UPDATE!! YES I AM ALIVE!!

What has been going on:

Since I have been lacking in updates, (that's what I'm know for though, right?) I thought I'd give a little rundown of some of the things that are going on.

So for work, I am still doing a variety of different smaller projects. I am finaaaally done with my door numbers project!!! I am sure you're wondering what the hell that here, so here goes.
Explaination: the embassy, which is HUGE, has around 193756253 doors. Anyway, each door needs its own number, for security reasons, and I was the lucky girl that got to make sure every door had one. So from inventing a new scheme to number theme, to wandering aimlessly looking for hidden doors, to finally making a list and putting in an order, it is DONE. (it took me so long to complete because it is probably the stupidest thing I have ever had to do. Sigh, real itnern work.) BUT I must say that I am proud because I was not the first, or second, but the THIRD intern this stupid project was passed to. and I finished it, GO ME.
Otherwise, I have been doing some projects with the GSO (Ground Services Office), which ranges from running around town looking for printer toners, to going to the airport to pick up classified packages, to writing requests and making sure everyone is happy. I still have been hanging out with the Pol/Econ crowd as well, and have thankfully gotten to do some projects and attend meetings that deal with the things I am actually interested in.

The three musketeer interns are now down to two, as Dalmira has gone back stateide already. Meanwhile at the house, we have been having issues with our front door. Once, when we arrived home from London, both Jessica's and my sets of keys would not open the door. We tried for 20 minutes, then managed to get someone from the embassy to come over to fix it. Of course, after waiting an hour, the guy shows up with a spare set that opens the door magically. He looked at us like we were complete idiots, but I swear it wasn't opening. After he opened it, our keys decided to magically start working again, too.
But it gets better. One day last week I managed to be locked INSIDE my apartment. Yes, inside. As in my stupid set of keys would not unlock the door that was locked from the outside. I was stuck for an hour or so again, late for work, and the same guys came to fix it. This time at least they also had problems opening the door (Ha! So it's NOT my fault!) and ended up taking apart the lock and getting me new keys. So far, everything has been working normally... til monday when I came home to find two random people in my apartment, apparently STILL messing with the lock. I say just get rid of the piece of crap. Problem solved :)

The past two weekends I have had visitors, First Samu and Chio, my friends from Barcelona, were here and we had a great time. I then had my friend Tejas here on his way back from India, and I think I have pretty much perfected/wornout my tour guide skills. Luckily for all of them, the weather has been wonderful. A bit chilly today, but sun sun sun. Hope it stays this nice for the rents!!

Sorry so brief. Everything else around here is going normally.. everyone at the embassy is getting into the Holiday spirit and we have a few embassy Christmas parties within the next few weeks. Tonight we are helping out at an embassy event, welcoming the media contacts and playing hostess.

xx love everyone and will try to update again (hopefully a few times) before the year is over!

Thanksgiving in London

London Pictures are posted! Check out the link of the left or click here!

Here is a very abridged recape:
Since Thursday was Thanksgiving, my roomie Jess and I made it into a long weekend by taking off Friday and going to England! (Also was able to renew our visa, so that was good.) So London was amazing- a bit cold, but we got lucky with great clear skies and even some sun! We stayed in a really nice hostel a bit outside of central London in more residential Swiss Cottage, where we slept with 17 other travelers in bunks. We enjoyed our Thanksgiving by going to a pub and hanging out with locals, eating nachos and drinking pints. We saw the palaces, the gardens, the cathedrals and the castles. We took a ride in the London Eye - the ginormous Ferris wheel that gives you breathtaking views of the entire city. We met up with Joana my Portuguese friend who was in England visiting her boyfriend Steve, and strolled around the city, checked out one of the street markets on Portabello Street in Notting Hill, and also walked through famous Harrod's department store in awe.
My favorite part about London was the face-paced, on the go, something always going on feel. Although everything is INCREDIBLY expensive (as in a pint of beer was 6.50 USD and a subway pass was like 10!!) it was well worth it. Really if the exchange weren't so horrible it wouldn't have been so bad. Going really made me realize the laid back pace of Lisbon, especially in comparison. But again, coming back felt like coming home. Have some funny stories about coming home and lokcing ourselves out of the apt that I will update about soon and I will put up some pics on here shortly :)

What's going on?

So I haven't had a good internet connection at home in forever, and have been busy with things and not blogging. Excuses, excuses yes. So here is a min-recap of the past couple weeks.

So Italy was fantastic. I went to Milan to visit my friend Federico that I met in Buenos Aires. He and his family live in a small town about an hour and a half outside of the city up in the mountains. Simply beautifulll. For the weekend, the town had a big big party to celebrate St. Martin's day, who apparently is the patron of chestnuts and wine. The whole town, all 9000 people or so, were out in the main plaza, partying, drinking wine, eating chestnuts and other delicious cheeses, hams, etc, and having a great time. It was probably around 25-30 degrees that night, but luckily I survived with the help of Fedo's sister's ski jacket.
On Sunday we headed to Bergamo, between Fedo's town and Milan, and walked around. Bergamo probably has about 300,000 people (I totally made that up), but the main plaza and the little streets with towns of designer shops and restaurants felt very Italian to me.

That evening we went into Milan and spent the night at the apartment of some of Fedo's friends. They took me to have real Italian pizza, was was amazing with fresh mozzarella, cherry tomatoes and Basil. On Monday morning, we headed to Fedo's university so he could turn in his thesis, then did a little sightseeing before heading to the airport to catch my plane home. Some highlights include seeing the Duomo, which truly is magnificent, and strolling down Milan's equivalent of Rodeo Drive, seeing Prada, Gucci and everyone else and their 14,000 EURO purses (no joke, I nearly fell over after seeing that price tag for a seemingly normal leather bag. It made the beautiful long coat next to it- with a price of a mere 800 euros, seem like suck a steal!!!) So unsurprisingly, Italians in general dressed really well and had great style, making me feel like a big bum in my puma sneakers and corduroy jacket. like when we went out of pizza, people were showing up in these designer outfits left and right- and the men as well as the women! Even all the kids at Fedo's university were dressed like they were about to hit the run way instead of to wake up at 8 am and go turn in a paper. Makes me wonder what they wear out clubbing!

So I really had quite a lovely weekend, and hope that you will check out the pics by clicking the link on the left!

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This past weekend we spent in Lisbon, and my roommate Jessica and I walked around and enjoyed the last warm days of the season, because today, to my dismay and sorrow, we awoke to a horrible drizzly gray day. Looks like our St. Martin's summer is finally over. (One of the Portuguese employees at the embassy was telling me that when the weather continues to be warm and beautiful until November (aka St martin's day Nov 11), its called the St Martin's summer). Anyway, we saw Lisbon's botanical gardens, which are pretty, cool, had a barbecue with the Marines that guard the embassy, did some shopping, and slept in!

