Unexpected Company

I got a phone call from my very good friend Mike "Koci" Kociemba the other day asking when I was going to Portugal and that he'd like to come. I didn't know how serious he was but obliged in giving him the details and encouraging him to jump at the opportunity. After talking to him about it a bit more I could tell that he was definitely serious about coming.

This weekend Koci and a few friends came over to the house to hang out before we went out on the town and we got to talking about the details of the trip. Our friend Jared "J. Whoadie" Williams was part of the conversation and said that he would love to join us. Let me take a minute to say that I've been alive long enough now that I often take what people say with a grain of salt after they've had a few drinks. Not to call him out but Jared had a few at this point in time so I was definitely encouraging him but at the same time didn't know how serious he was.

It turns out that he has vacation time that his company has asked him to use before the 1st of the year and his boss agreed today to give him the week off. Koce already has his passport but J. Whoadie, like me, is now scrambling trying to get his passport, plane ticket etc to get this trip together. I wish him luck.

If I'm not mistaken the two of them booked a flight today together leaving BWI on the 9th of October meeting me in Lisbon early Saturday morning. We'll rent a car there at the airport and make our way down to Lagos - on the Southwest tip of Portugal - where there is a pretty infamous party youth hostel called The Rising Cock. I have heard amazing things about the place. I will post a link to some photos of it soon. From there we plan to meet some fellow travelers and see where the wind blows us.

On another note, I'll be talking with my good friend Monica, who is Portuguese and visits the country often, this evening to talk about traveling there and some places that I should visit. I'm sure that another post will ensue this evening.

'Til then,

Miles.


**Update: I got a call from J. Whoadie this evening letting me know that he had booked his and Koci's ticket and he also convinced our good friend Justin "Munk" Summers to come along. I've been good friends with Munk for about 16 years now. He is also another person to jam with as he plays guitar as well. Awesome news.**

Flight Itinerary

I tried to book my flight on TAP Air as recommended by my very Portuguese friend, Monica, but tickets went from $629.40 last night to $751.20 today so I went on good old Kayak.com and checked all of the sites available and came up with my next best alternative - U.S. Air. Yes they are low budget and I'll get horrible airplane food, no internet, and no inflight movie and I'm paying $652.30 ($23 more) but hey it's only an 7 hour flight from Philly to Lisbon and an 8 hour flight back, right? A day late, a buck short. Bummer. I suppose if everything went to plan it would be kinda boring, huh? Indeed. Here's the itinerary:

Departing Flight Information

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US Airways (operated by US Express/Chautauqua) Flight 3040 0h 41m , 89mi	From Baltimore Washington Intl (BWI) Baltimore, MD Departs: 10/02/2009 at 11:00 A.M.	To Philadelphia Intl (PHL) Philadelphia, PA Arrives: 10/02/2009 at 11:41 A.M.	Aircraft Embraer RJ135/145 (Jet) Economy/Coach Class
US Airways Flight 738 7h 5m , 3448mi	From Philadelphia Intl (PHL) Philadelphia, PA Departs: 10/02/2009 at 8:25 P.M.	To Lisbon (LIS) Lisbon, Portugal Arrives: 10/03/2009 at 8:30 A.M.	Aircraft Boeing 757 (Jet) Economy/Coach Class

Returning Flight Information

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US Airways Flight 739 7h 50m , 3448mi	From Lisbon (LIS) Lisbon, Portugal Departs: 10/16/2009 at 10:35 A.M.	To Philadelphia Intl (PHL) Philadelphia, PA Arrives: 10/16/2009 at 1:25 P.M.	Aircraft Boeing 757 (Jet) Economy/Coach Class
US Airways (operated by US Express/Piedmont Airlines) Flight 4247 0h 47m , 89mi	From Philadelphia Intl (PHL) Philadelphia, PA Departs: 10/16/2009 at 3:25 P.M.	To Baltimore Washington Intl (BWI) Baltimore, MD Arrives: 10/16/2009 at 4:12 P.M.	Aircraft De Havilland Canada DHC-8 Dash 8 (Turboprop) Economy/Coach Class

Happy hour on Friday, October 16th around 6ish anyone? :o)

Gotta get some school work done now. Later,

Meelosh.

