Every Day Is A Monday
Every day is a Monday
As much as I’d love to tell you that so much has happened since my last post and this huge number of events is the reason why I haven’t updated this blog I’m afraid the situation is quite the opposite. I have been just really tired and unmotivated to write anything. So not much has evolved since my last post but I thought an update wouldn’t hurt anyone.
I have started studing portuguese, probably the biggest change so far! And I’ve decided to take the local approach while doing it. SLOWLY. So far had only a few classes and I’m not being nearly as active during my free time as I would want to but I am building an idea in my head of how this language works. Many things are similar from other Latin languages since I’ve studied Spanish, Italian and French and then there are other things that are completely new and bizarre. And it is surprisingly hard to let go of the things that have become familiar to me in other languages. But in time.. #patience
I found my teacher Carla on Facebook. She’s a local, 30-somewhat-year-old kindergarden teacher who teaches portuguese for foreigners also. Many TP (teleperformance) employees as well. My employer does offer free language courses but since almost all employees come from somewhere else the classes are quite popular and waiting lists long (6 months in fact). So I thought I’d ”speed” things up.
Discovering music in portuguese...even though they’re from Brazil I think.
This way of studying gives me also flexibility which I couldn’t have had while studying in a group even though it might have been cheaper. I usually have 1,5h lesson once a week so I’ll have time to do something else also during the week. Carla lives on top of many hills of Lisboa, somewhat in the old part of the town, at least compared to the area where I live. I just love to go to her house cause the streets are filled with tons of details, doors, walls, ghost house, local life without too many tourists.
To support my language learning I try to read the news in portuguese at least once a day and I’m also in search of PORTUGUESE pop music. Because music has been a huge help every time I’ve studied a foreign language. All I find is Brazilian artists, nothing wrong with them but I’m very picky about the pronunciation as I am at quite early stage of learning. Don’t wanna learn the wrong thing here. If you have any suggestions please don’t hesitate to tell me!
About differences between portuguese spoken in EU and overseas..
My weekly routine is a mixture of on-off routines… gym, yoga, tinder dates, couchsurfing events.. I’ve come to a habit of spending my Saturday evenings with a bunch of couchsurfers. Dinner and drinks – always having a good time. Besides of travelers there is quite an impressive number of locals being active also.
Tinder I use even less for a romantic purpose but I do use it. And I’ve had some pretty good friend dates. Even though you wouldn’t meet the person again it’s educating to hear different life stories and opinions. Especially when you’re a foreigner living in a new country. Great new areas, bars, cafes etc discovered through these! Have an open mind!
Pink street. Pretty touristic but a good selection of bars, live venues etc. I often end up here with couchsurfers..
I found a nice gym about 15min away from my place. Monthly fee is 30€ unless you sign a contract for a year when you pay 10€ less monthly. There’s also a female section separately which is not big but it’s calm and works for me. It’s cheap and you can notice it sometimes in the machines but like I said I manage. And it’s open 24h/7 so I don’t need to check the opening hours.
Banks and phones don’t still work the way I’d like them to but I have my Finnish ones so what the hell.. I try not to stress about things. Let them go on their pace and ignore the things I can’t control.
Flat stuff! Our laundry machine was broken for three weeks and when we finally got a guy to fix it – it took like 3min! So portuguese slow. Anyhow it works now which is amazing! Meanwhile I went to this self service laundry place around the block.
I’m starting to know Lisboa. The historical capital with obviously strong artistic vibe. Now and as in the past and probably in the future too. Almost every street, statue, square is named after a poet, writer, musician or an artist of some sort. Reading the history of the city opens up to me differently now when I can walk on the same streets and pass the buildings where this country was built, shaped and later on changed numerous times.
Financially I’m better here. I make pretty much the same money (after taxes and rent) as I did in Finland but with things being cheaper here - I’m more free here financially. My employer clearly has some sort of reputation here and the company is widely known but I don’t care what other people say. My experiences have only been positive so far. At least to compared to Finnish companies in a similar field there are many things to be grateful for.
Work is allright. I still go there. Training has been over for quite some weeks now and officially I should be on some sort of pro-level. Mornings ain’t my favorites especially when they start so damn early. I wake up 4:30am to catch the local train at 5:44 and be at work 6:30am. There’s a lot spare time there but at that time of the day there aren’t much connections to choose from. But location-like I’m super lucky cause the train to work is the best and fastest option in the city. And my body has adjusted quite easily to the new rhythm and I’m pretty ready for the bed after 8:30pm. And it’s nice to skip the rush hours when coming and going though social life is hard to plan when you’re starting to get sleepy at dinner time (portuguese eat late).
EUROVISION IS APPROACHING!!! Anyhow here you can see my local train station, the shopping mall where I have my lunch sometimes, do my shopping and see the area in general where I go to work to every day..
Days vary and are colorful because of the people who call. Got some pretty legendary stuff already in good and bad. Some calls take a lifetime and others not. I get calls about 20-40 every day. Even though my job is to listen people complaining I still like it! I like to work with the hotels stuff, flight stuff and tourism stuff in general so it makes everything nicer. There are a lot of RULES because we work in a customer service, because we handle payments and refunds, because we work on the phones. I know they exist for a reason so I don’t mind.
