Morocco via Madrid

Since we had to fly through Madrid to get to Marrakesh, we decided to spend two nights, seeing as we really enjoyed Madrid when we went last spring. We made sure to see the Prado museum last time, so this time we decided to check out the Reina Sofia museum. The most well-known painting in this museum is Pablo Picasso's Guernica. I didn't realize quite how big it would be: 11 feet tall and almost 26 feet wide! Picasso created it as an anti-war symbol after the bombing of the Spanish town of Guernica, and the painting depicts the suffering during war among other things.


Here was another interesting painting, made even more so after listening to the description through the museum headphones.


We also got to see some cool Salvador Dali paintings. I realized I enjoy his paintings a lot more now than I did while studying them in college. (Maybe my mind has become sufficiently warped enough to "get" his crazy paintings now?) Here is the one I really liked, although I feel it just doesn't come across the same at all as it did in person. It is called The Endless Enigma.


We had some tapas at a German beer hall, in which we discovered tables with beer taps in the middle of them!


We had to go back to the place that had the best olives I've ever had. I was afraid they would be serving a different kind of olive, but I was lucky. They were exactly the same!


And of course, what other way to end an evening in Madrid but with churros con chocolate!

Marrakesh, Morocco

We just got back a few days ago from a great trip to Morocco. Our friend Rebecca came with us, and it was the first time any of us had been on the African continent. We had a very fun time, and getting to experience the city of Marrakesh and the Moroccan people was so interesting. I will do a couple updates on the trip to share what we did. For now - here are some of the shots we got wandering around the souks in the medina......

Lisbon from Jesus' point of view

Do you recognize this statue?



It is the Cristo Rei monument in Lisbon. Here is another shot from far away:

If it looks familiar, it was inspired by the "Christ the Redeemer" statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Here is a picture of that statue and the awesome view that comes with it in Rio:

Cristo Rei is a Catholic monument and shrine dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. It stands on the bank of the Tejo river, across from the city of Lisbon. We've been wanting to check out the view for a long time now, and it was a nice day, so we decided to make the journey. (Luckily there is an elevator to take you to the top!)

We recently got a new camera - a digital SLR. It was the perfect occasion to play around with it and get some good shots at the same time. Enjoy the pictures!

Bitter Chocolate

Someone just posted this video of Dario "Chocolat" taking out a few of the opposition. It's nice having him on my team except for when I have to try and tackle him in practice.

Game Day

In a throwback to eighth and ninth grades, I've joined an American football team. The league is in its second season, but football is starting to gain popularity. I've learned that there are leagues all over Europe now and Germany even has several divisions.

I play for the Lisboa Navigators, a team that began four years ago when it joined the Spanish league. I'm one of two Americans on the team, plus we have one Turkish guy. Everyone else is Portuguese. It's been really fun playing again and getting to know a lot of Portuguese guys (plus it's good to practice speaking and hearing Portuguese in a non-work setting).

The league is a little different. It's 9 vs. 9 and the field is a little narrower and shorter. There are no kick-offs, but oher than that, all the regular rules apply. I play safety.

The first game was today. We won 57-12. 

Texas, Texas, Yee-Haw

We just returned from three weeks in Texas. It was great to be home for the holidays and to see family and friends (and eat lots of Tex-Mex).

We spent the first part of our trip in the Dallas area.

We were excited to see our niece, Kathryn, who turns seven next month.

Hillary's wearing the earrings Kathryn gave her for Christmas.

We also spent a few days in Kingwood, just north of Houston, where Hillary's family lives.

 Plus we got to go to Chuy's with two of my best friends!



We went to Austin to ring in the New Year.

The night before New Year's Eve, we went to a great new bar in Austin where I won an autographed bottle of our favorite vodka (Tito's) in a skee ball competition!

We finished off the trip by stopping by for some good ol' Texas barbeque in Fort Worth before hopping on the plane home (cattle in photos not actually eaten).

Fall or Winter?

So far, the weather here in Lisbon hasn't been too bad. We were a little worried seeing as we caught the tail end (last February and March) of the worst winter that Lisbon has had in a long time.

There has been a good amount of rain lately, but we've also had plenty of sunny days. I can definitely handle a winter where you don't need to have your fingers, neck and ears covered all the time. Here is a chart which shows the average temps and rainfall for Lisbon.


In the spirit of our fall-like weather here, enjoy some pictures we took recently in a park. I will warn you that these are pretty cheesy pictures. However, we did NOT both wear stripes on purpose!








I told John to try kicking the leaves as I took a picture. It was hilarious, because he completely fell backwards onto the ground after he kicked them. I couldn't stop laughing.

Obama Comes to Town

You may have seen on TV recently that President Obama came to Portugal to meet with the leaders of countries that are members of NATO and with the heads of the European Union. That meant lots of work for us. I got the glorious job of staffing the operations room that we set up in the hotel where Obama and all the White House staff stayed, as well as Hillary Clinton. During the four days leading up to his arrival and the two days he was here, I worked 78 hours.

John had an important job, too. He was in charge of making sure that the meeting between President Obama and the Portuguese Prime Minister went off without a hitch. Because John's also responsible for knowing about and promoting energy at the embassy, he arranged for GM to send two of its prototype electric cars to Lisbon so that the Portuguese delegation and the President of the European Commission could use them to drive to the NATO Summit. Obama had to use his own car for security reasons, but he did stop by to take a look at one of the cars.


But what made all the hard work worthwhile was getting to meet Obama. He came and spoke to all the embassy employees who weren't busy at other locations (like John). He told us that "your President is proud of you," which was pretty cool. And then I got to shake his hand!

See how close we were?





After he left, my friend Rebecca and I were able to sneak up to the podium and take a quick picture.