Bom Dia!  For a couple weeks anyway, there is an addition to the trio.  I arrived in Lisbon early in the morning on Tuesday, January 27.  For a couple days, Liz (my fiancé) showed me different areas (or pracas) of the city so that I could get acquainted with Lisbon and be familiar with different streets.  When I walk around, I forget how different Europe is from the States.  Everyone is walking (and smoking) up and down cobblestone streets wondering into cafes and shops.  You also know you’re in Europe when you start getting harassed by people asking you to buy their things, such as sunglasses and, the best one yet, hashish.  So far it looks as though Lisbon is a melting pot of people with groups from all over the world.  I don’t believe you get quite the diversity in the States.  Before Liz and I left for the little R&R weekend, the four of us went to dinner and enjoyed a little fado music, the traditional music of Portugal.  

Because we were the only ones in the restaurant for a while, it was like we had our own private show.  It was really fun listening to the different styles and different techniques of Portuguese music.  After a little music, the four of us ventured into the Bairro Alto, the young, hip part of Lisbon, for a few drinks and a crazy night.  Yea, so supposedly, people don’t go out until like midnight here and party until the morning hours.  Not quite my style though I managed to make it until 4:00 A.M.

After my couple day sprint in Lisbon, Liz and I traveled to Cascais, a coastal town just 30 minutes away from Lisbon, for the weekend.  We stayed at a very stylish and chic boutique hotel that sat on the rocks of the Atlantic Ocean.  It was awesome seeing waves come in and splash against the rocks creating huge sprays of water, shooting some 30-50 feet in the air.  Though I thought the hotel was worth the view itself, Liz was frightened when a storm rolled in, creating what I think to be 20-30 foot waves and a thundering roar against the rocks.  Just north of the hotel was the Boca do Inferno, otherwise known as the Mouth of Hell.  Thundering waves sweep in with such power that they’ve carved a wide hole resembling a mouth, or boca, in the cliffs.  I must say that the Mouth of Hell was a windswept roar, as is evident in the photo with the bent umbrella.  Needless to say, we got out of Cascais alive and survived the ferocity of the Atlantic Ocean even though Liz was sure we were going to be swept away by the water. 

Thundering Waves at Boca do Inferno

 

Back in Lisbon, I got to explore more of the city while the girls were in class.  Well, I guess one was there.  Poor Jess is sick (maybe I made her drinks too strong haha) and so she had to go the doctor.  Liz accompanied Jess and so she missed some of class, but here in Portugal, they (professors) don’t seem to mind too much.  Now, the girls are trying to finish up their homework for tomorrow before we go out for a little dinner.  Hopefully Jess gets better soon so she can rejoin the group and get back to the streets of Lisbon. 

Ana Patricia drove Liz, Alison, and I to Belem, another cool part of Lisbon.  We got to see some really neat things there, such as the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos and the Torre de Belem.  These places were so neat that I needed to go back for a closer inspection.  My second trip back to Belem I got to go inside the Monastery and get up closer to the Belem Tower.  The architecture of these places are magnificent and the monuments are just stunning.  In addition, I visited the Museu Nacional dos Coches (National Coach Museum).  At first, I thought how many coaches could I really look at to be impressed.  But after diving into the museum, I was extremely excited that I decided to visit.  Some of the coaches are crazy with the detailing and ornate work.  I could imagine these kings and queens being pretty fancy back in the day.  I mean we don’t have paintings and gold figurines on the outside of our Mercedes.  Here is a picture of the coach that Liz and I will depart in after our wedding.  I hope you think it’s nice enough for us!

My trip has just about come to an end.  It’s raining again in Lisbon and so our day has been cut short.  I’ve walked quite a bit and seen so many different sites and areas of Lisbon.  I hope everyone has enjoyed my blogging and that you got to learn a little bit of Lisbon while I was in town.  So, for now, I’m out, which probably means I’ll enjoy a Sagres or Super Bock (both local beers).  Chao!

                                                                        -Parker

  

View of Monastery

 

Our Chariot Awaits!

Liz, me, Patricia, Bernardo, Raquel, and Soraia

Hey everyone!

On Saturday, after our tour of Sintra and the coast, we went to our friend Tom’s house (one of the people from our class who we went out with last week) who was having a sort of start-of-the-semester party.  Several of the other people from class were at the party as well, but there were also tons of new people there for us to meet.

