Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Trip to Viana do Castelo and a surprise visit to Spain

So this past weekend, Sept 17-19 My program facilitator Ana Paula and I took the train from Coimbra to Porto. Once arriving in Porto her boyfriend picked us up, for he was joining us on this program trip(right??) and we drove to different parts of Viana do castelo. Viana do castelo is a very traditional city. We seen traditional shops that sold traditional outfits.

The Museum of traje-which is the traditional clothing worn by the woman of Viana do Castelo (inside the museum there are tons of different tradition costumes worn by the women during special festivals. For a wedding the bride and groom wear all black with white trimming. Also on the last floor there was hand made gold that was worth over 5 million euros=very expensive
During festivals woman wear colorful hand-embroidered costumes plus 20 pounds of gold jewelry around there neck!
Outside the Museum

The ocean was beautiful
Praça de Republic, common place where shops and restaurants are located

The view
Inside the church
A church that dates back to 16th and 17th century


The city is really up north and on the coast so often times we stopped to see the scene. The scene was the same: waves, the sound of the sea, and a sense of tranquility. After a day of traveling we headed to the hotel, got settled in, and we met back up to have dinner together.

For dinner we ate at a place called Ol Magel. I order facana which is a type of fish that came with salad and rice. The keep the head on the fish here, I wasn’t scared because I was so hungry..lol plus I grew up my fishing and eating fish because my mother loves to fish.


My dinner

The next day we went to visit another small town Fortaleza. We just walked around and took pictured of the view. It felt like we were visiting an old castle. I enjoyed the whole trip away from Coimbra surprisingly. I told myself to make the most of the trip even though it would be me and my program director and her boyfriend. Her boyfriend was pretty cool, he cracked tons of jokes but everyone they had to break them down because I didn’t understand any of it.

Fortaleza reminded me of a castle

The streets and in the background you see the one way entrance

Smiling with the view

Another view

For lunch we drove like 15 more minutes and we were in Spain. It was my first time in Spain and I was really happy about visiting two countries in one day. We visited a city called Tui and another city name Baiona, both were also on the coast. We had lunch at a place call Xamon, it was really small in the side but had tons of tables outside the restaurant. There were tons of people there, it must have been really popular. I kept saying obrigada but I meant to say gracias, I almost forgot we were in a totally different country where they spoke Spanish. The power of languages and communication, it amazes me every time I travel. One minute I was hearing Portuguese from Ana Paula and her boyfriend and the next minute I was hearing Spanish. I ordered a tortilla com queso and jamon ( that’s ham and cheese something) I thought I was going to receive like an actually flour tortilla shell with cheese and ham, to my surprise I received basically an omelet with ham and cheese. It was so GOOD!

Welcome to Spain

'
The city of Baiona
The restaurant in Spain, hanging pig legs
Information about the city

After that we drove back to the hotel, I fell asleep in the car, two hours later I woke up and we were still driving. We were lost. We pulled over to the side of the road and then after a few minutes he got back in the car and said I see the bridge back to Portugal. I stayed awake from then on, I don’t like not knowing where I’m going, so I watch intently out the window. Once we arrived back to the hotel it was still very sunny out and so I decided to lay out in the back of the hotel because there was a pool. To bad the water was very cold otherwise I would have got in the pool. The hotel we stayed in was really nice. I never had a whole hotel room to myself ( now I know how you feel –mk) I laid around mostly at night, turned on the tv and tried to find something on the four channels to watch. The second night the movie PS I love you was on so I enjoyed watching that as I waited to meet back up for dinner. For dinner we walked across the street to a small little restaurant I forgot the name of it but it had a home feel to it. I order salmon and it came with potatoes and cabbage( but this cabbage taste very different from the US because usually I wouldn’t eat cabbage, but this was good). If it’s one thing I spend my money on its food, I always make sure I eat well. The next morning we ate the free breakfast ( bread, cheese, ham, fruit, tea, coffee, and water) and then we left the hotel to head back to Coimbra. It took like 40 minutes to get to the train station. We got on the train from Porto to Coimbra, took about 1hour or so. The rest of the day I did laundry and cleaned up. Talked to my friends about my weekend and cooked a big dinner so that I don’t have to cook the next day :)

