Learning to Spell...again

 

Like our grandson who is in Kindergarten, we are "back in school" and learning to spell!  Well this is probably a lot more difficult for us!  We are taking a ZOOM Portuguese class with about 6 other students and we meet once a week for 90 minutes.  

Our books

One of the first lessons is to learn to spell our names!  That may sound silly but when you consider the Portuguese trying to understand and write names of people from all the different nationalities here...well it makes sense. 

There are NO Portuguese words with the letters K-W-and Y and in fact these three letters were just added to the alphabet in 2009 so Portuguese could spell our foreign names.  Aren't Jack and I special?!!

Unlike Spanish that has only 5 vowel sounds, Portuguese has 15 vowel sounds (that's why the Spanish who come just over the border for Port Wine or the Portuguese who cross the border for cheaper fuel can't understand each other 😆).  

For example the letter A can be written (and pronounced) four ways:  à  á  â  ã.  The use of the grave accent (à), acute accent (á), the circumflex accent (â), the tilde (ã), and the cedilla all denote the amount of  stress in the word.  We get a little relief because only the letter C has the little tail called cedilla (ç).  I have learned that my iphone can change the letters by just holding down the letter and choosing from the "drop down".  

In addition to the vowels, the Portuguese language has many "nasal" sounds such as in Olhão (the "ão" sounds like the English "ow" but with a little nasalization added in.  Oh, and another unique Portuguese pronunciation....they "swallow" the ends of the words- often the E!  So Boa Tarde (good afternoon) is pronounced "bo-tard".  I won't even get into the silent "h" or how they smoosh the words together so it's impossible to hear individual words.   OK, time for another Galão 

Galão is hot coffee, like a latte, served in a glass cost €1

 

Jack is enjoying trying to understand the government in Portugal as we are currently in the middle of elections. This is no easy task since the TV commentators speak, of course, in Portuguese.   But wait it's not anywhere near like in the U.S.  Basically there have been two major political parties in Portugal-the Partido Social Democráta (PSD) and the Partido Socialista (PS) since the 1974 Carnation Revolution.  The PSD are center right and the PS are center left but neither party gets enough votes to have a majority. There are 9 political parties with candidates running in the election.  In order to form a government each party must align themselves with other parties to have a majority.  

In the past few years the PS has allied themselves with the Communists and the "Greens" to form a majority.  It was rather unusual to see these posters!

Strange bedfellows or savvy political alliance?
Portugal Communist Party and the Green Party

Last November however these two smaller parties broke with the PS over the country's budget. President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa (elected every 4 years) dissolved Parliament and called for snap elections which will take place the end of January 2022.  The electioneering for the new parliament only lasts TWO WEEKS and then it is rather low-key.  

We were very excited to be able to obtain our EU Vaccine Covid Certification that essentially converted our U.S. CDC vaccine card into a digital record for the EU.  This, in theory, should enable us to travel without getting additional Covid tests and allow us to enter restaurants and events.   

Portugal is in the Western Europe Time Zone which is the same as GMT (Greenwich Mean Time-London).  We are either 7 or 8 hours ahead of our grandsons, in Idaho and Oregon, which make for lots of questions.  

When we video call they always ask what time it is or want to see outside how dark it is!

Did you know that the Time Zones were adopted by the Railways in the late 19th century to synchronize train schedules! 

To end with another bit of trivia: Portugal has two time zones (mainland & Madeira Islands and GMT-1 in the Açores (Azores Islands) while there are 9 time zones in the U.S. and its territories, they include Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific, Alaska, Hawaii-Aleutian, Samoa, Wake Island, and Guam. 

We had fun making tapas for dinner: garlic prawns with sun dried tomatoes, stuffed mushrooms, chickpeas with spinach, piri-piri sausage and chicken empanadas 

Wishes on Twelve Raisins

Another year has left and 2022 has arrived.  What a year it has been for us!  We spent a good part of the year downsizing-for the 4th time since retirement-and packing to make our big life change move to Portugal. 

But 2021 also held another "biggie" for us.  We celebrated our 50th Wedding Anniversary and shared the event with our two sons & their families in Hawaii.  

What a fun week with four little boys who were determined they were going to surf and snorkel!

Well, this week has been fairly subdued due to the typical office holiday closures coupled with the tighter Covid-19 restrictions which shuttered bars and required negative tests to enter New Year's Eve parties at restaurants.   Interestingly, the government limited groups of people to no more than 10 in the streets and prohibited consumption of alcoholic drinks in public places??  This would conceivably prevent families and friends from gathering in their little neighborhood squares to pop the bottle of champaign at midnight! 

But the array of firecrackers echoed through the narrow lanes and revelers partied from the many rooftop terraces.  

We did wander down to the waterfront to watch the fireworks over the Ria Formosa and see some local celebrations.  Most of the surrounding cities cancelled their big firework displays and scaled back any celebrations that could result in large gatherings but fortunately for us the large Real Marina Hotel in Olhão provided an effective firework show.  

New Years traditions in Portugal are many and sometimes kind of bazarre:

• Hold some money while you step up on a chair, using your right foot first to signify moving up in life
• Toss a coin in the air at midnight and hop on your right foot to bring more money in the new year
• Put a bay leaf in your wallet and leave it there for the whole year

fresh bay leaves I bought at weekly Mercado da Fruta 

• Choice of clothing brings: Blue-good luck, Red- love, Yellow-money, Green-health
• Don't eat poultry as your last meal of the year or your happiness could fly away like a bird!

And finally, the 12 RAISINS one for each stroke of midnight:

getting the large raisins lined up

it was difficult to pop each raisin and make a wish simultaneously on the twelve rings of the bell 

We have been experimenting with recipes in our new Cataplana cookware that is unique to the Algarve region.  This is both a cooking vessel and the type of meal prepared in it cooking by steam over low heat.  It has a long history in the coastal Algarvean region that may have been influenced from the cone-shaped earthen pot used by early Arabs from North Africa.  

Traditionally they are made of hammered copper but we have an induction cooking surface so have the stainless steel version.  It is sort of like an instapot - add ingredients, close tightly and put over low heat for 10-30 minutes.  

the lid is removed to serve the mussels and the top can be used for the shells!

We end this blog with another success!  I found some pretzels, Worcestershire sauce, non-sweet cheerios so I could finally make my favorite holiday (non-Chex) Mix

Feliz Ano Novo e Boa Saúde