Getting back to normal

Ok, so I guess I can't say normal. But back to my normal. Nothing is normal when you can come home after a day away from your house and find you now have 4 baby cows roaming in your backyard. Yes, quite a surprise (well our landlord told us this would happen on occasion, but that was as specific as they got on this topic)! Even more surprising these were free to roam around, unlike the last cow that was chained to a specific area. I think the difference is the bigger cow could figure out how to escape and these babies are too small. Ah, not but small enough to charge my dog yesterday who decided she would try to herd them. Pics to come of some of these little cuties.

My creative problem solving class was so awesome. I loved that we did different kinds of activities, watched movies, did puzzles, built things, designed things, and practiced our team work skills. I am looking forward to share some of this information with you over the next few days. I will say that working all day, school all night and weekend, and keeping up with Kaplan all at the same time was a little much, but do-able. Heck, back in Vegas that was how I always did it. Amazing what some time off from a full time job can do to you. Although in reality the best solution would have been 1 full time, no part time job, not no full time and 1 part time job. But the circumstances here are much different than the States.

I have just a quick post today to get back into the swing of things. Here are some pictures I just had to take while I was eating lunch last week during my stint as a sub.

Saturday was my day to supply breakfast (along with 2 other students). I tried to find large yogurt containers, but no such luck, so I bought these from the local grocers.
I was shocked to find there was minimal granola selection at the commissary and that of all things it was Cascadian Farm as my only choice.
The others brought the fruit, so I had some nice strawberries to add to mine.
Saturday night I told Ryan he had to keep his schedule clean and we were going to dinner. I had class all night Friday and all day Saturday, so I wanted to actually spend some time with him. We decided to go to the blue hotel (seriously known as this!) AKA Hotel Caracol. This in the Angra area. There are 2 main (4 star) hotels on the island and this is one. The other is the pink hotel (AKA Hotel Terceira). We once stopped here to use the bathroom on a day drive around the island. We notcied there was a restuarant, btu since it is not near us (oh my, it was a whole 13.5 miles away!) we did not have a chance yet to come here.
Need I say more...
I love that we both were served a plate with olives and cheese. I am not too into the butter. I have never really liked butter, but I will say the butter made here on the island is amazing and makes me think what they make in the States is not butter at all.

Decided on a great white wine, local to the Azores, but from the island of Pico.

Ryan had the special of the day which was salmon with onions.

I had this unique salmon dish. The top salmon is baked, the bottom piece is tempura style.

This was one of the main reasons why I selected this meal I wanted to try this lime risotto. It was really good.

Dessert was Azorean pineapple for Ryan (which I had some of).

Brownie sundae for me (which Ryan had some of).

Need I say more (meia da leite for those of you that are new or have forgotten the Portugese name for the latte).

This place had little sweet-n-lows or something along those lines (artificial sweetner).

Last, but not least, after my last day of class Sunday, I came home and enjoyed this for dinner.

A nice bowl of Boca chili, with some shredded cheese added on top.

QUESTION: What is your favorite way to eat pineapple (they key is to think creatively, or it may just be plain-by itself)?

GIVEAWAY ALERT:

Shannon from Tropical Eats is giving away great prizes if you help her out with a project she is working on. She is collecting recipes for people and pets to help in donation collections for a local animal shelter. If you are interested in more details and to enter, click here.