Laundry, Laundry and More Laundry. And Cascais, Portugal

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So, out of necessity we picked our first hotel in Lisbon on the basis of in-suite laundry. NO ONE PANIC, it was still a nice hotel. After a couple weeks without laundry, it was very welcome. We spent our first night in the hotel doing a load an hour and hanging it from every possible chair, table and balcony thing we could.

The next day we grabbed some breakfast and headed for Cascais, a nearby beach town. It was quite nice, although the walking was slow due to some “dodgy tummyness”. I went for a quick swim in the ocean and it was surprisingly cold. Now having travelled a lot, I am not usually given to whining about ocean temperatures. On this occasion my legs actually started to ache from the cold, it was a short swim.

Feeling like we needed some non restaurant/takeaway food, we hit the grocery store for some peppers, meat and bread.

There was also free internet in the hotel so we spent the evening with our much needed basic food and catching up on the net.

Aside from trying to keep up on our BLOGS, BANKING and EMAILS whenever there is a connection, my new stress is checking my UNIVERSITY courses for openings. Since trying consistently for the past month I have only managed to get 3 courses of 5 in my schedule and that accounts for the fact that I am taking a couple of my 2nd/3rd choices. I am constantly being told not to worry and keep checking back for openings and changes, as well as being invited to office hours on campus or info nights. It isn’t a system that is user-friendly to an international student (ME). Logging on I manage to have a live chat to an advisor who was very helpful in answering my questions, although I am still only in 3 classes. Now at least I know why I can’t sign on to a couple courses I have been trying for. Courses so far are: English-Poetry, Geography-World Problems, Communications-Introduction. I have also been waitlisted for a French course, as I was persuaded by the idea of an in-house tutor.

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Photos

Our pile of laundry
See what we mean? It was ALL dirty.

One of many beaches at Cascais
Pronounced "cash-kai-eesh" and said very quickly