I'm baaaaaaaaack!

Hey everyone!

Sorry for the lapse in blogging! I've actually been REALLY sick since we got back from Portugal. I wound up having to sit next to a guy on the plane that was coughing and sneezing all the way to Portugal, so I got his sickness! The whole trip we were joking that I was going to get TB from the guy, and I think I came pretty close--I was down for the count for over a week! Luckily, they sell codine over the counter here!---See I guess England ain't that bad afterall. So although England is a 3rd world country--for even more reasons than I mentioned--I think I was just having a moment that day. So please do not begin hating our greatest ally for the simple reason that I don't have internet access in my home yet. And please don't let it stop you from visiting!!

On to Portugal--We flew in on Friday night, and checked into our hotel. We called Amanda at her hostel and made plans for the following day. We were taking a river cruise up the Douro (sp?) to the vinyards. It was a beautiful cruise and the best part was that we were like the only tourist on the cruise, so it was a great experience. We boarded the boat at 10, and sat down for our breakfast. There was a family sitting next to us, and a little girl turned to me and said, 'Why do you speak the same language as me?' As it turns out, little Zara and her family were from Australia and were travelling in Europe for 5 weeks. So for the morning I was talking to Zara, and coloring with her...in the afternoon, Amanda took to reading her fairy tales in Portugese--interesting! The cruise finished and we took a bus to a local winery where it was really just a tourist trap to get you to buy there port, which I think is dreadful by the way. We wound up getting back around 9:00PM and went to dinner in what I think was the only restaurant open in the entire city. It was Cuban night and they had a salsa band there! Cuban Salsa in Portugal--yes! The next day we wanted to spend some time seeing the sights of Porto. The only problem was that it was Sunday, and as in every Catholic city in Europe, most things are closed. We took a very nice stroll along the river and sat at a restaurant for awhile. It was all in all a great day!

The next week was pure hell for me, so we're just going to skip right over that part!

Saturday, we went to Kaileigh and Chris' place in Chiswick--more expats--and we did a mini bar crawl there. It was a good time. Sunday, it was back to the Sports Cafe for the Giants game! V-I-C-T-O-R-Y Victory, Victory, That's our cry! Yay! We weren't on the big screen this week as it's still the rugby world cup. I still don't get that sport--Kimmy you're gonna have to explain it to me when I get home! So Scotland and Argentina were playing. It's a big deal because England beat Australia and there could be a scotland/england final. Which I don't get b/c in the soccer world cup, you'd never have a Eastern USA team and Western USA team, so I don't get why Scotland gets its own team. I'm now on a mission to figure it out. It's the same bloody country afterall!

Yesterday we got our Satellite Dish, and now have around 400 channels...including US ones like E!, Bravo, etc. The best part is that I also get the food network, so my friend Rachel Ray won't miss me too much! I also got my phone call that said our internet was hooked up...Later I found out that that means in 3 working days, my internet will be up...YES, England is a 3rd world country! I've only been waiting since Sept 14!

Next on my list of things to do is get a job. We'll see how that goes in the next couple of weeks...I'm not optimistic...Let's see, I have to tell them that I'm on holiday for about a week in November for Thanksgiving, another week in December at Christmas...It's almost funny!

Talk to you soon!

PS...we can now receive phone calls on our Vonage phone. We'll be able to make outgoing ones when we get our internet, but it works great!