HT4718 Can't download "aditional components" from recovery. Internet too slow. What do I do now?

Question

Hello,
I am overseas for a month and I had to erase my hard drive and do a fresh install of OSX Lion.
I erased my drive and all went fine. Now I am trying to reinstall the OS from the COMMAND+R menu. The problem is my internet connection here is too slow for the "aditional components" and it ends of hanging on 9 hours or something and then just says it failed to download the aditional components. I now it isn't a hardware issue because I have done this before while I was in the states with a fast conection and it worked both times I have reinstalled the OS.
I was wondering how large is the "aditional components"?
What is the point of the Recovery HD if I need to download the recovery from the internet anyway?
Who was the genius that made the decision to eliminate the install CDS? Espceically when were overpaying for these machines. And what made this genius assume that every one has access to fast internet speeds?
Thank you,

Answer 1

And what made this genius assume that every one has access to fast internet speeds?
Requirements for reinstalling OS X Lion or OS X Mountain Lion
Reinstalling OS X Lion or OS X Mountain Lion via OS X Recovery requires broadband access to the Internet via Wi-Fi or an Ethernet connection. OS X is downloaded over the Internet from Apple when OS X Recovery is used for reinstallation.
From here >   OS X: About OS X Recovery