where they make the cheese!

Still no computer. I'm about to call Dell again to see if they can connect me to their international number so THEY can send me a recovery CD. I think my friend might be able to fix it if I get that, so cross your fingers. I don't like not having my computer to watch my movies or listen to my music or check mah email. Or talk to people, I GUESS. Alas.

WE WENT TO PORTUGAL THIS WEEKEND.
Highlights:
-awesome hostel! attractive and friendly staff, very very clean, and free breakfast! yummy.
-we saw a lot a lot of the town -- we climbed up a castle, scoped out some markets and took a tram to Belem, where we sampled the local pastry (of which a certain pastry shop makes 1200 a day!!) and climbed a tower on the water. It was very windy but very awesome
-EVERYONE WAS SO NICE. our cab driver definitely had no idea where we were going when we tried to get to our hostel so he dropped us off on a random street so we went into a shop where a heavily tattooed and pierced man took like 15 minutes mapquesting where we were going and explaining the best he could where our hostel was. sooo nice. we went back the next day and i bought a couple things from them.
-i won shanghai! what what?!

Lowlights:
-Portugal is smelly! we got up really early on Saturday so we could make the most of our day -- way before anyone was up and about, and the amount of trash and broken glass from the previous night was astounding. Certain streets REEKED as we passed them. Very odd.
-confusing streets -- thank god for Erin and Jeff, I would have had no clue where I was if I was on my own.
-traveling -- we got to the airport to portugal way too early because we had the wrong times for our flight. it was simply a long day of waiting around and not being able to sleep because my ipod was out of battery. alas.
-no passport stamp! ALAS! How will people know I am such a world traveler?
-we don't speak Portugese. We did learn one word when we were there: "obrigado," which means thank you (or "obrigada" if you're a girl)

It was really good to experience a different culture though. It was weird, the flight took the same amount of time it takes me to get from Chicago to Boston, but this time when I got off the plane it was a completely different language (although some would argue the East Coast accent is a different language altogether) and a different way of life. It wasn't at all what I had expected, but then again, I didn't really know what to expect. I was so glad I was able to go -- it's such a unique place to say you've been to -- but I'm not sure if I'll be going back ever. We had a lot of fun though, and took a ton of pictures -- hopefully sometime soon I will be able to upload them (cross those fingers hard plz).

Time to call Dell and eat leftovers! Cooking class tonight! We're making risotto con zucco. DEELISH!