a busy week — and the week that i finally made it to the local library! i had been there before moving to aveiro, but now i actually went to make myself a library card and get some books.

i also registered for a mail art workshop they were doing this same week, and so i went there twice! for the workshop, each of us had to create a series of 16 cards, to be included in a kind of time capsule. i picked a kind of industrial theme, with technical manuals, stamps and geometric rubberstamps that the teacher provided. it was hard to make so many specimens in a couple of ours, but i managed! i ended up loving the ones that the children drew most of all.

but i guess the most surprising news of the week is that i bought a ukelele! i’ve been thinking of getting one for years and every time i heard amanda palmer sing the ukelele anthem, i would sing along with her “they’re only $19.99, that isn’t lots of moneeeeey! 🎶“.
so when the music shop down the street put up a sign saying their last units were on sale AND they had a yellow one (!!), i couldn’t resist. for now, i’m stumbling my way through the major chords and strumming patterns, taking it slowly until my fingers get some kind of callus. but i can’t wait to be able to play and sing at the same time — it’s a silly little thing that makes me happy. :)

what else? there was a nice vietnamese place we tried and also lots of pears from the parents farm! pears make me a little wary, because in order to pick them, my dad has to don the beekeeper’s suit and brave the asian hornets buzzing around the pear tree. one of my uncles ended up in the hospital after being bitten by one of those, so…

the pears are lovely though, and as usual, the village is full of small religious festivities on the weekends. whenever we go to one of these, we always find multiple family members there, either participating or just watching!