Divagação.

Quero dizer.
Quero partilhar.
Não consigo, então vivo.

dolce far niente

Flashback III

Once, me and Pedro parked our bikes near the supermarket.
We had had them for a week or so, and you could see that in little details. :P
He was locking his bike when it leaned forwards to the other bikes parked there.
5 seconds later there were 7 bikes completely stuck on each others! They felt on the ground as domino’s pieces!!!
We laughed a lot while trying to park them properly again…
Simultaneously the owners were appearing and everybody could understand that FOR SURE we weren’t Flemish – these guys were born on a bike! :P

One of the reasons I like the most living here…

How can a phone call on your way home (because tonight you reallllly want to rest) and a bunch of unexpected meetings change your plans for the following 10 hours…

“Dinner at my place tonight.”
(Ok, afterwards I will go home - I think…)
“We are late for the concert.”
(Concert? Ok, just a beer then)
“Look there’s A, B and C guy!”
(30 minutes and I’m gone)

Bla bla bla… :)

I just can't help myself...

Me according to mijn Malaka. :)

Check it out more...

I love Gent...

"I just can't get enough, I just can't get enough..."

Apresentando alguns amigos...

I wrote the following post in January/February… Introducing some friends, my “flatmates”. I’m toooo lazy to translate into English… and anyway, they would be able to read it and I don’t want them to know how special they are to me. – I’m kidding… I’m sure they already know that… Absolutely one of the most important parts of this experience…

........................................................................................................................

Já há imenso tempo que quero apresentar as personagens deste filme. Pelo menos parte dos protagonistas. “Não passa de hoje” pensei… Mas já o disse outras tantas vezes… Será?

Somos oito neste piso. Oito. Oito estudantes (?) moram no 1º piso do número 125 da Lucas de Heerestraat. Mais oito no 2º e outros tantos no 3º. Depois ainda há uns tipos ricos e individualistas que têm um estúdio só para eles. Mas aqui as coisas funcionam mesmo por pisos. Eu estou no mais "interactivo" deles todos... pelo menos é o que nós dizemos! :P

A Hanna mal a vejo. Mal a conheço para dizer verdade. Cabelos curtos encaracolados. Farta-se de trabalhar e normalmente só usa o quarto para dormir.
Falamos às vezes, até já provou a ginjinha portuguesa e ajudou-me a salvar o meu poster “We can do it!”, mas pouco mais.

Já a acordei duas vezes às 5 da manhã… Por causa do barulho… Chato…

A Karolien faz com que as pessoas que cá venham comentem: "Moram aqui pessoas estranhas" - risos. Claro que só dizem isto depois de também conhecer a Rebecca!
A Karolien é gótica mas não gosta que a rotulem como gótica. O que quer ela que eu faça; sempre de preto, cabelos pretos corridos, unhas bordeaux, cheirinhos de coisas satânicas - tipo aqueles objectos que eles usam ao peito – e isto sem contar com o quarto forrado a preto, com a cama preta e com o sofá preto. Ela não é preta, mas tem respostas pretas. Assim é a Karolien. E depois de nos primeiros tempos quase se recusar a falar inglês comigo "Se não falarmos dutch ela nunca vai aprender!" e de eu me sentir um pouco como uma estranha para ela, agora até já lhe beijo e abraço, a custo lá os recebe.

Na primeira noite em que dormi em França recebi uma mensagem escrita por ela. "We're drunk and we miss you. Steven and Karolien. Beijos." Não sei até que ponto era sentida mas não me interessa. Só o facto de, eventualmente, "se meter" comigo já me deixa contente - uma vez que no inicio parecia não despertar qualquer sentimento - bom, mau ou até indiferença - nela.
O João diz que daqui por 2 meses já me dá beijinhos... Eheh. A ver vamos...
[Dat klopt! A Karolienska já é das nossas! Que felicidade!:)]

O Yves namora com a Hélène. Mora cá o Yves, e por isso às vezes mora cá a Hélène.
[Agora mora mesmo cá, no 2º piso, mas só dorme lá, tudo o resto fá-lo neste ”nicest floor in the building!”]
Gosto do Yves. Quando cheguei cá falamos logo imenso. Nunca se impuseram muitas barreiras entre nós. Na primeira semana deu-me um poster com as constelações para preencher aquele espaço vazio no meu então "empty room" - eles diziam que era estranho ver um quarto tão vazio, mas a verdade é que os 20 kg de bagagem permitidos pela Virgin-Express não deram para trazer mais do que roupa e coisinhas máximas!