Al and our host, Tom

In an attempt to live on Portugal time, we arrived a fashionable hour and a half late, just to discover that we were still much too prompt, and were almost the first ones there.  We were informed later that a party starting at 9:30 really starts around 12.

Both Patricia and Raquel (in the pic above) are in our current class, and Patricia has designated herself as the Welcoming Committee President.  Meeting her has been great – she’s super fun and has offered to take us

Good times

 places and show us our new home.  Next fall, she is going to be studying at Wash U as an exchange student, so Liz and I will get to return the favor since we’ll both be around STL in the fall.  

At Tom’s, Liz and I mostly sat around in the livingroom, drank wine, and got to know our new friends better.  Alison, the social butterfly of our trio, travelled the party and met tons and tons of students from all over Europe.  The EU has a

Why?

program called Erasmus, where college students are all able to get money to study at another european college for a year, so meeting exchange students here is very common.  The party was full of Erasmus students (Tom is actually from Belgium) and it was fun meeting people from all over, who were kind enough to speak in English so us silly Americans could participate in the conversation.

Since we hadn’t yet been to a Discoteca, Patricia insisted on taking us to Lux, a huge club with

Dancing

three different levels, to go dancing.  However, we weren’t allowed to go until 3am, because no one goes before 3 am.  Bernardo took Liz and I through the line and into this very disturbing entrance to the club (see gynecological stance above).  Alison stayed behind because she was having so much fun at the party.  Patricia and Raquel met us after we got through the line, because they were “on the list” and didn’t have to wait.

Hot glasses!

The inside of the club was pure insanity.  It was super crowded, and we had tons of fun exploring and dancing with our friends. It costs 12 euro to get in, but they give you 12 euro in drink tickets (like at a carnival) to spend once you get inside. Patricia promised us that if we made it til morning, we would go get breakfast, but we wimped out and called it a night at 6:30 and went home.  They were still going strong when we left.

One of them is Liz's, I swear

Getting home was a bit of an adventure.  When we went to leave, we discovered that it was pouring outside.  There is a taxi stand outside the club, so we just made a run for it.  But when we went up to the line of taxis, we discovered that there were people inside all of them.  A new taxi pulled up and we jumped in, only to notice that there was a line of people under the legs waiting to get in them.  Oops.  Silly Americans. 

Looking like drowned rats

After turning around to wipe the mascara off my face for me (which was odd) the cab driver attempted to drive us home.  We got most of the way there by directing him, but he had a GPS unit and insisted that he had passed up our house before he did and told us to get out of the cab.  It was pouring so hard outside that Liz and I couldn’t tell that we hadn’t passed it yet.  We walked the direction the cab driver told us to, in the pouring rain, and eventually realized that he sent us the wrong direction.  After a long walk back up to the stairway that goes down to our house, we were soaked completely through.  We were met shortly thereafter by Al, who had travelled home by metro with some of our friends from the party.  Looking and feeling like a hot mess, we each climbed into bed around 7 am.

And that pretty much wraps up our first night out with friends at the club.  Overall, I think it was a rousing success.  Patricia already has plans to take us to other places, so I’m sure we’ll have more stories for you soon.  We miss you all and we’ll post again soon!

XOXO,

Jess

Hey everyone!

We put together a powerpoint slideshow of some more of our pictures from yesterday for you to look at.  Check it out.  I’ll get back on here later today to tell you about our night out last night and I’ll add some pictures of us and our friends from school.  Take care, and I’ll put up the new post soon

XOXO

J

Or not…powerpoint doesn’t work on here, or at least it requires doing something I don’t know how to do, “hosting” or something like that.  So I will try to convert it to a different format or put up the pictures a different way.  Sorry!

Hello everybody!  Today we took an amazing 9 hour tour to visit some places beyond the Lisbon borders. We hired a driver named Bruno who acted as both our personal driver and tour guide.  He is a very sweet man, always opening the door for us and beaming with pride when talking about the history of his country.

Below is a description of the places we visited:

STOP #1: SINTRA

Our first stop was Sintra which is nestled in the mountains about 25 to 30 minutes outside of Lisbon.  In Sintra, we first visited Pena Palace which housed some of the Portuguese Kings back in the 1800′s.

