Morning fado

My friend arrived yesterday afternoon. We had a very efficient evening, in terms of eating. In just a couple of hours we managed to get coffee and cake, walked a bit and stopped for a glass of wine, walked another 100 meters and had a dinner. And during dinner we were already planning where to have breakfast. Welcome to Portugal!

Now we're having a morning Fado moment and then we'll go and eat some more.

Portuguese

My friend asked if I had noticed that I'm much louder in Portuguese than in English. I guess the loudness comes with the language.

Sun allergy

I have some rash in my face and it's strange because I never have any skin problems. I went to the pharmacy and spend 60 euros for three different kind of creams. The guy in the pharmacy said that it's probable that I have sun allergy. Here is the 10 day weather forecast for Porto. I'll be inside testing my hypo-allergenic creams questioning my choice of country.

Visitor 1

Yesterday I got a lovely surprise visitor, my friend is on holidays in Lisbon and came for a day-trip to Porto. We climbed up to Clerigos Tower, which was a bit scary because I guess they forgot all the safety regulations ever invented and there are so big holes in the rail that a kid could easily fall from up there. Even I could fit through those holes. Anyway, then we walked down to Ribeira and ended up in the Port wine cellars in the Gaia side of the river Douro.

Port wine is produced in the Douro valley, and it's sweet red wine that is often served as dessert wine. The wine is stored and aged, often in barrels stored in a cave, before being bottled. And those caves are here because the ocean is so close and the temperature is pleasant. They organize small tours in the caves and give some samples to taste the wine. I have tried red port wine before, yesterday I tried a white one as well. They're both realy good, VERY sweet but good. I guess there are around 30 different companies offering the tours and tasting, so I have a lot of work ahead.

Presentation

"A saudade não está na distância das coisas, 
mas numa súbita fractura de nós, 
num quebrar de alma em que todas as coisas se afundam."

With these words I started our group's presentation today. I got applause. The Portuguese are either very easy to impress or they thought it was the Joke of the Year.

 P.S. I still don't know what that sentence means.

Fátima

May 13th 1917 and the 13th of 5 following months the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared for three shepherd children at Fátima in Portugal. Appearing to the children, she told them that she had been sent by God with a message for every man, woman and child living in our century. The events at Fátima gained particular fame due to their elements of prophecy and eschatology, particularly with regard to possible world war and the conversion of Russia. The reported apparitions at Fátima were officially declared "worthy of belief" by the Catholic Church.

So apparently, it's common in Portugal when facing dramatic situations (disease, trouble in a birth of a child, even scholar examinations) to make a promise, most of them to "Nossa Senhora de Fátima". And this usually includes walking to Fatima on foot (from anywhere in Portugal) or at least walking across the square on the knees. The catholics like to burn a candle for your loved ones. Same in Fatima, but instead of burning a candle you throw it into a huge open fire. But the best part of all this is that not only normal candles are burnt, but also candles in the shape of body parts that they sell there. Hands, legs, breasts, eyes, ears... For instance you burn a candle in the shape of a leg, to pray for your mother who just had her leg broken.

This all sounds so amazing, I really have to go there.

Push-up jeans

I didn't know they exist. Now I own a pair. LOL.

2 things I don't like about Portuguese people

First of all, I really like Portuguese people, I do. But two things bother me.

1) They're a little bit unreliable with making plans. The Finnish person in me is used to the way that if something is planned, it's done. And my friends in Finland won't cancel even if they're not super thrilled to go somewhere or do something, but when it's settled it's settled. Especially when they know that I really want to go. If they have a good reason to cancel, they'll so it well on time. Here it's impossible to make plans with anybody in advance, goes with studies and free time. And even there is a plan, there is no guarantee that it will happen.

2) And this is what I have a real problem with (the first one is not that serious): It's common here in Portugal to drive under the influence of alchohol. I have zero tolerance for that, I cannot stand it but here it's very common. I also don't want to preach about it to them. And they're so obsessed about their cars that they want to drive everywhere, the parking in the centre is difficult or very expensive. The taxis here are quite cheap, something here just doesn't match.