GOT IT!!

I was up and at 'em this morning at 7:45 am despite not being able to get to sleep til about 3:30-4 this morning - I guess you don't need sleep when life is so exciting and you're given new opportunities to live the dream every day.

I ran a few errands early, sent a few emails and bought a book I needed for class. Around 10 am I went to grab a quick to-go breakfast at a joint next to my house to enjoy over my new book The World is Curved: Hidden Dangers to the Global Economy.*

I wasn't gone but 5 minutes and on my way back I saw the postman getting into his truck leaving my front door. I ran to catch up with him, expecting my passport any day now, and managed to get his attention. It was indeed the Passport. Good stuff. This picture was taken on my BlackBerry so it's not the best in the world. I promise that when I get a new camera the pictures that I'll be posting here will be significantly better.

I'll be purchasing my ticket here in a few minutes and will be posting an itinerary. 'Til then,

Miles.


* This book is a response or addition to The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century by Thomas Friedman. It's a pretty good read so far. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to know how we got into this financial mess and what to expect and not expect in the future. Or to anyone who is thoroughly convinced that globalization is a good thing. Not that I think it's not but there are two sides to every coin. This subject is for another post on another blog though.

Hostel Reservations

Just a quick update here. My roommate throughout the trip has just booked a hostel for the two of us in Lisbon for the first three nights. The hostel is called Rossio Hostel and is an award winning Lisbon hostel. You can see it here. We'll be staying in a dorm like room with 6 beds so hopefully we should meet some pretty interesting characters there.

I have also just booked a similar style dorm room for the two of us at The Yellow House hostel in Porto, Portugal where we will be staying the final night (my first night that I'm truly on my own.) You can check that one out here. Hopefully I can meet some kids who are trying to travel down to Lagos, Portugal the next day with me. We'll see.

In between we'll be staying at student housing near the local University in Braga, Portugal where Mr. Jose Lucio lives and has his "museum." The link to that can be found here but it's all in Portuguese so I don't understand a word of it - I guess I should probably get on those Rosetta Stone lessons, huh?

'Til Next Time,

Miles.

Donations, Passport Update, To Do's

Moral and Monetary Support:

I cannot even believe how much support I've received! You guys are the cats ass - so to speak. I figured I would get moral support from some friends and family and possibly some donations from my immediately family just trying to help me realize this awesome opportunity but so far as of 11 am this morning I have received the following donations - not to mention the numerous inspirational emails and messages that I have gotten showing me endless moral support.