Pena Palace

Pena Palace is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and considered one of the 7 wonders of Portugal [supposedly the most beautiful of the palaces].  In 1910, the government decided to paint the palace unique colors since it was not attracting the amount of visitors that it wanted- I suppose it worked because the unique colors is what lured us in.

After touring the palace, we headed to Regaleira which was created by one of the richest men in Brazil.  He attempted to build his artistic expression of an architectural manifestation of

caves and grotto

heaven and hell.  The grounds contains a palace, a park, an amazing well that you can go inside of, and many underground caves and tunnels leading to lakes.  The grounds are incredible- they are mystical, beautiful, and at times eerie.  It’s like “secret garden” meets “pan’s labrynth” meets “Walt Disney”- an odd combination.  Our third and final stop in Sintra took us to the city center where we walked around small shops and stopped for a famous pastry (which is basically an

View of Well From Bottom Up

eclair but more delicious).

STOP #2: Azenhas do Mar (Apple Beach)

After touring Sintra, we made our way down the mountain to the Atlantic Coast.  We stopped to view the waves that crashed into the rocks below the city, and I must say, they were the biggest waves any of us have ever seen.

Waves Crashing Below

After visiting the ocean we stopped off for lunch at a Seafood restaurant recommended by Bruno.  The waiter told us what we would have for lunch: prawns to start and then crab.  Our waiter led us to a tank where we got to pick out our crab (which was alive – at the time).

We've Got Crabs!

After lunch, the waiter brought us three shot glasses full of port.  Alison didn’t know that she was supposed to sip the “after dinner drink” and slammed it down like a trooper.  After giggling about our complimentary port, the waiter returned only to refill our glasses again.  While we were tempted to stay and party the afternoon away, Bruno and our chariot [a.k.a. minivan] awaited (and we were an hour late already).

STOP #3: CABO DA ROCA

We took off once again, hugging the coastline down to Cabo da Roca.  Cabo da Roca is the most western point in all of Europe.  We hopped out of the car for a quickie pic since we were already behind schedule.

Most Western Point of Europe

STOP #4: CASCAIS

Our last stop on the tour was Cascais.  Cascais is where the Portuguese Kings used to go for the summer and is now the home of wealthy Europeans.  It’s a darling little town- like a cleaner safer version of Lisbon by the sea.  By the time we arrived here, Jess and Al had fallen asleep in the back of the van so Bruno and I chatted about life, love, philosophy, and politics (actually, we just discussed the weather).   Upon arrival, the three of us headed into town to have an espresso and wander around.  I’ll post more pictures of Cascais next week because Parker and I are going there next weekend.

Downtown Cascais

On the way back to Lisbon we drove through Estoril which is another beautiful beach village.  It is also home to the biggest casino in Europe (not including Monaco).   One side of the street is lined by grandois homes while the other side of the street drops off to the beach and surfers below.

So, that brings us to the end of our journey.  Jess is going to post a powerpoint presentation of more pictures from the trip, if you are interested.  I hope all is well back in the States, we miss and love yall!

Love,

The Trio

Hey everyone!  Sorry we haven’t been posting lately, but life has been a little more normal so there tends to be less to talk about.  We’ll try to be better about it from here on out so please keep checking the blog.  We feel so popular when you do.

At this very moment, Alison is updating you on our night out with our new friends here, so I’m going to tell you about our day today.  After making a run to school to finally get the books for our class so we can actually do our readings (yes, for the class we’re halfway through) we went out for another afternoon of sight-seeing.  First we found a fantastic little restaurant that serves middle-eastern food that was super cheap just around the corner from our house, where I believe we will be regulars from here on out.

Elevador de Santa Justa

Then we walked over to the Elevador de Santa Justa, which is an amazing tower near our house that you can ride up in an elevator to see beautiful 360 degree views of Lisbon.  From the top of the tower we found our house, and also saw some other beautiful landmarks, like my favorite, this cathedral that was partially destroyed in the great earthquake in 1755 and the roof was never rebuilt.

My favourite

Afterwards, we went to go buy another money belt (Liz bought one the other day, and they are so stylish that I wanted one too).  We don’t wear them under our clothes though, so they are basically just fanny packs.  Its hot.  Here’s Liz modeling one for you.

All the cool kids are wearing them...

