Valentine's Day- Dia das namoradas

Let me be your Valentine...

Valentine's day or rather "Dia das noamoradas", in Portuguese, is widely celebrated in Portugal. The stores in town had some special items on display and the local restaurants offered romantic Valentine's day dinners.

Today we celebrated Valentine's Day in school. The School was nicely decorated with hearts.

All of the older classes wrote Valentine's cards, which were delivered by our cute little cupids, the twins Rafael and Amanda from first grade. We also elected Mr. and Mrs. Valentine who were shown in a poster. 

Picture by Sara Sousa

Lapas

Today I got to meet "Lapas" (Napfschnecken). It is a type of sea snail living on rocks in the ocean. Here it is considered a delicacy. I already tried them after they were boiled and part of a delicious soup. 

But I just couldn't get myself to eat them alive... :-S

Because then they still move!!

Watch the video on facebook.

First BBQ of the Year

Grilled fish. Today we had grilled fish. The fish had just been caught just a day before. The BBQs here are an amazing invention. So in case you might need a BBQ and don't have one... make yourself a Corvenian version. You just need your old washing machines intestants and, one or two small grids, an old paint can or anything else to raise the washing machine...
The fish tasted delicious.

Sometimes a man with gas and a flame thrower can come in handy :)

A Summerday in February

A beautiful day. The weather is getting better.

A Saturday in Flores

View back to Corvo

Today we went on a spontaneous trip to the neighbouring Island. Susana had an appointment with the dentist and asked me to accompany her. So we got on the boat Saturday morning. We were lucky that the boat "Ariel" could travel. Lately many trips had been cancelled due to bad weather. However, the ride on the boat was very rocky. But I managed to keep my breakfast inside. We had a beautiful morning and the water was splashing over the sides of the boat. One more time I was amazed by the view on "the Rock" (Corvo). When the boat leaves the port of Corvo and you can see the Island to its full extent, the hight of the vulcano is very impressive.

We were not the only people travelling today. Most of them were also seeing the dentist ;o) 

The first thing on Flores was to find some breakfast. We got lucky near the supermarket and had some coffee and sandwiches. 

Lawn-mawers? We have goats!

While I was waiting for Susana at the dentists I worked on my Portuguese by reading a few children's stories and taking a peak into the local newspaper. I was very surprised to find some pictures of our Corvenian christmas party in that paper. After that interesting visit to the dentist we spend our day walking the unknown streets of St. Cruz das Flores. We saw goats in front yards, different stores and people and took a look at the church in the city center.When we finally managed to find and decide on a restaurant for lunch, we enjoyed a delicious meal of fresh fish and vegetables with some salad. Oh sweet sweet life. We had salad. 

Well fed we started our shopping tour in the supermarket. We got some nice fruit and vegetables that we just can't get over here most of the time, especially in winter. Moreover, groceries are less expensive here. To my big excitement I found some German products such as "Capri Sonne". They didn't even translate the products name. Since my grandmother always used to buy these for us, I couldn't resist getting some of those comforting goods. I also got some Nutella. What a success!!!              

After that exciting experience we grabbed a coffee outside a nice café watching the the town and time go by. 

Before getting back on the boat we got wild on the playground. And I was able to swing with a view on the ocean again.

It was a perfect day :)
Back to Corvo!