6 months in Portugal...ahhh...6 months of travel, new adventures, a new culture, a new language, time with family and change from our all too familiar everyday routine. How did this come about? Actually it has been in our life plan since Duarte began work as a professor at PSU. The tenure process was long and tough and downright exhausting. For many, getting tenure is the light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. For Duarte, sabbatical was the light at the end of the tunnel. We made it, now we'll take 6 months to live, work and play in Duarte's hometown - Chaves, Portugal. Duarte will be getting paid while he is on sabbatical. I'll be taking a leave of absence from work.
The next step is getting there...We booked our plane tickets in May - on the very day that Duarte received word that he was promoted and tenured. We found an incredible deal and booked the tickets right out of State College. Perfect... almost. We booked our tickets through a budget travel company. Big mistake. From the moment we booked those tickets there were problems. They charged us about 18 times for our 3 tickets and then they were resistent to refund the incorrect charges. It's been a few months and now that we are in the homestretch, I called United to be sure everything was in order. Nope, nothing is in order. Our tickets were voided by Airfare.com. It has been 6 days since we found this out and we still haven't had the problem resolved. Will we get to Portugal with the tickets we paid for 18 times or will be be delaying our trip or will be be buying new tickets at full price at this point?
And so we continue with our life, work and home preparations in hopes that this will be resolved soon. There is so much to do. So much...to do.... I can't wait to get to the point where we are packing up those suitcases - 6 in total for 4 of us for 6 months. I look forward to the challenge of fitting it all in those bags that must weigh no more than 50 lbs.
We will get there.
Susanne
Susanne's thoughts and observations about life.
1 comment:
Hi guys -
Happy New Year!
So sorry that we missed you over Christmas. You won't even believe what a sick vacation we had - we had colds and flus the entire time we were away. I guess that will teach us never to leave Durango.
I just was checking to see if you arrived safely. We just got back from our travels yesterday - it's so good to be back in sunny Colorado.
The Christmas pictures of the kids are adorable - I can't believe how grown-up Marcos looks! It seems to me that Maddy still looks the same as she did last year.
So how's life without the hectic pace of working and daycare? I think that you are going to like it so much that you're never going to want to come back.
Now that the holidays are over, we'll start looking for flights over to visit you guys. Although after long days of traveling, I can't imagine an overseas flight with kids - we'll have to get some pointers from you.
Do you have a personal email account over there or is this the best way to be in touch?
Hope you are all well and settling into your life on sabbatical.
Love,
John, Trish, Maddy and Sam
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