Carla, Sam the Adventurer, Alex and Spencer LaFever: $20 Always the first to donate to any cause of mine. You guys have given me so many opportunities and support over the years I cannot ever begin to show my gratitude. Sam I think we can count the full $920 as a donation from you as well - the idea for this blog came from you back when I was to travel to Hawai'i and tried to get me to do something dangerously similar.
Poppa Doc: $300. This $300 pales in comparison to your reminder to me to get off my keister and go submit my passport application (good news about that to follow) but is fully appreciated nonetheless. This is in addition to you paying my rent every month which has made my eduction infinitely easier to focus on. Thanks again!
Winnie and Will Raferty: $100 I understand that you're very good friends of the family but I also understand that you might see me once a year so we might not be as close as if you lived locally. Like the people above you guys always seem to support me no matter how silly my cause may be (see: The Grease Jar.) Thank you so much.
Anonymous (to the public): $400. You know you are and so do I. I respect your wishes to remain anonymous to the public but that doesn't change how much I appreciate this donation. You guys have always been very supportive of my academic efforts but I think this contribution will more directly impact my education as a person than any previous contribution that you have made - not to say that they have not been appreciated fully. I could get into more detail about the opportunities that I've been given by you generous folk but I feel like I'd be giving away too many clues.
April Goodson (Porsche): $50. Not to demean any of the previous donations because they are all appreciated but these donations came from people who are settled in their careers and may be able to afford to donate. You, on the other hand, are in the same boat as a lot of people our age. We don't stay in as good of contact as we used to when you (and Holli) were living local but if I'm not mistaken you have two jobs and are doing school at least part-time. I found this donation particularly inspiring because you - I can only assume - are trying to make ends meet like the rest of us and still found a way to donate. I cannot tell you how shocked I was when I saw the email from paypal regarding your donation. You are scholar and a gentlewoman. I'll definitely keep you posted on my travels.
Barb Lord: $50. You mentioned as you gave me this $50 that it wasn't much but you wanted to donate. I'm sure that you and my dad share finances and that brings your donation up to $350 which is far more than generous. Not only that but it means a lot that you would think to donate to my cause. Thanks so much!
Grand total: $920.00
First off, this is absolutely amazing. I mentioned it before but I'll mention it again, I never dreamed of getting this much financial support for this trip. Thanks so much. Second, I'd like to say that I do not put these donations up here to compare them (they are all fully appreciated) or to make anyone feel guilty for not donating. Money is a great thing to have but it doesn't do me any good without inspiration and support from my friends and family. I know that I have thanked everyone personally who has given me moral or monetary support (or both) but thanks again to you all!
Passport Update:
I got a phone call at 8:30 this morning from the State Department telling me that my social security number had already been registered with a different passport. I began to freak out until the gentleman on the other end of the line explained to me that this happens from time to time and that all I needed to do was fax over a photo copy of my social security card and he would process my application and have it in the mail tomorrow. I will be sending that fax in just a bit and should have my passport either Wednesday or Thursday - excellent news for sure!
To Do's:
Just a brief list of stuff that I have left to do before I take off on Friday, October 2nd.
- Fax a copy of social security card to State Department
- Make reservation @ hostel in Porto (Ewan Simpson, my roommate on this trip and director of the Entrepreneurial Opportunity Center, has already booked a room for us in Lisbon)
- Fill out final Wright Global Scholarship Application.
- Buy plane ticket to Lisbon (just checked today, depart BWI Friday Oct 2nd at 1:20PM and arrive in Lisbon on Saturday Oct 3rd at 6:15 am. Grand total $627.40)
- Get required trip insurance.
- Talk to Verizon about activating my phone to go global. (have a feeling that this is going to be an expensive endeavor and I'll probably end up getting a pay-as-you-go phone over in Portugal)
- First formal Portugal trip meeting Wednesday at 4:30 PM
- Get on Anne Arundel County Public Library website and start learning Portuguese with their free subscription to Rosetta Stone. (Wish me luck with this one. I am usually pretty good at picking up accents but I cannot seem to be able to figure this Portuguese out.)
- Buy new case for my guitar (broke my at the beach this summer - you didn't think I was gonna go to Portugal without bringing a taste of my American late-night jam sesh's did you?)
- Buy new Kodak Zi8 Pocket 1080i HD Video Camera/Still Camera to keep you all visually updated on my travels. (I hope you don't think that your donations are going towards buying me new toys - I picked up a catering gig with my dad this weekend and made exactly enough to buy it. Thanks Pop and Barb!)
I'm sure there is plenty more on my list but I have a feeling that I won't know what that stuff is until I come to it. Oh yeah and this is not to mention the school work I have to do. Enough blogging for now. 'Til next time,
Mi.
P.S. If you simply canNOT get enough of my blogging (which I'm sure is doubtful) be sure to check out a new blog that I'm writing for at the University of Baltimore. I post every Thursday by 8 am - check it out. http://ubaltblog.blogspot.com

Open to Suggestions

After the class leaves I intend to stay behind for a week or so and see the country. I have recently received some comments on my blog regarding suggestions of places that I might consider traveling in Europe. Though I do intend to stay in Portugal, that is not set in stone. I would welcome any travel stories or suggestions.