This week is short but looking to be pretty packed- since it's Thanksgiving, we have Thursday off and are taking Friday off as well and taking off for a new adventure: LONDON! Should be thoroughly exciting,and a very different Thanksgiving for sure. Hopefully we will have regained internet at the apartment by the time I am back so I can post and blog about it. :)

Things are going by so quickly, it's crazy! And before we know it, you all (aka the fam) will be here :) Can't wait!

A Belated Weekend Update!!

This post will give a little insight into my Portugual Roadtrip from a few weekends ago.
So over the past weekend (okay two weekends ago!!) we rented a car and saw pretty much all of Portugal. I will begin by the trip we took on Thursday, Nov 1.

It was a Portuguese holiday- Dia dos todos Santos- so we decided to take a trip down south the the Algarve region. Before coming to Portugal I had been told that the Algarve was infested by English and other European tourists for its nice warm climate, beautiful beaches, and tourist accomodation. But once getting there, I could tell why. It was simply beautiful!!

Silves, Portugal

We went to various towns along the coast, first to Silves where we saw one of the most imortant Moorish Castles, and Monchique, then further south to Lagos, Portimão, and then ate dinner in Faro, the capital and third biggest city in Portugal. The water is crystal clear, surrounded by amazing cliffs and bluffs and perfect beaches. I felt like I was almost in California ;). There are lots of tourist things to do involving the beach, and during the winter also there are many golf courses, and various shops and restaurants.

Algarve, Portugal

In Faro we ate cataplana, the typical Portuguese dish from the region which contains various shelfish, vegetables and pork. Simplyyy deliciousss! We stumbled upon this random restuarant and were quite happy after a dinner of cataplana and also this baked octupus dish- baked in olive oil and tons of garlic and parsley. We drove back late thursday night to work on Friday..

Then over the weekend we took off bright and early Saturday morning and went up North. After about an hour we got off the main highway and ventured off into the little town of Batalha, where we saw this huuuuge amazing monastery from the 13th century in which famous globalizer Henry the Navigator, and his family, are buried.

Batalha, Portugal
Coimbra, Portugal

From Batalha, we continued north on a two lane highway through the countryside to the city of Coimbra. Coimbra is known for its University, which is one of the oldest still running in Europe (third oldest I believe). After a lunch of fish, potatoes, sardines for Jessica, and more Octupus (with rice this time) for Dalmira, we hopped in the car again and went to Porto.

Arriving around 4ish, we first went to across the Rio Douro to Vila Noca de Gaia, which is its own town but houses all of Porto's famous port wine houses. Along the river they are al lined up, with people milling about in front, tons of restaurants, bars and etc. We took a tour of the Cálem wine house, where for 2 euro we got to walk around in the winery and see the huge barrels, learn some about the different ports, and of course do a tasting of a white and a tawny port. From VN de Gaia, we crossed over the Dom Luis iron bridge to the Ribeira district of Porto- along the water on the other side, it also has many tourist attracts, bars, shops, and a riverfront promenade. I really liked Porto- it had such a great atmosphere, and we spent the evening along a long pedestrial street, did some shopping, ate a little dinner, and then hopped in the car again.

Porto, Portugal

From Porto, we went about another hour or two north, crossed the border into Spain, and found our little hotel in a little village across the Vigo river from Vigo, Spain. On Sunday, one of my roommates Dalmira drove the remaining hour up to Santiago de Compostela, the site of the famous pilgramage to see St. James. (Didn't join her since I had already been to the town and the cathedral when I was in Spain a few years ago). So Jessica and I took a ferry across the river to explore Vigo, which was basically shut down. But fortunately the weather was wonderfully warm and we strolled around, drank coffee at various cafes, and had a nice tapas lunch before hoppin hte the car and coming back home.

Vigo, Spain

So... this post was long awaited I'm sure -and probably not worth the wait - but I had a great time with my roommates. Portugal really is a beautiful country and it was great to rent a car and explore. I can't wait for the family to come so we can do it again! :) And make sure you check out all of the pictures HERE

ROADTRIP! New Pictures

Haven't had much time to update or write anything worth posting, but have finally uploaded some pics. check the link on the right in Albums to see our Portugal Roadtrip! :D


View Larger Map


Will explain where we went soon, promise! But check out the interactive map to get a general idea of the country :) The route selected is not the one we took but shows how much of the country we covered. We stopped off in various towns in between and had a lovely trip :)

Restaurantes e Comida

I thought instead of giving a weekend update (which is already a bit late, I know) I would write about some of the food I have been eating and some really great restaurants I have found.

First off, for my birthday last week, we went to this traditional Brazilian place called Comida de Santo, (Saint's Food) that is pretty close to our house on the edge of Bairro Alto. From outside this place wouldn't call my attention- a little whole-in-the-wall type, it appeared to be like the hundreds of other tiny little restaurants in Bairro Alto. We went early for Portuguese time, around 8pm, and were the only ones in the whole place (the whole place being no more than 1o tables or something).

The food on the other hand was AMAAAZING. The four of us each ordered a different dish and then shared. We had a shrimp dish cooked in palm oil and coconut milk, a traditional Brazilian feijoada, which is black beans and different kninds of meat (chorizo, pork, beef), a chicken dish cooked with coconut milk, mushrooms, tomatoes, and palm hearts, and dish called carne do sol, which is cured salted beef with onions, fired palm hearts, and beans. Along wiht some perfect capirinhas, we had ourselves a delicious little time :)

(the picture is from their website, showing the delish feijoada and a capirinha)

This weekend we also tried this Thai food place we had walked passed various times in Bairro Alto called Naga. I was really impressed by this place. Again we showed up early by Portuguese standards and had the place pretty much to ourselves. Like the website, the interior of the place is really nice, cool east asian decorations, very trendy, tasteful and chic. We ordered an appetizer sampler and also the typical Pad Thai and a chicken in red curry dish. The curry nearly killed me. I would say I have a high tolerance for spicy, but Thai spicy is so different from the suually green chile spice I knwo and love! Apaprently the red curry was only the second hottest, too! lol So after I tried not to die eating it and burned off all of my taste buds it was really good. :) I washed it down with a thai tea, which is tea with condensed milk on ice.. so more like a wonderful slushy! It was a little pricey, but for all the food and atmosphere I'd definitely go back.

I also had a NOT plesant dining experience this weekend. :( We went to this place on our street called Casa México, thinking we could get some margaritas and enchiladas. While I had mexican food here the other wekeend and was pleasantly surprised by how good it actually was, this place not only was not spicy/flavorful/mexican, but they also couldn't make a margarita to save their lives. Unfortunate really, especially since it was pretty pricey. But hey, two out of theree isn't that bad!

