So far so good! Part 2 of many

January 2006 was cold, rainy, dark, I had two essays to hand in, classes to attend, but it was also the period of meeting up again, with friends and love. I even manage to see Laine for one day! I went to Cirque du Soleil, which I enjoyed quite a lot.

February 2006 was the month we became members of UGC cinemas, paying a monthly fee and going whenever we want to the cinema. First month: 20 films! I’m not going to mention that the weather was still crap. Oh, this month Lilian also left us and went back to Brazil. We went together to The Darkness, at the Alexandra Palace, a very nice place.


Cipri’s birthday was in March 2006, same month that I did MAX/MSP course (Saturdays, from 10 to 18h). I was still very cold in London. No more classes for me.

April 2006 I had a two weeks break and I went to a nice and sunny place, where I could swim and get sun burned, eat good food, and relax, and again be away from Cipri, which brought Mick Jagger back to my head. I had two essays to hand in, Adriana was in town and I went to the theatre for the third time in London; this time was the musical The Producers. Very funny!

The weather pretended to get better in May 2006. It was still annoyingly cold, but we could feel nature’s effort to make London warmer. I had to present my minor project (a kind of practical essay). And this is all I can remember about May!

June 2006. World Cup, projects, show, getting fatter and fatter, getting old, the weather is nice. Some days in the park, some in pubs watching games, some at friend’s place, some eating, some sleeping, most of them at the lab. Cake, candles, chocolate, sadness, anxiety. So far, so good.

For the future: July/August 2006, Greece. August 2006, Pearl Jam at Reading Festival. September 2006, dissertation hand in and I’m free. October 2006, one year together. Either working or traveling around Europe, whichever comes first.

The huge post is because I might be away (no news, good news) for awhile, working on my project and our show/exhibition. For those who are in London or plan to come: from July 13th to 16th I will exhibit my project (a jukebox). Feel free to come. It’s free!

P.S.: I might edit this post later one (include more facts and photos).

So far so good! 1 of many

I'm still lying on my warm bed (best thing about laptops). No strength to move, because the weekend was very busy and my poor legs are in pain. My travelcard expired and I don't want to renew it until tomorrow or Wednesdays, which means going to College walking. On my defense, I have to say that I woke up at 9h30, I’m doing the laundry and I’ve cleaned the kitchen, besides working a bit on my project.

I was looking for a photo to update my fotolog, but I couldn’t find any good one to put there. On the other hand, I started thinking about my period in London, and all the things I couldn’t do, and all the things I did, and all the things that I will do soon. I can to this city for a master. That’s was the focus, that’s what I’m doing, but in the meanwhile I also manage to do some other nice things that wasn’t part of the ‘master plan’. Here is a little chronology of my short life in London.

I went to Porto in September, 2005. I had a one way ticket only. No place to stay, no date to come back. But I did come back, 3 days later. This month was also to sort my life here; I moved from my temporary house to my actual one, I bought a mobile and got partially connected to the world, and I was getting familiarized with London and the tube map. I went to my first (Shakespeare’s) pay in London, which I can’t remember the name now. I don’t like theatre that much, I confess that I didn’t understand half of the play, but in the end it was good to visit The Globe.

I started my relationship during a weekend trip to Barcelona in October, 2005. I also got totally connected to world when my laptop arrived. It was when my classes started and I was getting adapted to the academic life again.



I went to Granada in November, 2005, in a very personal weekend trip. The winter started in London and it was the first time I was under 0°C. My body was trying to adapt to the food, water, weather, colors, etc., and it was a painful experience. We went to the Blue Man Group and Stomp, both very nice, especially the latter. I’m not sure about the dates, but I’m pretty sure both were by the ends of October, and/or November.



I went to Brazil in December, 2005. I got some tan, ate good food, saw my friends and was apart for Cipri for over a month. I heard Mick Jagger singing in my head “No, you can’t always get what you want”. It was Mariana’s birthday in the beginning of the month, we went to Guanabara, where I drank caipirinha, ate bolinho de bacalhau and danced funk (“vai poposuda”).

Dreamer, nothing but a dreamer

The traveling insect bit me again this morning, while I was checking Mariana's blog (see link on the left), where you can find a colorful map of the Great Britain (hmmm, England, Scotland and Whales?).

The problem with this huge island is the wind, which is really annoying when the temperature is not over 25°C. Another problem is that the summer lasts 3 months MAXIMUM. So, in theory, you have 3 months to explore the coast. But, remember, the prices here are in pounds (R$ 4.00), the weather changes all the time and some places are not that close to London. Plus, it is very tempting to go abroad, with so many nice places surrounding us and the option of flying with budget airlines.

This year was quite unfair, as there is also the World Cup, decreasing the summer and increasing the prices everywhere for a month. Not to mention that my final project presentation is due to July 13th, right after the Cup, and it's consuming loads for neurons.

I tried to calculate how many years I will have to live in London, how much I need to earn and how many weekends I have to travel in order to visit the whole UK, but as I am not good at all with math and I don’t want to get depressed, I’ve stopped when I realized that it would take me more than 10 years.

Why am see hey!

