Vasco (Oceanario mascot, named after the famous navigator Vasco da Gama)

Wandering: My studies here involve lots of wandering. First, science: Tuesday we took several metros to the Oceanário (Lisbon’s aquarium, one of the world’s largest), located at the site of the World Expo, on the edge of the Rio Tejo. It has four lower tanks and upper habitats representing the Arctic, Antarctic, Indian, and Pacific basins, all surrounding an open Atlantic ocean tank, full of sharks, rays, and all sorts of fish. My favorite sea creature was the sunfish, called a moon fish (peixe-lua) in Portuguese. It is GIGANTIC and so ugly it is cute (like ugly dolls, only more so).

Still wandering: Music: I also head across town two (soon to be three) times a week to the Instituto Gregoriano. Here I have private cello lessons, choir, and music theory. Strings/orchestra starts next Saturday. In choir, we took voice tests to find out whether we were sopranos, altos, etc. I am a contralto (actually, an alto, but only in English, since alto means loud in Portuguese, and I am hardly that). First similarity to the aquarium: it’s a little bit of sink or swim at the Instituto Gregoriano, since group classes are all in Portuguese. In music theory we talked about time signatures. There was no instrument lesson this week because my teacher Anne Hernant was in Paris. She’s French, but teaches me in English and Portuguese. Second similarity to the Oceanário: I’ve made a friend, who speaks a little English, in my theory class, whose name is Lua (moon).

Wondering (after eating SEVEN fried cod cakes or pasteis de bacalhau during a recent lunch): Will I get sick of eating fried fish any time soon?

Something interesting to send up with: In the Indian Ocean habitat, I found all these little grey birds (doves of some sort) that seemed to pose for photos.