Last weekend I went with 4 of my friends to Portugal. First, we flew into Lisbon, the capital, and spent a night there. We stayed in this adorable little hostel right in the center of town. It had a room with internet, a room you could watch movies in, a room with beanbags and a stereo system that you could hook your own music up to, and a kitchen. We could use all these rooms whenever we wanted and for free. In the morning, they also served you free breakfast, which was amazing because you hardly find that at hostels. A [View Full Entry]

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Two months from today is June 14. June 14 is the day I board a plane in Paris with two fully stuffed oversized bags and head back to the US. It will have been nearly 7 months since I was stateside…my longest time away yet. June 14. When I get home it will be less than 3 weeks until my 22nd birthday. My hair will have grown, my wallet will have shrunk and my entire view on the world will have been challenged, shaped and redefined. I won’t have a job, a bedroom or even a key to my parents’ house. [View Full Entry]

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Let me tell you a little story about the Macquarie grading system. It is set up in a way so that you either get a fail (F), conceded pass (CP), pass (P), credit (C), distinction (D) or high distinction (HD). HD means your work is publishable with little or no corrections, D means your work is publishable with some corrections and so on. There is a curve set up so that basically in a class of 20, 2 will get D, 3 will get C, 14 will get P and 1 will fail. This set up results in absolutely no motivation [View Full Entry]

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When in Portugal, we explored Lisbon (the capital city) for a day/night and a small beach town named Lagos for three. Lisbon is very city like, although it’s definitely not your average city. It has a lot of old Moorish influence, which comes from the ancient Arabs and Moroccans. There is a labyrinth of windy roads with no names in the middle of the city. One of the explanations for this common street work with the Moors is that it was a self-defense tactic against any invading enemies. It’s very common in other places I’ve been too, such as Morocco and [View Full Entry]

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Me and Rocio are in Montijo, which is a town across the bay from Lisbon. We are staying with a nice lady I contacted through the organic farm program to help her work on her home are garden. So far we have been putting cement on and painting the walls of an outdoor bathroom (right now there is no toilet) (weve been using buckets and composting the waste) and cutting up the extra tree limbs in the garden to create more space. We have been eating very healthily because she eats only macrobiotic organic vegan food, it is delicious and includes [View Full Entry]

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Friday... after a 6 hour bus ride we arrived in Lagos at about 10pm. We found our hostal... which was by far the nicest hostal i´ve seen/ stayed in. It was filled with people around our age and there was a huge entertainment room with couches and a big tv and a couple computers. Our room was just the 6 of us that came together: Me, Cody, Colleen, Adam, Alex and Brad. We settled in and then went to a restuarant right down the street called NahNahBah.. owned by the same people that owned our hostal. It was a really fun [View Full Entry]

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Wow what a trip! 4 nights at an amazing apartment with everything included as far as cooking untensils, a dishwasher, wash machine (that noone used), stove, oven, hugggge porch to hang out on, 3 bedrooms, a living room, dinner table, tv, two bathrooms, and 7 other amazing roomates! Plus a beach that I didn´t want to leave.. and it happened to be called playa de ana! So even though the trip took a little longer than expected it was well worth it! I started the trip off by getting in a taxi to make sure I didn´t miss the buss (I [View Full Entry]

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On Wednesday there was the workshop of the teacher Eccli. Everyone had their own Portuguese partner and they had to taste Italian typical foods. At the same time we were taking photos or note down the expression on their face. After the workshop there was a conversation; looking for a new identity with the architect Lago Monte Pedago. From 12:00 to 13:00 we had to return to school , but before we ate in a restaurant, after which we took the train and we went to Tavira. We stayed there form 14.27 until 17.11. We saw the cultural archeology of Tavira. [View Full Entry]

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Hello all, Just a brief message to say that we have arrived in Lisbon and our trip has finally begun!! Kathers is leading the charge rattling off in portuguese - feeling like she is back in Brazil!! People def take a liking to us when Kath pulls out the lingo and have already been given some great advice which has landed us in authentic local portuguese restaurants.....right up my alley!! Not too much news for now but did quite a lot of Lisbon city today - we´re also staying in a great area, Bairro Alto which is very vibey at night [View Full Entry]

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Now that was a trip and a half! The Lithgae Boys travelled Easyjet from Edinburgh to Lisbon Via an overnight stay in Luton while the Aberdeen Boys went Air France via Paris to Lisbon. We all met up at the Hotel in the early afternoon but only after the Lithgae Boys went down the coast a bit to pick up the match tickets from a Portuguese contact we sourced through Mike. We got showered and changed and headed out to the Marina area for a few hours and then thereafter to the centre of Lisbon where we were met by thousands [View Full Entry]

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