Then we basically just wandered the streets looking in store windows.  Here are some random things that have happened over the last few days:

1) We found out what prostitutes in Lisbon look like.  Its not what you would expect

2) A little old man in the key-making store (where they file the keys by hand) gave me a key chain for free.  I think he may be my new boyfriend.  Liz says he holds the key to my heart.

3) We discovered that all microwave popcorn flavors here taste the same, except for sweet and salty, which is their version of kettle corn.

4) We found a street full of crazy knitting stores where Al and I can buy tons of yarn to make lots of presents for Liz.

5) Alison has discovered that she innately knows how to speak portuguese and has been giving us nightly lessons.  When asked about her strange talent, Al says all she knows is it comes from the heart.  See the video below if you would like to learn some “plavaguese”.

And that’s all for now.  We’re up to a bunch of fun stuff this weekend, so we’ll be sure to post again very soon!  We love you all!  XOXO -

Jess (BD – hehe)

Plaveguese

►

Hello all! Sorry we haven’t been posting as often as you’d like.  Actually, none of my friends have said that, but Jess and Liz have gotten many comments.  I guess that means they have more friends than me, or that all my friends have replaced me with “New Alisons”

Perhaps the reason we have been not posting is because we are… actually making friends!  On Wednesday night (which is the start of our weekend) we met up with SIX new friends from class and went to a bar in the Bairro Alto neighborhood, which is only one metro stop away from us.  Lisbon seems spread out when you look at a map, but things are actually pretty close together, and we can walk almost anywhere from our house.  We had a great time getting to know them, and I think we are going to end up having a lot of fun nights (even better than say, a STL thursday of Bar Louie, Mandarin, Pepper and the east side).   When the bar closed at 2am, we asked the guys where we should go next.  When they said ‘Bedroom,’ Liz and Jess high-fived (so cool) because they thought we were going home, but Bedroom is apparently the name of a club that stays open late at night.  One of our new friends drove us home, and we were actually able (after a few false starts) to navigate our way through our new neighborhood and find our house.  This sounds simple, but was actually a huge accomplishment.    

Last night, we stayed in and made dinner.  We found the Portugese version of Ramen, which means I can actually help with the “cooking.” Since we don’t have TV, we decided to watch some episodes of the second season of Dexter, which I had on my computer.  Jess taught me to crochet (yes!) and Liz became COMPLETELY obsessed with the show, and we ended up staying up until 4 in the morning watching.  So, as you can see, life in Lisbon isn’t too different from life in STL.  We are probably going to finish the season tonight, but luckily we found a store that sells DVDs.  They are subtitled in Portugese, so maybe that will help with out language skills. 

Jess & Alison honing their craft...

 

 

Tomorrow, we are going to a town called Sintra.  It’s about a half hour away from Lisbon, and is supposed to have some great sights.  It is the place where the Portugese royalty used to summer.  

As a final note, I am going to start putting all my photos on Snapfish, so you can view full albums if you’d like.   Check out the link to the right!

Hope you are all surviving the winter in the US.  We miss you all, but definitely don’t wish we were there!

Oceanario

Hey all – well, today after class, which Liz already told you about, the three of us decided to go meet our “german medical student” friends from the other night at the Oceanario, which is this big aquarium in the modern part of Portugal.  We were told that it was a must see.  Its down in the modern business district of Lisbon, and when we got off the metro, we were met by a city that seems worlds away from what we have seen so far.  There is a huge casino, what is supposed to be one of the best shopping malls in the world, and

We love snorkelers

tons of huge hotels.

We wandered around for awhile and eventually found it sitting the middle of the water, and we went inside to find our friends.  The aquarium has two levels, with a huge tank in the middle and four tanks on each corner that appear to connect to the big tank on the first level but not the second.  The corners are set up to be examples of each of the different oceans.  Its pretty cool, but it was talked

Liz and Al

up to be the most amazing thing in the world (and it cost quite a bit to get in) so we were a little disappointed when it wasn’t huge tunnels of sharks that you could walk under, or something like that.

But we still had fun looking at the big tank, where there are tons of sharks and eels and all sorts of other creepy creatures, and in the little tanks, which had all sorts of jellyfish and other odd animals.  Liz and I hung out with this guy for awhile, who seemed rather taken with us and kept

My New Boyfriend

getting closer and closer to the glass, so we got a picture with him.

