Another Refuge

Then the bowling alley broke out in harmonized song, and Grandma basked in her birthday bliss.

Refuge

Then the Hallmark couple kissed, and Grandpa cheered from the recliner.

Mafra, Obidos, Sintra

For sake of time and mental energy (still playing essay editor everyday), this post will probably feature even less writing than the last one-- but I've got lots of fun pics from another awesome field trip that I want my mommy to see.

*Hi mom.*

Ok.  So.  Arrive in Lisbon and eat dinner with BYU friends at a yummy pasta place!  Waitress gets the major giggles over Shad discovering that the "pig cheek" meat in his pasta dish was actually pig bum cheek.

Field Tripping

This should be a really easy post to write because... I spent about half of this last weekend having no idea what anyone was talking about. Just a minute ago I asked Shad for the name of a place we had visited... His response: "I asked Silvia but I didn't understand." 

Problems of visiting Portugal with a bunch of students of Portuguese, I guess.   

But nonetheless, we enjoyed going on a field trip with the entire group of students that is either studying or interning with the program!  Most of them stay in Lisbon so we don't see them much, but we had fun getting to know several of them while driving in a bus for hours around the greater Lisbon area.  

(Cue no-frills travel log.)

Wanderlust and the Poor Newlyweds: Our Experience

Travel.  

The whole topic is a can of worms, I've decided, because everyone has such different beliefs about how to best spend their time and money, especially in early married life when planning and preparing for the future.

This video: hilarious.  As it ended, Shad and I looked at each other with smiling but slightly concerned expressions: "That's not us, right?"

The travel guru girl represents our attitude in some ways, I guess, but she doesn't represent our financial situation.  Shad and I joke about how we don't really budget or pay attention to our finances because there's no money to manage!  And yet, somehow we've spent a combined total of about seven months abroad since we've been married (and that's not including Shad's six-week study abroad last summer).

That's pretty cool.  And has caused me to think a lot lately about how in the world it happened.

I have almost scrapped this post multiple times because I'm so humbled when I think about all the support we've received from family and friends since we've been married ("Forget it! None of this would've happened without them!").  But I know there are steps that Shad and I have taken as well to make "our dreams become realities... and some of our realities become dreams."

So, despite the potential "yeah, but"s of this post, I write to reflect on our experience with my younger siblings in mind, who can still take advantage of traveling as students if they'd like to.  Because that's what we did: capitalized on our time in college when schedules are more flexible, expenses less permanent and opportunities abound.

Bom Dia

Hello hello, and welcome to the new blog!

To be honest, "new" is a bit of a misnomer; same title (but open to new ideas?), same writer (but hoping to post more often?).  I decided to start afresh mostly for practical reasons-- Google accounts and photo access and such.  But still, this new beginning feels nice and proves my subconscious refusal to give up on making writing a healthy habit.

Plus I have some good source material at the moment, as Shad and I have been living in Europe for about a month now.

When meeting up with cousin Hannah in Paris a few weeks ago, I gave her the run-down of how to travel as a poor newlywed couple.  And I thought, hey, I should blog that.  So I will tell you all my secrets!  But not today-- that's a post on its own.

For now, let me fill you in on what we're up to.