Goodbye and thank you for all the fish

A tribute to my lit professor, of which the following are my favorite quotes and Portuguese expressions he taught us. I apologize for botching the translations

"Time is the best teacher. The problem is it kills all the students. (Or possibly boredom kills all the students.)"

"The Portuguese excuse for everything is 'I'm working.'"
"I'm working so it's cool that I park my car in the middle of the road!"

"O dificil faz-se ja. O impossivel liva um pouco mais tempo."
The difficult is already done. The impossible takes a little longer. (I couldn't read my own handwriting on this one so I have no idea if it's right...sorry Abel)

"Brazil is a boy. Portugal is an old man."

"I'm tired. Why do we have to have class?"

"This is a very Portuguese saying. Better to rely on God-given talents than to be a hard worker."

"You can't teach a donkey new languages."

And my personal favorite..."Goodbye and thank you for all the fish"

Then Sarah knocked over three water bottles

Last night I went to a fado club to hear traditional Portuguese fado music. The best way I can describe it is Portuguese blues, but the term that the Portuguese use is saudades. This is also really difficult to describe. From what I understand, it encompasses a certain nostalgia and heartache and has no equivalent term in English. The Iberian Music class professor organized the trip and graciously invited the rest of the CIEE students along and since I hadn't been yet, and I really had no desire to write papers, I decided to go.

It was a really wonderful evening. The place we had originally been headed to was closed so after dodging an overly eager woman who wanted us to go to her fado club, and stalked us through Bairro Alto while popping bubble wrap (just plain weird...) we ended up inside a very traditional fado house where we were, at the early hour of 9 pm, the only customers. Lucky for them it was a CIEE-sponsored event so we feasted and brought in more than enough dinheiro to pay for their evening. One of the things I really love about Portugal during the holiday season is that everybody here goes nuts for Christmas decorating. It's a fairly Catholic country although most of the Portuguese people I've met are non-practicing but Lisbon goes all out in the blinking light department. Everywhere you go has at least some kind of decoration. Whereas in the US it gets pretty obnoxious (see my next-door neighbors, whose reindeer farm could power a small island) the decor here involves lots of lights strung everywhere and "Boas Festas!" signs. It's also relatively uncommercialized in most places, if that's even the right word I'm looking for and it probably isn't. What I mean is this. At the fado club there were strings of lights on the wall but they didn't look like they'd been strung by a professional lighting team. There was a golden-bellied Santa statue and some shooting star lights on the wall and a couple of strings of lights that had been taped up using clear packing tape. I guess I just like that it's authentic and intimate rather than mass-produced. That could also be a byproduct of being in a local, family-owned traditional fado house. There were lots of people coming and going all night but they all knew each other and/or were related. And you can imagine my surprise when, after the first round of singing by two men concluded, our waiter came to the front and burst out in sorrowful singing. And then the owner. And then the wife. At one point a set of young parents with twin toddlers came in and I was half-expecting the little girls to burst out in song. I think they were related to one of the cooks because a man came out that we hadn't seen yet and scooped up the girls into his arms while the 'rents chatted with the singers and the owner and the waiter. It felt like a scene out of a movie the way they all knew each other. The music was interesting, although I think i would've felt more moved by it if I had understood all the words. The emotion, however, was very tangible. The Portuguese people in the room all looked so sad and while I didn't feel blue, I definitely felt the music in my heart and started dwelling on how painful it is going to be to say goodbye to Lisbon.

On a side note, I ate the most delicious grilled salmon I've ever had in my life. I'm not a huge fish eater in this country partly because they love codfish, they don't love sauces, and I never know what I'm ordering. But I felt the urge to eat fish one more time before leaving so I went with that impulse and it paid off beautifully. I was so full I couldn't even finish my chocolate mousse (a rare occurrence!)

Then, in a moment so fully representative of my experience in Lisbon, the restaurant did not accept credit cards. And we had a 300euro bill. The moment definitely called for laughing although we did have to be serious long enough to pool enough cash to avoid dish washing. Yet, it totally fit the traditional Portuguese evening. In the words of one of my classmates, the great thing about Portugal is that its very informal, unstructured, and nobody seems to be able to explain why but it works.

I wish I could say the same about all of my final papers that I'm trying to finish. For some reason, they are not working even though I am. In other news, today at school there was an impromptu choir concert in the foyer of the main building. It was actually pretty cool except that they had set up in a semicircular formation in front of the cantina so to get to lunch, you had to go back outside and use the exterior staircase to go up to the first floor, go inside and then go back downstairs. Also, there are cats that run around the university campus and they were all inside today so I spent lunch watching them dart around, pondering the fact that in the U.S. I don't think health regulations would allow stray cats to be wandering through the dining hall.