Then Monday came and I went to this beach called Faivela. It was really nice because its like a hidden beach so there wasn’t a lot of people there. I enjoyed the sound of the water, there were these mini falls, to get to the beach we had to walk across a wooden bridge. At first I was scared because the bridge looked dangerous but to my surprise the water was clear I could look down and see the bottom. The water was so shallow, like to my knees if even that. With the sun and the sounds of the water it was destined I spent my whole day there. Something about me and traveling, its like a light switch from the busy Leslie that has to do list and scheduling meals and shows in Madison, to the chill Leslie that has no plans and leaves when I please. I enjoy both lives, for when I am in Madison I long for calmness and uncertainty and sometimes when I travel I miss having a schedule and business. I feel bless to have experience both. Realizing there necessary, and I’m fortunate to have to choose one over the other, I just live in both, and it creates a wholeness of self.

Well after the beach headed home to cook dinner and then I talked to my new roommate in our small room. Her name is Datianna she’s a first year student studying chemistry. I think I may try and find my own room though, I really value my privacy and if I can find something for the same price or cheaper than why not? I have some friends that are looking for apartments now so I could just get a room with them. J

Oh ya, today at the beach I wrote my first poem in Portuguese so as I close this post with a poem:

O som de agua faz me completo

Eu escucho por reposta

Porque eu tenho medo de preguntas

Porque eu tenho medo da reposta

Então eu aprendeindo eschuchar o som

The sound of the water makes me complete

I listen for the answer

Because I’m scared to ask my questions

Because I fear the answers

So I learn to listen to the sound

Monday, September 20, 2010

Chickens?

So I also went to the beach called Fugeria that was like an hour and half away. The weather has been great here and I have been trying to soak in as much as possible.
My friend Natalie and I took a train and on the way we meet some friends, Brazilians. the convo went something like this "Brasilera? Brasiliera. Brasileria!" and then we all hung out and talked. While on the beach I meet some chickens. Yes some chickens, that tried to dance, surf, fly, and also try to take a young lady to dinner.


My friends and I and our new friend the chicken.


The chicken trying to ask this young lady out for dinner, but once she told them she wanted chicken they left. lol

People on the beach
My friends and I again

I'm Back

I know I know, its been a while but I've been trying to learn my way in Portugal. I will try to update at least once a week. Every day I have no obligations or plans and for some strange reason everyday becomes FULL and I'm busy.
From last time I wrote(about two weeks ago) I experienced the night life in Coimbra. Tuesdays and Thursdays are the most popular days to go out. Every barr here is always packed full of people, majority if not all students. They also have places where a people dance, called discoteci. I went to an african night one with a few friends i met that are from cape verde, it was really fun. But guess what time it started? Like 1 am!! thats another big shocker here, people go out at 1 or 2am and don't come home till 6 or 7am. I don't know how they do it, they must take naps but every time i ask people if they take naps they tell me no. I get so tired waiting for 1am around 10 and 11pm. My brazilian friends I always telling me to stop acting like a baby..lol and come out. It's funny to think I'm in Portugal and majority of the friends that I have made are from Brazil. It's so much easier for me to understand Brazilians speak Portuguese than it is to understand the people of Portugal. But i will honestly say that the portuguese people here have a way of giving bad vibes to brazilians here. whether its in a joke to another friend, or a certain look. I may not understand every word but I definitely understand body language and the vibes people give off to one another. It's mostly Portuguese people "correcting" Brazilians on the way they talk as if they speak some other language. To me, I thought the people would be more kind but you see this competition, this attitude that says"I'm from Portugal and speak portuguese and you don't." I'm not Brazilian however spending time with my Brazilians friends its seems at least once a day some Portuguese person makes some joke about Brazilians.