ON sunday we went to Belém to do more sightseeing and pass the day in the glorious fall weather and also had a greaaaat lunch. Dalmira found this little whole-in-the-wall place right across from the Palace that served a great (and cheap) Portuguese feijoada, or one made with white beans, cuttlefish, onions, and other seasonings. YUM YUM YUM

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Well besides eating, while that obviously takes up most of my time and energy, this weekend I also saw a very strange movie, and did some more Lisboa sightseeing and shopping with my roomates. I will post pics soon of what has been going on- just been a bit lazy with taking the camera places. :)

New Activities

Along with the whole roommate bonding thing, we decided to finally be brave and signed up for a capoeira class that meets 3m a week for a month. I was really scared to try it, especially after my roommate Dalmira was telling me that everyone int he class looked really advanced.. But we tried it out. and.....

I liked it!!!! haha.

So I am sure many of you are asking, what the hell is capoeira? Capoeira is a Brasilian martial art.. but I would describe it more as a dance or a game. In Portuguese, you say you play capoeira, because it is really an interaction between two people doing different moves, kicks, cartwheels and acrobatics that resemble a fight. While they play, the rest of the group surrounds the two, and sings and plays music. There really is a whole capoeira culture, and only by going to one lesson you could tell everyone in the group was welcoming, friendly, and like family to one another. Although I was scared shitless, I even took a mini turn in the roda (the circle) and pretended to do two things before running out. I also surprised myself by finding out I could still do a cartwheel!! Amazing since the last time I did one I must have been no more than 12 years old.

So the class was great. We started off by running a few laps, then doing about 19 gazillion jumping jacks, then practicing the kicks and sweeps. Then we broke off into two groups, the beginners and the advanced, and we tried some other moves I was not good at at all haha. I didn't learn any of the names of the moves either, (I would have been too tired and sucking for air to remember them anyway) but it was seriously an amazing workout. Today crawling out of bed was one of the hardest things, haha. Climbing the stairs today has also been quite painful, and it's only going to get worse tomorrow! So even after I made a big fuss about it, I am really glad I went. :) And I know people like Kelly who has been telling me to do it since forever are sitting there like, Ha! told you so!! So thanks, I am looking forward to learning more now!

And to finish with some crazy brasilians showing off some crazy capoeira moves ;)

Weekend 6

This past weekend we went to a Portuguese food festival in a town about two hours northeast of Lisbon called Santarém. The town was quite and quaint. We walked around for a few hours before heading to the Main attraction: The Festival Nacional de Gastronomia em Santerém! The festival featured foods and crafts from various regions of the country, from the Northern Braga to the Southern Algarve. After paying a small entrance fee you could go from restaurant to restaurant and either sit down and have a big hearty meal or stand at the bar to sample some snacks, then moving on to the next. We really enjoyed the food from the Algarve, which was fresh fish, shrimp, lots of olive oil, cilantro, and veggies. They also had this amaazing hearty homemade bread. After stuffing ourselves at various places we went over to the dessert side and gawked at stall after stall of delicious treats. OF the delectable goodies I really liked this little dessert shot of this ginjinha (cherry) liqueur in a little chocolate cup. The festival also had handicrafts from various regions, ranging from baskets and leathers to pottery, tiles, and wine.

Sunday we decided to take another voyage outside of Lisbon, but only across the River Tagus to Alcochete to check out a recommended outlet mall. We crossed the famous Ponte Vasco de Gama, a huuuuge bridge that crosses the river from Lisbon to the southern banks. In fact, it is THE longest bridge in Europe, nearly 11 miles long! As exciting as crossing the bridge was, we shopped out hearts out at the outlets. I got some tall black boots from Aldo which I loveeee. We also ate dinner there, deciding to try out a Mexican food place. I didn't have high hopes for good Mexican here, but I was really REALLY surprised that my green chile chicken enchiladas were spicy!! Not nearly as cheesy as I like them but the chile was delicious!

So it was a good weekend, really fun. Its great having a third roommate in the house, and we seem to be getting along quite well and enjoy getting to know one another! On Saturday night the new roomie and I went out for some drinks in our neighborhood and discovered some neat little places super close to our house. We also have started a Capoeira class together, which I will talk about next post! :)

Israeli Movie Premiere

Last night Dalmira got us tickets (again, yaaay for embassy tickets!!) to the premiere of this controversial Israeli movie called "The Secrets". This week is Israeli Film week in Lisbon, and the event had a reception with drinks and delicious food, before the screening. The director, Avi Nesher and the lead actress were both at the showing, so it was a pretty cool event. It was held at this pretty new movie theatre in Lisbon called Cinema City in one of the shopping centers, Campo Pequeno.
The little reception before hand has held at this super trendy bar with all kinds of delicious food. So I will begin by describing that because we all know how much I love to eat. Ha. Well they had lots of cute little appetizers/finger foods. Sushi was a definite hit, these delisshhh little mini pitas, cheese, olive and pepper skewers, little fried fish balls (a Portuguese favorite.. I accidentally ate it thinking it was a desert hahah), and of course an array of desserts including little raspberry mouses, brownies, and the likes. Along with free booze, I was a very happy girl. :D

Ha so the movie- I really liked it. It was about this girl from a very very religious ultra-orthodox family who is trying to get through the pain of her mother's death, and goes to study at a seminary for girls. The director really pitted a lot of opposites against one another- traditionalism vs. modernism, obedience and rebellion, the role of women in Israeli and religious society, love, and a woman's journey to find herself and her place in a very traditonal world. And there was plenty of humor, nudity and the likes to keep everyone entertained. I am having trouble desiring it without giving too much away (because you should all find it and see it!).. so if you want a better plot read about it here

Weekend 5- SINTRA!

For Weekend 5, I headed up to Sintra with my roommate Dalmira. Sintra is a historic town about 30km west of Lisboa and was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.. which basically means that a bunch of tourists now trek out to see all the really old, beautiful things that give a look into the Portuguese past.

So Saturday morning we awoke bright and early (shocking I know!!) and took the train out to Sintra. About 40 minutes away, the train went through parts of Lisboa I hadn't seen yet. It's weird( but good weird of course.. maybe better to say interesting, neat, etc..okay moving on) to see different parts of the city and suburbs because since we always take the metro everywhere. Anyway, we managed to make to there around 1030AM (amaazing!!) haha and walked over into town. Above the little town there is this huuuge hill with a castle perched on top- the Castelo dos Mouros (Moorish Castle) which was constructed sometime in the 9th or 10th century. So with the beautiful castle as our motivation, we decided to be brave and hike up this hill- about 4 or 5kmbut super steeeep! So we are workin it up this winding, switchbacky road at like a 60 degree angle.. huffing and puffing and trying to avoid cars. But after about an hour (Maybe?) we finally MADE IT!!