Tem a mania que sabe tudo, e lá saberá algumas coisas. Já está a tirar a segunda licenciatura e parece-me ser bastante bom naquilo que estuda e estudou - a ver pela maneira como lida com cada pequeno problema que tenho no meu computador, é um cromo, resolve-me tudo! É o meu “personal informaticman”.
Vegetariano, sempre a comer caril e demasiado preguiçoso para lavar a loiça imediatamente a seguir a usá-la.
Este fim-de-semana descobri (ou fez-me ver a minha querida Joaninha:)) que também é um bocado psicótico em relação ao fumo e doenças! No outro dia quis ficar com dois ratinhos de laboratório a saber, Trininho e Fourninho, e ele não me deixou! Uma injustiça! Às vezes faz um pouco papel de pai… e nós passamo-nos!

A bonita Kaatje… “Je” em holandês será um equivalente a “inho(a)”. O mais engraçado é que o nome dela é mesmo Kaatje.
Ela é linda. Tipicamente belga da Flandres. Loira, activa, organizada e inteligente. Rapariga de sorriso fácil e contagiante! :)
Apesar de andar sempre a correr de um lado para o outro tem sempre 1001 planos para nós. “Temos de ir nadar, escalar, beber uma Chimey, temos de ir ao Backstage e a Brugge beber uma Garre, ver a Amelie todos juntos, tenho de vos dar aulas de fitness, e isto e aquilo…”. No outro dia até falou em irmos ao Equador quando acabarmos o curso!
Adoro viver com a Kaatje, cada vez mais. Pensa-se que já se conhece bastante uma pessoa, já a consideramos amiga, e depois descobrimos mais, gostamos e ficamos surpreendidos. Com ela tem sido assim.
Deu-me alguma energia para estudar, organizar-me e acordar cedo – “empurrava-me” para o duche a horas decentes!:P
Gosto muito da Kaatje, de partilhar o meu dia-a-dia com ela. É simples, tem sempre uma palavra amiga e é mesmo boa onda, porreira.
Sim, porreira será o adjectivo que melhor a caracterizará!

A Rebecca não tem explicação. Russa espadaúda de 29 anos.
É cla-ra-men-te a personagem cá do sítio. Nem dá hipótese. Abrir a porta do meu quarto às 8h30 e deparar-me com ela na cozinha a fazer Ulla-ulla de mini mini shorts e com um top justíssimo foi só o primeiro exemplo.
Farta-se de inventar. Cria o mundo dela e às vezes é difícil percebermos o limite entre a realidade e a ficção. Antes de a conheceres deves saber que não podes acreditar em tudo o que ela diz. Mas asseguro-te que te vais rir… esta mulher não existe e é um gozo viver com ela.
Ficaria aqui até amanhã com as suas estórias e não iria ter nem metade do impacto que tem vivê-las! Por isso, se quiseres saber do que falo… TENS MESMO DE PASSAR POR CÁ! ;)

A Jill foi a primeira que abracei.
Quando o fiz, algures na 1a semana por cá, chamou-me "querida". Ainda hoje o faz. Quando um dia passar uma temporada em Portugal até se passa com tanto abraço! ;)
Querida belga loira que te faz imensas perguntas quando te conhece. Detalhes como a última vez em que choraste ou qual é o teu vegetal favorito contam.
A Jill recebeu-me de braços abertos e foi sem dúvida a primeira a fazer-me sentir em casa.
Não come carne, viciada no seu laptop "Podes guardar-me durante umas horas para ver se estudo alguma coisa?", Tool, nuddles com molho de amendoim se faz favor, rapariga-tipo-nunca-nada-é-um-problema, boa ouvinte, adoro conversar com ela... Fofa, fofa… Adoroo a Jill.

Last but not least… mijn klein broertje! :)
Explicar a ligação que temos demoraria estes quatro meses que vivemos juntos. Não me atrevo sequer a começar a escrever sobre ele... Cumplicidade máxima. Meu “mais que tudo” belga, sem sombra de dúvidas. In-se-pa-rá-veis.
“Maninhe” é talvez das palavras que mais me faz sorrir na Bélgica. :)

[Quaisquer referências temporais deverão ser ignoradas. Muita coisa já mudou, tanta coisa já aconteceu... mas não tenho pachorra para alterar/escrever de novo… Just for you to have an idea…]

..:: Wanna coffee? ::..

One of my favourite things in Ghent is definitely the Bars that the city presents us.. I’m addicted to the bars of this city!! – “I just can’t get enough, I just can’t get enough”…
It’s hard to choose one and even harder to establish a raking.
So, usually, when I have non-Ghentian friends around – visitors as I call them :P – I always want them to visit as much spots as they can The problem is that as we are Portuguese we never accomplish all the plans we have for some holidays.
In order to compensate that lack, I’ve created this space for you to know all my favourite places! Enjoy. :P

p.s. I wish I could say I haven’t created it because I need it for the website building course I’m attending… - It’s funny, my academic life is being more and more reported in this blog… Weird… I’m less busy then before… I guess I’ve learned how to publish… :)

Flashback II

Once, in the Christmas period, we went for a very tasty typical northern European countries drink: hot wine. I just love it.

