1. March 6-8th Carnival! After not doing anything remarkable for the all-important holiday of Carnival in 2010, we decided to pick up and head to the island of São Vicente for the celebration this year. São Vicente, and its capital Mindelo, is known for its lavish parades, all night parties, and general Carnival flavor. We got it all! We spent four or five days there eating, drinking, and being merry in the company of good friends from Praia and my cousin Amanda visiting from the States! See photos for the elaborate costumes and beautiful scenery of São Vicente.
2. Rachel got a job! At the beginning of April, I started as the Community Liaison Coordinator (CLO) at the Embassy, which Mike kindly refers to as the Social Chair. It is the PERFECT job for me, because not only is it all about working with people at the Embassy, which I love, it is also only part time (8:30-12:30) so I still manage to fit in long afternoon naps, General Hospital, and time with Strela. Oh, yeah and cooking and grocery shopping at eight different stores as well.
3. Visitor’s Galore! We have been the luckiest (and busiest) of all the officers at the Embassy keeping up with our plethora of visitors. In January, Mike’s cousin Erica came for a week and along with vacationing, did some really interesting work and research into Cape Verdean politics and elections. After she departed for her own whirlwind trip around the world, our friends Elizabeth and Joe from DC came for a week and we certainly made the most of pool time, a hiking day trip, and of course more eating. As mentioned above my cousin Amanda’s visit was perfectly timed with Carnival for a trip to another island, but she also got to see all that Santiago had to offer with afternoon trips to Cidade Velha and Assomada. In April, we had our first mini-visitor, Mike’s friend from Minnesota, Tobit, and his wife Thia brought their 2 ½ year old cutie pie, Aven. Tobit and Mike snuck away from Praia for a few days to hike the picturesque island of Santo Antão, while Thia, Aven and I spent our girl-time at the beach and pool in Boa Vista. Aven seemed to LOVE the African wildlife, and here that means cows and goats. This, we welcomed Mike’s cousin Steve and his two buddies flying in from Minnesota. They mark our TWENTIETH visitors, which we think is incredible! We feel so fortunate to have such adventurous family and friends, and are definitely the leaders in visitors to Embassy Praia. Go Ralles Adventurers!
4.U.S. Trip Extravaganza! Mike and I just got back from a fantastic vacation in the States. We know that our life sort of looks like a vacation all the time, but this was our first family-free (sorry moms and dads) vacation since our honeymoon and we did it up! First we made a quick stop in our old stomping ground of Chicago. The weather totally cooperated and we got to spend some serious quality time with good friends and of course (here we go again) good food. We especially enjoyed a trip to Whole Foods with Rachel Sher, where we commandeered a box and just walked the aisles filling it with things we miss from America. Rachel ended up getting a couple of new things for her pantry as well ☺.
Then from Chicago we ventured West, as far west as I have ever been, to the Pacific Northwest. We arrived on a beautiful and sunny day, took in a Seattle Mariners baseball game (they actually won!), took the ferry to Bainbridge, walked the markets of Seattle, and spent some time with our CV friends Kelly and Ná.
After a grand time in Seattle we drove north to Vancouver for my first trip across the border to Canada, eh? (Yes, I have been to Albania but never to Canada) We had an awesome visit with Mike and Lily Leung (you may recognize them from our 2010 visitor list). Mike was an excellent tour guide, showing us all of Vancouver and then Lily hosted us for a night up in charming Whistler. I am sure you are not surprised to hear that we also ate our way through yet another city, but the food is just so good, and there are so many choices, like a KimChi Korean Burrito and Poutine! Photos from our USA vacation are coming soon.
After a rainy drive back south to catch our flight, we left Seattle armed with some Copper River Salmon and headed to NJ for a couple nights before flying to Lisbon. Since this is probably the best Portuguese we (and by we I mean Mike) will ever speak we decided to take it for a ride and spent a few days in Porto, Portugal, which was beautiful with sunny, warm weather, and of course more food. It was only a little awkward and mildly embarrassing when I opened my mouth to speak Portuguese and out came Cape Verdean Kriolu. Oh well!
Well, if you are still reading this long, drawn out post, THANK YOU! And because you are still reading, I promise to be a better blogger in the coming months!
Lots of love from the land of sunshine!