First we went to the Palacio da Pena, which was simply breathtaking. I took about 9 gazillion pics from every possible angle (check them ALL out here). The National Palace was built in the 19th century on the ruins of an old convent, most of which was destroyed during the infamous 1755 earthquake- except for the chapel. The outsides are colorful, covered in tiles, and have some awesome architectural lines. What I really liked was the mixture of different styles- romanticism, gothic, islamic influences... a very interesting combination but somehow it all seemed to fit. Inside the palace, where we weren't allowed to take pictures, there were tons of little rooms adorned with amazing furniture, rugs, detailed paintings and scultpures from different periods. Although we had to mill around with a buttload of other tourists, it was definitely impressive. [And since we made it there pretty early, we actually beat most of the Saturday crowd, suckers!]

So after exploring the Palacio da Pena for awhile, we hiked a bit down the hill to the Castelo dos Mouros, which in fact was the castle we saw from down below. Although it was rebuilt in the 19th century after the Christians kicked out all the Arabs, people started to move down the hill and the castle lost most of its military importance. However, the remains are like this huuuge fortress and from them you get the most amazing view. You can climb up the tiny steps to the tallest tower and have this amazing 360 panoramic view, especially of the Palacio da Pena up on its own little hill. Amazing.

The trek down wasn't nearly as bad, although we did get a bit lost... But we managed to find out way and reward ourselves with lunch. We also walked through the little town some, which had an abundance of the cute little cobblestone streets and places perfect for taking fotos. Definitely a LOVELY LOVELY place I would go back to in a heartbeat. In fact, I hope to get back there at some point while I am here because we didn't try the typical pasteries from Sintra!! A big thing is portugal is that every region has its own special pastry, so we will definitely have to go back to sample I think. :)

Embassy Life- Consular Office

After returning from Barcelona, I got to spend a day in a different section of the Embassy- the Consular, where they handle visas and the likes. While Portuguese people don't need a visa to come to the US for periods less than 90 days, the people that do come are usually students, foreigners born residents, and all sorts of other weirdos in between. I got to see how they make emergency passports for people who have theirs lost/stolen, see the paperwork and computer processes for handling visa applications, and, my favorite part, sit in on visa interviews with the Consular Officer.

Basically after reviewing their paperwork and making sure everything is set, the people get an interview with an officer and she asks them questions to determine if they can get a visa or not. It is a very strategic process, as the questions, and language for that matter, to each applicant change depending on different things. We interviewed (ha we, like i did anything) some really great people -like this super cute architecture student!! sigh- then there were some really sketchy people. All in all, this would be an interesting job because you get to talk to people all day and meet some really interesting folks, right? But man, when you have to say no to someone, it would be so HARD!! Especially dealing with the people who throw a fit about not being let in, etc.

Weekend 4 Barcelona Trip

Well this past weekend I headed over to see Barcelona and visit friends from Argentina, my Peruvian roommate Rocío (Chio) and her boyfriend Samú. It was a long weekend due to a Portuguese holiday on Friday (something to do with the Portuguese Constitution or proclaiming the republic, I couldn't tell you for sure) and then Monday was an American holiday, so we had an amazing four day weekend. [Major perk of the embassy- celebrating two country's holidays!] So anyway, I flew out there on Friday evening and spent three days exploring the city. My friends live about 40 minutes outside of Barcelona in a nice little town called Terrassa. The weather was beautiful; I got to see all the sights, walked and walked and walked, and even enjoyed some fam time!

So some highlights:

I bravely ate caracoles, or SNAILS, for the first time. I'm sure you're thinking "SICK! GROSS! WHY!!?!?" But apparently a lot of people eat them and actually enjoy them- I know that in Portugal they are very popular, but I didn't plan on actually trying them anytime soon. So when we went and had some tapas for lunch, one of the main attractions, along with mussels, some weird tubelike seacreature thing, we also had snails in this pot of sauce. So the verdict??

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Surprisingly, they were deliiicious!! and probably my favorite thing we had ordered that day. Hahaha, who would have thought. I think the best part was the sauce they came in though.

As I'm sure you know, Barcelona is big on modernisme architect Antoni Gaudí, and I got to see most of his amazing works throughout the city. We explored Parc Güell, a huge park where his house is located, and has all kinds of other of his pieces, from mosaic sculptures and winding roads to special terrace walls and buildings. It was quite a hike up to the Park, its upon this big hill that overlooks the entire city. After exploring we went to this lookout at the very top and watched the city light up and come to life as it grew dark. We also went to see the Sagrada Família, which is simply amazing. As you walk throughout the huuuuge basilica, all I could wonder was seriously what kind of drugs this guy was on. He had an imagination like no one else. Every single detail had been planned, tested, redesigned, attended to. You could see the various stages of the work being done to the cathedral, which isn't projected to be complete for another 50 years or so! Incredible. Workers were busy constructing away as hundreds of tourists milled around taking pictures with our necks permanently crooked toward the ceiling.

I went to a family asado (bbq) with Samu's family. There ended up being at least 20 people, with the families of the novios of Samu's brother and sister, ranging from about 5 to 91. Samu's Dad is from Argentina and grilled up some AMAZINGGGG chorizo, ribs, chicken, morcilla, and more chorizo with lots of bread, salad, veggies, coffee and fruit for dessert. I was in heaven. We ate and ate, played card games, chatted, ate some more, and had a lovely afternoon out in the countryside.

On Monday Chio had to go to class all day, and Samu had a class in the morning, so I went with him and checked my email, etc at his University. We then headed into town to do more sightseeing, checking out all the shit for Barce's 1992 Olympic games.

I also got to tour the Palau de la Música Catalana, of which unfortunately you can't take pictures. BUT.. it was really really beautiful building, with intricate design, great acoustics, and a great history. Also in the modernisme Catalan style of architecture built NOT by Guadí but by some guy names Montaner. Inside is simply amazing, there is this huge stained glass ceiling with this waterdroplet shapped sun thing coming down.

So I sadly had to leave bight and early.. or more rather early and DARK, on Tuesday morning. I had to be at the airport at 515 Barcelona time to make my flight and make it to work in Lisbon by 8am. Puke. Luckily I made it, and didn't have my luggage lost or anything. Super weekend!

Some pics I like:
[AND Check out the rest of the pics with the Barcelona link there on the right.!!!! ]

arc de triomf

a teeny tiny street

the outside of the church that people reserve 10 years in advance for their weddings. no joke!

a view of Barcelona

the backside of the Sagrada Família

Embassy Drivers

Apparently I have the worst luck with the embassy drivers. That or they hate me...

Today I was supposed to tag along with the head political officer to a meeting he had at the Portuguese Foreign Ministry. He had a lunch meeting, but the embassy driver was supposed to pick me up from here first, then pick up the boss at his lunch, and then together we would go to the meeting. It was exciting to get out of the office, and I was going to have a fun project to do afterwards with writing up a cable describing the meeting.

So I went down to where I was supposed to meet my driver, 5 minutes early even because I was tired of pretending to be doing work, and waited awhile. I had the same feeling of dread from my first day- and yup, I had been forgotten! I call upstairs to the woman who had arranged everything and give her the scoop. We somehow managed to get another driver to get me there hopefully in time for the 3 o clock meeting.. but no.

