Coimbra!!!! :D

Sorry for the awkwardness... Bell tower in Coimbra

Coimbra University

Me, Rita, João at the ruins of Conímbriga in Coimbra

Portugal dos Pequenitos (Portugal for the little ones)

Today we went to Coimbra! It's an ancient Portuguese city, home of Coimbra University, one of the most famous universities in Europe. We walked around the city, and visited the ancient Roman ruins of Conímbriga. The ruins were huge, and they said that only 15% of them are uncovered! We ate baby pig (my host family was horrified when I told them it was called piglet, like in Winnie the Pooh) for lunch, and headed off to Portugal dos Pequenitos, which is literally a little Portugal made for kids. All the major monuments of Portugal and it's colonies are there in miniature form. There were monuments and buildings from Mozambique, one of the Guineas, Brazil, Angola, and a few more colonies (or ex-colonies, like Brazil) there. We walked around in the little city, and got ice cream there, too.

Yesterday, we all slept in late and went on a drive to a few small cities around Minde. Just a few miles away, on the other side of the mountain, is a town that is made mostly of limestone. It looks like the typical Irish land--very green with tons of sheep and stone walls and buildings. It was also raining, to add to the effect. We also went to scouts, which my host mom is a leader of. They were putting down some sort of laminate flooring in their new headquarters, so I helped a little with that. 

I've been kind of sick since Wenesday, so I stayed home from school. Then on Thursday and Friday I didn't have school because the parents of students at my school were protesting government funding cuts to private schools. (don't ask me how that works haha, I have no idea). 

Sorry for the randomness of this post, but I've got homework to do so I had to make it quick. Hopefully I can do a more in-depth post sometime later this week.