The only other thing worth mentioning from the aquarium is the creature that will give me nightmares until the day I die.  The pictures don’t do it justice.  Its about the size of a wheelbarrow, and it floats around and flips over and over itself as if it has no control of its movements, which are very very slow.  But it looks like it has risen from the pit of

Creepy

Creepier

Creepiest

hell.  Here are the pictures we took of it (and there is also footage of it in the video below).

After our time at the aquarium, we walked over to the mall.  At first it seemed like every other mall in the US, and then once we started looking around, we realized that it was enormous.  Here is the pic from the outside, it is attached to two crazy hotels.

Mall of Portugal (I'm sure it probably has a better name than that)

In closing, we have put together another video for you.  We had the best of intentions when we started putting this together.  We thought that there was enough interesting footage to make a cool video, but there wasn’t.  We also didn’t realize that we were chattering like idiots in the background of the video, so we had to take the sound out.  And then we discovered that Liz’s computer only had one song on it, which was a sample song that comes with Windows.  So this is what you get.  Enjoy.

oceanario-final

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So, we survived our first day of classes in a strange land. We are enrolled in one class (transnational dispute resolution) for two weeks which meets M, T, W from 9-1:15.   We are the only Americans in a class of about 15 students.  Most are Portuguese, one Belgian, and one Brazilian.  Our class is supposed to be in English, but our professor has a heavy French accent and no one has any clue what he is saying.  I’ve been surprised at how different school is from our lives at Wash U.

First, we never received our text books or class assignments, and no one seems alarmed (except me of course).  Second, in our fifteen minute breaks, students file down the stairs to “the bar” [which- no worrries Ms. Smith- this bar does not serve alcohol].  They slam down a shot of espresso and then return to class whenever the heck they please (even when the professor says to be back at a certain time…its like a country full of Rinas).  Third, the school has beer can machines right next to the soda machines, but we are not brave enough to show up after our first break at 10:15 a.m. with a cold one in hand.  Fourth, there is no socratic method – the teacher lectures the entire class while the students just sit and stare (except Alison and Jess who had internet- I was unable to use my computer today because I did not think to bring a converter in order to plug it in…dumb blonde).

I would elaborate more on our day at school, but in all honesty, that is ALL that happened and we might actually be dumber for having attended class today.  I’m going to pass it over to Jess to talk about our day at the oceanario…

Much love!!!!

P.S. We are VERY VERY happy right now since we found, on our television with four fuzzy channels, that we can find Anatomia de Grey (that’s Grey’s Anatomy for you American folks) in English which plays once a week- victory is ours!

Ola!  I figured that this post was long over due…I would like to give everybody a tour of our home as well as the surrounding area.  So, to orient you, Lisbon is composed of multiple districts and we are technically in  the Alfama on the edge next to Baixa.  Behind us is the castelo de sao jorge, which is the heading on our blog.  Our apartment is composed of three bedrooms, one of which is lofted (Alison’s).  Here are the pictures of the shared living space:

Lovely Kitchen and View Out

Living Room (and useless television)

More of the Living Room

Living Room view from loft

So, like I said before, there are two bedrooms on the lower floor.  Jess’s bedroom is well decorated but extremely tiny and the bed feels like concrete.  My bedroom is also on the first floor.  It is a good size, but it is the only bedroom without a heater, so I sleep on my hands at night.  Alison’s room is up the winding staircase in the loft upstairs.  Her room is the “coolest” but she only has half walls and so she has less privacy.  She also has her own bathroom, but the bathtub is so close to the ceiling that it can only accommodate a fairy or an elf.

Jess's Room

Liz's Room (see mom how clean?)

View out from Liz's Room

Stairway to Alison's Room

Alison's Bedroom

Alison's bedroom (the poles were there before)

Alison's tiny bathtub

View from Alisons' Room

View from Liz and Jess's Rooms

Jess's Bedroom

So, that’s the inside of our apartment.  It is situated on the third floor of our building, and our building is situated at the top of a giant mountain.  There are about two hundred steps down to a main city square, called Praca de Figuero.

Praca de Figuero

The Praca de Figuero parallels (one block over) the Rossio, which is also beautiful and home to McDonalds (we have actually eaten there twice so far…so shameful).

