[Day 22] Observations

Looking at cars and pushing buttons can be 'fun' for the first minutes, but after some hours doing it, with wind and sometimes a little rain it looses part of the charm! :P Result? You start to observe the cars and the world around you, and reflect about your own stuff too.

So, after this inspired beginning, today's mail is actually very simple and it's only to share those things that "got me thinking"...

=> There's a cafe without toilets
It's true!!! Well, actually there is one cafe, but also the 7-11 shops don't have toilets either. The last ones don't have tables either, so in a cold morning after standing 1h30 hours outside we can get a warm drink, but if you want it cheap, you can't stay inside; if you don't mind paying a little more, you can stay inside. But either way there's no toilet, so think about that when planning your next moves (and the amount of liquid you'll be drinking) :P

=> Guys wear short hair
Ok, pretty normal I guess. But really, I barely see any guy without short hair - let's say McGuyver would be already in the frontier of not being short hair. The two exceptions to the rule would be one of my housemates - has ear-long curly hair - and a guy that was passing by us in one of the counting days - his hair was butt-long, almost reaching the legs (and I'm not exaggerating, it really was the longest hair I have ever seen live).

=> Boxers & jeans
There is a considerable number of guys here that use the jeans lower enough to let boxers be visible. Ok, back home too. But back home they don't cycle! :P The result of someone following that fashion line and cycling at the same time is that the boxers became even more visible when they are sitting on the bike. And if you're behind them, it's an impossible mission to see the road and not see the boxers... yes, I'm talking specially in the cases where boxers are very strange (there's really no other word for it :P), or a colour totally not matching the rest of the clothing, or... white and so thin they actually do tend to get a little transparent. The only solution I've found do far is to loose speed and get some space and clear vision :P

=> Guys wear more tight jeans here too
The proportion of guys wearing tight jeans here is also higher than back in Portugal. Don't know why. And don't ask me what I prefer - the observation is purely an observation, like saying that they have more blue-eyed people here or that they wear more "Summer clothes" in this temperature than we would. No story behind.


Ok, going to have a glass of milk, see an episode of Bones and... sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!! Tomorrow I'm up early again, but at least I get more 1/2h sleep than these 3 days :P

[Day 21] A happy day! :D

Well... not exactly a happy, happy day, more like a very, very happy ending of the day eheh

What makes me this happy... smth with 69 pages and 63 references - the first draft of my thesis with the 4 main chapters in a single file! :D I still gotta cut a bit here, add a bit there, check some maps.... and write the conclusion and critic chapter. BUT I'M HAPPY :D It's great to see everything in place and starting to really give the feeling it's almost on the way to be finished eheh

Now that you know how the day ended, I'll share my morning. Today we didn't have car coutings, only bike coutnings, which can are made in the afternoon.... but I still woke up at 6.20 cuz I forgot to change the alarm last night :P Anyway, it was good cuz I had time to shower, have a nice breakfast and...not go to work :P Since I had the double cleaning yesterday, I wanted to make sure they were going to check it before anyone would walk on the floor so I went to the caretakers office to explain it had been vacuumed twice in 2 days. Of course I wasn't just gonna to that, I also put into actions what we had said in the weekend - the vacuum cleaner needed a new "tube" cuz this one was bended and much of the suction strength was lost in that spot. And since I was going there anyway, I also took care of the lamps (= light bulbs) that were not working. Ok, short explanation: inside the room we are responsible for the stuff, so if a lamp 'dies', we need to buy a new one ourselves, but for the common area the caretaker gives us new ones for free. Anyway, I guess most ppl don't do that, cuz they were smiling when I was talking to them. Yes, cuz the caretaker is one, the inspector is another and I had to see a third one about the vacuum and the lamps. I don't know if you can get the feeling from the map in Picasa, but it takes smth like 2-3 min to get to the caretakers office from our house - nothing much, mainly for me, but now add up to that a vacuum cleaner. Yes... I had to take it there to be fixed :P Already told my housemates that someone[else] needs to go and get it back :P

When I was finally done with everything, I went to catch the bus to work, but I saw one arriving and I ran in. I thought it was a little strange it was leaving before the schedule hour, but thought maybe it was a delayed one... until I started seeing unusual surroundings some 20 min later! :P In the bus stop near the dorms we have 2 buses: number 15 (the one I take) and number 90. This lat one was, of course, he one I took. I really didn't thing about checking the number cuz 90 only leaves every now and then and 15 it's like 3 - 4 times an hour. Still, the whole thing was not a disaster - I got of the bus, changed directions, asked what was the bus to the city centre and got there, to catch 15 to work :)

