And…We’re Off

I was that obnoxious parent who had gifts for all my fellow passengers on Adaline’s first flight. So, I had grand plans of getting this blog up and going weeks before we left. I don’t know what I was thinking.

We are in Albufeira, PT. This is day three. I am proud that we got almost everything done I had hoped for before we left. All but insurance coverage and a place to live. Those sound big, I know, but among the mountain of to do’s that is not too bad.

Travel Day

We decided to put air tags in our luggage and our shipping container, and good thing we did! As soon as we landed and realized we were missing a bag we looked up the air tag and sure enough – Minney Mouse luggage was still in Philadelphia. We were exhausted, and the line for lost luggage was so long we decided we’d just leave and call the airline. Seemed like an easy solution at the time. In our haste we forgot the booster seat, but decided the $20 Walmart seat was not worth the return trip to Lisbon, a 2.5 hour drive away.

The reality – luckily Jason’s challenge not mine!

Internet service at our Airbnb = bad.

International phone call to airline = $.25/minute. Using the AA chat function, after multiple crashes and re-sets of the system, Jason got the luggage not only on a flight but delivered to our door! Or so we thought. Much to Adaline’s delight we ended up doing a secret spy mission to the bus station to give them a secret passcode to get our luggage released. All this only took three days and a 30 minute wait. A headache? Sorta. An adventure? Yes!

This week’s challenge

Driving. Jason came out in December so he had some knowledge and helpful guidance on driving, but it is still going to take some getting used to. I suppose I should do my own research too.

1.         Full White line – it could mean not to make a lane change, or it could mean the separation of oncoming traffic – I have yet to determine the distinguishing factor between the “don’t change lanes” white line and the “oh sh*t I’m driving into oncoming traffic” white line.

2.         Round about/traffic circle/rotatória – I am familiar with roundabouts, and actually really love the concept and mostly the execution. It is going to take me a while to learn the flow of the European traffic circle, with the inside and outside circles and what you are signaling when you are in each lane as a driver.*

         *This has been the most stressful part of my days so far. Not only learning to use them but learning to use them so frequently – it feels like they are every 50 feet.

Speaking of feet, oh the metric system!

As an adult I have somewhat of a grasp of the metric system – meaning I’m not totally lost but I can never convert quickly in any useful way or in all units of measurement. Being a scuba diver helped me with meters to feet – easy peesy – 3.3 feet to every meter –  I can do this very quickly – while descending in the water – but basically nowhere else, which is mostly useless.

I had my first lesson with liquid volume this evening – 1 Liter of sangria for one person? Sure! Seems reasonable. Jason reminded me that a bottle of wine is ¾ of a liter. Oh, right. So, I feel like it will be a very effective lesson in learning metric liquid volume, but I’ll let you know for sure tomorrow.

Miss you already. Enjoy your day, stay curious…

Cassandra