women, accompanied by the guitarra and viola (an acoustic Spanish guitar). My friend Kevin and I went to a Casa de Fado in the Alfama district the other night to enjoy a nice meal and some Fado music. It was actually much more up beat and fun than I was expecting it to be, and the food was delicious as well. After we finished our meal we stayed to continue enjoying the music for about an hour or so, it was definitely a lot of fun and a great cultural experience.

Soccer Tournament

Our school hosted a soccer tournament this past weekend, so me and some of my friends put together a team to play against some of the other people from our school. Our team's name was "Maybe, Maybe No" and we even made jerseys! Now, you must be wondering where this name originated. Well, the young Korean man seen in the pictures is named Daighon, and he is famous for always saying maybe, maybe no, so we decided to make that our team name. It turned out to fit our team well, seeing as we lost all four games we played and managed to score only one goal. Although this was the case, we had a lot of fun the whole time and really enjoyed ourselves. We even had a few fans show up to support us despite our very poor play. It was nice weather, which is about all you can ask for seeing it is almost December! 

Thanksgiving!

Even though we were on the other side of the world, we still had to do our best to celebrate Thanksgiving! Derek and I did a pretty good job if I do say so myself to prepare a fairly typical and delicious Thanksgiving dinner (as best we could with the ingredients we could find here) with turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, and rolls. Surprisingly enough it actually turned out pretty good! Before we ate I shared a message from President Monson's talk from last conference about gratitude, which everybody seemed to enjoy, I thought it would be a good missionary opportunity to share some words from the living Prophet to some people who have probably never heard of him before. We had a nice meal together, and afterwards we watched last year's Superbowl that one of my friends downloaded for us to watch. It was a classic Thanksgiving day, everybody even fell asleep during the football like they were supposed to (I didn't even have to tell them that was a part of the tradition). Everyone seemed to enjoy their first Thanksgiving experience a lot, I'm glad that we were able to celebrate and introduce our great holiday to a few people who had only seen it on TV. 

Out on the town

Tonight I went out with a few of my good friends that I have made here for dinner. We went to a Brazilian restaurant in a shopping mall which was pretty delicious. Even though it is not even Thanksgiving yet, they had all of the decorations for Christmas up (I guess they don't really know when to start the Christmas season when there is no Thanksgiving, but the decorations were nice nonetheless). I went with Fabrizio from Italy, Laura from Brazil, Suzy from Holland, and Kevin from Germany. They are a few of the people that I hang out with the most and have become good friends with. We had a nice night out after a long day and evening of studies (we are in the same group for a project in my International Marketing class). They are all really excited to meet Camilia when she comes, they have heard a lot about her!

Second International Dinner

We had our second international dinner in the residence with all of my friends, this time provided by some authentic Italians! Logically, we had some pasta, which was delicious. I love just getting together with everyone and enjoying each other's company as well as sharing each other's cultures and food. 

Portuguese National Team Soccer Game

Portugal is well-known for how much it loves its soccer (futebol). I couldn't leave Portugal without going to see a soccer game, so when the Portuguese national team played I couldn't pass up the opportunity. It was a very fun environment to be at, everybody was so crazy and passionate to support the team versus the opponent Bosnia (don't worry I had never heard of it either). One of the greatest soccer players of all time is a current player for the Portuguese team, named Christiano Ronaldo. I can honestly say that I have never seen anyone in person play the sport as well as he did, he was incredible to watch and was clearly better than every other player on the field (he scored two goals and almost had the hat trick). I really enjoyed cheering on the national team in my newly purchased Ronaldo jersey, it was a lot of fun, especially considering they won 6-2.