On our way home, I was trying to take a picture of a shop - that reminded me one friend of mine - but as always, Steven was poking me and he wouldn’t let me take the f*ckin stupid picture.

Suddently, these two guys appeared and saved me!

They really hugged me and they even gave something to enlighten my Christmas! – a small matches box with a deeply religious message on it. Apparently they were doing some propaganda with religious purposes, but still, in my perspective, they were doing a great job… Belgians need to learn how to hug… ;)

It's official...

... and I haven't already start mine.
That's what you get when you keep postponing all your work... though you have done the same last weeks...
I'm still so Portuguese... ;)

Have a nice week!

3 - 1 = 2

For all the moments that you've made me laugh: NASDROVIA! =)

Do you know how to play fish?

Eheheh.

Actually he wanted to say: Little Fish! :P
I hope the portuguese people can understand the pun...

Dress up party... or not...

Describing last night seems impossible to me.
But I want to write it down, at least, I wanna try. – I feel that I must post more often even if it is about something that doesn’t interest anybody – as I said before, I’m keeping this blog for myself more than for you.

So, Steven wanted to cook shrimps, a special recipe he said. Special dinners demand good company, so we invited some friends to come over.

I knew there was a party going on in a student residence, and Hanna had invited me to go there… but as always, you can’t foresee what’s going on after a dinner with friends, so I didn’t compromise myself to show up.

Later on, Iza, the polish girl from the second floor, dropped by to invite us to a “dress up party” – it seemed to be the same party, at Hanna’s place.

The guys were in the mood and so we “dressed up something”. :P

It was also happening “something” in another residence, but we were dressed up – we kept saying this expression for the whole evening!;) - and Steven didn’t really want to dance with a very-girly-pinky-something-between-t-shirt -and-dress somewhere where people were normally dressed!

Ok, so we were going to the so talked dress up party!
There were some missing understandings while we were "biking" but we managed to get into the place – at least we were in a residence and it seemed that was a party going on.

“Nobody is dressed up.”
“I don’t wanna walk there like this.”
“Ah, there’s Steven II, let me just say goodbye to him.” – because Luis is leaving tomorrow for Portugal. :(
“I’m getting in as well. 5 minutes.” - I’m not the kind of person that can wait outside a party place. :P
“JUST BRING LUÍS!”

I guess nobody was really surprised when we were ALL inside the building.
Luckily, they know what the so called “5 Portuguese minutes” mean, but still…
“We were waiting for you outside. Let’s go to the other party!”

Bla Bla Bla. Five minutes more… Plus five and another five…

We went to the bar to say hi to a guy we had met and he gives as a glass of Calimocho (cheapest coke + cheapest wine = very famous cheapest alcoholic drink amongst Spanish students).

“Aren't we leaving?”
…

C’mon, they were feeding us and giving us free Calimocho, what could we do? It would be rude to leave once everybody was so friendly. :P

“I’m going to Brussels tomorrow morning with Rodrigo, I must go home…” – of course Joana didn’t know that he was going to show up at 4 a.m. :P

The moments that followed the first Calimocho glass still make me laugh when I remember them.

“What’s your name?”
“Ola.”
“Hello, what’s your name?”
“Ola, Luis, his name is Ola, he is from Nigeria.”

Two hours in the common toilet!! Common toilet! It’s amazing what you can discover there!
Thousands of words were told by “the clients”. Thousands of laughs were heard in that cubiculum! Thousands of languages were spoken!
People coming in, people coming out.
The door was open and the scenario was changed!
Conversations with people that turned out to be your neighbours – to be more specific I should say “people that are living above you!”

Iza: “Ana, let’s go home?”
Cesar: “Home? But does she leave with you?”
Iza: Yeah, she is living in the first floor.
Cesar: But if she is living with you and I am as well… that means that she is living with me!!!
Ana. Are you kidding me???

Everybody was participating in our “movie” somehow. It's obvious, in every party everybody gets into a point that leads them to the toilet. So the action was there, and we were there too! ;)

The last, but not least, “personage” who opened the toilet’s door was Rodrigo. He was supposed to be asleep, but we were happy to see him… :)

Afterwards we went for a tour in the building and I can say that we felt at home… probably more than we were supposed too… But never mind… :P

The sun was rising up… although we are always the survivors (especially Luis I’m must say the truth :P) we need to leave at some point…

On our way home we laughed until the bones were hurting!!!

