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becoming 30

Officially I am 30 years old.
I had the perfect day! Even though I am away from family and friends, everyone was so wonderful, sending sweet messages and videos.Thank you for making this day so especial.

My very own Betty Crocker chocolate cake!

Pedro gave the best birthday gift I could ever receive: working from home and being with me.

And also making sure I completed some of the items on my list, so I had a really busy day:

#53 we bought a canvas, and I started painting it.

#76 donated to Kiva.

#27 wrote a poem.

#36 bought a bike.
#24 made strangers happy.
#82 got a massage.

By the end of the day I thought that was it. WRONG.
Pedro made me to go the supermarket to buy a cake and candles. By the time I got home... SURPRISE! He had decorated the house and invited our 2 friends and neighbors for my "massive" birthday party (#79) / murder mistery (#68) / tea party (#15), with Halef dressed as a fortune teller (# 47) and a pinhata hanging from the wall (#42)! How wonderful is that! The day finished off with us jumping into the pool at 11:30pm (#5) and me covering Pete with kisses (#86)!

my face as I opened the door!

Halef helping out with the decor.

my pirate pinhata!

spreading happiness

Trying desperately to finish my list before 30, tomorrow I'm not only going to treat myself nice but also spread a little bit of happiness to random atlantan strangers!

Therefore, numbers 6, 11, 24, 27, 30, 36, 53, 74, 76, 79, 82 and 86 will be crossed off the list by the end of tomorrow. Wish me luck and a happy birthday!

i love yardsales

More than half of the stuff we bought so far is second hand, thanks to Craig's list, second hand shops and yard sales.

Anyone who loves to explore other people's stuff knows that it's not about the money, it's all about storytelling. Whether it's imagining who the antique belonged to and how it came to be, whether it's about an amazing deal, like the awesome lamp we got for 2$!

I do miss Lisbon's flea market, but the second hand shops and yard sales are just as great. We only buy it if it is exactly what we need and if it has a certain personality to it! People do tend to accumulate so much stuff and we were no different. They say the first step into a minimalist living is to get rid of all the unuseful stuff. Pedro and I did this right before we moved to Atlanta, when we had to pack up all our junk and separate it from the things we really need and cherish. We realised we had too much stuff! So on this fresh start we are keeping it to a minimum! Everything we have right now, we need. If we don't need it, we won't buy it.

Out of all the stuff we bought this is my absolute favourite: a blue enamel kettle and cups, so pretty!

driver's license

We've been in Atlanta for 20 days and settled in our one bedroom apartment. But no car yet, and it's really hard to get around without one. Nothing is at a walking distance which makes me miss small sized Portugal. This weekend we rented a hideous car to go car shopping and for Pedro to get his driver's test done.

Here, nos Estates, to get your license you just do a simple computer exam in one day and bring your own car and do a driving test the next! All this for 30$. Simple! So, after today I no longer have to drive these HUGE cars and Pedro is getting a kick at finally being able to drive in Atlanta after losing his portuguese driver's license.

As for me, I'm just thankful I don't have to drive these HUGE cars anymore! I'll be getting my license as soon as my social security number arrives. Meanwhile, we're having fun discussing the somewhat ridiculous traffic signs we see along the roads... but that's whole other post!

FYI: we're looking for small sized, european styled cars, of course!

...nem que eu leve a américa até ti...

this song has been on repeat all morning.

the first few days...

... were all about starting from scratch in a place I still don't feel comfortable. Coming home to empty walls and carpet needs some time getting use to. It's a process.

During the first few days we had a rented car and drove around everywhere. But after that, it's hard to get around in a huge city without a decent public transportation system. We have been lucky because the best thing so far about Atlanta are the Atlantans themselves!

We went everywhere in our rented Toyota Corolla: visited second hand shops, shopped for all our groceries at this amazing farmer's market were you can get all the organic stuff you need, visited the High Museum, bought basic furniture through Craig's List, shopped at Ikea and Zara and visited the Asian Market with our great couchsurfing hosts.

Now we are just trying to settle down into our new lifestyle and start a fun, adventurous and healthy life together.

lost in atlanta

check list on how to get to atlanta:

- loose pedro's drivers license 2 days before departure (check)
- get a half and hour delayed on the flight porto to madrid (check)
- because of this delay, miss the connection from madrid to miami by just 3min after running like crazy through the airport (check)
- complain to Iberia about the delay and wait 2 hours for the new connection (check)
- get on a 10 hour flight to miami, eat airplane food and watch the retarded Ronda channel (check)
- arrive in maimi with only 40 min to pickup luggage, pass through customs and get on the flight connection to atlanta (not check)
- miss yet another connection to atlanta because going through customs and checking in again took 1h30 (check)
- luggage didn't get to miami, so we lost our 6 bags! (check)
- get a 300$ voucher to shop for clothes (check)
- arrive in atlanta 24 hours later (check)
- head to the car rentals and pick up the car only to discover that the credit card owner has to be the same as the driver (check)
- find another car rental that would accept a debt card, considering I didn't have a credit card and pedro didn't have his license. (check)
- learn how to drive an automatic and huge american car at one in the morning. (check)
- arrive at an amazing couchsurfer's house and sleep in a huge bed. (check)
- after visiting about 10 apartments, rent the first one we visited (check)
- spend the first night in our apartment sleeping in our tent because our first house guest was a cockroach. (check)

Atlanta isn't so bad after all...

home is wherever i'm with you

when we decided to get married one thing we were sure of is that it had to be meaningful. creating our own stencil was just a little something to express our new life together.

we have just moved to Atlanta: a new country, a new city and a new life.

home is truely wherever we can be together.

Twiggs Photography

this one is going up on the wall!

I never thought high heels would look so good!

such a perfect day

Even though it may seem as a cliché, it was a perfect day!
We had a private wedding cerimony in a garden and picked the most unexcepted place for the photo session: the ruins near Lisbon's castle with graffiti walls and torn colourful paint.