Ahh, Portugal..

WARNING: not to be read by future roomates of grace or emily. do not read if you feel strongly about hygiene, on personal appearance. the featured characters names have been changed to protect their identitiy.
DISCLAIMER: this does not neccassarily reflect the thoughts or values of "Claudia adn Maria´s" parents

I dont know about how everyone else would feel about living here, but Claudia and i love it: )it´s not the cool ocean breezes, nor the warm sun, or the beautiful skies at sunset. Even though we enjoy it, it´s not the bike rides to the resturaunt on the river, or the seafood gumbo they serve. It´s not that we love our easy job at the reception desk, although we do. It´s not the sound of crashing waves outside our window; not the sound of nightlife and Portuguese bongos across the street. Not the ferry rides or the beautiful waterfalls that we love. What we love is: making odd faces when we notice people staring at us, watching the little kids have pinecone fights, squishing the ants that run across the computer screen, and the ongoing war with the ones trying to nest in our bathroom, it´s hanging the clothes on the line and wearing dirty ones, refurnishing our room, making the boys clean up after themselves, writing letters home, and ,at night, running as far down the path as we can before the light turns off, watching eagerly for hedgehogs, speaking in foreign languages and playing charades, remembering english in aw, it´s salada de fruita, and best of all NOT having to shower: )
getting dressed...
Maria & Claudia: (pick up shirt from pile. smell the shirt, put the shirt on)
Claudia: (looks towards Maria and smiles) Oh, you do that too?
Maria: do what?
Claudia: smell your dirty shirts then put them on anyway
Maria: hah yeah. hand me the deoterant when you´re done

refurnishing the room...
Maria: now all we need is a nice rug
Claudia: yeah, we should get a rug
MOMENTS LATER...
Maria: hey look a rug!(throws blanket on the floor as Claudia and Maria wipe their feet on the ´new rug´)
Claudia: (smiles)
Maria: *happy sigh
Claudia: hey wait, are you sure that ones not your blanket? there´s another one here
Maria: (grabs blanket off bed. examines blanket. it looks like the dirty one) aw darn, that WAS my blanket we just wiped our feet on: (
Claudia: .....
Maria: (shakes out ´new rug´turns inside out and places on bed, replaces with new, ´new rug´)

talks of things to come...
Maria: maybe we should shower before lunch.
Claudia: yeah, .. idk maybe
Maria: well we didnt last night, but i´ll see how we feel about it when i wake you up.
Claudia: but it´s Europe! we dont need to shower: )
Maria: but you havnt showered in FOUR DAYS!

Maria: i think we need a calendar
Claudia: yeah, im getting all confused, what day is it?
Maria: monday... the .. 6th i think. how long have we been here?
Claudia: well,.. i think we´ve been here eight days now..
Maria: that sounds about right, we shower every four days, and we´ve only showered twice i think