When I got to work we had fun changing the room eheh Didn't tell you yet, but our new tables arrived yesterday! :D They are super cool, you can lower them pressing a button and it's really funny. Ok, better than that, they are much bigger than the temporary ones, so it's much simpler to rearrange the space in order to have papers + keyboard + mouse + tea cup... all in safety :)

The afternoon was pretty normal - after lunch we headed to town to count bikes - and got the usual "what the hell are these doing?" look from ppl passing by us :P The came home, finished the chapter, send it and glued everything :D Oh, yeah... we got the payment papers... we're not going to get as much as we thought, so next month will mean developing an even more creative saving money method :P

Beijinhos! Now it's time to go to sleep cuz tomorrow it's 'counting cars' day again :P

[Days 18 to 20] Cleanings...

Hej!

Sunday I didn't go to the beach - I went to buy some groceries in the morning and manage to escape the afternoon rain :P So now you understand why beach was out of option lol

Monday I went to work and in the afternoon I did the living room cleanings - at first I stared at the place and thought "where do i start?..." than I decided it was better to change into action than just thoughts and went for a top-to-bottom approach [pretty handy in cleaning situations] and started by the balcony. About 1h30 later I was done with the whole living room and some of my housemates even said the living room looked really nice and clean :D I was happy and hoping I'd not get a 'red mark' in the inspection :P and went to my room.

Tuesday = Little sleep + countings in the rain + countings with wind + riding back home in the rain + finding out i had to vacuum the carpets AGAIN

Well, that pretty much says it all about today. Yesterday I was working till late and today I got up even earlier than usual - at 7am we were already riding in direction to our dear intersection, where we started the countings at 7.30. Despite the rain, we manage to be dry because we found a protected spot to count the cars. At 9.00 the first counting finished and we decided to go for a cup of coffee to warm up, but almost everything was open only from 10-11 am on... We finally found a place where we could both get a warm drink and stay inside and only left it before the lunch countings, from 11 to 12. After that we ride to work to have lunch in the canteen - nothing special here, except for the part where our work in in a hilly part and that means cycling up... and today with the bonus of having wind against us :P After lunch both me and Ivo were totally sleepy, but we manage to get trough with coffee and at 15 we were back in the intersection for the last counting of the day. We didn't get rain, but we got a lot of wind, which meant that the 'real fell' temperature was lower... and we didn't miss the rain for that long, cuz it started raining tight after we finished counting and all the way back home - yes, by bike :P

On the way home I stoped in Lidl to get some fruit and vegetables and by the time I got home I just felt like taking a shower and taking a looooooong nap. That would have been so nice!... but the inspection paper was clear: I needed to vacuum the carpet floor AGAIN. Some of you might have seen me cleaning, so you know I take care of it pretty well, so what went wrong with this picture?... House parties... Yeap, Last night about 10 ppl came over and stayed in the living room. I saw them when I went to get a cup of milk around midnight and I fear for this outcome. I asked them to clean up afterwards - and the tables were actually clean - but the floor had the usual marks of use. So my "shower + nap" marvelous combination was substituted by a "second go at vacuuming the floor of the living room + balcony". I wasn't about to let this pass that easily, so I already left a suggestion for everyone in the house: no gathering in the living room on Mondays and Tuesdays evenings - cuz the 'inspections' are on Monday and Tuesday mornings, so all the work one has done can go down the drain with means another cleaning or worst - a [cleaning] bill to pay.

Well this is about it and now I'll finish two pages to send to Lisbon, copy paste everything into a single document to print tomorrow and finally go to sleep :D Tomorrow gotta get up early again to talk with the caretaker at 7.30 am :P oh god.. this is going to be a hard week lol [but there's a glance of a free concert on Friday ;) ]

Beijinhos


PS - Yeap, no pics of me cleaning... yesterday I was focused on the cleaning and today I was so pissed off I didn't even thing about it lol

PPS - Gotta share this with you... I GOT PISTACHIO TURKISH DELIGHTS! :D My favourites as you might know [if you don't, it's just cuz you don't remember lol well, can't blame you for not storing unimportant info like this in your memory eheh] Just found out on Sunday there's a shop near the bus stop - went there on Monday to check it out and there they were... Lokoum for 25 krones [not that expensive - and anyway it's not like i'm going to buy them again that soon :P]

PPPS - I'm taking the bus tomorrow... I'd rather get to work and back home with my clothes dry... you should have seem the people at City Vest [the mall where Lidl is] - all dressed up in dry clothes, of course - looking at me when I got there! Due to the bike ride in the rain, my hair, the frontal part of the jeans and the upper part of the jacket were all wet, so I was not a 'sight for dry clothes' LOL

[Days 13 to 17] Is this a sign it's time to go weekly or smth? :P

Hello!

