last day in portugal

The other teachers have left, but we decided to plan another day of sightseeing before heading back to the land where water is free. "Here Portugal was born"

People probably thought I was weird for taking pictures of their laundry, but it looked so pretty.

Our lovely host, Patricia. She has been such a gem and did such a wonderful job planning the event.

I've heard of the place in France where couple put locks to symbolize their love. The tradition has spread to this fence in Portugal.

I had hot chocolate again at lunch. This time, it was thick like brownie batter.

My mom says Patricia is like the sister she never had. Too bad they live on opposite sides of the world. Thank goodness for Skype.

We ran into some missionaries. It was neat because my papers have been submitted and I should have a call in less than 2 weeks.

This is Patricia's youngest, Leonor. That look of delight came when she learned there was a pastry for her.

This is the view from Patricia's country house. It was beautiful. It reminded me of the show "Brothers and Sisters."

This is Patricia's parent's home with her brother's country home attached. All of the 4 kids have a home on the same compound, next to their parents.

This is the playhouse Patricia's father built for the grandchildren.

The interior of the country homes looked like an upscale IKEA. How fabulous is that chair?

This is a bug we found in one of the country houses. Patricia wanted to kill it, but we saved it in a jar instead. My grandpa knows more about bugs than anyone else in the state of Utah. We knew this bug would mean more to him than any souvenir we could buy. I am hoping it dies before we have to get on an airplane.

chocolatequente day 2

Today was the second and final day of the event. It has been such a treat to be with all these wonderful people. There were 5 classes taught. They were all so different. Pete Hughes from Sizzix taught how to make some incredible paper flowers. They looked like silk flowers. Aimee Filimoehala from Graphic 45 made some detailed drawers with a teeny intricate album. Patricia made a crate full of items using the Maggie Holmes collection. Teresa taught an elaborate album using products she designs. The projects were very detailed and time intensive, but everyone managed to finish. Here is one of our classes of the day. This class got very creative and customized their albums.

Here is my mom and I with Patricia's youngest son, Felipe. He was quite the charmer. He passed candy to everyone during the classes.

Here are all the teachers from the event.

day one of chocolatequente

Today was the first day of the event. The project is a mini album built on the clipboard from the new Maggie Holmes line from Crate Paper. We taught 3 classes. I was surprised at how many "scrapbooking words" I knew in Spanish. The paper, alphabet, and journaling cards are from the Love You More line my mom designed for Pebbles. The Thickers were made from my own handwriting. They have my name on them and everything. This is our first class. All the women from Spain were in this group.

This is another one of our classes. I totally forgot to take a picture of the third class.

L: This is Afonso. He is only 7-years-old, but he does all the classes himself. // R: European hot chocolate is nothing like what we have in the States. It is so good that the event is named after it. (Chocolatequente)

This whole adjusting to a new time zone thing is kicking my butt. It doesn't help that we stay up until at least 2:00am talking.

porto in pictures

We had a full day of sightseeing before the event starts tomorrow. Patricia and her husband are the best hosts. We saw so many things today. Prepare yourself for a whole lot of pictures. I expected to see a lot of stone and old buildings, but I did not expect the city to be so colorful.

That building right behind the fountain is a college. The students by the fountain are wearing black robes as part of a tradition that includes staying drunk for a week. They walked in groups around the city singing. The building in the right picture is a bookstore. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but it was beautiful and looked like it belonged in a Harry Potter movie.

Teresa is one of the teachers at the event. She is so genuine and kind. If you are a fan of HIMYM, she reminds me of the episode when Lily tries to take a bad picture of Barney and fails. Seriously. I think it is impossible to get a bad picture of her.

Patricia told me what the yellow building said, but I forgot. I think it is something like "dress well and cheaply here."

Patricia's home and office are right by these buildings. I love that turquoise color. Maybe someday I will have a house that bright.

More buildings in Patricia's neighborhood and an awesome window display.

This is Patricia's cute shop. Everything in it is beautiful. She has products for scrapbooking, book binding, die cutting, quilting, and general crafting.

The left picture is part of a very opulent church. The picture on the right is for Finley. That girl is obsessed with graffiti and loves to point it out.

The building with the blue and white tile mural is the church in the last picture.

I stole this picture from the facebook page for the event.  We ate lunch right on the coast. Before eating, we decided to go down to the water. The water was so cold, hence the looks of surprise. My mom is really proud of herself for being the only one that didn't "wet her pants."

Those treats on the right taste like a waffle cone with cinnamon. The name translates into "mother-in-law tongue."

The picture on the left is the inside of the train station. The blue and white tile is traditional Portuguese, but we thought the mural above it looked like pictures of Mormon pioneers pulling their handcarts. We went to a seafood restaurant for dinner. This silly fish had a tongue hanging out of its mouth.

We were thoroughly entertained by the cannibalistic fish with another fish in its mouth.

If you made it to the end of the post, I commend you. That was an awful lot of pictures and you deserve to go take a nap or something.

from nyc to madrid to porto

Because of the bad weather across the country, the flight before us got in late, which meant we were late leaving for Madrid. We landed in Spain right after our flight to Porto was leaving. Our new flight was supposed to leave 4 hours later. Because the airport was so big and we didn't know the city, we didn't dare leave the terminal. Our flight kept getting delayed, so we really spent 8 hours in the airport. Because we walked all over New York and then went on an international flight right after, my feet were so unbelievably swollen.

L: Flat Stanley made it to Madrid // R: The Madrid airport was huge

See my huge feet?!

We landed in Porto and went straight to the hotel. Patricia (who we went to teach for) took us to dinner. By this point, I was seriously lacking in the sleep department. It was all I could do not to put my head on the table at dinner.

L: View from the hotel window // R: Snazzy chandelier at the restaurant