A Trip to the Azores Islands

This past weekend we had a game in the Azores islands. Ever since I found out that Jen and I were going to play in Portugal, I was looking forward to visiting these islands. The Azores islands are a Portuguese island chain in the Atlantic Ocean. There are a total of 9 islands, and on this trip we stopped in 2 of them (one for just a short layover).

Anyways, we went to the airport early Saturday morning. Our first flight was from Lisbon to Pico island, and it lasted about 2 hours. When we landed in Pico, we weren’t allowed to get off the plane, but we were allowed to peek outside. We took some pictures, enjoyed the beautiful breeze, visited the cockpit, and talked to our teammates. After about an hour, we were back in the air for a quick 30 minute flight to Terceira. We landed in Terceira, split up in a couple different cars, and drove to the center of town. The island was very green, and there were a lot of cows :-) It only took about 20 minutes to drive to the “downtown” area, and when we got there we had lunch at a restaurant. After lunch we had about an hour to just walk around and explore before we had to be at the gym. We walked down near the water and took some pictures. Some of our teammates wanted coffee so we went to a coffee shop with outside seating. Jen and I wanted to walk around a bit more so we left our bags with our teammates. We didn’t really know where we were going so we didn’t want to walk far, but we had seen a beautiful church while we were driving, and we knew we were close. After walking for about twenty seconds, we found it! :-) It was the Cathedral of Our Holy Savior. It was very beautiful and peaceful inside. I have noticed that every Catholic Church I have been to in Portugal has a statue of Our Lady of Fatima (which makes perfect sense). It reminds me of how close we are to Fatima, and it makes Jen and I so excited to go!

We didn’t have much time to spend in the church because we had to meet up with our teammates to walk to the gym. On our way to the gym, we stopped at a little convenience store. We were told that there is an United States’ Air Force base on this island, and as a result, many of the stores carry American foods that you can’t normally find in Europe (ex: Reese’s peanut butter cups, Mrs. Butterworth’s pancake mix, Country Kitchen maple syrup, and Butterfingers to name a few). Some of our teammates bought a few things, and then we headed to the game.

I wasn’t really sure how our team would start the game considering that we had been traveling for about 10 hours, but I was pleasantly surprised. Our team took control of the game early and maintained control throughout. After the game, we showered quickly because we had to get to the airport to catch our flight home. During the flight we played some trivia games with some of our teammates, and before we knew it, we had landed. It was a long day, but Jen and I really enjoyed the experience.

We had the day off on Sunday, and since we had been up late the night before, Jen and I slept in Sunday morning until about 9:30. Then, we got up, went to Mass at 11 and then went to get some lunch from the restaurant we eat at. After lunch we ran into our teammate Barbara on our way to Pingo Doce (our favorite grocery store). We had invited some teammates over in the afternoon so we needed to pick up some snacks. Our teammates came over around 2 in the afternoon, and we just sort of hung out. There were a few movies on TV that we kind of watched, and then we ate some chicken wings, caramel apples, caramel brownies (Jen says: They were a hit. Talia, Tabitha, and Natasha – I can’t wait to make some with you when I come home!), and some other unhealthy food. After we were done eating, we played a game called Farkle. It’s a game that my family played all summer. You roll 6 die, and different combinations have different point totals. Ultimately, the goal is 10,000 points, but there is a lot of gambling involved. It was fun. I played one of the worst Farkle games in the history of Farkle, but my scorekeeping was pretty darn good! :-) Congratulations to Joana for winning both games of Farkle. She’s a natural! After Farkle, we played cards for a little while. Then, my sister, Theresa, skyped me so I was able to talk to her. She is a freshman at the University of Denver so it was fun talking to her and getting caught up on all of her new college experiences. All in all, it was a fun day off!