There's also a serious health problem going on with the pigeons. Ok, one pigeon. There's one pigeon that we see nearly every day when we have breakfast on the patio on campus that looks like it's suffering from a drug problem. We call him the crack pigeon which I guess isn't really that funny except that he really is just the ugliest bird in the history of the universe. He also has slow reflexes so when you shoo him away, he doesn't really leave. Oh, cats and crack pigeon, I'm going to miss you! I could write an ode in honor of my poetry paper due this week but I don't have time. Or rather, I choose to spend that free time writing blog posts instead of poems and papers etc. Or packing. At some point in the next 2 1/2 days, I have to pack. We'll see how that goes.

TCHAU

Can you pass the joy, por favor?

Today was an intense day. I had a final this afternoon that I didn't feel prepared for so that was sort of hanging over me all day. And yesterday I had a final that prevented me from studying all day for today's test and you get the idea. This morning we had a festa with all of the Americans (all 11 of us) in Portuguese. We combined the beginner and advanced classes and ate chocolate salami (no meat involved) pastel de nata and sandwiches and quickly relapsed into speaking English. After the festa in my literature class my professor, who had professed last week that we shouldn't skip class Tuesday because he had a surprise for us, gave us all organic bourbon vanilla chocolate from this specialty shop downtown and it was muito delicious. It gave me a much needed energy boost to go to the flea market and do some souvenir hunting. I was supposed to go Saturday morning but the pouring rain and gusting wind made the outdoor market a less appealing option than staying in my PJs and going back to sleep.

I scored big at the flea market and this one couple liked me so much they gave me a free vintage shot glass that has a picture of birds and flying plums on it. Exactly when plums learned to fly is beyond me but it was another great example of Portuguese people being extremely nice and so receptive to my mangling of the Portuguese language.

No electrico (on the tram) on the way back, two men started yelling at each other in Portuguese and one of them stood up looking like he was about to hit the other man, who was very old, and the tram driver stopped the tram in the middle of the street and jumped up to break up the potential fight. I unfortunately have no idea what they were yelling about but everybody on the tram got very involved and this one woman, who I had thought was crazy because she was talking to herself the entire time, stands up and makes some gesture at the men, grabs her friend from the front of the tram and gets off. I realized that she wasn't talking to herself the whole time but I was really confused because we were sitting at the back of the tram and her friend was at the front but her voice wasn't any louder than a normal face-to-face conversation. Muito bizarre. Then I studied and went to take my test and now I feel a huge sense of relief that I have only two papers left to write and then I'm finished with all my work.

Why do I bother writing this? First, because the incident on the tram was hilarious/frightening. Second, because yesterday my Brazilian friends left and I was extremely sad all day so it was nice today to be back in some kind of a routine even though the dorm is unspeakably lonely without my group. To remedy this, we are going to a fado club tonight. Fado is traditional Portuguese music and it's very intense. It's the one really touristy thing I figured I would do here that I haven't done yet so the last week seems like as good a time as any to squeeze it in. I have just three days left and then Saturday morning I fly home. It's an occasion that feels like it calls for some kind of final blog post or something but I just don't think I have it in me. And I think I'd rather spend the time walking around the city visiting my favorite places and soaking up as much of the Portuguese sun as possible before heading home.

So if I don't make it back to Portublog before I make it back to the states, boas festas and thanks for letting me share my experiences.

OH! And before I forget...a neat little discovery. The really big expensive grocery store near my dorm has a whole fresh cheese section that I only recently began indulging in because of expense and overwhelming pastry addiction. Yesterday I couldn't decide what kind of cheese to get and that's when I discovered dun dun dun......a cheese sampler!! Instead of a whole wheel or a half wheel of one kind of cheese, I got smaller half-wheels of four different kinds, all still individually wrapped so I can enjoy them separately and cut them myself and everything! And that's when I realized that I felt extremely uncultured because I couldn't figure out how I was supposed to cut some of them with my Chinese store butter knife. A discovery that would've been great to make three months ago but a great one nonetheless.

Tchau tchau os meus amigos! Ate logo (literally)

What do cow print, chandeliers and the solar system have in common?

Well, it seems that I fail at blogging because I am now officially three weeks behind. Yikes! So much has happened over the past few weeks and I so want to do it justice but I simply do not have time because finals are upon me and the next two weeks are going to be full of nothing but papers and tests. All of that on top of trying to get souvenirs, pack and say the sad goodbyes that are inevitably coming no matter how much I try to slow down time. B-L-A-H. I'm procrastinating as it is just to write this.

Here is the briefest of briefs to recap the past three weekends:

1. Surf trip to Peniche, Portugal. A beautiful and relatively secluded beach in a pretty, simple beach town with a big group of friends. We drove out there which was great because I got to see a different part of the countryside than I would've on a train, which to this point is the only way I've traveled around the country. I was half terrified, half excited about the surf lessons. Terrified, because who willingly runs into the Atlantic Ocean in November?! Excited for obvious reasons. The lesson was a great success. I got up on the first try (and then promptly fell over) and managed to actually ride a few waves before frostbite kicked in and I realized that the wetsuit I was wearing was wet. i.e., freezing. I want to say more, but time is ticking. A fantastic weekend. I took the bus back to Lisbon because I wanted to get back Saturday night and that, too, was actually pretty amazing. Again, seeing a different part of the country in a different way. In a truly Portuguese fashion, the bus station was closed, even though the bus was scheduled, so I had to get off at the next station and purchase a ticket. I wouldn't mind going back to that beach or taking more surf lessons. Both were great. The fact that they were in the same day is just beyond words.