The week after that I celebrated my friend Natalia birthday and that was a lot of fun. It amazes me how nice and happy all these people around us were about her birthday, people who have never even met her. The bartender Avo, has become a friend of ours and he made a whip cream and oranges cake for natalie. It was a really nice gestures and afterwards he danced on the bar..lol

Natalie and I

The bartender Avo dancing

The whip cream oranges cake



Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Finding/Making my way


Today was a pretty chill day compared to yesterday (monday sept 6, 2010).. let me give a mini recap so I can get back to today.
Monday I basically had tons of paper work to do and turn in at the University of Coimbra. I THOUGHT I was starting courses, to my knowledge courses start OCTOBER 11, 2010 I have a placement test oct 8. I'm like what??? What am I doing here so early? I couldn't been home chilling. I mean why does the program have documents stating that it starts sept 6?? and this is suppose to be a study abroad program right?...um.. this is AN EXCHANGE. except in my case I'm the only one for this semester. The program= set up courses and housing but other than that you have to learn how to jump, skip, sing, fall, whatever you have to do. Luckily for me I've been bless with not only traveling experience, but faith, a family on my back and a history of people holding their head up high. Besides my afro curly head weighs to much to be walking with it down. So when I go out by myself I'm always smiling at people and looking like I know where I'm going. shooot I usually never know where I'm going I just walk around and find what was never lost. One thing I've notice is that there are no streets signs, so all my memory of the neighborhood I live in is based on landmarks. for example: turn left at the supermercado (grocery store) keep straight till you see the pay phone, right at the barre, then walk all the way down the streets it curves down but don't worry and then cross the round-a-bout and then your there. lol
So that Monday after a busy morning and the news of me not starting courses till next month I just ate and slept.
Now on to today, Sept 7, 2010 I had lunch with my friend Sonia and her boyfriend at a cantina which is basically like the university food services but guest what?? ITS GOOD. They give you a full plate of food and its only 2,50euro compared to the nasty chicken fingers i had at the irish pub that was like 6,30euro ( I must have payed for the location). Anyways after eating lunch and talking we had coffee. I'm not a coffee drinker at all but here they drink it all the time. Its coffee and cigarettes. After I drank the strong coffee I just walked around in hope that I would find a dance organization in the student organization building. I seen some flyers but I didn't find an actual person to talk to. Headed back to my room to just chill.
Later, in my search to dance I went back to this ballet shop i stumbled upon and the same lady was working there from before, her name is Isabel. I must have been there for over an hour we just talked and talked. She encouraged me to keep practicing my portuguese and reassured me that I would pick it up. Isabel is a master student working on her final dissertation, which she turned in today so she told me to wish her luck because she doesn't want to do another year of school. I told her how I have been looking for places to dance so she gave me some names and said she would take me if I liked, of course I said yes (with streets with no names and google maps not that helpful i could use all the help i could get). After talking to Isabel I walked to the mall to find cheap food, I found something better than that! As i entered the mall i walked in no particular direction and then I immediately thought about the mall of america and how the food court is on the top floor, so I took all the escalators to the top floor. BINGO, all the food places were there and a movie theatre. After looking at all my options I settled for KFC, man it was so delicious!! the spicy chicken taste like the spicy chicken back at home, but as far as them french fries oh they never made into my stomach they went straight to the trash, but the corn on the cob..man I know someone seen me cheesing when I was eating.
As I left the the mall which is shaped in a huge circle i seen a picture of a woman and a man dancing so i walked a little closer and realize that inside this mall up three floors was a dance place. I went up the stairs to read the schedule. The studio is called sabor latino it has mostly latin dance classes for couples and women. I found one hip hop dance class, african dance but i need to figure out what ritmo means the class is labeled ritmo africano but that class is friday. So i'm looking forward to Friday and before that I'm going to check out some other studios. If all fails and dancing is too expensive here ill just dance on the tennis courts in the backyard of my residence..lol or something. Or I can join the gymnastic club I seen information about it at the student organization center, they have aerial dancing and I've always wanted to try that. I got options, things are always looking up when your attitudes up. When you travel, well actually anything in life, your attitude can dictate everything if one allows it to.
Well I'm off to bed its 1 15 in the morning here. A quote to sleep on:
"To feel today what one felt yesterday isn't to feel - it's to remember today what was felt yesterday, to be today's living corpse of what yesterday was lived and lost. "- Fernando Pessoa (Portuguese writer)

