Madeira

I'm not sure exactly what just happened, but I just bought flights to Madeira in July.

Madeira. July. I hate heat. I'm excited!

Eurovision song contest

With both Finland and Sweden out of the final, I had to support Sweden. We had a nice ESC dinner at our place, though not everyone understands the beaury of this song contest. My flatmate said: "26 countries? It's like listening to a double album. Of shit music." Next year he is not invited to the dinner party.

Networking

Yesterday we had a conference organized by our Master's programme. I was listening to presentations in Portuguese for 8 hours. The funny part of the day was in the lunch break. Just before that there was this guy from a consulting company presenting his ideas about co-creation. Me and my German friend were hanging out around the buffet-table eating soup. My friend said: "Look, the guy from the consulting company is there by himself. If we were in Germany, he sould be surrounded with students." Well, as we were too cool to network, we just continued eating our soups and talking in English. 5 seconds later this guy hears that we speak English and comes to chat with us. "Maybe I can give you my contact details, you should send me an email very soon", said the guy.

Sometimes I'm just too cool to be true.

Birthday

Check out my birthday dinner:

Physiotherapy

I had a sore back for some days so first I went to the pharmacy a couple of days ago. I think I looked like I was suffering, because the clerk asked "is 10 tablets enough? Or do you want 60 tablets".

Anyway, the pain would not leave so today I went to a physiotherapist that my friend recommended. That was exciting. I was lying on the massage table for 30 minutes with my feet up in 90 degrees angle until they got numb, the physiotherapist didn't speak so good English so he was showing me pictures from a book about nerves and explaining me stuff in a not-so-medical way. "You're like a central computer connected to other stations. Some of your stations are not working." Then he started stretching me. "You're very bendable" (no shit , I could not feel my legs). "We'll make some room for your nerves." (at this stage I was kind of worried). Followed by a very painful part of him smashing my buttocks. Luckily we didn't reach the point with "electronic shocks".

I'm curious how I'll feel in the morning.

Torture

I've got a new definition for torture: to watch Finland playing against USA in the ice hockey world championships with bad internet connection, lousy picture quality and a Swedish commentator. But we won!!! Sweeeeeeeeeeet! Torture continues on Saturday against Russia.

Taxi

On Saturday I came home by taxi from the Queima. We got into the taxi, and the taxi driver asked "do you mind if we go and get some petrol first?" Oh no, let's please run out of petrol in the highway in the middle of the night.

Dinner

Last Thursday I was 1h45min late for a dinner. I'm becoming more Portuguese than the Portuguese themselves.

The result

My complaints about all the work I need to do resulted to three nights out.

Under pressure

When this semester started I swore I'd do things on time and study during the semester to avoid any last minute panic. It's going just great: 1) I have 3 weeks to finish 4 groupworks. They are barely started. 2) Right after the groupwork deadlines starts the exam period. I have 4 exams in 2 weeks, and during the exam period I have a ticket to a 3-day festival and a week of holiday in Finland.

I'm thinking of one word: referral exam.

Yeah, that was two words.

Hockey

I always wanted to be an ice hockey world championship tourist. Wearing some ridiculous clothes and a sign with a stupid text. And I was also planning to be the first tourist ever, who would actually wave to the camera instead of the screen if I saw myself in the screen.

This year it was close. I had tickets to 4 games. Too bad I'm a little bit far from Helsinki so that I could have used them. Next time.

Queima das Fitas

It's party time in Porto. Yesterday the student party week Queima das Fitas (burning the ribbons) started. It starts with a serenata. That is the first time the freshmen are allowed to wear their "Harry Potter" outfits. There was thousands of them yesterday. I didn't go to the actual party place last night, but next week I will. Apparently there are some bands and loads of beer. Too bad I need to study next week. I'll post some photos once I go and see the happenings.

Nice try

Yesterday I went to a beautiful restaurant. It was super cute and the decoration was just perfect. The place had just one problem: the food. This was the first time in Portugal when I got a main dish that was not big enough. (or I'm becoming such a heavy eater that nothing is enough). Such a pity. They did everything right except the food.

Back to Portuguese class

I managed to forget a lot when I was having a break from learning Portuguese language. Today I went to a class, we were discussing these two light topics: European politics and domestic violence. The professor was wondering why I'm not talking so much. How the hell should I have the vocabulary for discussing these themes?? And it's getting better: next week we'll talk about anorexia (where are these topics coming from??).

I want back to the level where I can learn how to ask the way to the post office.