2. The Holy Seat. ROMA! I went to Rome for Thanksgiving weekend, which was a long weekend for me because the Monday after was a Portuguese national holiday. It was great to travel, be with family (Hi Daniel, Aunt Nancy and Uncle Mark!!) see a beautiful city full of famous landmarks and eat gelato. I was bummed about not getting to see the Pope BUT I did get a different kind of holy experience. After a cold, rainy afternoon walking around Rome (seeing the Ecstasy of St. Theresa, among other things!) we stopped in a beautiful Gothic church. I needed to use the bathroom so I asked a monk (selling postcards, no less) and he said in Italian that I needed a key. So Aunt Nancy helped me ask for the key and he sort of sighed and then reached under the table for a huge key ring and then beckoned for me to follow. I trotted along behind him into a side hallway, where he unlocked an iron gate, beyond which was a darkened chapel leading off to other chapels. Turns out it was the sacristry. There was a long row of huge wooden confessional-looking booths along the side of the room, so you can imagine my surprise when he crosses the chapel and starts fiddling with the key at one of the booths.

No worries. This pit stop did not require confession. The door actually led to a stone hallway behind the sacristry where I finally found the bathroom. There were buckets of roses on the stairs and the monk turned around and left me in peace. I was a little surprised at the complete and total abandonment in this clearly off-limit area of the church and was even more surprised when I went back into the sacristry and all the lights were off and the gate was closed. Uh oh. Luckily, he had cracked the gate a tiny bit so I could get out and then I hurried back into the church where my aunt and uncle are bursting with laughter as I come out with what could've only been a seriously surprised and confused look on my face. I guess you have to See it to believe it.

3. ESPANHA! This past weekend, another long weekend, I went with my friends to Salamanca and Madrid, Spain. Another fantastic weekend that again deserves way more blog time than I can give it. I was really excited to realize that my Portuguese this semester really paid off because I could understand and actually speak a little Spanish. Sad that I had to go to Spain to realize I could speak Portuguese, but still, better late than never. We discovered a sandwich chain called "100 Montaditos" a sandwich shop that offers 100 different montaditos, small baguette style sandwiches. Sarah and I ate there three times because it was just THAT GOOD. I could probably rant about food all day because we ate so well but I will content myself with saying that while Rome was amazing from a historical point of view and I got to be with family, especially for Thanksgiving, traveling with friends was a completely different and wonderful experience. I laughed to the point of tears, danced in the country's biggest club, got lost, feasted on churros, laughed, laughed, and laughed some more, surrounded by the people who had really made this semester what it has been. It was a really amazing way to cap off the most incredible semester. My brazilian friends leave this weekend and I leave the next so it was really special to have a long weekend away together. Also, everybody had told me before the trip that I should go to Barcelona instead of Madrid so I didn't have super high expectations. But if you want my recommendation, Madrid is a fantastic city and the people are, for the most part, wonderful. And now for one story, very different from the holy toilet tale: In Lisbon if you're looking for nightlife you go to Bairro Alto and wander from bar to bar listening to music, meeting people, etc. It's a very street-oriented culture. In Madrid, you still wander around a lot on the street but since the streets are wider, it's less stand-around-outside and more wander from place to place; it's destination-oriented. So to get you to come inside, the bars station employees outside on the street to talk to people and engage them in conversation and eventually convince them to visit the bar and then lead them to said bar and get them in without paying a cover charge. Since I was with spanish-speakers, this was easily done and we were able to get into bars and clubs for free. One of the places we went had bright orange walls with cow print accent walls, glass chandeliers and plasma TV screens playing pictures of the solar system.

The solar system and cow print.

I don't know what else to say other than it's been an exhausting three weeks but I wouldn't trade any of it for more sleep or more free time because it's been exciting, fantastic and so much fun. Time to buckle down for finals and somehow find it in me to focus and go to class instead of enjoying the beautiful sunshine that we STILL have even though it's December and it's raining across the rest of Europe.

TCHAU!


No time to rotate, sorry!



The answer, before I even ask the rhetorical question, is "No, it doesn't get any better than this."

Onde e o Papa?

I am so busy I should not be allowed anywhere near the internet, but I have neglected o Portublogo for just a bit too long so I am writing...really only to say that I don't have time to write right now.

If you would like to help me write one of my papers or sit in for an exam, I will gladly update my blog. Otherwise, be content with the tiny update that I went to Rome this past weekend for Thanksgiving and the Pope stood me up for our gelato date.

How rude. Be back sometime soon, hopefully. If not, it is only three weeks until I return to my home continent, as my parents and my calendar seem to constantly remind me. No time to dwell on that though. I have to work, work, work so I have time to enjoy, enjoy, enjoy. Tchau! Don't let the winter weather get you down.