Lagos, Portugal

Dear family and friends,

We've just had our final "puente" or long weekend of the school year. I went to Lagos to stay with a friend who is living there right now. Her name is Michelle and I met her through Erin who is teaching in Algeciras, Spain. Michelle invited a group of us down to spend the long weekend there.

Lagos is on the southern coastline of Portugal called the Algarve. I took a bus from Elvas (right across the border from Badajoz) to Lisbon, then to Lagos. It took about 6 hours with a two-hour stop in the middle. I got there on Thursday evening and stayed until Sunday. On Sunday I got a ride back to Sevilla from Monica, a Spanish girl that came up with Erin and the Algeciras teaching assistants.

We spent the weekend walking around the town of Lagos which was having a festival. It was a Festival of the Discoveries to honor Vasco de Gama. There was medieval music and belly dancing and the like. Then we went to the beach and swam in the Atlantic. It was cold at first but then we got used to it. We made dinner at Michelle's house on Friday and Saturday nights, but ate in a Portuguese restaurant for lunch on Saturday. I had Chicken with a spicy puri puri sauce(?). In my opinion, Portuguese food is much better than Spanish food. We also visited some art galleries, one of which is in the old slave market building. None of the art was very impressive, but some of the nearby jewelery galleries were good. I didn't buy anything while I was there except a T-shirt for my brother and some gym socks at the gypsy market. Oh well.

I'm now back in Badajoz, and I am happy that I only have three more weeks of teaching after this one. It's kind of boring now because the kids have to finish studying all of the material for the final exams and I have to correct exercises with them instead of teaching them fun stuff. I hope they've learned something from me.