Uma manga! (A mango!)

Olá! Tudo bem?
Parabéns mama! Ontem foi o meu anniversário de um mês cá em Portugal. Aka yesterday was my one month anniversary of being in Portugal. haha grammar=hardly anything, though. Don't think that sentence is totally correct :-D.
The other day I tried to count to ten in french. Couldn't get nine or ten, no matter how hard I tried. hm...hehe it's so hard to imagine that I could lose french that much, but I guess the portuguese is pushing all the french out.
hm...what did I do last week? I don't remember what I did tuesday and wednesday....school, as normal. Wednesday night I had my first experience of being a normal portuguese teen and going out to a bar/disco. I don't know if it's my type of night--it was definitely a lot thrown at me at once--smoking, drinking, drugs, loud music, late night....But I think I'm adjusting, and maybe I'll start to enjoy it a bit more once I get used to it. Though as you know, I'm not really a party person.... :-D
Thursday we had the day off from school because it was celebrating the end of the monarchy in portugal 1910. I went to the beach with Xuxu and Joana, then got gelado at Santini, a famous ice cream place ("o melhor gelado do mundo").
Friday after school I went to a shopping mall with Anne-Lise, Nadia, and a couple of Nadia's friends. We had lunch, then went to see "World Trade Center." It was pretty good, though of course hard to see. I kept thinking--wow, that's my country; all these other people aren't American like I am; the experience is different. I guess because everyone here is so normal that sometimes I forget their not American :-D. Especially Anne-Lise because her english is so good.
Friday night was the birthday party of my host cousin Carlota. African themed, so I dressed up in a "skirt" made out of cool fabric, lots of jewelry, and corn rowed my hair. Catarina and Joana had afro wigs--everyone was dressed up great! It was cool. I ate sooooo much amazing food...ugh. Danced some, too. Again, drinking and smoking, but on less of a level as the other night, so it was as hard for me...I enjoyed myself. They tried to get me to drink a cup of spiked punch, saying it was "absolutely essential," "portuguese tradition...." but I don't like alcohol, so I took a couple sips and put it down. I'm legal to drink here, but why drink if I don't like the taste or the thought of what alcohol can do to people? Anyway, after lots of good food I went to bed around 3:30. It was at the beach house, which was fun. Saturday we went to the beach again, yay! Huge waves like on the vineyard, which was fun. For lunch I had a white bread baguette with a hot dog and batatas fritas. I guess I'm conforming to a different eating style. Usually it's not that bad, though, hehe. minus all the amazing sweets.
After the beach we went to Ericeira, a little town a bit up north, where Miguel's father has a house. it was a cute town--lots of blue and white houses like in greece. I had gambas (prawns), and queques (cakey pastries)---sooo good! Then fell asleep on the ride home.
Sunday I really just stayed at home all day. That's what I wanted to do--I wasn't really in a mood to be social. I think I go out here more often than I do at home--it's hard for me! trying to be social! hehe. I went at night to buy a school book--public transportation all by myself, which I'm getting used to. Most days after school i come home by bus and walking, and went to buy the book being driven there, then trains back. I guess I'm so much more independent living in a city. It's good practice for life! hehe.
Today...school....I'm understanding more, which is good. Today I asked for directions to a gym I might go to, talked to people, bought things...all in portuguese! I titled this a mango because I bought a mango in the cute little supermercado near where I live for 0,76 euros, then went home and ate the whole thing. yay!
uh, oh dinner time!
beijinhos!!!