Distance and Time

I find so much time to just escape through my mac book, for better or for too much time spent. Between reading blog posts from other sites, watching documentaries on different important figures(high profiled and low profiled), listening to music, watching movies, reading different news articles from around the world, chatting with friends on fb, phone conversation, skype, gchat: just feeling feed and full.

sometimes i just escape it all, being embracing aloneness.

However, I have neglected my own thusfarinlife. If it makes my blog readers feel better I haven’t been writing either. Even in my own personal journal its dating back sometime last month. When someone is MIA, we hope they are doing well. And I am. Been sick here and there, went to the doctor the for the first time since I been here got some meds and I'm surrounded by med students, so I am being taken care of and looked after(don't worry fam). Sleeping more with all the rain during the day: I typically have class early in the morning and then sleep. I guess I'm trying to catch up on all the lost sleep because usually I don’t go to bed till really late at night, I guess sometimes my head is in central time…lol(6 hr behind me).

Sometimes I hook up my phone with the intentions to make a call only to realize this time I feel compelled to have a personal conversation with myself. Embrace the moments when I am alone. Not a sadness type of feeling more like grounded and peace in mind. I think critically, askying myself those tough questions I may not want to ask, reflect on where i've been and where I am going and where god is leading me. Smiling and laughing at the things I've done in my life that are funny. Thinking back, looking forward and learning to be more present. Through all the distance and time I have spent here in Coimbra, Portugal I have grown. My mind has been expanded, challenged, I have a better grasp on not only who I am but the woman I want to grow into(knowing there is room to change and make mistakes), and more importantly I have been more deeply rooted in faith.I took this picture at the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool, England.

Moving to another country: knowing no one and not knowing what to expect can be a scary experience. You don't know who to trust, your worried about your language competency, your out of your comfort zone. No family, no friends, nothing is similar. This strangeness, this newness can only do one thing for you:force you to grow whether your ready or not. But this is not alone, during these vulnerable/unknown times you are with the Lord. Only person there, the only person you can trust, talk to, and carry you through all the times you may find difficult. And before you know it instead of God carrying you, you are walking side by side. There's nothing wrong with being carried, being helped, being vulnerable, being scared. Why should you, should I feel ashamed for feelings these emotions? There natural and the more we take them in, feel them, the more we learn about ourselves.

As I prepare to return home for winter break, I want to give love and feel loved. Period.

I appreciate my family and friends.

"We are who We are because Someone Loved Us."

-Cornal West

Such a powerful /lingering statement, makes you count all the people that love you and see you in them. As well as think about the people you loved, knowing you've shaped their life in some way. Leaving a lasting impact.

Lutada

So the end of October there was a four day festival called "Lutada." They have this tradition here were the freshmen are called "collouidos," the one thing I think it is the closest to in the US is fraternity and sorority but in public, not divided by sex but by what school they are housed in(science, pharmacy, letters, etc.), and its basically all month long until "Lutada" but they are still called collouido not by their real name.

When I first witness this tradition it was strange because they poured beer over this girl head in my residence halls. Then when my classes started as I walked to class I would see more and more "activities" taking place. Making them sing songs in public, act out plays, tie an upper-classmens shoe, hold hands and walked down the stairs together, wear pajamas all day, play tag, basically they did what ever their group leader would say or another upper-classmen(which usually is a person with a harry potter cap on which is called a toga but I prefer to call it harry potter clothes.lol) anyways i went to two events, the first one was basically tons of students drinking and acting crazy on the street. it started at 12am till 7am, it smelled so bad, after about 15 minutes of people watching, i headed home. the other event I cant remember the name but this one was during the day 4pm till i have no idea. The collouidos dressed up in different costumes and there was basically a chaotic parade with tons of stoping and chants. Also the upper-classmens were eating on some kind of vegetable that i dont know the name of, the same vegetable that a rabbit would eat. And the colluidos had buckets of candy or silly things like an empty can of shoe string, they tried to sell while there. Not sure what they did with the money but it was only like cents and they didn't seem at all serious about selling. I posted photos and videos below so you all can witness what I did.

My friends and I

Snapping a few pics of the collouidos in action

The beginning of the parade

the warriors

a man screaming on a bus stop

superheros

more students

the vegetable they were eating

Did I mention they collect patches here?

(brought me back to my childhood memories at camp voyager I use to love canoeing and archery..lol)

Visit to an Igreja

Today I went to visit a Igreja=church with my friend Fellipe. Igreja de baptista- Baptist church. Felippe pastor in brazil told him about this church because the pastor is also Brazilian. Service started at 11:00am but we had arrived a little early and there was some sort of bible study going on. After that the culto=service began with a song and then welcomed the visitors. The people who were visiting for the first time were asked to stand up and share their name, where they are from, and what brought them to Coimbra? I was a little nervous about speaking but I said “ Ola bom dia, meu nome Leslie Thomas, sou Americana e estou estudante aqui em Coimbra.” Good morning my name is Leslie Thomas, I am American and a student studying here in Coimbra. There were other Americans there as well, from Texas that came to do missionary work, The pastor brought them up and they talked for a little bit just about why they came here and one of the guys expressed that he had been wanting to come here and share the word of God.

After that we sang a few more songs and prayed and then the pastor came up and before he preaches he showed a video. He explained that the video was in English which is good for the Americans who cant speak Portuguese because his sermon is about the same theme as the song, forgiveness=Perdão. The song was very beautiful and powerful. I was thinking in my head I should create a dance to this song and share. Maybe. After the song the pastor began to preach about forgiveness, he started with questions what is forgiveness? He quotes some scripture and began to elaborate on the meaning. He also asked and addresses these questions as well: Who needs forgiveness? And why do we forgive? It was a special moment for me being in the church and listening because I could understand parts of his sermon. To listen in another language someone talk about Jesus was beautiful. It reminded me the power of language and also how important it is to communicate. For example what if I met someone who didn’t speak English and wanted to know about the Lord, I would I be able to talk to them? What would I be able to tell them? Deus é amor=god is love. There was still many parts that I didn’t understand, especially when he prayed. He spoke very fast and soft which made it difficult to hear and understand. But just being there felt good. Sometimes its alright not to understand everything, but to feel.

I feel motivated to study more Portuguese today. I feel inspired to try harder at learning grammar. My biggest problem with the language is grammatical errors. I remember how to make the word in the past and present, the problems is within past and present there is indicative, subjunctive, present perfect, past perfect, pluperfect simple(I don’t know what is is in English) and future. And that’s not even all the tenses that exist. Furthermore when people talk they usually don’t speak grammatically correct so I am learning how to speak well but I cant write what I speak because ite incorrect. Learning two things at once, but of course I am able to speak better than I can write..lol eu preciso fechado meu baco a vezes e só ler=I need to shut my mouth sometimes and just read. Lol