[I know this doesn’t sound funny to you, but believe me, if you had seen yourself in that movie, you would laugh with us…]

“Thank you for coming” Pedro said. Apparently that was a sort of a private party where everybody was invited to come! :)

"Thank you Luís" I say now. Without you I wouldn't have had so much fun...

14th Anniversary! (17.3.1993)

Proficiat!
Happy Birthday!
Joyeux Anniversaire!
Parabéns!

p.s. mais um ano meus amores :)

March 16th 2006

It's been a year since I'm a bit happier... :)

Maar ya...

5 - 2 = 3

It’s a pity that someone needs to leave just because one it’s obliged too… not really because of one’s will. “I was gone when I was enjoying it the most” it’s a cliché sentence among Erasmus students that leave in the 2^nd semester.

When Raquel and Rita left I guess that I didn’t realize that I would miss them so much… It’s inevitable, we created a strong connection between each other and sometimes I still think that I can call them for a beer in Pink Flamingos…

I miss you girls… and I miss the “Gento” too… I wish I had hugged you harder…

Moment I

I was walking along with my Finnish classmate during the lunch break. It was raining. We were using an inefficient umbrella and looking downwards to avoid the rain. Thus, our vision was quite reduced but we could still see a dozen pairs of short legs. Children were walking in the opposite direction. Suddenly, one of them lean down to check it out who was underneath the umbrella. The little cute blond kid said: “Dag Madame!” and the day didn’t look so grey anymore… :)

One of the best disguise ever...

p.s. I know it’s missing spades... but later on - when the deck was complete - our disguises weren't as good as they look in this picture... I wonder why we had more pictures of Pauleta - the Portuguese football player - instead of cards in our skirts... :P

Last stops: Milano, Venezia, Martellago and Parma

I found myself among the “language-of-the-hands” and cars’ noise with crazy Italian drivers, in a city that according to me doesn’t have anything special except the capacity of bring into my mind good memories.

I was in Milan (almost three years after the first time that I had arrived in Italy, in that same huge and marvellous railway station) because of one reason: Bucas.

We haven’t seen each other for more than 5 months – which is quite a lot when you love someone :) - and we had arranged a meeting at 13h in Piazza Duomo.
Just like in the movies… there I was standing in that big square full of tourists and Italian fashion-people waiting for her to show up. I could barely listen anything but my heart beating. Tum tum, tum tum, tum tum…
Apparently I have been influenced by the good Belgian manners that don’t allow you to be late. But I forgot that she is a Portuguese doing Erasmus in Italy. :P So, I waited for her more than half hour… but no big deal, I was so happy to hug her…

The plan was to spend the Carnival festivities in the most famous Carnival in Europe – Venice. Margarida and Catarina joined us. We slept in Martellago – a small town near Venice – and we’ve met a group of Italian friends with who we had a lot of fun, pasta, wine and sprits! It was really funny to find out that we can communicate with them in an “international Latin language”, and once again, we could feel the nice connection that we can have with that people. I just loooooove Italians and they life style – though, I think that they have something to learn with Belgian people… ;)

Honestly the Carnival itself wasn’t anything really special, but Venice is always Venice – it seemed more beautiful to me this time – and we don’t need much to have fun. In this case we just followed some crazy guys with their juke-box, we drunk “Lambrusco” and we walked and walked between S. Marco, the railway station and our square… Campo San Stefano. :)
Actually, we didn’t need to look for amusement – funny situations were just coming to us as mice to cheese. Going back home was always a big adventure which included walking in the high-way at 5.a.m in the morning, walking next to high tension cables in the rain (!!) and almost got killed because of the cold while we were waiting for the bus to that town in the end of the world – Martellago! That hour seemed to us an eternity… and at that time, we couldn’t be sure if we knew how to get to Andrea’s place, because we didn’t know the town at all...
Luckily we were the only “bus users” at that hour in the morning and the bus driver was nice enough to give us a ride to the church – the only reference point that we had…

Some days later we moved to Parma – Bucas’ city.
Parma is a really cosy colourful city in the north of Italy. We didn’t do much but walking, dancing, eating and drinking. But it was so cool… We get into Bucas erasmus experience and I think that was what the three of us wanted. She is living next to the railway station with 6 people and apparently their house is the meeting point for parties! ;) It was really cool to dance all night long among Latin-full-of-joy-people… I must confess I was missing Latin music...

“Parole Parole Parole…”

We were also introduced to the products of the region – as they love to say – Parmigiano cheese and Prosciutto di Parma – the best smoked ham ever!
The cherry on the top of the cake was the unexpected presence – at least for me – of my Viriato! :)

I left Parma just right after Bucas had booked the flight to Ghent – she was already missing me… Ehehe...