Well, we can almost say 'long time no see'! :P It's been 4 days since I wrote you and that last day had just been "an ordinary" day itself.

Well, let's see what remarkable stuff happened this half-week: on Wednesday (day 14) we had a common dinner :D Ok, I didn't touch my thesis that evening, but it was really great to just be with the ppl, talking and getting to know each other. After dinner three of us ended up in a discussion about equal opportunities, utopias and chasing your dreams/ believes [with Eastern vcs Western world and the US in the middle lol]. It was a very nice evening indeed ;)

On the job the most outstanding detail was that we actually started to get info for our project and started developing draft ideas :) Next week will be doing traffic counts to get updated data - the available one is from 99 :P - and start developing further our ideas based on that data.

The weather is still good here :D and today I had a plan to hit the beach with a book i have here, but ended up spending the morning with e-mail and doing the laundry - yeah... I guess I'll dedicate my weekend morning to laundry cuz it's the only time when I can put the clothes outside to dry with direct sun lol the rope is also not so long [though Ivo offered some of the rope left over from his balcony, so I might double the available space :P]. Maybe tomorrow, we'll see.

I'm just gonna share two more things with you :)

1) sunrise is good, but sunset is better! :P I'm waking up everyday between 6.30 and 7.00 because of the clarity lol Well, at least on week days it makes it easier to get up - and since I get up quite early, I take the bus and thus take the computer with me, with allows to have music at work and - most important - a processor that actually works at a normal speed. Trust me, if I already complain my computer is getting old and getting slower, the computers at work sometimes just freeze :P Anyway, we got AutoCAD in them this week ;)

2) Monday is my cleaning day in the house! the living room is on me :P I'll try to take some pics so you can laugh a bit eheh And talking about pics, you can check the link to Picasa - I finally gave up and downloaded the program, so I uploaded more photos to the album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/anarelvapereira/MyTimeInAarhusAndAround


Beijinhos

PS - I miss having a pillow! :(

[Day 12] An ordinary day...

Hello!

It's time to go to sleep, but since this was an ordinary day, it's quick to write you :)

Got up early as usual, went to the caretaker office to find out how the lease ending works (for the room - we need to give notice 6 weeks before leaving) and then went to work by bike with Ivo. Friday was a bad day to get things going, but everybody was busy today too, so we remained without much work to do :( Tomorrow we have a meeting, hopefully it will get us started :)

On the way home I stopped in Lidl - so my number of visited supermarket is increasing lol which is good since I'm finding out where to get the cheaper stuff. I came to terms with myself and my money-spending aversion and ended up buying a bottle of olive oil - using sunflower oil *is* too strange :P By the time I got home I had never seen the kitchen so full of people at the same time lol I let it quiet down a little bit and went to get myself smth to eat when I could move more freely inside ;) Then I spent the afternoon in the computer... and I'm closing it now.

Sweet dreams!

[Day 10 and 11] The second weekend here

Hey!

My window is facing East and I get the sunrise everyday, so I wake up early and get a shiny welcome every morning - pretty nice, unless you'd actually want to sleep a little more :P Anyway, on Saturday I decided to take the time (and the sun) to wash my bed linen. I decided to give it a try in my WC instead of going to the laundry for two reasons: 1) didn't really felt like paying for it; 2) only had handwashing powder and I didn't feel like trying to use it on washing machines - which my mum confirmed to be a good solution, as it makes much more foam and can ruin the machine lol. Well, I manage to wash it and to put it to try and during that time a wasp got into my room. The damn thing was not that bright and couldn't find its was out... I gave up trying to put it out myself and after stopping hearing it, I though it was gone and decided to head for Bilka. Got milk, yogurts, fruit, the new lamp (light bulb)... and machine washing gel :) Got back home and I discovered the wasp was still in there!! I guess it was running out of energy, cuz it was laying in the floor and so I killed it (sorry animal lovers). I went down to try to make my semi-complex food - cooking meat :P I didn't have wine, so I used cider instead XD Well, I still have to improve the cooking here lol About my food regime, I'll go light on the food at home during the week, since I get a pretty good lunch at work. On the weekends I'll try to make smth a littler more "solid" and to prevent meat from being in the fridge for too long (like it happened now) I'll just buy it on saturday morning.