We have a pretty normal schedule this week with 2 practices a day and a game on Saturday. We’ll keep you posted! :-)

Love,

Jen and Tina

On the plane on the way to Azores - Jen sitting with Sara and the referee for our game!!! :-)

Jen was really excited for this trip

Isn't she cute?! :-)

Joana, me, Barbara, and Susana

Jen learning about the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Fatima, Portugal

Pico island

Terceira island

Susana, Jen, and Joana before lunch

Semi-awkward team picture :-)

Our teammate Sara always winks at us, and we love it ;-)

Sofia and Jen

Jen in front of the Cathedral of Our Holy Savior

Blessed John Paul II

Inside the cathedral

Quick Update

We have now been in Portugal for one month! I can hardly believe that – it’s going by so quickly!

We officially started our season on Saturday. So far, so good…we are 1-0. We have our first road game of the season this coming Saturday in the Azores islands (off the coast of Portugal). I know we won’t really have much time to see the island since we are arriving and leaving on the same day as the game, but I’m still very excited to go.

We don’t really have a big update right now, but here’s a little information to let you know what we have been up to this past week or so:

Jen has a bug bite on her arm. She has had it for a little over a week now. We originally thought it might be staph so we were kind of concerned, but now we are pretty certain it’s a bug bite. She doesn’t know when it happened, but it started out looking like a mosquito bite, and since then it has grown quite a bit! Our teammates monitor it daily. One of our teammates tried to take her to an Urgent Care after practice to have a doctor look at it, but the doctor wasn’t there. Another one of our teammates tried to squeeze stuff out of it…so sweet! :-) Jen and I both like stuff like this so while we hope it gets better, we are both sort of secretly enjoying it :-)

We cooked dinner for a couple of our teammates the other night. We were supposed to watch a movie, but we ended up just hanging out for a while. They taught us some Portuguese words and phrases so we are going to try to use them this week. We ate for about 5 hours straight (hamburgers, french fries, chicken nuggets, broccoli, crepes, ice cream, brownies…it was a lot of food)! As always, it was fun hanging out with our teammates and getting to know them better.

We went to dinner with our friend/manager, Sara, and our teammate, Barbara, last night after practice. They took us to a mall food court – it was way nicer than any mall food court I have ever seen in America. First of all, we had real plates and real utensils. Second, they had a ton of options, and even though we got our food fast, it wasn’t really “fast food.” Jen got a steak, salad, and french fries. I went to a place where I could make my own stir fry – it was really good. They showed us around the mall a little bit. Then we went upstairs to the movie theater, and we tried Portuguese popcorn. They had been telling us how the popcorn here is kind of sweet instead of salty and buttery. It was good.

Well, we just wanted to update you about our last week. I’m sure we will have some pictures and stories to share with you guys once we go to the island this weekend.

Love,
Jen and Tina

Joana taking Jen to Urgent Care after practice

Urgent Care was closed so we went to the pharmacy instead

Hanging out with some teammates - we spent most of our time in the kitchen :-)

They made me a crepe with Nutella and ice cream and put my initial on it :-)

Sara, Jen, and Ba at the movie theater

"Thank You For Bein a Friend!"

Hey everyone!

Well, we won our game on Saturday which meant that we got to play in the championship game on Sunday. After the game on Saturday, we had a team dinner/potluck at our teammates’ apartment (Sofia and Ana). It was really fun. Jen and I brought a fruit salad and a vegetable tray. We also brought a big bottle of Ranch dressing which was quite a hit :-) We just hung out, ate (chicken, rice, salad, bread, and some AMAZING chocolate cake), talked, watched some soccer, etc. This group of girls is so easy to get along with!

The next morning we went to Mass at 11:00. Most churches that I have gone to in Europe do not seem to have any heating/cooling system. In Slovakia the last 2 years, the churches were always FREEZING! It was warmer outside than inside. A lot of times the holy water that you dip your fingers into was frozen. Jen and I would always wear pants, our big winter jackets, and mittens. This year is quite the opposite – I am totally sweating during Mass (not really a big surprise to those of you who know me – I sweat a lot!) Fortunately, I was sitting next to two ladies who had little hand-held fans so I got a little airflow :-) One of our teammates showed us where another church is near our apartment so hopefully we can stop by there sometime this week. The church we have been going to on Sundays doesn’t have daily Mass so we are trying to find a church that does.