I hurriedly stroll in at 3:02 and realize I don't even know who the hell I am supposed to be meeting with. I mumbled some garbage in my glorious broken Portuguese that I was supposed to be here with Matt, but they were like uhh he's not here? Woo? hahaha The guards seriously looked at me like I was an absolutely nut who had probably killed some smart person for their embassy badge. I dejectedly call the embassy and am informed that I should just wait til the meeting is over, or take a cab. Smart me I didn't bring my wallet so I was stuck. I did manage to find the other embassy driver who had taken my boss (unfortunately my driver had already taken off) and made sure that he didn't leave without me. I sat around uncomfortably in the waiting area for the meeting to be over. Thank god it only lasted a half hour.. plenty of time to doodle and make some to-do lists without getting compleeetely bored and getting too many weird looks.

Lesson learned: I now and forever will not trust [embassy] people when they say they will have a driver waiting for me. And I'll always remember to bring money for a cab.

Weekend 3

Here is my weekend recap for my third weekend in Lisbon:

On Friday night someone at work at tickets to see a Orquestra Gulbenkian na Abertura do Ano Académico da Universidade de Lisboa, or the Gulbenkian Orchestra playing for the opening night of the academic year at the University of Libson. Apparently he didn't want to go, so he passed the tickets on to us interns. We show up and are escorted to these cushy seats in the third row- gotta love the Embassy perks! Baha. So the last time I saw a classic concert was in Buenos Aires and I passed out among the sea of gray heads and it was glorious. This tyime the music was actually very good. I felt like I was in the middle of a Disney Movie, watching the hippos dance around, then seeing the seasons change, wathcing the evil guy chase the hero, etc. Anyway, it was good and cultural.

On Saturday it was a dreary gross day, thus canceling our great plans to take a daytrip to Sintra, so we decided to continual being cultural and hit up some museums. We walked over to the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, (Museum of Ancient Art), which turned out to be a lot cooler than I was thinking. First off it was huge; tons of different things, like some hugmongous ancient oriental carpets, a bunch of religious art (meh), and then this painting, As Tentações de Santo Antão, (temptations of Saint Anthony) by Hieronymus Bosch. In the triptych- seriies of three paintings that is- the details were incredible, representing hell and its demons doing all these crazy things, absolute chaos, tempting St. Ant. Anyway, I liked it because it was so intricate, so many little details to look at, somewhat Where's Waldo-ish, which each little character having its own personality and details.

As soon as we decided we were completely all arted-out of course it started to POUR outside. So we had a couple of bicas and snacks at the cafe. A bica is what the Portuguese call a very strong very small little cup of coffe, really just a shot of espresso that they had sugar to. It's pretty much a Portuguese institution, and you'll see people at all times of the day sitting around drinking their tiny ass little cups of coffee. I have already become addicted pretty much- it's like the perfect little pick-me-up, and have to limit myself one a day..

So we decided to brave the rain, found a cab, and headed over to Chiado, to peruse one of the little shopping malls since it was pouring out. I ended up with a little jacket from Zara (that's two I've bought already, eek) and an umbrella. Of course, as soon as I bought the umbrella, the rain stopped! But now at least I have one.. although I might have to get a heavier one, because on Saturday night I felt like Mary Poppins, nearly about to blow away with my stupid umbrella into the wind.

Saturday night, as I was being Mary Poppins, I went to dinner with Joana, her boyfriend Steve and the new German/nNw Zealander girl who is staying with Joana for awhile, Andrea. We went to this DELICIOUS Indian food restaurant and ate and ate and ate. Afterwards we went to Bairro Alto, where they have rows and rows of little restaurants, bars and lounges. At first not too many people were braving the weather, but once it stopped, the streets were magically filled up with people from all over, drinking, laughing and chatting away. Around 3 we went to this club that Joana and Steve have told me is the best one in Lisbon, called Lux. Although there was a queue about 8 miles long, (not even exaggerating, there had to be at least 100 people waiting to get in!) somewhere we managed to convince the doorman and woman that we were very important, and were let after waiting only about 15 minutes. Ha, SUCKERS. The club was also amazing. It is right on the Rio Tejo in an old warehouse that has three different floors, neat decor, and all sorts of hipsters, and good music. We left around 8 - yes EIGHT AM - although the club was still hopping. Seriously, so fun!

Sunday therefore I was completely worthless, sleeeping away half of the day then lounging around for the rest of it. However it was again dreary and yucko out so no real lure to go out and about. Thus.. a very successful and fun weekend!

Friends and Fado

Last night I went to dinner and a Fado show with my friend Joana, the Portuguese girl. Her boyfriend Steve had flown in from London for the weekend and we went to Bairro Alto to see a Fado.

I'm sure many of you are like, huh? Fado?? well..

Fado is traditional Portuguese music that is very heartfelt, melancholy but melodic, depressing but beautiful. I will try to post a song on here and some pics at some point. I got a CD from one of the singers (or rather Steve bought it and then Joana chatted up the singer and had him sign it for me lol). Joana was explaining to me that Fado is really about the Portuguese word saudade, a word that no other language has, but describes the empty feeling of loss, sadness, missing someone/thing, etc.

Anyway, Fado is pretty neat for various reasons. We were all crammed into this tiny little room packed with people. Then two older guys with a guitar and some other bigger guitar start planning, and this old man starts singing. The songs usually all end with a repeat of the last verse where everyone joins in singing and then goes wild with applause! haha And then if anyone at the place, or hanging in the windows, wants to sing, they pretty much can get up and sing a little Fado and people love it.

We also ate a little sample of prossuto (mehhh spelled something like that, the smoked ham), quiejo (cheese), and chouriço, (sausage) which they cook with these little clay grill bowls. They have this super potent alcohol in the bottom of the bowl that they bring right to your table, and then they light it on fire and cook the chouriço. Apparently it is 'ready' when the flame goes out because the grease from the sausage (mmmm) drips into the alcohol haha and tada. delish chourço!!! reminds me of the good ol' choripan days!!

Anyway, during our munching we, along with all types of crazy hooligans, watched some Portuguese soccer games for the Portugal cup. the two big Lisbon teams- Benfica and Sporting- were each playing someone else and each went into penalty kicks, making for an exciting evening. I still have to pick a team... but I am thinking Sporting! (haha Joni knows whyyyy ;))

So after the dinner and the Fado, we wandered around Bairro Alto, which is a fun neighborhood packed with little odd restaurants, bars, and people. Had quite a fun night out with new friends, probably too fun considering that I got about 3 hours of sleep before having to wake up, shower, and head to the embassy this morning. EEEEK.

Foto Albums

I fixed the link in "Foto Albums' section there on the right side. Now you should be able to see all the pics I have taken and posted on facebook in their entirety!!
But for those lazy clickers don't worry, I will post my faves in the actual blog postings. Aren't you lucky!