After lunch I went back to the room and passed a little time trying to put the new light bulb in the lamp - which should have been smth kinda of funny to watch, since I had to be on my toes to reach it :P Afterwards I went to Ivo to the "hill" nearby and check the city view from there. I have pics, but I'll send them later. Then I went back home to work and I was planing to join a party later on, but I was so tired I feel asleep and only wake up the next day :P

On Sunday morning I got up early (again) and went to town - I took a "5 historical walks" from the tourist shop so I'd have an idea where to go. I went to check the "Women's Museum", which was different, but could be improved (well, at least with student price it was cheap :P). The funniest part was actually the Childhood floor and not the women's history floor, in my opinion... I strolled around the downtown area and I liked it a lot! Had a the good part of getting to know the streets a little better, which can be quite handy when we're dealing with traffic and city plans eheh There are a lot of people jogging, both in the city and near the dorms, and on Sunday I also saw parents - kids jogging and cycling together :)

When I got home I prepared a snack and I was talking with him an Michael about stuff - and found out this was a busy weekend in terms of lack of security :s Some cars got broken into, some bikes were stolen, there were troubles in the bus and the driver called the police, the "bus house" near our bus stop had a broken window... and someone even tried to get into one of our house rooms, while the person was inside :/ Well, this was the not so nice side of it, breaking the "Nordic security reputation" :P but in the end it's sums up to just having to follow the same basic security rules everywhere in the world.

No pics today and I might not even add pics until the end of the week, considering I tend to spend a ,ot of time with them - time that I have to prioritize to my thesis now :P

Beijinhos

[Day 9] No money spent today! :P

A short post to end the day - which has, as the highest point, the fact that I didn't spend any money today ;)

I woke up early and decided to take the bus instead of the bike cuz it was kinda of cold. I managed to take the bus at 7h35 and get to work before 8h30 - would be good to this everyday (and leave early in the afternoon too), but i'll see how that works. Like I said yesterday, we joined the weekly meeting, with tea, bread and cakes :) Pretty cool atmosphere, even though they spoke Danish most of the time - there was an exception where we spoke about out projects, in English of course :P Jesper talked with us about the action plan we have and we tried to meet people who could give us info, but everybody was busy :P After lunch we had no data or info to work with, so the afternoon assignment was "find the best way to get to Norway" (*) :P [which, hopefully, we managed to achieve]. I took the bus home and Ivo went to the university for a social event there.

(*) IAESTE Norway has a programme to visit Trondheim and we'll probably join, since we both know ppl there and we'll try to spend a day in Oslo to get to know the city. Since my initial plans were to visit Norway in early November, I might just stay here and visit Denmark instead ;)

While there was still light, I worked in the room, but then I found out my lamp is out and I need to get a new one :P I still wanted to work on the thesis, so I came to the common room to continue reading, taking notes and writing. I brought my phones cuz some of the ppl were watching tv, so there was no problem for me.

The day only has two more things to share: Dane, a friend from SC 2005, is now in Lisbon staying at my place with my parents ;) Well, nothing new, considering it's no the first time my friends go over there while I'm gone lol Also today my first visitor is confirmed: Dário is coming here in the end of October :)

That's it for today, now it's time to finish work cuz it's getting cold :P See you tomorrow!

[Day 7 & 8] One week here!

Hej!

Yesterday you had a break, today you get 2-in-1 :)

My life yesterday was pretty normal - got the bus to work and met Ivo there. We went to talk with our boss and had another session of information about Aarhus and the plans here - they really have great things :D The rest of the morning was spent in our room, installing all the needed programmes in the computer (Firefox+add-ons :P, Adobe Reader, etc, etc). After lunch we went to the city with our boss, who showed us 'in-situ' what had been done - for me it worked both as a get-to-known-the-work-done and also as a tour around the city centre :) I'm sending some pics so you can check how it looks like - we had good weather to walk around eheh

After work I came straight home, hoping to get news from Lisbon. Well, they hadn't arrived by then and I spend a lot of time in the computer - don't ask me doing what, cuz I just know I barely managed to get some work done, I was too "static" :P When the time came to check the Portuguese game, I was trying to get links to work, but didn't manage... until the 2nd half :P I was also checking the summary in Record online, so I know Pepe had scored. With all the trouble finding links, I found out there's another BESTie in Aarhus from Vienna, so we said we'd meet sometime lol

After the game I had great news from Lisbon: I am allowed to submit my thesis by the 9th October! :D I was sooooooo happy eheh After this I was almost ready to go to sleep when Ivo showed me a trip to Trondheim IAESTE Norway is organising - so we spent quite a lot of time checking flights, buses and trains to make up a budget - and eventually decided to go to sleep without a final result cuz it was late :P


Today I got up and met Ivo at 8am to cycle to work - it's mostly downhill so it was better :P As usual, we met Jesper (the boss) for a cup of tea and a discussion about we'd do. Assignment for the day: to come up with a workplan, detailing all the info and data we need, software, what we want do to, etc, etc We spent the morning around it and showed it to him after lunch. When we were done with work we went to fix our bikes before leaving - they have a garage prepared for it :D and getting the seat in the right position was a BIG help ;) We went downtown to meet Trine, who had Ivo's papers, and then headed to the Bazar. There I managed to make my mobile "universal" :P for 100 DKK (instead of the 300-400 DKK I'd have spend getting a new mobile) and a danish number. We also strolled around to check the prices and we're going there again for sure to get food, as it's cheaper then some supermarkets around and it's quite close by bike.