Even though things don’t work always as I’d like them to or even understand why they are as they are, I am super grateful for the helpful co-workers around me though who have the patience to give me a hand every time I need it. Apparently I’ve done some sales also cause I won a competition on the other Monday. But still it’s gonna take a long time before I’m gonna feel being good at what I do.
Weather like..it’s still very summery here at least during the days almost reaching +30C every day. But mornings especially at the hour I wake up, are chilly sometimes even cold. My room is freezing with the +15 temperatures during the nights and I was also sick on the other weekend. Not much rain thouh. Yet.
I’m actually looking forward to the cooler weather, less tourists and scenery changing. For the next post I’ll promise to get cracking – to make some progress with the Lisboa/Portugal to do list of mine.
More Posts from Lageografiademicamino and Others
Once an ESC artist always an ESC artist
Five artists have participated Eurovision before but didn’t quite get enough on first round-
RUSSIA / Sergey Lazarev / Scream (Stockholm 2016)
SAN MARINO / Serhat / Say na na na (Stockholm 2016)
HUNGARY / Joci Pápai / Az én apám (Kiev 2017)
NORTH MACEDONIA / Tamara Todevska / Proud (Belgrade 2008)
Serbia / Nevena Božović / Kruna (Malmö 2013)
Masterlist
Contains my photos and blogs from 2017 on. Updating as we go along and digging some older posts from MTL times.
BLOG
Eurovision
UMK 22
Host City 22 : Turin
ESC 20 : Best Non-English Entry
UMK 20
Eurovision 2018, Lisbon.
ESC 19: Songs that I love but others don’t / Artists coming back to ESC / Songs that I don’t love but others do / Different genres / UMK artist guess /
ESC 18: Positive review / Negative review / Songs that I loved but other’s didn’t / Non-English songs / Biggest growers / Different genres / The BIG 6 / Saara Aalto Songs / Mid tempo tracks /
ESC 2023: 10 things I don’t want to see / Voting system to be changed / Who will qualify SF2 / Who will qualify in SF1 / Top 5 Non-English Songs /
UMK23: Keira / Benjamin / Robin / Lxndra / Käärijä / Kuumaa / Portion Boys / The worst UMK stagings / UMK23 review /
UMK24: Cyan Kicks / Sexmane / Sara Siipola / Jesse Markin / Windows95Man / Sini Sabotage / Mikael Gabriel x Nublu
Lisbon Life :
LX Blogs / LX tips Part 1 / LX tips part 2 / 1 year in LX / Sintra first impressions / Quilty 6 months in LX / Fall 2017 / One month in LX / 2w / PT expectations / Going to LX /
Something else
100 years of Finland / 3 x / Home / Geography of my way /
PHOTOGRAPHY:
Lisbon
Sintra / Lisbon before Covid-19
Lisbon Before Covid-19
Lisbon Before Covid-19 Part 2
Mixed: Olaias Metro, the most beautiful / Xmas / Less known LX / Random Part 1 / Pantheon + random / Rua August sunrise /
Waterfronts : Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 /
Parque das Nacoes: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 /
Belem: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 /
Palaces: Queluz part 1 / Queluz part 2 / Belem Part 1 / Quinta da Regaleira Part 1 / Pena and the Moors Part 1 / Pena and Moors Part 2 / Pena and Moors part 3 / Pena and the Moors part 4 / Pena and the Moors part 5 / Royal Palace of Ajuda /
Lisbon Streets: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 / Part 7 / Part 8 / Part 9 / Part 10 / Part 11 / Part 12 /
Beach: Part 1 / Cascais / Praia da Ursa
Sétubal: Part 1 / Part 2 /
Arrabida : Part 1 / Part 2 /
Portugal
Berlengas: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 / Part 7 /
Azenhas Do Mar: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 /
Porto: Part 1 /
Nazaré: Part 1 / Part 2 /
Évora: Part 1 / Part 2 /
Braga: Part 1 / Part 2 /
Coimbra: Part 1 / Part 2 /
Costa Nova
Helsinki
Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 /
Lahti
Lake: Summer Part 1 / Winter Part 1 / Winter Part 2 /
Travels
Bologna: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 /
Amsterdam : Part 1 /
Galicia: part 1 / part 2 / part 3 / part 4 / part 5 /
One of the most intagrammable place in Portugal, Costa Nova can be reached by bus from Aveiro. I believe these houses are air bnb use but not many locals live in these.
This is definitely one time visit thing. The houses were cute and it was more than just a couple houses (surprised by the amount) but they didn’t feel real and everything screamed for touristic in my opinion.
Getting to know my new home city vol3
Random Helsinki.
5 days
As my Portuguese adventure approaches (6 nights left to sleep in Finland) I made a short list of things what to expect my life to be in Portugal. Probably things won’t turn out this way but I’ll let you know how it went. This is how I feel NOW.