Here are some from the beach:

Hospitality Seminar

Today was a long long day in which we got to see the ins and outs of being in the public affairs section of the embassy. The embassy organized this Hospitality Seminar to promote and discuss tourism in Portugal. Apparently they had previously organized a similar seminar treating education that didn't turn out so hot so everyone in the office was running around like crazy trying to ensure that the operations were all in order and underway in a semi-timely manner.

The seminar was held at arguably one of the nicest hotels in Lisbon, the Hotel Palacio Pestana. It is this huge old palace (duh) that had tons of gardens wiuth a spa, pool, etc, 5 star treatment, beautiful and restored old buildings, and is simply magnificent. Apparently it is also host to one of Lisbon's top chefs, who opened various hotspots around town before becoming the head guy at the hotel, and who catered the event. (Right is a picture of the Palace, that I didn't take , but gives you an idea- very beautiful architecture and great restoration.) I was able o explore some durinf the lunch and found that in the old Paalce they even have this beautiful Chapel, not to mention everything else you could want at a 5star hotel.


Anyway, back to the reason we were there. So for this Seminar they had a bunch of hoteliers and people interested in promoting Portugal as a tourism destination. To begin the Ambassador gave a little welcome- which I didn't see since I was busy trying to herd people in fromchain smoking and sipping on their bicas [espressos]. followed by various presentations. First there were three American speakers. The first is of the Hyatt people who explained in depth, much too much, the different Hyatt Brands... an architect who focuses on sustainable development projects, and a professor at London Biz School who is service industry crazy. After these fools, we attended a buffet lunch, then headed back in to listen to the most boring panel of Portuguese mumbo jumbo for two hours. I really couldn't tell you all that was going on- various key actors in the Portuguese tourism community jabbered and jabbered while half of the audience snoozed away. I tried listening and translating for awhile but then become so sleepy I had to occupy myself by people watching to stay awake. I had the lovely job of passing out headsets for people who needed translations of the speeches as well as running artuonf with a microphone during the Q&A sessions after each speaker.

Oh the life of an intern.

I don't see myself applying for any jobs in OPA anytime soon (OPA as in the office of Public Affairs), although it definitely was interesting being one of the behind the scenes people who try to make everything work and keep everyone happly. And luckily, things all seemed to go quite smoothly.

So my Portuguese is off and on.. but I guess for the most part it is improving. Although today a few people who for some odd reason thought I knew what the hell was going on and would ask me things I had no idea how to answer and hardly understood, thus making me feel stupid and stumbling and then sending them to someone else before bursting into tears. (Okay I exaggerate a bit but it was scary). So conquering the Portuguese continues.

Weekend 2

So my internet decided that it wanted to stop working for some unknown reason. I tried everything I could think of, rebooted the computer, ran diagnostics, rebooted the modem, unplugged it for about a day, unplugged everything, including the cable, replugged everything... alas all to no avail. so we randomly found this signal that turns on for about a half hour around this time (hahaha so ghetto!) and we don't have to hang out of the window too much. But I am quite pissed. I tried calling some help number but it was disconnected (of course) and then I realized I have no clue about any of our account information... So I am going to have to bitch to someone tomorrow at work and get this in order!

This weekend has been fun- on Friday we went out dancing with people at work and to celebrate the despidida of this woman Inga, who is headed off to live in a trailer in the middle of Egypt somewhere. (Sounds liek a fun post, eh!?!?) So it was fun but also strange. I am definitely the youngest person, with the Marines being the second youngest so it's quite different from going out with my own friends and such.... We have also done some exploring in different places in Lisboa. Today we decided to venture to the beach and it was BEAUTIFUL. I will post pics soon, but don't want to waste my precious Internet time fussing with them for now.

This upcoming week is starting off busy- the embassy is hosting some hospitality seminar to promote tourism in which all the public affairs office is scrambling around like crazy trying to get things in order. Being interns, we have the pleasure of tagging along and trying to make sure things get done promptly, people have rides, pay and are sitting in the right seats, and basically playing bitch to whoever needs anything (ahh the life of an intern, gotta love it). I also have a Portuguese lesson after all this hospitality fuss.

This weekend we found a quaint little place to eat dinner in Bairro Alto where they had some live Fado singers. Fado is.. interesting. I think I want to attend another show at one of the more flashy touristy places- this week I think I will be doing that with Joni (my Portuguese friend) and her boyfriend who will be visiting from England. We have also been exploring, and walking everyyywheree, which I love and is really a great workout, especially with all these hills here and the cobblestone streets.

In other news... Hmm, I got nothing. I am itching to go shopping for fall clothes and maybe some more work outfits... and there seems to be a Zara around every corner tempting me!!! My roommate and I also spent a good amount of time perusing H&M and were finally kicked out by the security guard (for the store had closed 20 minutes ago apparently) and left empty handed. I'm sure that won't last too much longer though. But I have to realize this isn't vacation! Til now it has felt like a big fun vacation and I have been spending more money than I should... but I suppose c'est la vie.. right??

One thing I have noticed: many of the girls here will have this one long braid/dreadlocks hanging out from the bottom of their hair. .. when I first saw one I was like hmm... cute?? But I continue to see various girls with cute normal hair.. but a ratty tail hanging down the back... also in hair the mullet has officially died for the most part here. When I was in spain you couldn't get away from the euromullet!!!!! But now... *Tear.
UPDATE: **** A note about the dreadlock a.k.a. rasta- apparently you can BUY these things and they are all the rage now in Europe. I might have to check it out!! hahah [This is all according to my Lisboeta friend Joni].

Well, you should all pray that I can get my internet up and running soon at the apartment.. thanks! Hope all is well for everyone... This upcoming weekend we are thinking about taking a daytrip to neighboring Sintra, which I have heard is beautiful. More about that and other thimngs soon! beijinhos

First Week Experiences

There has been so much going on I haven't updated in a few days.

Work has been going really well- I have gotten to do a lot of neat things, including meeting some very important people in the Portuguese Ministry of External Affairs, translated some Portuguese docs into English, attended some meetings with one of the political officers in the embassy, started my Portuguese lessons, gotten a new roommate, and tomorrow I will be meeting with the Ambassador.

It's all very exciting. After the fiasco on the first day with almost being late and showing up a mess, I think I have made up for it somewhat... Everyone is extremely nice (as I have been saying) and have began to give me a real inside perspective into embassy life. I started my portuguese classes today, which are one on one with this guy José who is amazing, and it was great. José told me my Portuguese really isn't thaaaaat bad (haaa understatement!!) but I just need to start talking and practicing. It was great though because I know I will be feeling more confident by the end of my time here. Otherwise, I haven't been speaking too much portuguese all in all, but I do a lot of listening. Baby steps....

Having another intern in the house is also great- especially after the crazy women who kept calling the apartment the other night repeatedly, insisting that I was sleeping with her boyfriend, it's always great to have someone to hang out with and such. She arrived on Wednesday morning, and I got to go get her at the airport, showed her to the apartment, then we walked around some, went to dinner, and have been having a good time.