Monday, September 6, 2010

Exploring my new surroundings

The very next day (Saturday Sept 4, 2010) I look forward to my honey cluster cereal. I pour my ligh fat milk in the cereal and it taste so weird. i tried to force a few more bites in my mouth. Why am i forcing myself to eat this? I pour it out and head to my room for my I miss america drawer which is filled with family photos, candy, english books, my cell phone, and oatmeal. I grab my never-let me-down oatmeal and eat it with a smile.
I meet a few Portuguese students here so I talk to them for a few hours. One of their names is Sonia.
My friend Sonia
She is a master student study biomedical engineering (I got a head ache type that). She is really nice and helped me set up the internet for my lab top. Just remembered I been in Portugal and haven't been able to contact anyone because the phone card I receive for free from STA with like 10 minutes on it..lol wasn't working on the pay phone(are they suppose to?) I finally contacted family and friends, I set up the magic jack and then my mac dies in the middle of a great skype convo. I can't find an adapter for my computer, I thought I brought one but I couldn't find it. I head to the mall to purchase one, I buy one all excited, I get back and realize that it only allows two prung american plugs and not 3 prung. I go back to the mall trying to search all over to find one, with my mac charger so they understand what im looking for. No luck. in my sadness (so dramatic..lol) I stop at this little cute shop and order a crepe. Again I'm not sure if I sit where ever or how it works i don't want to just assume I can sit anywhere, the garçom (waiter) understanding my confusion speaks in english and tells me I can sit where I like. I think uhh why does everyone speak english here. It's going to be hard for me to earn Portuguese if everyone speaks english, watches all the american television series, and blast american music on their stereos. Well the garçom askes me later why i looked so down and Iexplain how I really would like to charge my computer so I can have communication with my family and friends. He tells me about another mall that may have an adapter, he says ill be right back. He comes back a few minutes later with this map he drew, he further explains what bus I need to catch and where to get off. I thank him, pay him for my crepe, and with my spirit lifted set out to find the other shopping mall.
I find the shopping mall I look around, get lose, get help, and then they tell me that they don't have it. In my despair I decided to buy food for dinner, food always cheers me up..lol. I have my hands full of groceries and wait at the bus stop for what seems like a whole hour. Bus finally comes, I think I'm on the wrong one. I sit patiently to afraid to ask the bus driver, for some reason I just have confidence in my directions even though I never even been here before..lol well I see a familiar land mark, I push the stop button and get home safely.
The next day (sunday Sept 5, 2010)I met a few other girls who were staying downstairs one was from Australia, one was from Czech republic and three of them were from Brazil. A few of us took a mini tour of the campus with our awesome tour guide Sonia.

A statue of a hardworking woman
A restaurant called the Manga=The Mango
The streets are all weird like this kind of reminds me of Inception

In the Botanical Garden
Another beautiful water fountain
It's tradition to throw the freshmen in the pound
Steep stairway that leads to all the barres



And I'm off to EUROPE

Again..right? I just returned from visiting Europe in July for an amazing experience in Manchester, England as a performer in an international theatre Festival called Contact the world. But this time I'm really off. I'm off to study abroad for a YEAR. I will spend one semester at the University of Coimbra in Portugal and second semester I will spend at the University of Belo Horizonte in Brazil. Both programs work with my Portuguese and Latin American studies major as well as my personal interest in different cultures, the african diaspora, and dance so it works out well.
A year. A year? People asked me that all the time before I left. Yes, a year. Ambitious right? In the words of Wale who created a song for an ambitious girl like myself he raps :
I'm in love with your business
and your productivity is the reason I intrest, ambitious girl
see, I like the person that you are,
but I'm in love with the person that you have potential to be
and all your dreams sharing with me
and your secrets baring with me
and the flaws, you aint even got to mention to me,
ambitious girl, you just wanna win, and you'd rather chase your dreams,
then to try to chase these men

