Wishing you all a Happy Beltane and May Day... here the sun is shining and the flowers are all blooming. This morning i picked fresh oranges from the tree to take to work with me. I live in the most adorable village. All the streets are cobblestone, and very small and windy. From the upper part of the village you can see out over the picturesque countryside. I'm taking in all the green i can now, in a few months all the hills will be brown with the heat of summer. Transitions are hard for me. I've been feeling very lonely lately. i miss my friends and family, and the whole freaky hippie vibe of California. I'm so sad to miss How Weird street faire, its one of my favorite events in San Francisco. So be extra weird for me ok?!? I miss my circus family and India too! Its such a challenge to be present right where you are. I'm slowing becoming part of the community here, but its hard, and even harder with the language barrier. I'm studying Portuguese when i can, but i've always had a hard time grasping other languages for some reason.
Meanwhile, I am staying very busy with work. Everyone here is on the "work whenever you're not asleep" schedule. Its non-stop and will inevitably get more and more hectic from here on out. I'm glad to be out of Lisboa. its a great city though as far as cities go. There is a lot of art and music, and amazing nitelife. but its so expensive. i'm still doing the dollars to euro conversion until i get paid, so its painful everytime i have to open my wallet. Everything here is so expensive. its like you just switch the $ for Euro, like if something in US costs $5 it costs 5 Euro here, which is actually $7.75!! And really, no one in the US has a right to complain about gas prices - here petrol works out to be about $9.50/gallon. Yikes!
Yesterday I went to see some houses in the area and I chose a small one bedroom place. Its nothing special but I will be sooooo glad to have a home again, i crossed the threshold of living out of bags, its been about 5 months now! I will move in about a week. My mom arrives on Sunday and I'm very excited to see her! Hopefully I'll be able to get away for a bit and see some of the coast. And at the end of the month J. arrives!! It will be six months since i've seen him by the time he gets here. meow!
It's been an emotional time for me. It's been as challenging to make the transition to Portugal as it was in India, in some ways harder because i don't have a whole network of clowns for support! But slowly slowly, i'm settling in.
Beltane Blessings for you all!