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in portugal just life

the bucolic experiment

one month ago, we temporarily relocated to the middle of nowhere in order to help my cousin daniela get through the national exams (and, fingers crossed, into college). so it’s been a month of synecdoches, trigonometry and mitochondria… but it’s also been a month where we’ve eaten loquats straight from the trees, dipped our feet on the ice-cold water of the water tank, saw my grandpa celebrate his 90th birthday, watered my mom’s vegetable patch and watched the bees buzz around in the afternoon sun…

carrots

everything here is simpler, cheaper, sunnier. it all feels foreign and yet, so familiar, so natural. i miss my friends and i miss the big city, but i feel almost… content here. it’s nice, this countryside life.

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in germany in portugal one second everyday video

one second every day – march 2014

i’m a bit late on these posts, but i haven’t stopped making them! :) here’s march:

march had its ups and downs. the first half was great: we were in portugal, did a tedx presentation (more on that later), ran on the bridge, celebrated lots of birthdays… and then we came back home with a vicious stomach bug and ear-throat infection as souvenirs.

despite this, the boy still managed to run berlin’s half-marathon, and on march 27th we saw another of berlin’s foxes – so the month ended on a bright note! :)

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analogue wednesdays in portugal photography

analogue wednesday #15

feira3

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feira1

roaming around a portuguese fair, last summer.

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analogue wednesdays in portugal

analogue wednesday #14



warm memories from last summer, in algarve.

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in portugal just life

lisbon’s mini-marathon

remember two years ago, when i said i didn’t run? well… it’s fair to say things have changed a bit since then. it started while cheering for the athletes on the berlin marathon, last year. some of the people running the course were quite old or didn’t look very physically fit… and yet they were doing this amazing endurance feat! and it got me thinking that i should be able to do it too, at least a little bit. i mean, i’m just a regular person, i should be able to run a few kilometers! so i decided it was time to quit my whining and just do something about it.

i like how easy it is to get going: grab some shorts and an old tshirt, some music, lace your shoes, and off you go. i run with the boy until i get tired (about 5km in) and then i let him go on for the rest of his (much faster paced) run. so far, i’ve ran a total of 155km, and i plan on slowly running my way to a total of 300km this year.

also, i confess i’ve always been secretly jealous of his running medals… which is silly, i know… but now i can enter competitions of my own and get my own medals! :D i truly love how democratic running is: anyone can enter these races, just sign up and run run run!

so i did! here’s my brother and me, heading towards the starting line for lisbon’s mini-marathon:

the race is just 7km, and filled with people enjoying this unique opportunity to cross the amazing 25 de abril bridge on foot, so the pace is slow and relaxed. while the boy sweated his ass off on the half-marathon, the two of us leisurely jogged our way to the finish line, stopping to take photos and admire the view :)

my grandpa helped build this bridge, back in the 60s, and i couldn’t be prouder of him for such a fine job! it truly is a stunning work of engineering.

and of course, there were medals! and ice-cream too, which was lovely! :)

(oh! and the boy ran the 21km in 1:28, breaking his previous record! humpf! :P )