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In Los Angeles, PAPS has already celebrated an early Christmas Eve with members, friends and relatives. A total of 20 people (14 portuguese) met for an italian dinner at Buca di Beppo in Santa Monica. With Christmas’ season coming up we couldn’t resist to host a white elephant gift exchange. Thanks everyone for your participation and creativity!
This event was a great opportunity to get to know new portuguese who recently arrived in LA and also to catch up with the other members and respective families and friends.
PAPS-LA wishes you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
From left to right:
1st top row - Giles Liu, Ricardo Moura, Antonio Ingargiola, Tony Lima, Raquel Abreu, Mário Oliveira, Sérgio Duarte, Hélder Guimarães, Filipe Tralhão; 2nd top row - Elda Judica, Nadia Sellami, Sandra Menino, Bea Mendonça, Célia Matos, Natasha Tavares, Filipe Camelo; Bottom row - Nuccio Patti, Mariana Fontes, Martina DeSalvo
We Run LA was inaugurated on September 19th by 3 PAPS members. The purpose of this initiative was to allow the members to explore new areas of the city as well as meet other Portuguese and non-Portuguese Los Angelinos, this way promoting their integration in the American culture and more specifically in the Los Angeles Community.
For almost 3 months, 10 different routes throughout West LA were chosen to accomplish the 90 minutes goal stipulated for each run. A total of 228 miles were achieved by 7 runners, who participated at least in one of the events. The last event took place on November 27th for a deserved Christmas’ break. We will be back in January with a different activity. The purpose is the same, but this time we will “Roll the Wheels”. Stay tuned for the We Bike LA.
On November 18th four PAPS-LA members met to discuss the goals and future work strategies of the LA chapter as well as the 2013 PAPS forum in Boston.
We started by wandering around the park and having an outdoors lunch at the Exposition Park Garden Rose. In the afternoon, the two main rival universities of Los angeles - UCLA (University of California Los Angeles) and USC (University of Southern California) got closer together.
One of the members (Hélder Filipe) took the 3 UCLA Neuroscience grad students for a guided tour through the USC campus that culminated in a visit to the new (and amazing!) Brain and Creativity Institute Building (http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/bci/), officially opened on November 6th this year.
From left to right: Hélder Filipe, Raquel Abreu, Mariana Fontes and André Martins.
On October 23rd, PAPS-LA went for the first time this year to visit the Portuguese Community in Artesia.
The Artesia D.E.S. organized a reception to the Secretário de Estado das Comunidades Portuguesas José Cesário, during his tour throughout the USA to officially present a new consular technology. This novel device (consulado itinerante) enables every Portuguese living in California to get their passport and Portuguese ID in a much faster way and without having to go to the Portuguese Consulate in San Francisco. For more information about this service please go to http://www.noscafora.be/v3/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=...
The visit to Artesia allowed PAPS-LA to discuss integration and recruitment strategies with the Portuguese honorary consul Edmundo de Macedo, the Secretário de Estado das Comunidades Portuguesas José Cesário, the Portuguese consul-general in San Francisco Nuno Mathias, and several members of the Artesia D.E.S and Luso-American Organizations.
Most of all, this event promoted the divulgation of PAPS' mission and allowed a closer relationship between the Portuguese Communities in Los Angeles and Artesia.
Get involved - read more about Portuguese Communities in Southern California:
http://www.luso-american.org/about/
http://www.artesiades.org/home/
http://www.radiotvartesia.com
From left to right: Portuguese consul-general in San Francisco Nuno Mathias, Raquel Abreu, Mariana Fontes, Secretário de Estado das Comunidades Portuguesas José Cesário, Portuguese honorary consul Edmundo de Macedo.
The PAPS-LA chapter is organizing weekly running circuits throughout LA.
This is not about distance or speed. It's about time - you go out at ANY speed YOU want for 45 minutes, then you turn around and come back. This way everyone usually finishes at about the same time no matter what pace. So, no need to worry about how "fast" or "slow" you are (or think you are).
Stretch and warm up start at 7pm every Wednesday. Please bring a watch so you can turn back at the designated time and lights for low visibility areas. Afterwards, we will meet up for a deserved drink.
We visit a DIFFERENT TRAIL EVERY WEEK, as well as a DIFFERENT PLACE TO CHILL OUT AFTERWARDS!
Everyone, either member or not, is invited to come!!