sunnuntai 28. lokakuuta 2012
emilia blond finland
I'm still laughing at some poor guy that wrote in Google "emilia blond finland" and ended up here. heheheh, must be disappointing. You guy, I hope you found her! Unless you are a crazy stalker. In that case: come up with more spesific search words and your chances will increase.
Concert
On Wednesday I will go to see a Portuguese band called Ornatos Violeta. I have unreasonably high expectations:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhh_D9e5TaA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhh_D9e5TaA
Internship
I have succesfully postponed starting to send applications and CV's to companies trying to find myself an internship. I started yesterday and now I need to carry on. The fact that I don't know the Portuguese companies makes this "a bit" challenging, as well as the fact that the internship needs to be in English. Anyway, if some company is crazy enough to ask me to go to an interview, there I will finally blow my chances with my awkwardness. I'm so bad in interviews I really wonder how I ever managed to get any jobs.
Visitors
My father and my sister came to Porto for a couple of days. My father was very impressed by the amount of food that I can eat these days.
Finnish accountant
The professor that always jokes about Finland was giving the workshop that I went to on Monday and Tuesday. Now we have a new joke dimension. We were running the simulations based on efficiency, and then he said "now we were thinking like accountants. Next we will think like real people, like engineers." And carried on joking about accountants. Then he stopped and said "none of you is an accountant, right?" I said, "well, actually I am." Awkward moment. But that resulted in even more jokes, about both Finland and accountants. I'm too easy target.
maanantai 22. lokakuuta 2012
Week off
In theory, this week was supposed to be quite relaxing because there are no classes. But on Friday the teacher of one course (the one I have been telling about earlier) asked if I was going to attend his 2-day workshop, and since I would be the only foreigner he offered to translate all the material for me during the weekend. How do I possibly say no to that? So, tomorrow and Tuesday I'm running an imaginary company instead of having the days free.
Language courses, update
Last week I had no courses, suddenly I have three of them. If I don't learn this language now, I can only blame myself.
Urban trail night race
Last Saturday I participated in Porto Urban Trail Night Race. It started 9.30pm and lasted until around midnight. You could choose from walking 6km or running 13km, we did the walking route and it was very cool, we had small flashlights and the route went trough the historical centre, the monastery, Port wine caves on the other side of the river and the old wall and around the cathedral. A lot of uphills and stairs, the 6km were enough sports for someone recovering from a flu. Here's some photos:
perjantai 12. lokakuuta 2012
Courses, once more
I kind of found out today that in this one course that I'm taking, I should have delivered 3 pages yesterday and have a 5min presentation tomorrow with my group. Well, my group is still under construction, and the work is obviously not done. My friend was worried about this, because the professor had said that it is really mandatory to present it tomorrow, or you cannot do the whole groupwork. I don't know what is happening, but I was comforting my Portuguese friend that he shouldn't worry, we'll talk to the professor, maybe we can do it next week. I'm not sure if the new worry-free me is very cool or if I should be worried.
Language course
I'm super frustrated with trying to sign up for a language course. Some are just too expensive, the cheaper ones are fully booked. I'm going around trying to offer my money and begging somebody to take me to their course, but no. No wonder this country is close to bankruptcy.
Lisbon 2
The main purpose of my trip was then the concert of Leonard Cohen. The venue for the concert was a big disappointment: the acoustics were quite terrible. Maybe if I spent more money on my ticket and got a proper seat would have helped :(
Anyway, after I got used to the weird echo, the concert was really, really good. I cannot believe that he is 78 years old - the concert started at 21:15 and ended 01:05.
This clip is from the concert (not mine): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HnEjXEGxLA
The metros stopped running at 01:00 so I was froced to join the incredible taxi queue outside the concert hall. I was lucky enough to get four middle aged drunken Swedes in the queue behind me. They were constantly complaining about everything: the taxis were not coming fast enough, only one person went to a taxi, the cafeteria didn't have a toilet, everything was ridiculous, with this pace they would be home at 8am....blaah blaah.