Rossio

So, thats our hood.  I hope you enjoyed this brief tour of our apartment and neighborhood.  We miss everyone from back home, but don’t worry, we are still having plenty of fun without you (which you may not believe since we spend so much time blogging hehe).

Here is my phrase of the day: apartmento o mais belo = most beautiful apartment.

Much love!

So, yesterday Liz and I went on a long hike all over the city. We headed out early in the morning to go to Fiera de Ladra, which is the thieves market, to see if we would be lucky enough to find the wallet that was stolen the day before. We didn’t want to carry bags with us anymore, for the obvious reasons, and so we left everything at home except money hidden in our clothing, which meant that we didn’t take a map with us. All we had to do was walk up to the castle, find the road going around it, and follow it around to a street that went straight to the market. Of course, we were totally unsuccessful. We ended up in a weird part of town, and after stopping for coffee and purchasing a used map of Portugal (not of Lisbon) for 5 euro and throwing it away, we hailed a cab to take us to the market.

Fiera de Ladra

The market was really interesting. It was obvious what had been stolen from people on the street, and it was weird rifling through their things. Its a viscious cycle, where foreigners like us keep the pickpocketing industry alive by purchasing the things people steal from other foreigners. We looked for hours, and every time we turned around it seemed like there was another mile of booths to look at. Unfortunately we never found Liz’s wallet. Probably some other tourist snatched it up as the best shopping deal of their lives.

Early in our shopping excursion, Liz was invited to a “private party” with one of the locals, who responded “so what” when she said she was married. Then, a bit ominously, an older gentleman came up to us and warned us to “be careful here”. Later on, as I was trying on a snug-fitting hoodie that had been made by a local, the owners of the booth pulled out a joint and lit it up right in front of us, like it was the most normal thing to do.

Cathedral with Gargoyles

Another Beautiful Church

After exhausting ourselves at the market, and somewhat orienting ourselves directionally, we decided to head out to the water and to find some place to eat. We spent some time exploring the city, and stumbled upon beautiful things everywhere. It seemed like every time we turned a corner we found a beautiful church with ornate sculptures, stained glass windows, and church bells. We couldn’t resist being nerdy tourists and taking pictures all over the place.

We made it down to the water after walking tons of windy paths, down stairs, through the Alfama. To the left is an example of the paths we walk through when we explore our area. Along the way, we saw the same dog several

My Second Favourite Dog

Typical winding paths

times, who impressed us both when it ran up to a public water fountain, and took a drink. We had to grab a picture.

Here’s a picture from our time at the waterfront, which is about a 10 minute walk from our house (we didn’t realize that until yesterday).

Old Port on the Waterfront

When you turn around from the water, you are met by a beautiful monument, in Praca de Comercio, which has an ornate arch behind it, which leads you directly to the Rossio, a square very close to our house.

Praca de Comercio

We had the guts to stop for the first time at one of the restaurants in the squares that has a outdoor tent in the middle of the street and ate some traditional Portuguese food, which was delicious. It was in the center of an arts district, where the streets are lined by booths of artists making and selling paintings of Portugal’s landscape.

During lunch we saw the most adorable three little girls, and we wanted a picture but thought it might be an invasion of privacy. To our surprise, the parents lined them up to pose in their matching outfits for us.

Freaking Adorable

On the way home, the strangest event of the day occurred. We wanted to walk down one street to get to the Rossio, and we came upon an intersection full of people sitting in seats out of cars, but not actually in cars. They were lined up as if in traffic. At first we thought it might be a protest or an art exhibit, but realized when someone shouted “action” and all the extras on the streets started moving through the traffic that we had stumbled in to a movie set. So if you see some weird foreign movie with something like this in it, we were standing nearby as they filmed the scene.

Morning Traffic

And that was pretty much our day of exploration. It was a great first long venture into the areas that surround our house, and we are looking forward to doing it again. To close, here is a picture taken by a new friend. As we were sitting by the water, a girl from the Sudan, named Aggy, came up to us to ask us if we could take a picture of her in front of the Praca, and she did the same for us. She is studying to get her Master’s in Spain, and we were hoping to meet up with her last night, but unfortunately it didn’t work out. Here is the pic she took.

Unflattering Pic in Praca

And that’s all for now.

The phrase of the day for today: Uma bebida e o cao = a dog’s drink.

Big hugs – and we’ll write again soon!

XOXO