Have you been somewhere in Europe that you loved? Tell me about it. Get involved in the action! I would hate to miss an opportunity because you didn't feel like you should speak up! I know that I've heard stories from many of you so don't be bashful - share with us! Do you have friends in Europe that need company? Contrary to popular belief I can be a very polite guest.

You can either elect to comment on any of my blog postings or send me an email if you want to include all of those juicy details where you may wish to stay anonymous - I would never breach the Doctor/Patient relationship after all.

Tenative Portugal Itinerary

Saturday, October 3^rd:

8:30 am: Prof. Nielsen and students arrive at Lisbon Airport and are greeted by Prof. Machado.

Go to hostel to leave suitcases and get settled. Jogging with Prof. Machado, depending on time, physical shape and weather. Prof. Machado will rent a van for the week. (~ €350+gas is the total charge. so there will be a per person charge to cover this cost.

12:30: Lunch at the Café/Restaurant Martinho da Arcada at the North-East corner of Terreiro do Paço. (The spirit of Fernando Pessoa, an icon of Portuguese poetry, is still very much alive in this traditional café!)

After Lunch: City Tour to Lisbon Castle Walking/Trolley tour to Saint George castle, on top of one of the highest hills in Lisbon. You’ll get an awesome view of the city from this vantage point and absorb much of Portugal’s incredible history.

8:30 pm: Free Evening. Students may wish to explore nightlife on their own and/or with Leonor, Professor Machado’s daughter. Profs. Nielsen and Machado would like to know where you will be going and that you agree you will always be ready to give our consulting team project your all during the daytime!!

Sunday, October 4^th:

9:30 am: Jerónimos Monastery and Tower of Belém (both allow people in until 5pm) Praca do Comercio (Terreiro do Paço) and along the river Tejo.

Noon: Guided Tour to the House Museum Amalia Rodrigues (€5/person), followed by lunch on your own.

After Lunch: Fado Museum Tour and Meeting with architect Felipe Lopes (have to confirm with him) at the Fado Museum (but still to be confirmed) and guided tour of Alfama and/or Music Museum.

9pm: All team dinner or optional dinner at “Fado Maior” or at another casa do fado selected by Jose Lucio. (It might be possible for Jose Lucio and Sergio Fonseca to play for the students in the same session.) Free Evening following dinner. (Same guidelines as previous evening applies here)

Monday, October 5^th (Portuguese Holiday):

9:30 am: Welcoming Session. Kick-off team meeting in Prof. Machado’s condo rooftop meeting room with an excellent view to the river. Students describe their major objectives for the week and priorities for meetings/location visits. Plans for week are finalized.

Lunchtime: Visit to the Tecnindustria - Novas Tecnologias Industriais, Lda Est. Consiglieri Pedroso, 71 Edificio F- Fracção P Queluz de Baixo 2730 - 055 Barcarena Telefone: 00351 214 366 214 ; Fax: 00351 214 366 215; www.tecnindustria.pt ; Hosts: Miguel Correia and Paula Candeias.

After Lunch: Students meet with José Lúcio at his home and view his collection. Next, students visit luthier and INET Ph.D. student Sérgio Fonseca’s workshop.

9 pm: All team dinner or optional dinner at “Mesa dos Frades” or at another casa do fado selected by Jose Lucio. (It might be possible for Jose Lucio and Sergio Fonseca to play for the students in the same session) Free Evening. (Same guidelines as previous evenings applies here.)

Tuesday, October 6^th:

8 am: Travel to Braga with intermediate stop in Tomar. Meet with licensed professionals of the Cultural Tourism Association of the Instituto Politécnico de Tomar.

9:30 am: Guided tour of the Convento de Cristo and Castelo dos Templários and the Historic Center of Tomar.

Lunchtime: Lunch on the move or at/near the University of Coimbra.

After Lunch: Afternoon visit to Coimbra and its university (the oldest Portugal and one of the oldest in Europe).