They have horrible horrible horrible drivers here. Yesterday I saw this bus nut turn sharply enough onto this little street, so he decided to back up, right into this car with a woman who was honking her horn continuously throughout the entire time. While she was honking and cursing out the window she definitely could have backed up some and avoided the whole thing all together, but instead she watched as the bus came bumping into her. You will also see people hanging halfway out of the window yelling at someone for driving like shit while they are just blocking the way and creating more disasters.

I also figured out how to use our euro washing machine; instead of different names for the cycles- you know, delicate, normal, hot, cold, etc- it just has these very odd pictures. These vary from a swirl, a big swirl, a swirl with a showerhead, a hand with a cup, a feather, some weird triangle arrow thing, some blob?? and what not. So I ran it on the swirl shower thinking that would do the trick- it rinsed my clothes but didn't add in the soap. I tried another, which did the same, and then finally just threw in some soap (its like a cabinet style washing machine so I cant just dump in the soap!) and tried some triangle thing and it seemed to work. The dryer luckily had better graphics. So whatever, I am an idiot who can't work a washing machine! haha

There have been lots of other things of course but I am drawing a blank on any other funny things that have happened so I guess I will end this worthless post here and continue when I can actually think of some interesting things to stay. Pelo menos I want you all to know I am good and things are getting better and better.

OH and as I was writing this I heard loud noises from outside the apt, which is typical since we live next to lots of bars and clubs, but it sounded like gunfire or backfire from a car. But when I look out, down the street seriously like 3 blocks they are having a fireworks show over the river! I have no idea why but who doesn't like fireworks?? Ah, lovely evening.

My First Day Semi-Fiasco

Ahh my first day of work at the Embassy. It started off with a classic Alana story.
In my instruction packet, they told me that for my first day (and first day only unfortunately), the embassy was providing me a driver to pick me up at my apartment at 7:30AM, take me to the embassy, and take me home in the evening.
Sweet deal right?
So I was excited/nervous for my first day. I also have been staying up late and sleeping in late this passed week, thus getting up late and thus again causing me to hate my life having to get up at 6:30 to get ready. I tossed and turned last night, trying to sleep, but not being able to do so til it was probably 3:00AM and then only sleeping lightly, probably due to the nerves. I had set my alarm for 6:18, thinking I would snooze for a bit and then get up, shower off from my day walking around and going to the beach! (which I will talk about later/next time) and get all my stuff and be ready for my first big day.Yeah, except when I awoke in a fright and peered at my alarm: 7:26AM.
SHIT SHIT SHIT was my first reaction. I seriously threw myself out of bed and ran to the window to make sure the driver wasn't there yet; I thn ran to the shower, and semi rinsed my body off in freeeeeezing cold water (here at least I was thankful that I hadn't actually gone swimming at the beach so my hair wasn't THAT gross), threw on some clothes, ran to the window again, ran back to the bathroom to put on some concealer, ran to get my shit and then ran downstairs.
It was 7:33AM. And no driver in sight.
So I was worrying some trying to catch my breath... 7:40 passes and nothing. I call my boss and of course no answer. I keep waiting in agony... and still no driver in sight. At 7:50, after calling my boss another 36 times to no avail, I decided to get a cab and hopefully get there at (or at least close to) my strict starting time of 8:00AM.
In the cab I was fuming, about how seems to run right with these embassy people!, rararar!!, when I get a call from my boss.
"Oh I am so sorry I forgot to tell you I couldn't get you a driver!!!!" [This point was written explicitly in my instructions from there, which I had received a week prior.] "I can get you one at 10, is that okay!!!
SIGH. I seriously nearly died... but instead I maintained enough composure to explain that I was already on my way. She then met me at the gate and everything was super. But SHIT. What a hectic morning!!! I especially found it funny that throughout the day I kept finding sand in my hair.. hahahaha. Yes, I really know how to make a great first impression don't I?

Well from there on the rest of my day was great. The people at the embassy are all super nice and incredibly intelligent. I am going to be splitting my time in the Political/Economic section and the Management section. I started out today in the Pol/Econ, under this woman Dana, who I had gone to dinner with this weekend and who is super amazing. She helped me feel right at home and has some neat projects for me to work on
I started out with a tour of the property and had a great day getting acquainted with the embassy property: There is a gym, a tennis court, a cafeteria with relatively cheap and delicious meals prepared by the cooks Fernando and Fernanda (cute!), the NEX grocery store where I bought American groceries at American prices!, and even an old Chapel. The site is impressive, very pretty, and pretty much has everything you could ever need. I was introduced to a gazillion people today and I couldn't tell you more than one or two of their names.. I took a computer course to make sure that I wouldn't leak any secret information!!! and I got my own little office for the time being on the Pol/Econ floor.

I am super tired but resisting napping so I don't repeat the fiasco tomorrow. Tomorrow I also need to leave by 7:15 in order to take the Metro no fancy driver for me, but at least I KNOW this information this time. ;0)

A Few Things

It's a beautiful Saturday afternoon! I woke up not too long ago (so shoot me! I had a late night! which I will talk about in a bit) and thought I would update on what is going on and thing I have noticed.

First off, I wanted to write about the Portuguese. I thought that knowing Spanish and having taken 2 classes at the UofA would have put me and my Portuguese at a pretty decent level, somewhere like intermediate right? I mean, I can read it and write it pretty well but speaking has always been the most difficult part. And I heard Portugal portuguese is very different accent wise, but I never thought it would be this different!
So I have started to figure out the differences.
First off, when you have an 's' in or at the end of a word, you slush it together. Example: Santos (my barrio) is pronounced San-tush. Super. So a lot of the time they will be blabbering away and all I hear is this: SHSHshs vusudhSHS SHshSH. you get the idea.
The tonality is also very similar to Russian (this is what my new Portuguese friend Joni told me). So compared to Brazilian portuguese, the accent is a lot harsher sounding.
Also in Brazilian you would pronounce a word like noite (night) as noiche. Here they say Noit. so it sounds kinda more French?
All of this is making me tired just thinking about it and trying to explain it, haha.

So what else? Well...

In any big city its typical to see beggars on the street. In Buenos Aires, the beggars in the subway would often be trying to sell you things, little books, hair clips, etc, and often were children. One time, we even saw some live performers acting in the middle of the train. Here, so far I have noticed that all of the beggars in the subway are blind. I was riding around the other day and I came across not one but THREE blind beggars, shouting in the subway asking for ajuda por favor! Interesting..

All of the cabs here are an offwhite color and Mercedes Benz. Ballin'! So far I have only taken one once so far, but they are just as crazy as in any other city, yelling out the window and taking the tiny corners at high speeds. Its also nice there is a queue of cabs right down the street from my apt, since I live quite close to a bunch of bars and such. So hopefully I won't have to do much cab searching at night!