After Mass we went to watch the U16 girls from our club play. They invited us to their game so we wanted to go support them. We only stayed for a little bit because we wanted to get home, eat some lunch, and get ready for our game. When we were walking down the stairs to our apartment (our apartment is down one flight of stairs), I turned the corner and saw a cat. It scared me at first because I wasn’t expecting anything to be there. Jen told me to see if it was friendly so I got a little closer, and it let me pet it. We didn’t know how long it had been in the stairwell, and we felt bad just leaving it there so we invited it inside our apartment. We were pretty certain that it belonged to someone since it was inside the building and because it looked well fed. We gave it a little ham, made it feel at home, and then when we were getting ready to leave we put it back in the stairwell. It was nice having a pet for about an hour! :-)

Our game was pretty disappointing. We lost. The team we played was definitely the best team we have played since we have been in Portugal (in my opinion), but they are a very beatable team. I’m upset that we didn’t win because I hate losing and because we were capable of beating them, but I am optimistic that our team is going to continue to improve, and when we meet this team in the regular season we will be ready!

(Jen): Today (Monday) was a great day off! Tina and I both slept in until 10:00am. We made plans with one of our teammates, Barbara ("Ba"), to go to Cascais. We met her at the train station to get our tickets. She helped us understand the train schedule so we could travel locally without her. (Side note: If we ever do get lost, we won't be able to call anyone because our prepaid phone has no money on it. Our teammates always call us and leave us text messages when they need to talk with us, but we can never respond. We need to talk to our little sister Sara to help us get some minutes).

Barbara told us that Cascais is a place where a lot of tourists go because of the beaches, shops, and restaurants. The weather was about 80 degrees and beautiful! For the first part of our adventure we just walked and talked. We ran into some Americans from Texas and Florida. There were a few carts selling necklaces, bracelets and clothes. I shopped around for a little bit. I may have something for my family when I come home :-)

After shopping we went down to the beach and laid our stuff down. Ba told us the Atlantic would be cold, and it was, but after a while, we got use to it. Tina and I found some good rocks to skip in the water. We did our usual...you know, 5 or 6 skips...But Ba stuggled a little bit. After we told her "it's all in the wrist," she got it to bounce twice! Proud of her. After skipping rocks, I found some beautiful sea shells in the water. One had a snail in it! Ba told us how Portuguese people enjoy eating snails. I tried escargot once on a cruise. It actually wasn't that bad. It tasted like garlic and butter. I doubt this one would have tasted like that!

We had 30 minutes until our next train so Tina and Ba played paddle ball on the beach. After three tries they counted up to 147 hits! Not bad for two post players! :) After paddle ball, Tina took out her umbrella to shade herself from the sun. It reminded us of the time we went to Spain with our college team. We had a few girls on the team who didn't want to get any darker so they put towels on their legs and shaded themselves with an umbrella. We will always remember that Moons and Bridgey!

After playing at the beach we started to walk back to the train station. We stopped at this wine shop because I saw a sign that said something about wine and chocolate for 1 euro! Ba talked to the lady inside and got it all set up for me. The lady poured some sweet wine into a chocolate cup for me. I have never tried anything like that before, but it was very tasty! After my dessert we hopped on the train back to Alges!

Have a great week everyone!

Love,
Jen and Tina

With some teammates at our team dinner (Ana, Tamara, and Duca)

The Ranch dressing was a hit!

Sara, Sofia, and Joana


In honor of Tamara

Goofy girls :-)

Our pet cat for 1 hour



Learning about the trains



Cool castle-looking thing at one of the train stops

In Cascais

Our first day at the beach since being in Portugal

The water was cold!

Jen and Barbara (Ba, Pete, Petey, Barb)

She is a good paddle ball partner. It was our first time playing together, but I think we have a lot of potential!





Ashlee and Jess: I know it's not the same pose, but this picture was taken in your honor :-) We miss you guys!!!

Jen about to try some new wine

She liked it :-)