After I got home I wanted to work on the thesis, but I was so tired that after checking the mail, I decided to take a little rest - and ended up taking a nap :P I woke up just on time to get a shower and meet the others for the concert tonight. I though, being Denmark, this would start more on time... but I was wrong! :P It was supposed to start at 10pm, but actually started after 10.30pm. It was a nice concert and I tried some different ways of taking photos with the camera eheh

I was supposed to work on the thesis now, but ended up writing this... and now it's time to get some sleep - Jesper invited us to join the department on their weekly meeting, where they discussed what will be done the following week, "with egg rolls, cakes and tea" :) Have I already told you that it's amazing to be working here? ;)

I say goodbye sharing some more photos. Tomorrow I'll probably come home after work, but I want to take a morning or afternoon off in the weekend to go to the city again and explore a bit more - and then you'll get more photos.

PS - In the concert I discovered we are 7 portuguese in Skjoldhøjkollegiet - me, Diogo, Inês, Margarida, Francisco, Joana + someone I didn't meet. From these 6, 3 are from Lisbon, 2 from Porto and 1 from Évora :)

PPS - There an interesting history about Aarhus City Hall, but I'm running ut of time and energy,so I'll just leave you with these links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aarhus_City_Hall

http://www.aarhuskommune.dk/portal/borger/byplan_arkitektur/arkitektur_og_design/aarhus_town_hall?_page=the_city_council_hall.htm

PPPS (= post-post-post scriptum :P) - After attaching the photos, I feel like I have to say a few things: we have our own tea mugs and we drink tea (or coffee with milk for me, after lunch) at work. We have a very nice canteen, which looses some of the impact in a photo taken without proper light :P Besides considering bus 15 my friend, I also consider the bike my friend :) After trying this morning, as the way to work is almost all downhill, we can get to work in a pretty "normal" way, we don't need to shower there (mandatory on the return - uphill - home :P)

[Day 6] GMT vs CET time :P

Hello!

So, about today.... got up earlier than the alarm clock rang and I was amazed that I was ready 1h before the right time... or so I thought :P What had happened? I put my watch on and I was checking the time on it, not realising it was still with Lisbon's time! Fortunately Ivo called me right on time for me to grab my stuff and run out of the room in time to catch the bus :P

Day at work was pretty calm - we "stole" some tables and took them to our room, while ours don't arrive (they are expected in 2 weeks ;) ), we had a talk about Aarhus organisational system and how [urban and traffic] planning is done here and we had lunch. In the afternoon we went to the city with a senior engineer (?) who showed us some of the constructions going on and then our final place to visit was the square we'll be working on :D No pics cuz when I run out in the morning I forgot to take the camera with me :P

After that Ivo stayed in town to get a mobile sim card and met a friend and I came back home. I was really sleepy and, most of all, wanted to get some news from Lisbon. Well, thanks to Nikki ;) I managed to know I'm not the only one in this situation and I sent an e-mail to the thesis' responsible. Now it's time to cross fingers and pray...

The rest of the time was spend in the internet, in the thesis and... washing clothes by hand :D Oh! I met another Danish guy living here, who loves Portugal ;) We talked for some time and I guess we'll be talking more in the future lol

Beijinhos


PS - I might get my first guest to Aarhus confirmed soon! :D

[Day 5] First day at work... and bad news from Lisbon :s

A note: I still don't have a Danish cellphone, and my portuguese one, for an unknown reason, decides not to work form time to time (doesn't get network connection even though it has almost perfect signal).

First day :D Ok, getting to work was a bit bumpy, as Niels (IAESTE guy) was talking to me and Ivo, but settling different things with each one :P With me we were supposed to leave the bus, with Ivo he would hop in. Anyway, this wasn't too critical and we did manage to get to work - it takes about 45 minutes by bus from here :)

We met our boss - who seems really friendly and, of course, told us his first name (Jasper) - and talked to us about what we'll be doing in the next few days and our project. We'll get to know al the technical departments of the Municipality :D and our project is great: we have to find a solution for a square in town, one of the critical spots right now ;) We spent part of the morning there, we got a bike each [borrowed from the department] and even had lunch there in the canteen! It works like a buffet and a medium plate cost 23 kr [around 3 euros] or 210 kr for a 10-cuppon set. The food was really good, so we'll be having lunch there and having lighter meals at home in the evening.