8:30 pm: Free Evening.

Wednesday, October 7^th:

9:30 am: At Universidade do Minho. Discussion with Prof. Pedro Froufe, UMinho Law School, on the legal entity issue for the Living Museum: How to set up a social enterprise as a legal entity.

Lunchtime: Presentation by Prof. Machado on Doing Business in Portugal.

After Lunch: Wrap-up team meeting. Visit to one or two luthiers near Braga

Evening: Presentation by Prof. Nielsen on Doing Business in Maryland.

Thursday, October 8^th:

9:30 am: Tour of Porto and the Douro River.

Lunchtime: Lunch on the go.

After Lunch: Continue tour of Porto and the Douro River. Visit to the English Factory (old wine exporters association) and to one of the port wine cellars.

Evening: Free Evening

Friday, October 9^th:

Early am: The rest of the class leaves and my solo adventure begins.

Lunchtime: Living the dream with a Portuguese Princess.

***Please note the evening of Saturday, October 3rd: "Students may explore nightlife on their own and/or with Leonor, Professor Machado’s daughter." I choose on my own with Leonor, Professor Machado's daughter. Perhaps subsequent 'free nights' as well. Wish me luck!***

A Big Break!

Contrary to what some believe I did not start this blog to receive hand outs from people. I enjoy writing and thought that a select few would get a kick out of what I'm doing - whether it be inspired or simply to satisfy the human need for drama.

This afternoon I received an email telling me that I had an anonymous donation of $400. I do not mean to underestimate anyone's generosity but starting out I did think that I would pay for half of my trip through ALL of the donations let alone one. Whoever you are your donation is truly appreciated and big break!!

Generosity and Passport Update

I would like to share some generosity that's come my way since I started this thing. Last Friday evening, when I was visiting with my friend Matt and my new friend Kleek I got an email on my phone saying that I had a donation in my paypal account. The donation was for $20.00 from Uncle Sam the Adventurer, Aunt Carla, Alex and Spencer (cousins). My professor has told me that dinner at the hostel is 12 Euros/night (which includes a glass of wine - very nice!) The LaFever's contribution - which works out to about 13.70 Euros will cover my first nights dinner. Thanks a bunch guys, I will be sure to tell you how delicious the meal was!

Over the weekend one of my very good friends, Paul, said that he'd "pay not only for a dinner for you but a drink...(so you can) bask in the sun on a white sandy beach with a gorgeously dark complected exotic Portuguese woman by my side and a tropical drink (That Paul Bought Me) in my hand." Paul Wall you will no doubt hear about the women of Portugal whether you buy me a drink or not but I'll definitely take you up on the drink - Thanks brother!

Today I got a phone call from my dad asking me what the deal was with my passport - a VERY welcome reminder indeed. Not only did he remind me that I needed to get that taken care of ASAP but he also offered to pay for it. After visiting the post office today I realized that donation totalled $199.25. Not only was that an extremely generous donation but if I hadn't gotten the call from him reminding me to go do the damn thing already I most likely would not be going to Portugal. Thanks Pop - I'll make sure you get the full low down on the entire trip!

As far at the passport scenario goes there's good news and bad news. The good news is my passport application is in and it's out of my hands now whether or not I get it in time. There are 18 days (including today AND the day I'm supposed to take off) until I am scheduled to leave. The bad news is that even when expedited, passports can take up to 3 weeks to be processed. The worse news is that my birthday certificate was in pretty horrendous condition and when homegirl took it out of the ziploc bag that I had protecting it she sealed the deal - where the certificate was trifolded now exists 2 birth certificates (the top 1/3 and the bottom 2/3.) She taped it back together and said that they'll have to make a decision at the state department. The silver lining to that is that I can go to Richmond, VA and get a new one the same day for $12.95. With all this drama who needs soap opera's?

