I am remiss

I have been so busy studying that I don't seem to find time to write. On my past trips I have written ad nauseum. I fondly remember John standing outside many a internet cafe repeatedly asking me if I was finished with my emails. But now I have a computer in my room (habitacion en español) with wireless internet at my command and I am without words. Go figure. Perhaps it is a reluctance to tell on myself.

It is ever so much harder than I imagined being away from all of those I love, from my regular meeting schedule and walking buddies, being on the outside of the student group, no adult conversation, and living in someone else's home. Sitting in class and smelly the ungodly odor of stale alcohol being seeping from the pores of my class mates is no small treat. Listening to endless conversations about drinking and how late they stayed out has become tedious. I am a good student. All my life I have been that annoying person in class who actually wanted to learn more. In these classes the sport of the day is to see how much they can distract the teacher from teaching. For some unimaginable reason, I believe this should all be easy. It is not.

However the trip to Lisbon was a wonderfully refreshing respite. Eileen was a perfect companion and I got to indulge in unlimited adult conversation about topics that actually held my interest. I love Lisbon! My oldest daughter is half Portuguese and I know now where she got all her friendliness. They are the nicest people. The graffiti is amazing (see my facebook pictures). The weather was comfortable.The food was delightful and reasonably priced. There is a lot of amazing old worldliness. Though Eileen and I both found their monuments rather mundane and tiresome. They all appeared to have been purchased from the same discount war hero mall. Maybe they should have their graffiti artists compose the next monument.

We had one very funny experience. We were on one of those double deck tour buses that roam around the city pouring information into your ear that you forget two minutes after you hear it.They are useful for getting the lay of a city and for taking pictures. Pl;us, for the price of our ticket we got bus transportation to and from the airport and use of all the City cable cars and buses. I suppose I should return to my story at some point here. Anyway, we were on top of the bus in the second row, waiting for two women to get off and vacate the first row seats. They did and we moved up. Shortly thereafter this woman comes up and asks in a demanding voice if she can have the seat next to me. I assent and move so she can get in, at which time I find out she didn't want to sit next to me, she wanted to sit on me. I think her gambit was to make me as uncomfortable as possible while pushing me off the seat. I decided I did not want to engage in butt wars. I know when I am significantly out gunned, so to speak. So I moved back to the second row behind Eileen. Then woman turns around to her man and tells him he can come up now the seat is empty, o rI think that is what she said, because she was speaking German. At which point I said under my breath, "That explains a lot." and at that moment Eileen busts up because she was thinking, "It figures," but didn't get it out of her mouth before I spoke. Ten we both just enjoyed a good long giggle. We enjoyed this moment several times over the next few days.

If you are German and offended, I'm sorry. But I think the Germans are in heated competition with Americans for being the rudest travelers. Since I am both American and of German descent, I try really hard not to contribute to the points.

Well it's late and I'm tired from my little melt down and emotional upheaval earlier today, so I will say good night and hope to hear some comments from you folks.