Hiljainen kansa

Today I was helping out a guy who is doing his thesis about foreign students in the University of Porto, so he wanted to interview me for the thesis. He said the interview would take "about an hour, or depends how much you like talking".  In the interview he asked how the Finnish people are. "Silent", I replied.

After 2,5 hours we finished the interview, but only because I had to go to a class.

Silence

The reason there is nothing happening in the blog is that there is nothing happening in Porto. I've had flu for almost a week now, today I'll try and go see people and daylight.

And apparently FC Porto won the Portuguese championships. Judging by the noise last night, at least.

Salt

I love salt. They put salt on salads here. Why do they save the salt in 2 things you need it the most: french fries and crisps?

Flood

It's "a bit" rainy today. This morning I woke up to the sound of a small waterfall. Since I live in the attic I can hear the rain very well, but this time the sound was a bit too clear. And too close. I got up and saw a waterfall coming under the balcony door heading to the bathroom. There was about 30cm water on the balcony. Downstairs was flooding too but not so much. After the small morning exercise things are back to "normal", it should rain a lot today again to I got my tools ready.

Fever

On Monday we filmed the last part of the TV-pilot. I had to sit by the river, enjoy the view and a glass of Port. Well, it was freezing and I couldn't wear my jacket, so here I am under covers drinking ginger tea and hoping to get well soon. The last good deed for sure.

Lent

I got visitors from Finland, they were here from Tursday to Monday. And that was a lot of fun! After their visit I wasn't really able to eat for 2 days, we ate so much (and so good food) that I haven't really been hungry. Of course now I'm back on track.

Portugal's next top model...not

You know the feeling, when you're watching America's Next Top Model and in the end they need to make a commercial and they have to speak a bit, and then you wonder how it is possible that they cannot say those simple lines and they keep forgetting what they're supposed to say?

I know that feeling now.

"Mmmm... This Francesinha is very...eeeh, can we start over?? "Now I'm going to have a walk and go to...to...sorry, can we do this again?"

The filming continues on Friday. I'm planning to have a bit of wine before that.

Do-it-yourself tasca

Tascas are local restaurants. I love them. On Saturday I went to one with my friends. We were 6 and there was no tables free. 3 minutes later some random women showed up with 2 extra tables. The waitress pointed us to go downstairs to get some chairs. Then he brought us the menu and a paper and a pen. Then we wrote down what we wanted.

The food was great. Food+drinks+coffee was 4,50€ for each.

Abril, aguas mil

The rain is threatning to spoil my filmstar moment that's supposed to be tommorrow! I'd like to get it done, it will bw so awkward anyhow so it would be awful to postpone it.

All the things I find myself doing...

I was contacted by a group of Portuguese students that are doing their internship in a Portuguese TV-channel. They asked me if I wanted to take part in their pilot episode of "Good News" Porto edition or something like that. My role in this pilot would be to play a foreign student (not so hard) that goes sightseeing in Porto (not that hard either). I'm reading the script, this is what I have to do:
1. Have a Francesinha and a beer for lunch. Look happy.
2. Buy a flower in the market, smell the flower and look happy.
3. Walk next to the river, have a glass of Port wine and look happy.
4. Meet the other participants (2 Portuguese guys) in a restaurant, have a drink and look happy.
Other instructions: Wear blue to highlight the blue eyes.
We'll start filming on Tuesday. I really hope this will never be shown on TV.

On time

I arrived 30 minutes early to our group meeting. I live in the wrong country.

Easter

Yesterday I had a nice traditional Easter Sunday ride with a friend (apparently everybody takes the same route, to the beach and then back to centre by the river). He's the only Portuguese person I know that truly appreciates salmiakki (or is too polite to tell otherwise. Which I doubt, it's kind of difficult to pretend to like salmiakki.) so I was happy to gave him my Turkish pepper. I'm counting on you H&T to bring me more next week when you arrive. Can't wait!! :):):).

Nilviäinen

It's Lampreia season in Portugal. I tried that yesterday, it's good, it just looks suspicious.

Random is nice

On Thursday I was studying and doing groupwork, when I suddenly saw my friend's post in Facebook about one cinema that was showing Aki Kaurismäki's Le Havre with the director present in the occation! I thought it was somewhere in Porto and I got really excited about going there and meeting him. Well, turns out that it was in Viana do Castelo, somthing like 80km from Porto. I was checking the trains, but there was no way for me to get back to Porto after the movie. I was a bit desperate, and also thinking how much effort should I put in this one, considering the chance he won't show up.

Well, then something very Portuguese happened. This friend of mine who posted the link in FB in the first place invited me to stay in his place over night and the problem was solved. I asked our mutual friend to join the random trip and she was in, too. I packed and ran in the train, and found myself in Viana do Castelo looking for the cinema. My local friend arrived just in time and I thought there was going to be maybe 5 people, but the cinema was full. Before the movie started, Aki Kaurismäki gave a (drunken) speach in Portuguese and then the movie began. And for those who haven't seen it: it's great.

After the movie Kaurismäki was hanging out in the lobby talking to people. I had no idea what I should say to him, and because he is not known to be the nicest man to talk to I thought I'd just skip it. But then I saw him giving autographs for other people so I got courage and went to ask for one. He was a bit surprised that a Finnish person was there. Which is understandable: I went to see a Finnish film, that is in French, with Portuguese subtitles in a small town in Northern Portugal. You would think there was an easier way to see that movie. But easy is boring. Anyway, I was very nervous about talking to him and I told him some very random stuff which he hopefully won't remember (I guess he was quite drunk). But that was fun! I also learned that he soesn't have a mobile phone, only landline. Suits him.

Then we went out and (after visiting a church, Easter tradition) and I fell asleep happily at my friend's place, where his mom had prepared bed and breakfast for us.

Port wine

I went back to the port wine caves the other day. I learned that the unfiltered wines require decanteing and filtering. Apparently pantyhoses are a very handy tool for filtering. I need to send this tip to Niksi-Pirkka.

Things you don't see in Finland 3

I was having coffee in a teracce of a cafeteria with my friend in the main shopping street of Porto. A big truck parked just in front of us, and suddendly I saw something a bit unexpected: a guy carried two slaughtered pigs on his shoulders from the truck to a meat store. Another guy followed with big piece of ribs. I almost couldn't finish eating my cake. Almost.

Language issues

I went to a cafeteria and asked in English: "What do you have for lunch?". The guy looked confused and asked "Do you speak English?". Seems that I'm getting worse in every language.

Meat

I've been eating so much meat these days that I had a nightmare last night about it. I got a phonecall from the hospital, they said that I cannot register as a resident in Portugal, because I did not pass the health check. Apparently because I had eaten too much meat. I have to go back to the one vegetarian restaurant I have seen in Porto.

Halpamatkat

We did some budget travelling with my friend over the weekend. We only invested in food. To get the true feeling about the country, we even got "lucky" and were in the middle of a train strike. We were going from Aveiro to Coimbra, tried to buy a ticket half an hour before the train was supposed to leave but the clerk said "oh, one train is supposed to leae in 30 minutes but we're not sure yet if it will go or not." The train was there, but apparently they were not certain if the driver would show up. Same happened today when coming back, the clerk said "come back 15 minutes before the scheduled time and then we'll know if there is a train or not".

In Coimbra we ate a lot, got lost, eneded up uninvited in a party, listened to Fado of Coimbra and stayed in a suspicious but cheap pensionate. Now I'm back in Porto, exhausted and happy to be home.