Man, I have to thank Wale in person or send him a fan letter because this song is definitely always on repeat. ok...now to my ambitious future...
...I left Minnesota Thursday 1 pm on Sept 3, 2010 with a full day of travel including a stop in Philly for about 4 hours. I made it Friday morning at 8:30am to Portugal ( which is really 3:30am MN time:(). I landed safely in the airport in Lisbon with many things needed to be done: had to exchange money and then figure out what train to catch that takes me to Coimbra. Well with all that information on my cell phone email that doesn't work had to put on my thinking cap. I pulled out the emergency called with all the numbers called the director for my program Ana Paula and asked her what train station I should go to to take the train. Well she must have misunderstood me because she replies I'm meeting you at the trainstation in coimbra, im not in Lisbon. I sigh for we had this conversation in english, and say i understand that i just would like to know which traint station i should catch the train at. Ana Paula tells me I have 10 minutes to catch the train that leaves. I hang up the phone with an quick tchau and hurry to find a taxi.
Well to get a taxi you have to wait in a long line, like when everyone received their tax returns and wait in the un-bank. lol it was just like that, but quicker. I got in my taxi and arrives at the train station, the taxi driver spoke english so he explained where i would purchase my ticket. With my jet lagged self i carried my 68 pound suitcase, my addidas duffle bag around my neck and my heavy back pack and scurry to the elevator. I caught the train that said to Porto, lucky for me I knew that Coimbra was in the middle between Lisbon and Porto. Put my luggage away and sat down, well this lady comes to me to let me know I'm in her seat. I'm thinking, dang they have assign seating on a public train how silly. After an hour and half I finally arrive to Lisbon, I look around the station, I notice a stylish woman with these big Hollywood sunglasses, high wedge heels, and a cigaret. She looks familiar from the picture I receive a day age: I realize it is indeed Ana Paula. We meet, we greet, she talk and talk the whole car ride about tons of things. Fortunately she typed them up because I don't even remember half of what she said. She dropped me off at the dorm and said "See you Monday."

I got kind of settled in, I was way to tired to put things in drawers so I just showered and slept. Once I woke up I looked over the papers Ana Paula gave me, and they included a map. Took a small purse with my map, mase, notebook, and pen. I set off to explore some of the city I couldn't sleep the whole day away.

Coimbra, Portugal

On the campus by the clock students call it cabra which means bitch

Equivalent to state st. in Madison, WI

My first impressions of Coimbra:
-it's an old city
-seems like the elderly live here more than another age group
-nice weather
-cobbles stones streets make me miss Brazil
- the portuguese spoken here is different from Brazil, sometimes it's hard for me to understand basic words

Well I ended up wondering to a park and to Rio de Mondego- the Mondego River. It was a peaceful site. I always feel better when I'm near some sort of body of water, reminds me of home. I just walked around there and found some cute little barres that have tables sitting on the river. My stomach was calling so i stopped at this Irish Pub, I seen chicken fingers with batta fritas(french fries). I was confused about the sitting arrangement:was i suppose to sit anywhere or does she sit me somewhere? I went inside to ask her, well kind of cause I didn't know how to say it exactly in portuguese, but she understood it and ask me in or outside so I just sat outside to soak up the sun and other peoples conversations. I attempted to understand, most people spoke way to fast, there were some men just on their lab tops. I was thinking this reminds me of people at coffee shops on state street with their lab tops not some Irish Pub in Portugal.
I inhaled my food with a bitter beer taste in my mouth because if I'm not mistaken I think the chicken fingers were cooked in beer batter. That was NOT great, but when your hungry it doesn't matter. at least the french fries were decent.
I walked around some more, found more little pastry, coffee, and beer stores. I even found a mall no to far away: not sure if thats a good or bad thing. For now we will say a good thing..lol I found a nearby grocery store called Pinga Doce. I went in with the intentions to buy items for breakfast, i bought a box of cereal and some milk. Now the milk here is different, I didn't know what the heck kind to get. Its not refrigerated it just sits in the aisle. I mean I understand that there was fat, light fat, and no fat in the milk but what would it taste like? Do I wait for it to be cold?