Yesterday we manage to see our third game in a public space. The first one was Ecuador x Poland, the second Germany x Poland and yesterday Brasil x Australia. We were a group of 10 people, 4 of which were 'gringos' (two british, a half-british half-romanian and an italian). In spite of the boring first half, our team gave us joy by scoring 2 goals and silencing the Australian supporters who were expecting a replay of the game against Japan. Don't get me wrong, I like Australians, I would support Australia against any other team. What I don't like is this thing "yeah, they are not playing that well, their players are old and fat; we will beat them". You will beat who, pale face? Yeah, this is Brazil: you suffer like hell, but you get to heaven!

Ra, now I know!

The reason why Brazil played so badly tonight has name and surname: Paulo Coelho! I read that he was there, at the stadium, watching the game. That damn witch is the one to blame! Hunf!

Tomorrow I'll be Jutta Geiss during Germany vs Poland game. This is the name given by Marco so I can get in the German club (Goethe Institute, we have it in Brazil too) to support his team! I will scream "Irrr bin Yuta Guys, Irrr bin Doitch, irrr lib doitch futbol. Gooool!!!". Yeah, me German since I was a little kid!

World Cup, summer and other goodies

Yeah, ladies and gentlemen, the World Cup started and all our attention is driven to the television. I like to see the games, but some of them are sooooooooooooo boring. Like England x Paraguay. Tsc tsc tsc, what a waste of time. Besides Brazil, I am supporting other countries. Ecuador being the only one I was sure about, from the games so far. I have to confess that I was really divided between Argentina and Ivory Coast, because I naturally sympathize with African teams, but being in London, I tend to support South/Latin American teams. I know it is against Brazilian policies to support Argentina, but the game was quite good and 'nuestros hermanos' played very very well. And I am a fair person; it was the best game I've seen so far.

Sunday was an outdoor day, no football for me. I went to Kew Gardens and then for a walk by the riverside in Richmond. I must say that Richmond is the prettiest place I've been to in London so far. A lot of trees, green, beautiful mansions, nice houses, pubs, happy and healthy people everywhere. When I get rich, I wanna live there! :-D It seems quite far off, but it is only 20 minutes by train from Waterloo station and guess what?! the trains have air conditioning. For the Brazilians: the summer in London can be worse than in Rio, my dears. If you are by the shadow, it is fine, otherwise you can barely breathe. And there are those cotton-like things flying all over that make you allergic! But I'm not complaining. I prefer it like this (well, let's see July). One thing is for sure: I will avoid the tube as much as I can!

On Saturday we went for a typical summer program in London: sun bathing on Hyde Park! Quite good. Hot sun, nice shadows. We so need a beach – or a swimming pool – here! Maybe the bathtub…

Plans for next weekend: Saturday we might go to Brighton (beach!!!!) and Sunday we will eat ‘feijoada’ while supporting Brazil (vs. Australia – what a hard task to divide my heart between the two most beautiful countries in the world).

Insomniac

Today I fell off of the bed at 7.30 am. I'm taking vitamins so I don't get sick. I'm trying to live a better life, starting this week. I'm also trying to focus on my final project, but my mind is in Greece. I haven't decided between French, Italian, Spanish or singing classes yet. New MAX/MSP course in July, intermediate level, but not for me this time. My video camera arrived; it is so petit, the size of my hand. I'm doing the laudry and thinking about organizing my mess. I think too much, all the time, I'm thinking right now, and now, and now. About Greece, school, room, courses, life, next weekend and the film tonight. United 93. My friend Ines will give birth quite soon. Baby Isaac was supposed to arrive in May, I was told, but I think he is too comfortable inside mom's belly or he is waiting for Brazil's first game. Smart boy. I'm feeling like Nicholas Cage's character in Adaptation. Goodbye!

Plans for the next incarnation

In my next incarnation, I wanna be a cat. I don't like cats, but I would like to be one, especially one that belongs to a nice family. Usually, even if the family is not so nice, they treat the cat nicely. The members of the family may hate each other, but the cat is always the cute common sense that keep everybody together.

No big news. I bought a video camera. It is for my project, but of course I will use it for other purposes.

It is hot now! :-D Hot... the British standard of hot weather, please.

It's sunny!

Accoring to the weather forecast, this weekend will be sunny in London. Sunny and warm, with temp. max. of 25°C (11°C at night). Bad time for a good weather, as I want to sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!

Friday

When you are just a student, it makes no difference which day of the week is today. At least I will meet the guy from my class this afternoon and we will spend some hours in a pub-meeting to set some details for our show in July. Things are moving too slow these days, and, as an anxious person, this is driving me crazy. Who knows me well knows that "there's not much you can do, just sit and wait" is the same as saying "kill yourself". I'm moved by Geraldo Vandre's song "Vem, vamos embora, que esperar não é saber. Quem sabe faz a hora, não espera acontecer". I don't think I would be able to translate it without killing the poetry of the lyrics, but it means something like "waiting is not for the wise; they make their time, and don't wait things to happen". Honestly, I think that when your goal is plan A, you have to pursue it with your life, but you also need to work on plans B, C and D, in case things don't go according to the master plan. Waiting for me is waste of time.

Having this in mind, I made a decision: today I'm going to College to get more information on the language courses and also the "Singing for Beginners" course. I will apply for two of them and my life will be planned around them; that simple. Now I know, for example, that I will renew my contract with my room (I won't find anything better and cheaper than this one) for the next year, as I live in a walk distance from College. Now, the next step is to find a job nearby that fits my time so I won't miss my classes. And this is how it works for me: the world has to fit in my plans, not the opposite.