Since we had the bikes, we decided to ride home - which takes about 30-40 minutes. Nothing wrong there, expect for the part where my seat was slowly getting lower and I couldn't make the "full movement" with my knee. Result? A really bad pain :s I gotta find a way to get the seat up again and to tight it better, so this time it actually doesn't move :P On the way home I went to Bilka, the big supermarket around, and got some power to wash my clothes :D Washing adventures are going to start soon lol

After all the travels I came home, took a shower and came to the computer... to get bad news :( Apparently there's an administrative problem and I gotta find out how to solve it in order to be able to submit my thesis on time. I spent a great deal of time around this and didn't actually touched my thesis, so now I'll go and make dinner and then I'll spend the night working on it.

Tomorrow work starts more seriously :D I still think I'll take the bus there instead of the bike - i) i gotta a bus pass anyway, so I might as well use it; ii) cycling for over 1/2h makes you a little sweaty :P and even though they have showers there, I don't feel like taking 2 showers a day [hey! i'm totally up for a daily shower, but let's not push it, ok?]

No photos today, I'll take some photos tomorrow - and show my room there, the plaque with our names :D, the canteen and so on :)

Beijinhos!


PS - Yeah, right... I finally come to terms about updating my weather forecast: it is now officially giving me Aarhus forecast and no longer Lisbon's :P

[Day 4] And I'm no longer an IKEA virgin! :P

Oh well, the subject is not my fault XD

Ok, so as you can imagine, I went to IKEA today, for the first time in my life :P I met Ivo before 10 am and we got there around 11.30 am or smth alike. Neither of us had ever been to IKEA, so we were discovering how everything worked... and of course we had to start in style :P For those who were lucky enough to live without IKEA, there are some arrows on the floor to show the directions ppl should take (it makes and internal circuit, to make sure ppl pass through every thematic area and buy more stuff :P) and we didn't notice them, so went in the opposite direction eheh We were in the 1st floor and split, since we were looking for different things. Half an hour later we met and Ivo asked me if I had seen the ground floor... which of course I hadn't :P Basically the 1st floor were the set of spaces (kitchen, room, living room, bathroom, etc), all put together nicely, and the small stuff (decoration, trash bins, boxes, etc) were in the ground floor. We made a lunch break before heading down, to escape the longer queues later on. I had the kid's lunch (pasta with bolognesa sauce, for 19 kr :D) and we decided to try the desert, which we called "radioactive cake" :P Well, it was different, but good. After lunch we head down and after another half an hour we were done. I got two paper boxes (the kind that you use when you're moving) cuz the other were expensive (and not easy to carry back to Lisbon) and these ones at least *might* be handy in 2 months. I also got a polar blanket for 25 kr (around 3 euros) so I can study with my window open.... yeah, you'd reply "but then you can just close the window!" and I reply "true, but I do like to get some oxygen in my room and I can't stand to being in a room without air circulation at least once a day" lol I also took the chance to get shampoo and air conditioner from IKEA, which are much cheaper than the other ones I had seen in the supermarket :P and the same applies to the alarm clock I got, for about 1 euro :) [but without battery lol gotta buy a AA battery soon].

We came back and I came to my room to go back to the thesis - and found out the dorm's internet "takes a break" on sundays, as it apparently goes down every now and again on the holy day :P

Not much more to say about today, except it (almost) didn't rain! :D It was actually sunny outside eheh I took some photos to proof it :P

Tomorrow works start - can't wait for that! ;)

Beijinhos

[Day 3] A weekend to relax, see the match and share some initial observations

Hello!

So today was a calmer day - I was working till late last night, but manage to get up rather early (comparing to what i was expecting :P). checked the e-mail, had breakfast and head to town to get my bus pass. Denmark, Denmark... they *really* don't know what cheap is :P My monthly pass was little over 45€! (which would be enough for 2 month of combine Metro + Carris pass in Lisbon...). Anyway, the lady was really nice and when she saw my name, she asked if it was really all those names or smth was extra XD I said it was all 5 of them and she asked me to pronounce my name, since she didn't know how to do it correctly and then she laughed when I explain Relva means grass and Pereira pear tree :P

After getting the bus pass I decided not to head to IKEA today and I went to check the mall they have. It has a lot of shops for clothes, decoration, and the usual mall stuff, and it also has a supermarket. I decided to go in to check the prices and I bough some food, as well as 4 other important things: white paste to put stuff on the wall without nails, a piece of gift wrap paper that reminds me of a painted rainbow :) and bed linen (mattress sheet + upper sheet with pillow case). By the time I was done I went back home, cuz it was already lunch time, heated the rice left from dinner - thanks for the tupperware idea, it is handy to have them ;) - and eat it with tuna, tomatoes and apple.