Then the strange thing happened: I don't know if it was because I was still so happy about the concert or if my patience is really being affected by Portugal, but I was telling the Swedes to calm down and stop complaining, everything would work out and this is how it sometimes is in Portugal. Apparently I was not too convincing, because after 30 minutes in the queue they gave up hope and took a bus that was going "somewhere else than there". Once they left the taxis started to come and I was amused. The small pleasures of life.
Anyway, after I got used to the weird echo, the concert was really, really good. I cannot believe that he is 78 years old - the concert started at 21:15 and ended 01:05.
This clip is from the concert (not mine): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HnEjXEGxLA
The metros stopped running at 01:00 so I was froced to join the incredible taxi queue outside the concert hall. I was lucky enough to get four middle aged drunken Swedes in the queue behind me. They were constantly complaining about everything: the taxis were not coming fast enough, only one person went to a taxi, the cafeteria didn't have a toilet, everything was ridiculous, with this pace they would be home at 8am....blaah blaah.
Then the strange thing happened: I don't know if it was because I was still so happy about the concert or if my patience is really being affected by Portugal, but I was telling the Swedes to calm down and stop complaining, everything would work out and this is how it sometimes is in Portugal. Apparently I was not too convincing, because after 30 minutes in the queue they gave up hope and took a bus that was going "somewhere else than there". Once they left the taxis started to come and I was amused. The small pleasures of life.
Lisbon
Last Friday was a national holiday in Portugal. I was going to Lisbon to see the concert of Leonard Cohen on Sunday, so I decided to go there for the whole weekend.
Unfortunatelly national holiday often means a strike. The trains were striking more or less the whole week, but on Friday the traffic was completely stopped. So, last minute as I am these days, on Thursday I tried to find out where the busses leave from (there are 2 companies). Found one company, my flatmate called them and they said that the morning busses were full, and there were some seats for the afternoon bus. However, the reservation system was down and I could not reserve a ticket.
So I found out where the other bus station was and managed to book a ticket online. But our printer was out of ink. So Friday morning, on the national holiday I was running around the centre trying to get my ticket printed. I managed and headed towards the bus station.
It was like all hell broke loose. There were so many people there, the queues were unreal and of course no busses had signfs of were they were going. Normally there is one bus at 12:00, but because of the strike there was now three of them: 50, 50A and 50B. So after somehow by chance finding my correct bus, we headed down to Lisbon. All went well until... the bus stopped. In the middle of a highway. The driver puts on his yellow vest, opens the engine and I get super worried. And it was a hot day and the air con was naturally down. I went outside to see what is happening and the driver was on the phone but of course I did not know what was going on. I was just thinking that please, I hope this whole thing won't take too long since I really need to pee.
The driver did his magic and the trip continued, maybe 3km to the next pit stop: Fatima. The driver disappearred and the engine was left running, and it didn't sound good. Another bus that left from Porto maybe one hour later arrived, and there was some confusion. The driver came to the bus and said that this bus is not going anywhere, and that there were some seats in the other bus that was going to continue to Lisbon (seems that I can understand Portuguese when really needed). So, I took my bag, luckily I didn't have any luggage down so I was able to approach the other bus very fast. Then I TOTALLY played my "stupid foreigner" -card and brutally cut the line and managed to get in the bus. Muahhahahahahahaahhaha, I have necer been more proud of myself.
And this is when the luck changed. I arrived to Lisbon, was queuing for a ticket to metro when a girl approaches me and asks "do you speak English?" I said sure, and she gave me her daily ticket to the metro because she was leaving town and didn't need it anymore. Perfect. So I went to the centre, found my hostel (the best one I ever stayed in, with these reindrop showers), met some nice people, had great dinner and ended up in a square with the 2-hour concert of beautiful fadista Mariza. That was incredible. Then I had some drinks in Bairro Alto and couldn't really believe how unlucky and lucky I was that day.