'Til next time,

Meelosh

Mr. VanKleek

This past Friday night my roommate, Ronnie, invited me to come along with him to a friends house in Locust Point (South Baltimore) on the Inner Harbor . Our friend, Matt, was there who just recently got back from studying abroad for a semester in Prague, Czech Republic. Matt happened to have a friend coming into town who was a local that he met in Prague. I haven't seen Matt in a while because I've been home in Edgewater for the summer so we were catching up on what had been going on with each other and my trip to Portugal came up. Matt was naturally really stoked for me and told me that Nick "Kleek" VanKleek, his friend from Prague, had just gotten back from there and I should go talk with him.

I was extremely jazzed on Portugal before I spoke with Kleek but after talking with him I absolutely cannot wait to get there. Kleek is definitely someone whom I would consider a world traveler. He has been to 28 countries and visited some of the most exotic places in the world. He told me that of all the gorgeous beaches in the world (Thailand, South of France, Greece, Hawai'i etc.) that he has never in his life been to a more gorgeous and down to earth place as the South of Portugal. He had his iPhone with him and showed me a few pictures - I asked him if he'd email me a few of them. In his email he mentioned that a girl happened to break his camera right before he left Portugal so all he had were the few pictures he took with his phone. The pictures below are of the red rock cliffs in the South of Portugal, not the beaches he described. As this is a public forum I've decided to omit the photos of the nude beaches (sorry gentlemen!)

A (not so) Brief Introduction

Here it is folks - my blog about my entire experience, from start to finish, about my trip to Portugal. What am I going to be doing in Portugal you ask?


Well, I'm taking an International Management class at the University of Baltimore this semester as one of my business electives. For the past year and half the undergrad and graduate Int'l Mgmt classes at UB have been working with the Universidade do Minho and the Institute of Ethnomusicology at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa to help Mr. José Lúcio in his dream to create a museum - Center for the Portuguese Guitar/Cordophones (sounds a little funny when translated, I know.) The museum will display his collection of 300+ traditional Portuguese stringed instruments, 3000+ traditional Portuguese vinyl records, and his literary estate of 1000+ sheet music books and books about Portuguese music history. This collection is valued at over $1.5M - hell of a lot of equipment for a civilian.


The mission of the museum is multifaceted but essentially it aims to preserve the musical culture in Portugal through education "in the context of human capability building." The museum will not only educate the public but it will also train the under and unemployed to be skilled crafts people (repairing instruments), digitization technicians (all of the vinyls and sheet music are being put into digital format) and museum tour guides.


What I'll be doing in Portugal, aside from living the dream, is evaluating the business plan that they've put together over the past 3 semesters and finding any flaws with it - a business start-up consultant if you will. Additionally, I will be crafting a way for this non-profit (NGO: non-governmental organization) to create a revenue stream. In other words, we'll be coming up with business ideas for the museum to create a for-profit arm of the business to support the non-profit end of things.


A brief background:


I am incredibly stoked on the idea of this trip and this museum. I have been waiting (without even knowing it) for an opportunity like this for quite a long time now. For those of you that know me but may not know much about my career interests (read: passion), one thing that I am a true believer in is Social Entrepreneurship - taking the problems of the world out of the hands of government and NGO's and placing them in the hands of profit and social responsibility driven businesses. This may seem cynical but, in my eyes, government is simply too bureaucratic and NGO's are too . . . Utopian and nice? to get things done. Put a problem in the hands of an efficient business, led by someone who truly cares, and the movers and the shakers will move and shake and the problem gets solved. There's an incentive beyond helping people there. You're helping people and making a little coin doing it - not a bad thing if you ask me.