After lunch I came back to my room and I finally manage to have some more colour - gotta admit I was looking for a cheap solution, but never though I could actually work out smth this cheap :D I cut a big piece of the wrap paper and put in front of the desk and I also hold the flag with the paste (I had tried with tape, but it fell down). I also tried the bed linen to see if it fit the bed and now I'll exchange the pink of my sleeping bag for the light green of the bed upper cover :) I just gotta find out the best way to wash them before using them :P

And finally I wanted to share a couple of things from the initial observations:
=> First, the weather is really windy and rainy :P No sun what-so-ever! (That's also part of the reason I decided to go for some more colour in my room) Well, that's not really news, I know, but I have to complain a little bit while I'm not totally used to it. On the other side, the weather and the fact everything tends to be expensive are probably the really not-good things around here.
=> Buses run on time :D and it's funny cuz you have to get in in the backdoor and leave the bus through the front door :) There's an automatic ticket machine in the bus and each 2 zone on board ticket costs 18 kr :s - that's why i was really happy to have the bus pass from today on :) I think there's a big muslim community here cuz there's a part of the bus route (bus nº 15) where a lot of muslim ppl get in and out of the bus. It's easy to tell them apart cuz most Danish ppl are blond and many of them use shorts/ skirts with this weather and cold :P and then there are a lot of international students speaking smth other then Danish among themselves ;)
=> They don't buy fruit and vegetable per weight, they by it per piece! Amazing :P And then they have promos like "It's 10 kr a piece, but if you take 10 it's 80 kr total".
=> "Self-observation": with the travels to get food, the wind and the getting inside getting outside I'm also starting to walk in the rain without protecting my head and I guess one of two things will happen: either I get a cold or I get immune to it :P

[Note: up till here was writing after lunch, to help me resume the writing rhythm :P the following part is from the end of the night.]

Back online, after work and after the match... shit, I felt like we were jinxed :s Anyway, I saw the game with the other 2 portuguese I met here, some of their "housemates" and with Ivo - my Croatian colleague, who got here at the hour of the match. After the match we came to our side of the dormitories (even doors are on one side, odd doors on another) and on the way back I noticed it wasn't raining! :D Actually the sky didn't have that many clouds - of course this had to happen at night and not when the sun was up :P - and I took some pics to test the night mode of the camera.

Now I already had smth to eat and I'm going back to work. Tomorrow I might go to IKEA with Ivo, since he needs stuff for his room and we can eat there for an affordable price :P

Beijinhos!

[Day 2] Getting into the new reality :)

Hello again :)

Well, day two isn't totally over, but I don't think I'll be doing that much more, so here is what I've been up to today. To start with, last night I decided to sleep as much as my body wanted tonight - and I had plans to turn off the alarm clock :P I was so tired I feel asleep before doing so, so at 7 smth (local hour) I woke up, turned it off, turned off any other sounds the mobile could have and went back to sleep :D

I woke up after 11 am, which is quite amazing for me :P I went to check the email and later on I went down to have breakfast. Yesterday I hadn't bought much, so I basically had the cheese and crackers I took from the plane :P and a yogurt. I went to the city centre to take care of bureaucratic stuff and I managed to get to the wrong place - fortunately I noticed it was wrong and went back to the (right) bus stop, where Laura and I met again! We went to the centre together and met Niels, the IAESTE guy who was going to help me. He said I didn't need the CPR, so in the end we were going there to help Laura. Afterwards was the time to get the bus pass... but I forgot to take my photos with me in the morning :P (I'm going there tomorrow morning to take care of that, cuz each bus ride is 18 kr :s)

Once we were done with the city centre, we two took the bus back "home" and we had lunch at Laura's - I didn't have any food, so she invited me. After the break and getting some energies again, I went to Aldi (similar to Lidl for the portuguese folks reading this) to get the basic stuff I was missing (food, tooth paste, toilet paper, etc). Of course I was lucky enough to get rain on the way there and on the way back (which is 5-10 min by foot each direction).