This is Mariza and the song I need to learn, because there was a sing-along-moment that I couldn't participate to :(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Iapqgekl3I
Unfortunatelly national holiday often means a strike. The trains were striking more or less the whole week, but on Friday the traffic was completely stopped. So, last minute as I am these days, on Thursday I tried to find out where the busses leave from (there are 2 companies). Found one company, my flatmate called them and they said that the morning busses were full, and there were some seats for the afternoon bus. However, the reservation system was down and I could not reserve a ticket.
So I found out where the other bus station was and managed to book a ticket online. But our printer was out of ink. So Friday morning, on the national holiday I was running around the centre trying to get my ticket printed. I managed and headed towards the bus station.
It was like all hell broke loose. There were so many people there, the queues were unreal and of course no busses had signfs of were they were going. Normally there is one bus at 12:00, but because of the strike there was now three of them: 50, 50A and 50B. So after somehow by chance finding my correct bus, we headed down to Lisbon. All went well until... the bus stopped. In the middle of a highway. The driver puts on his yellow vest, opens the engine and I get super worried. And it was a hot day and the air con was naturally down. I went outside to see what is happening and the driver was on the phone but of course I did not know what was going on. I was just thinking that please, I hope this whole thing won't take too long since I really need to pee.
The driver did his magic and the trip continued, maybe 3km to the next pit stop: Fatima. The driver disappearred and the engine was left running, and it didn't sound good. Another bus that left from Porto maybe one hour later arrived, and there was some confusion. The driver came to the bus and said that this bus is not going anywhere, and that there were some seats in the other bus that was going to continue to Lisbon (seems that I can understand Portuguese when really needed). So, I took my bag, luckily I didn't have any luggage down so I was able to approach the other bus very fast. Then I TOTALLY played my "stupid foreigner" -card and brutally cut the line and managed to get in the bus. Muahhahahahahahaahhaha, I have necer been more proud of myself.
And this is when the luck changed. I arrived to Lisbon, was queuing for a ticket to metro when a girl approaches me and asks "do you speak English?" I said sure, and she gave me her daily ticket to the metro because she was leaving town and didn't need it anymore. Perfect. So I went to the centre, found my hostel (the best one I ever stayed in, with these reindrop showers), met some nice people, had great dinner and ended up in a square with the 2-hour concert of beautiful fadista Mariza. That was incredible. Then I had some drinks in Bairro Alto and couldn't really believe how unlucky and lucky I was that day.
This is Mariza and the song I need to learn, because there was a sing-along-moment that I couldn't participate to :(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Iapqgekl3I
keskiviikko 3. lokakuuta 2012
Panic
Tomorrow I'll get a haircut. I'm mentally preparing for a nightmare. I still have traumas from the first and only haircut I had in Portugal. That was in January. That man ruined my life.
tiistai 2. lokakuuta 2012
Last week
Not so much going on in Porto. Normal fights with the classes (still unsolved...), eating well (as usual) and procrastinating (I'm becoming very good at that).
On Saturday I ate cheek of a pig. They really like to eat the whole pig here. It would be difficult not to eat red meat in this country. Today my octopus was served with bacon, and earlier my friend's bean dish had sausage hidden inside. Maybe it's not counted as meat.
My friend from Germany was visiting over the weekend, that was fun. And I have somehow managed to hurt my ankle, it's swollen and it hurts. I'm giving up the theory that it was a bad allregic reaction to a mosquito bite.
On Friday I'll head down to Lisbon for the weekend. Friday is a national holiday here (still this year, next year it won't be since they are reducing the amount of public holidays. cost savings...).
On Saturday I ate cheek of a pig. They really like to eat the whole pig here. It would be difficult not to eat red meat in this country. Today my octopus was served with bacon, and earlier my friend's bean dish had sausage hidden inside. Maybe it's not counted as meat.
My friend from Germany was visiting over the weekend, that was fun. And I have somehow managed to hurt my ankle, it's swollen and it hurts. I'm giving up the theory that it was a bad allregic reaction to a mosquito bite.
On Friday I'll head down to Lisbon for the weekend. Friday is a national holiday here (still this year, next year it won't be since they are reducing the amount of public holidays. cost savings...).
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