Outlet and Coimbra

I have bought next to no clothes since I moved to Portugal. Until yesterday. I went to a Style outlet close to Porto, you take the metro for half an hour, get off in a stop in the middle of nowhere and there is a mini shuttle bus giving you a ride to the shopping centre.

It was a productive day. Eight hours, two pairs of jeans, one gardigan, two T-shirts, one bracelet and one pair of earrings later I arrived home.

And then I went to Coimbra. The city is best known for it's university, which is one of the oldest in Europe, its origins can be traced back to the 13th century. And the buildings were nice indeed. I'll go back there in two weeks and take some photos.

I have four friends coming for a visit during the next couple of months, how sweet!!

Our house

I came back home after the Tuna concert and wanted to take a long hot shower. Well, that wasn't possible since there was no water in my shower. In the sink that is one meter from the shower, the water is running perfectly. They're renovating the restaurant downstairs, so they must have done something wrong with the pipes. This house was built in a mysterious way: sometimes when the fuse blows out, there might still be light in one of the rooms. But the most amazing thing is that if one button in my water boiler is in a wrong position, they guy living in the flat downstairs of us gets electric shocks.

Marketing

I said to my Portuguese friend that I really think that both Portugal and Finland should be paying me for promoting the countries. Then I told her about mustamakkara, the danger of having a deathly collision with a moose and of course: suicides. I bet she is booking her flight already.

Thesis

Here you can either write a "normal" thesis or do an internship in a company and write the thesis about that. We foreign students had a lunch with the professors that are responsible of our master programme, and had a chat about that issue. I'd really want to do the internship, but since they're not many companies (at least in Porto) that might want someone doing it in English, I might have to move to Lisbon for the 4th semester (if I'm lucky to find a company there). Things could be worse than having to move to Lisbon.

Studies, dinners, Ribeira

Yesterday I was at the university from 8am to 8pm. Luckily I had a break between the classes so I was hanging out in the sun, it's getting hot in herre. After the classes our master's group had a dinner together, I'm still not used to how loud the Portuguese people are. Especially when they get food and a bit of wine. But the night was fun and I have very cool classmates.

Today I had a walk with my friends in the centre of the city, we were spotting abandoned houses and they were telling a lot of history of Porto, and we ended up by the river to sit and chill and enjoy the weather. Because I'm the worst photographer ever, you can see some photos of Ribeira here.

Tunas and Casa da Música

A Tuna is a musical group, made up of university students. Today I went to Casa da Música to see a competition of them. The music house it's really amazing, I love that building (and I'm so sad that the new music house in Helsinki doesn't look anything like that). Anyway, the concert started at 8:30pm and at 1am it was kind of finished. We didn't stay to find out who won. But it was really, really cool to see the tunas playing and to test the acoustic in the music house. To get an idea about how the tunas sound like, check this link.

Hookers

My favourite hooker is back and she and her pimp husband have bought a new car, so they must be doing ok.

The feeling...

...when you open the file that you're supposed to read for tomorrow's class at 23:00 and notice that it is 126 pages long.

Women's day

Got no flowers. I ment to buy some for myself, but I desperately needed to go home and pee so I couldn't stop to find any. I got a nice lunch though. And learned that in Kazakhstan they celebrate their women with three day public holiday. Nice!

Porto houses

There are so many abandoned houses in the centre of Porto, I just want to take a big loan, buy one of them and renovate it. They look so cool from the outside, they outside wall is normally covered with colorful tiles. I don't think the houses would be that expensive, but the renovation would cost a looooot of money. I'll take them as my 2nd photography project, right after the roundabouts. I'm talking about a bit more modest houses, but if I was VERY rich, I'd buy and renovate this one:

Maybe I could afford this one (in the middle):

Brunch and dinner

Yesterday I spent the whole day eating. First there was a brunch with the Finnish people (they turned out to be nice) and then a dinner with my favourite Portuguese family. Then I came home and was exhauseted after all the eating. Tough life.

The Finnish invasion

I randomly met a Finnish girl the other day. She said that there are around 10 Finnish Erasus students in Porto. I'll meet them all on Sunday. I already had a nightmare that they were adding me as their Facebook friends and they were all super weird.

Partitiivi

First I was 12 hours at the university, then I studied finnish partitive case.

<3 Fridays.