Back home I started to put things away and then I noticed with all the "basic stuff" I had forgotten to buy more non-basic things to be able to make dinner lol While I was in the kitchen putting my things in the fridge I was telling Tudor (Romanian) it must hve been designed for Danish ppl, cuz the sink is abnormally high for someone my size and I can't reach the last shelf in my cupboard :P He laughed and then offer to trade his cupboard for mine - which is a rather win-win situation, since he is tall and he has problems reaching his lower cupboard eheh Then we were talking about dinner and I didn't feel like going back in the rain to get food, so he told me to help myself with his food. I went for rice and sausages (well, not much to choose from in the meat side) and Camil, the Turkish guy, taught me how to prepare them (they were "muslim sausages", without pork meat). Of course the basic stuff I bought included apples and tomatoes, so I had those to go with dinner, as well as some carrots with are part of the "common food" :D Does that sound strange? Well, it's not and I'll get to that later ;) After dinner I went with Laura to meet Diogo, her Portuguese colleague and I also met Inês, another Portuguese whom he knows. We didn't talk much, cuz they were on their way to a birthday party and I came back to my place.

So about eh place I'm staying... I must really say that I had a really great impression yesterday, but I'm loving it even more today! some of the people are really nice and helpful and there's an amazing spirit here - a lot of nationalities means we're most of the time speaking English, so no "what the hell are they saying" moments and it's also easier to get into the conversation ourselves. The kitchen has cupboards for each room and a fridge for each pair of rooms, but everything else is pretty much shared - which doesn't stop at kitchen "tools", but also includes two drawers of "common food" :D It's basically food that lasts long and my carrots for today's dinner came from there :)


Finally, the photos of today:

=> I took 2 pics of the view I have form my room - I can't complain about having lots of green to see everyday :D
=> A pic relating to the Denmark - Portugal match tomorrow (guess it's smth about bets, but I'm not sure)
=> A pic showing the Danish walk in the streets exactly the same whether it's raining lightly or not raining at all - I barely saw any umbrellas today and I'm starting to do the same as they do, just walk in the (light) rain. I foresee one of two results: either I get a cold or I get immunity :P
=> The entry to my "house", nº 60 (and that human figure fully dressed it's me :P)
=> Last but not least, 3 pics from the dorms taken during the night - during the day I was busy carrying the stuff I bought, so no pics, but I'll take some during the time I'll spend here


Now it's time to go back to my thesis :) And tomorrow i'll get up early - I'll head to town early to get a bus pass and then might go to IKEA (my first time in my life :P though some of my roommates had troubles believing it...).

Beijinhos!

[Day 1] The beginning...

Ok, this was day 1! :D Got up at 6.30 am to take a shower, review the last minute things and head to the airport. There was a queue due to road problems (not to be discussed now :P), but I managed to get to the airport on time. The problem? The weight lol My suitcase was about 22-23 kgs and my (old) sleeping bag is about 1,5 kg. Too much weight, but the man let me take the sleeping bag by hand. In the mean time I had left my dad with the hand suitcase i the car :P not on purpose, but just cuz I was really running to be able to do the check in. Well, I went back, said goodbye and head to the huuuuuuge security queue. I had to be inspected by the police, but eventually managed to get the h*** out of there and head to the boarding gate. The ticket said gate 16, but when I passed through the electronic board I decided to check... and the new gate was nº 2... Went there, still huge queue - apparently it was already the 3rd gate the flight had and by the time we were supposed to be taking off, we were still getting on the bus to get to the plane. Well, all this confusion helped me in getting all my luggage in the plane without paying extra for it lol

The trip was ok (I slept most of the time) and when I got to Copenhagen around 1pm GMT, with a "beautiful" white-and-grey sky. Since it was lunch time and I knew the next train ride would take more then 3 hours, I went ot Burger King to get smth to eat (for an affordable price - yeap, affordable is the maximum I can use, this "cheap" is an unknown concept around here :P). Afterwards, took the [expensive] train to Aarhus and also managed to sleep most of the trip here. On the train station I met a girl from IAESTE who took me to the dorms by bus. On the bus I met a Romanian girl from AISEC Bucharest and I guess we'll be seeing each other around, since she's also staying in the dorms :)

Now the dorms.... it's not like the apartment building we usually have in Lisbon, it's more like a cluster of "houses" with a common living room and kitchen and 12 rooms divided in two "floors" - the division is only felt in the room access area, cuz we have an inside balcony to access the upper floor, but the living room doesn't have the separation. My room (with private WC), a bed, a desk, a "working" chair, wardrobe, two kind of "bed-side tables" and a "sitting" chair. After putting my stuff i the right place, it feels a bit better and tomorrow I'll go to IKEA to get a few things missing - like the stuff to hang the clothes on the wardrobe :P The ppl leaving here are nice, the Norwegian girl borrowed me her internet cable so I could access it now :) There also a brazilian guy, so I'll be speaking portuguese during this period :D

Well, nothing more to say about today, there are some pics in attachment and I'll share more tomorrow :)

Beijinhos!