Last night I met up with the girl I was going to be renting a room from until the embassy apartment was ready (which turned out unneccesary but she seems really nice). So went to Baixa Chiado, one of the best places to go out at night (and not that far from where I live). There were all sorts of people out and abut, old and young, getting coffees, going to bars, walking around, shopping, etc. We went to a café that is famous for coffees, and had some bicas. Bicas is the word they use for a tiney tiny espresso shot which they usially mix with sugar and drink all the time. From there we went to a nearby bar that overlooked the city and the Rio Tejo. The weather was a bit cool but beautiful. I tried the Portuguese beer, Superboch, and we chatted til going to meet some of Joni's friends at a restaurant nearby. So far all the people I have met are super nice and really want to try to communicate with me. We had a fun evening, chatting and going to a couple of bars near my house. I ended up being a block away around 330 and decided to call it a night before the group headed to another club. There will be plenty of time for that! haha

Today I have been pretty worthless, but I am going to dinner with this woman Dana and her friend, who both work at the embassy. Exciting to finally get to know some embassy people! Again, they seem super friendly and more than happy to take me out with them.

Tomorrow I made plans with Katia's friend Patricia, (who has been so helpful and kind!), to see another part of the country outside Lisbon. She lives in Estoril, where apparently Europe's largest Casino resides. She said if it is nice we can go to the beach (score!) and I will get to know more people and see more things! I am planning on taking the train there, which is about 40 minutes or so, so I'll update on that and include pics soon!

The New Digs

Thought I'd post some pics of my apartment here in Santos Design District of Lisboa. I'm in love with it, although it is a tad lonely without roommates yet!

The Front Outside Door
The Front Door to my Apt!


Here is the HUUUUGE living room. There is a big window and two French doors.



The view from the mini balcony of my street, Avenida Dom Carlos I.


The Kitchen

My Room!!


with a big bed! YAY

and its own banho!

and lotso closet space

Adventures in Lisboa Day 2!

Today I ventured out into the wild that is Lisbon. All alone, and without a net! but with my trusty map.

I first took the subway to the Embassy to pick up an ethernet cord so I can connect to the internet in the apt rather than hanging half way out the window to pick up some shitty signal (although that served its purpose for the time being I suppose). It took me about 45 minutes to get there from walking, then metro, then walking and such. So that commute is going to le SUCK.. but I suppose it's manageable.

I then decided to that following one of the recommended walking tours of the city from one of my silly guidebooks sounded like a superb solo plan. I abbreviated it a little, but had a great time and got to see some of the wonderfulness that is Lisboa.

I first took the metro (from the embassy) to Praça do Restaurdores, one of the main squares. I decided to get some food at this point, because really no good reason to start out a voyage hungry and cranky. It was my first time venturing out to eat alone, something I don't really like doing. But, I had to do the whole 'seize the day' thing so I found a nice outdoor cafe on the side of the praça and got some chow.

Funny story here:
So I tried to order in my broken and Brazilian Portuguese (more on the horrendous accent that I can't understand another time). I got a bottle of water, sem gas (still, regular h20; whenever going abroad you have to remember to mention you don't want sparkling water, unless you do I suppose... but anyway). The waiter seemed to have no problem with this and brought it out, and then I asked for a menu.
Only I forgot the Portuguese word for menu and just blurted out "pode ser a carta??"(My true Argentine comes out!!) At this the waiter kind of gave me a funny look then brought it, and asked me in Spanish if I was really form Spain. I told him no, and he was like (in his portanhol), "OH! Where are you form then!? I didn't think you looked Spanish". So I reluctantly told him I hailed from Estados Unidos. At this he says, in perfect english I might add, "then why don't you just speak English!"
Hahahaah, it was quite funny. We both had a good laugh. Anyway, from this point on, he talked to me in English, so I felt better. He also told me I almost had him fooled with my Spanish, that it was good but I just didn't look the part. Shucks. Anyway, Mauro the waiter became my first friend and recommended me this duck and rice dish with sausage on top... (talk about heart attack) saying it was very typical and delicious.
And it was pretty tasty I must admit. I decided not to take a pic- I figured eating alone and being a fool was bad enough without bringing more attention to myself by snapping pictures of food- and I only managed to eat half of it, ( so I haven't been eating much with all the commotion going on with traveling and getting settled, etc), to which Mauro felt I was insulting him. He seemed to get over it when I told him we could go eat some other time.

So moving on, I walked to the Rossio, the MAIN praça, and down this pedestrian street full of shops to the Praça do Comericial, which I snapped some awesome pics of. It was right on the water, old architecture, great view, cool breeze. From here, I walked up some old cobbled stone roads to the Sé, or the old Cathedral. From there I took some more steep hills up to the Miradouro de San Luiza, which had an amazing view over the Rio Tejo. After some more hills, I made it to Lisbon's highest peak, where the Castelo de São Jorge sits. I took in some more views, tried to stop sweating for like 5 seconds, and explored the old castle. See pics below.

After this I headed back to the metro to go meet one of my Aunt Pam's friends, Catia, and her husband Duarte. Duarte and I went to pick up their son, Tiago, from preschool. Both Catia and Duarte speak amazing English and tried to help me out but Tiago wasn't having much of it. He kept insisting that I speak Portuguese because we all speak Portuguese so I had to, too. He obviously was much more skilled than I and didn't understand me when I tried to say things- he definitely gave me some funny looks. Yes, a three year old judged me but that's okay. He also knew some English- like hi how are you! and ice cream! But was reluctant to try it out with me. Also funny, this three year old loves Russian/Turkish/Arabic music and refuses to listen to much else in the car. It's really too funny. So the three of us headed out of Lisbon to the suburbs of Sintra, where they live in an amazing gated community with its own health club, a couple different pools, and a pretty great golf course (Dad!). Catia met us there and while Tiago and Duarte headed to swimming lessons, swim cap and all, Catia and I walked back to their apartment and started cooking dinner.
It was the greatest evening because I was feeling so lonely here without knowing a single person. This family was so welcoming and fun and interesting! We had a delicious dinner of basmati rice with chicken and veggies cooked in coconut milk followed by ice cream and fresh fruit. I was a happy camper for sure. I got to learn more about Portuguese people and started to feel better about being here..

So things are improving. I didn't blog about my first day because I was a wreck but I think things are going to be amazing once I know people and have things to do. It's always like that isn't it! I am so not good at transitions.

I will also blog about my difficulties and things i've noticed thus far. But it's already 130 here and I should prolly sleep so I can do something productive tomorrow, like go to Caiscais or Belém. We'll see.

Oh and since I have real internet now here are some pics:

In my neighborgood of Santos (the emerging design district) a neat street.

The Rossio, main square.

Praça de Comercio (with the trams, or eléctricos)

The entrance to the Castelo

Hibiscus in the Castelo

Castle walls

the Sé


View of Lisboa from atop of the castelo