I tried to create a positive list that reflects my interests. So don’t be disappointed not to find out the impressive numbers of how many corks the country produces or how many sunny days does it have in a year. Because those are not the reasons why I’m moving to Lisbon.
(any of these photos are mine - since I haven’t been able to take them yet!)
UNDERSTAND
The history of Portugal and Lisbon. Being one of the oldest nations, countries and cities in Europe I expect the old times to be present all around me. In the architecture, the way people are, in the language...
Portugal was the first country to descriminalise the use of all drugs in 2001. And apparently the numbers of addicts etc. have gone down since then.
Portugal was one of the countries that the recent economical crisis’ have hit hard. Since then the figures have improved and been going up but still Portugal is still considered a poor country.
Things will happen SLOWLY. Also the matter of times when people say to meet at 5pm this doesn’t mean 5pm but 30min or more later.
SEE
Street art. Lisbon seems to be very colorful and ”arty” and free what comes to creating the art.
LEARN
Portuguese and to be able to communicate with over 200 million people in the world.
EAT
Great food. Apparently a lot of fish. Wine obviously. Good coffee! Ice cream on the other hand I have not very high expectations.
DO
Excercise. Lisbon is being built on several hills (still not sure is it 7 or 8, I keep reading different figures) so discovering my new city will go for a work out untill I get my gym membership going on.
Travelling. As one of the most greatest travel destinations in the world I expect to see a wide range of pretty amazing things while living in Portugal.
(the red forest in Sintra)
FEEL
Warm. Portugal has the warmest winters even thou they can include cool winds and quite heavy rain. But when compared to Finnish/Canadian winters I’ll be fine.
Safe. Portugal has been rated as the 5th peaceful countries in the world and even though no stranger to crimes – with a use of a common sense you should survive without being mugged, raped, beated up or murdered. Just don’t wave around your wallet, jewellery, expensive camera etc. in a “come and get me” like. Check out the areas where NOT to go alone/in the night and don’t get too drunk. Or so I’ve been told.
EXPERIENCE
Fado – music. The poetic, melancholic tunes that seem to express the most deepest emotions of the nation. Similar to the one that swept Europe of its feet at Eurovision.
Portuguese CouchSurfing community.
Lower cost of living. But this doesn’t mean that I expect to have tons of money but compared to Finland for example, things will be cheaper for me.
MEET
Shy but friendly people. They apparently have pretty good English language skills also which will help me ‘till I get my portuguese skills up to date.
International spirits at the office as outside of it. This doesn’t mean not-portuguese but people with an open mind.
Tomorrow #pausini20th
Lisbon before covid-19
The things I didn't expect
First impressions can be deceiving I guess. I quit my job at the Hostel last Wednesday. It just wasn’t working out. The work itself was fine and I liked the guests and everything. But I was supposed to learn the job faster than I was capable of. I guess they didn’t have really the time to train me so I felt more like being a problem to them. After having a talk with the manager I decided that maybe it’s better that I won’t continue working there anymore.
I’m back at looking for a job again. I still have the gallery where things are going great. I like it and I feel appreciated there. Participated at three events so far, two weddings and one fund raising. It’s been fun, educating and each time different. But there’s not work enough so I still need another job.
(Wedding at the Gallery)
I think I’m gonna abandon the accommodation industry for a while and concentrate on the event scene in MTL. We’ll see how it goes. I’ll figure something out. I'm also thinking of taking a French class just to speed up things with my French learning. I also might get a totally different job which I'd get even paid and that wouldn't have nothing to with my internship.. on va voir.
At the moment it also looks like that I will be spending my Christmas here in Montréal. Which is okay. My first one away from home. Just worried about my parents cause I know it will difficult for them, especially for my mom.
Over a week ago I had my very first Thanksgiving which they celebrate earlier here in Canada than in the States for example. I was fortunate to be invited over to a friends' house where I enjoyed a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with an italian twist :)
Got my eyes checked to get some contact lenses cause there’s something wrong with the ones I brought back home. The examination was a bit different. The doctor used a spoon to cover my eye and this stick with parrot on it and I also had to read a bit of this text in French. It felt weird but thorough.
Here below some of my exploring in the nightlife of MTL. The most memorable night probably being the one where I ended up climbing to the Mont Royal Mountain in the middle of the night with the exchange students of Concordia University. It was cool, pitch-black and so unreal with the remarks made about the dark woods around us and the full moon lightning our way. #mtlmoments
Photos from my visit to Coimbra, 4th biggest city in Portugal. It’s famous for its university which is one of the oldest in the world and especially the beautiful library Joanina (no photographing allowed!). Such a lively student city. Easy to reach from Lisbon and the city can be covered in one day easily. The city has more medieval feel than other portuguese cities I’ve been to. Here’s the first part of the photos I captured.
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lageografiademicamino reblogged this · 7 years ago
Finnish traveler. Experienced Montréal and la vie québecoise 2013-2014. Living in Lisbon, Portugal since July 2017. Into photographing, eurovision, pop music, ice cream, coffee and travelling. MASTERLIST
280 posts