New Year's

Nuno met me at the airport. I was so worried I wouldn't recognise him, or vice versa. I picked him out right away and he rushed up to give me a big hug. We went back to his house outside Lisbon and I promptly fell asleep.

The next day, we went for a walk in the Parco dos Poetas. The first thing I saw was two heads zooming along. As we walked up the stairs, I realised that they were two security guards on Segways.

Yes, Segways.

I've seen Segways on TV and in magazines but they were kind of in that mythical "do they or don't they exist" sort of sphere in my mind. Every time I looked at them, I burst into laughter.

We sat on the lawn and soaked up the sun. I watched the fountains spray out water in different patterns. Nothing like laying on the grass on December 31st without a jacket on!

Afterwards, we went to the hall to prepare for the party. Almost everything was set up, but there was still a lot of work to be done. The dishes had to be cleaned, the food had to be set out and the place had to be cleaned up.

The guests started arriving and we went out to greet them. I learned a few Portuguese sentences and horribly mangled the pronounciation. We served food and then the dancing started. I helped clean up the tabled and I must have looked sufficiently Portuguese to be asked for extra drinks, food and bottle openers. Body language and other volunteers helped me out!

Dancing was so much fun! I can't dance. I just can't. Some of the guests taught me some simple steps. If I wasn't dancing, I was pulling up someone to dance with me.

At midnight, everyone was hugging and kissing. Nelson, one of the volunteers, attacked me with streamers and I was dripping from heads to toe with coloured paper.

We didn't get home until almost 5 am! This was clearly the best New Year's I've ever had.