Day Nineteen (decimo-nono dia)
After Romeo’s shenanigans yesterday and generally being a pain-in-the-ass now that he knows the world is bigger than our apartment, I punished him with a four-mile run.
Once I got home, Barbie&Ken stopped by and invited us for a walk down the beach. I had just gotten out of the shower and hadn’t eaten yet, so I told John to go without me. I had a minor freak-out after he left: I couldn’t find Romeo! Then I realized his leash was gone and ascertained that John had taken him. That pooch didn’t move for the rest of the day after that.
John came back and we went to Pic-Nic for galaos. I had been trying to cut back: before we moved I had not eaten any dairy (except for chocolate, which doesn’t count) in over 9 months. I am still not eating cheese, but I decided that Azorean milk would be OK. On Sunday night, I noticed a little rash on the left side of my chest. It wasn’t itchy or red, but just bumpy. I vowed to only have one galao per day, and if by the end of the week the hives were still there, I was going to have to cut out dairy again. I have been drinking a lot of verde cha (green tea). We saw Carla at Pic-Nic and we finalized our plans to head into Ponta Delgada on Wednesday.
I know I have mentioned this before, but we live across from a church. A BIG church. A church with bells. These particular church bells rings every hour. They ring a shorter tune on the half hour. They ring once on the quarter hour. They don’t bother me–in fact, I am basically oblivious to their existence. On Saturday night at Lina’s, Carla’s husband asked us about them. Carla and Joe lived in our apartment for five years before they bought a house in lomba de loucao and started renting this apartment out. Apparently, the bells drove Joe crazy. “I like them,” I said, “I never notice them at night.” Lina said they don’t ring from 9:00pm-9:00am. They only added the bells a few years ago, and residents and business owners signed a petition to get rid of them! They drive people nuts. John said he hears them in the morning when he is trying to sleep, and they bother him enough to warrant shutting our bedroom window-doors. I remain completely oblivious to the bells, but when teenage hooligans walk down our rua at 4:30am, THAT I hear.
Because Mira Mar has a game on Wednesday this week, John had no practice Tuesday. After my class at ALKE, I met the guys at Pic-Nic to “watch the Arsenal game” i.e. work-on-my-blog. John and I went home after Arsenal lost (to who, I couldn’t tell you) to make our own Pic-Nic burgers. We toasted the papa secos (bun-like bread) and piled them high with two ¼ patties, a fried egg, and ham (and cheese for John) with ketchup and mayo. They were incredible. Lina had also left some fresh basil and oregano from her garden at the gym for us, so I cut up a tomato, two cloves of garlic, a whole bunch of basil, and covered it in olive oil before I went to my class earlier. We cut up another papa secos and had our bruschetta. It was also amazing.
I Skyped with Anna and we watched Stuck in Love and fell asleep. Boa Noite!
The Azores, as told by Liza 