RIP

Even though I have unfinished posts waiting to be finished and posted, I have to interrupt my own train of thought. It is with great sadness that I inform you of the passing of my computer, MacDaddy. He died last night around 1:30 am after a brief struggle with being permanently frozen. Instead of resting in peace, I would like him to return quickly from the computer repair shop. Quickly, and cheaply. Even though the camera guy a few weeks ago signed off on my camera as under warranty (i.e., free repair), I doubt I'll be able to pull off that kind of luck twice, even in a city like Lisbon where putting something under warranty is as simple as smiling at the man behind the counter who says "Sure, I'll sign off on this. Why not?"

It was one of those knock on wood kind of moments. Last week I realized that I hadn't backed up my computer in a while so I went through and backed up everything, including my 5,000 photos and all of my work for my classes here up through that point. Then, I had the busiest week of my semester in which I wrote 2 papers and 1 presentation and I didn't back up this past weekend. And then my computer crashes, almost as if the act of backing up was inviting the hard drive to crash.

So bear with me, dear readers, as it will be difficult to stay on track with my portublog while I'm confined to sharing computers in the dorm's computer lab. If there is a bright side to all of this, other than the opportunity to practice my Portuguese as I run around town to heal MacDaddy, it is that I now have plenty of time to sleep since I won't have my computer to distract me late at night. This is truly fantastic, as my last month here promises to be exhausting from trying to squeeze in as much as possible.

Like tonight for instance. Today is Internation Student Day in Lisbon (and the international community? I don't know. Maybe just in Lisbon...) Anyways, we went to a reception for Erasmus students at City Hall. They spoke a lot of Portuguese for which we politely clapped and I spent a lot of time making faces/smiling as the video cameras swept around the crowd. Then we were endowed with refreshments in the form of port wine and pastries. Have I mentioned how much I love Portugal? This would be an appropriate time. I will save my descriptions of the festa for later when I'm not so tired and not hurrying to return a friend's borrowed laptop. They are coming, though. I promise. After all, it's not everyday that you get to go to a fancy Monday evening soiree with dancing and wine in Lisbon, Portugal. I can't pass up an opportunity to gloat a tiny bit.

So dearest MacDaddy, best wishes for a speedy return from the dead. And dearest readers, thank you for your understanding in this dark time. If you should desire to contact me, I have limited email access so if you don't hear back from me, just get on the next flight and we can talk when you get here.