This project is definitely something that I'm interested in because it has to do with music and its preservation. It places a value on music and the arts and culture and history and that's what I dig about it. Beyond the music aspect of things, however, what I'm really digging is the business consulting aspect. I've been interested in starting a sustainability consulting firm - showing businesses how they can save money by being more environmentally friendly - when I'm finished with school. Magically (read: the universe is looking out for me), I've been presented with several opportunities this semester to explore my interest in consulting, this being one of them. However there's one small obstacle:


The Logistics:


When I came to UB a perfect storm was brewing in my life. I began to realize that no one was going to make my life for me and that I needed to do make it myself. I began to realize what I wanted to do with my life. I began to realize how critical of a role my education was going to play in getting me to where I wanted to go. In essence, I began to get some self-awareness. Since I've been at UB I have not received a grade below a B+ (yes, statistics got me good) and currently have a cumulative GPA of 3.75. Yes, I do pick things up quickly but you would never know that judging by the 2.notgood GPA that I had leaving UMD. The difference is that when I'm in class now I'm not trying to force myself to pay attention because I'm "supposed to." Now I pay attention because I know that I'll need this information when I get into my career field. And when I'm in a class that I know I probably wont use I know now that I need to get an A in it so I can get into a good grad school, or so I can tell a company that I'm applying for that I graduated with honors.


The reason that I bring all this up is not to say "look at me, look how good I'm doing now" it's to make it clear that I try extremely hard because I know that it will help me get to where I want to go - so that I have the tools to SAVE THE WORLD!! As a result of my hard work the past three semesters I've been offered a scholarship that will pay for $500 of my, roughly, $750 flight to Portugal - as of October 2nd (the day my trip begins) I will officially be a Wright Global Business Scholar. However, my professor has estimated that I will need $1,200 above and beyond that scholarship to pay for general expenses on the trip (remaining airfare, meals, stays at the hostel, train fare etc.) which is not to mention the expenses that I will incur getting ready for the trip (expedited passport, mandatory travel and health insurance etc.)


My Uncle Sam, the adventurer, has instilled in me, over the years, a belief that you should go do what inspires you and the details, like money and such, will work themselves out somehow. That is one of the many reasons that I've decided to go ahead with this trip despite the fact that I don't have the money for it. I tucked enough money away this summer that I could pay for some of my living expenses while working only about 15-20 hours/week this semester - so I could focus on school. I plan to use that money to pay for my expenses on this trip despite the fact that I will be coming home with very little to live on the rest of the semester. I don't think that I should pass up a once in a lifetime opportunity like this simply because I'll be tight on money and have to pick up extra hours when I get back.


Where you come in:


I plan to keep this blog updated about everything Portugal. When I get my passport, I'll let you know. When I book my ticket, I'll let you know. When I take off, touch down, get to the hostel, get to the museum, meet Mr. Lucio, eat a delicious meal, bask in the sun on a white sandy beach with a gorgeously dark complected exotic Portuguese woman by my side and a tropical drink in my hand, I'll let you know. I'll paint a vivid picture of my stay in Portugal with my words. I'll supplement my words with photographs and I'll supplement my photographs with videos. Your subscription to my blog is entirely free. I will be blogging because I've recently stumbled upon a new found love for writing.


If at any point before, during or after my trip you become inspired by my blog, let me know. Yes I will be setting up a place where you can donate to my cause - perhaps you're so inspired by my journey to improve myself and the world that you'll want to pay for one of my dinners, maybe a night in the hostel. Perhaps you get sooo inspired that you want to pay for my train ticket from Lisbon two hours North to the museum. Buttttttt, if you're inspired and broke or don't want to show it monetarily then let me know. This is not a public tv pledge drive - you do not have to pledge any monetary support to show that you support me. If you're digging what I'm doing, let me know. Under each blog there is a place where you can leave comments. I would LOVE more than anything to hear what you're thinking. If you're digging what I'm doing then let a friend know, one that doesn't even know me. If you're digging what I'm doing then give my phone number, (410) 703.9690, to a gorgeous 20/30 something (preferably female - but I'm open to suggestion) and let them know that I'm single!!! Okay maybe that's a bit weird.


I hope I get lots of support from you all - I'm gonna need it. I have a LOT to do between now and October 2nd though, so I'm gonna run now. Wish me luck!




'Til next time swashbucklers,




Mi.