Full of food and love

It's been a really lovely week. The four of us feel more and more like a family these days - spending evenings joking around or playing Uno, and taking trips in pairs or threesomes into Porto or Espinho. We're also part of a larger family - every weekend we have lunch or dinner with Diogo's parents at least twice, and sometimes we're joined by his uncle and his girlfriend as well. Last weekend we went to his uncle's for sardines on the grill and ended up gathered around the piano, singing. Last night we tore through about three bottles of wine and had squid and prawn and crab rice stew. Today was what Diogo calls a Meat Fest - about eight different kinds of pork and beef with rice and vegetables. I ate pigs ear! Cartilage and all! And then bean cake and macaroons and pineapple and port and whiskey and coffee for dessert. Yes, all of them. Food is love in Portugal, and I am most definitely feeling the love.

And I leave a week from tomorrow, which is bittersweet. But as Martha told me today, it's always better to leave a place before you want to go. And Diogo's mom told me today that if I ever want to hop on a plane and come to Paramos for lunch, I'm always welcome.

As far as the piece is concerned, it being Portugal and everything being quite relaxed, we're still not sure whether we're going to be able to have the space for a performance at the end of this week. What we do know, however, is that WE'RE GOING TO BE ON PORTUGUESE NATIONAL TELEVISION ON THURSDAY. What?! How did that happen?! I'll tell you...

Remember how I mentioned that Diogo won a local competition a few weeks back with a clown piece he did? Well, one of Diogo's dad's friends works in television and asked Diogo if he would come on this live morning talk show to perform his piece. Of course he said yes, and gave them his CV, on which he mentioned that he was currently working on a project with a group of international artists (us!). Seeing this, the people from the TV station called him and asked if we could all come along so they could talk to us. On TV. Broadcast nationally. Live.

So yeah. On Thursday morning we're getting all prettied up and going to Porto to be on TV.

Life is frickin insane. And totally totally great.

And of course, mixed in with all things Portuguese is the great excitement and anticipation inherent in election week. People here are really excited about it. Needless to say, I am too. I don't anticipate getting any sleep at all on Tuesday night - the results will start coming in at 11pm GMT, and by 6am Wednesday the verdict should be in. What an exciting time to be alive. How full of potential, these days. How joyful and hopeful my heart.