Learning Swedish #8

After showing off (some of) my Swedish to a native speaker his comment was that I sound just like Marta, the football player.

She has been considered the best football player in the world a few times. She has been playing and living in Sweden for years but she is originally from Brazil.

Since we have the same native language, Portuguese, I guess it makes sense that I sound like her.

It's still a good compliment!

Depois de demonstrar (algum d) o meu sueco a um sueco o seu comentário foi que eu falava tal como a Marta, a jogadora de futebol.

Ela já foi considerada a melhor jogadora do mundo algumas vezes e joga e mora na Suécia já há alguns anos. Uma vez que temos a mesma língua materna, Português, suponho que faz algum sentido que eu fale como ela.

Foi um bom elogio! 

Prague bucket list #14 - shoes throwing

No one really knows the idea behind this (sort of) tradition or even what is it actually about, but the truth is there's always a bunch of shoes hanging from the electrical cable on the top of Letná park, near the metronome, in Prague. I have heard two different versions. One says the shoes are thrown by teenagers when they loose their virginity. The other one says that the shoes belong to people who have lived in Prague but had to move away, and before they moved they left something behind as a symbol. Of course I prefer the last version, so in the last day of our stay we headed to the metronome to leave there a pair of shoes each. I chose my aerobics shoes and Johan left his floorball shoes, both old and both associated with good memories. The throwing itself was more difficult than what it seemed, but after 20 (me) and 8 (Johan) attempts we made it.

Ninguém sabe ao certo a ideia por detrás desta (espécie de) tradição ou como é que funciona exactamente, mas a verdade é que há sempre um molho de sapatos pendirados num cabo eléctrico no topo do parque Letná perto do metronomo, em Praga. Eu ouvi duas versões diferentes. Uma delas diz que os sapatos são deixados por adolescentes quando perdem a virgindade. Outra diz que são pessoas que moraram em Praga mas que tiveram que se mudar que ali quiseram deixar a sua marca. Claro que eu prefiro a ultima versão e assim sendo lá fomos nós no nosso ultimo dia em Praga deixar um par cada um. Eu escolhi os meus ténis de aeróbica e o Johan os de floorball. Ambos velhos e ambos simbolos de boas memorias. Atirar os sapatos foi mais difícil do que o que parece, mas depois de 20 (eu) e 8 (ele) tentativas conseguimos.

Mine on the left with the blue sole and Johan's on the right, white and black.

Os meus à esquerda, de sola azul e os do Johan à deireita, pretos e brancos.

Here is Johan throwing his shoes / Aqui está o Johan a atirar os seus ténis

There it was. Although temporary, we left our mark in Prague.
Ainda que temporária, ali ficou então a nossa marca em Praga.

Stories of my world #3

He is from Lebanon, but had left his country many years before I met him. He was wearing a pink t-shirt and introduced himself with a smile. He was going to be my flatmate. We shared a house for the first 6 months I lived in Brazil. He had a lot of nervous energy and he was loud. I got used to the phone calls he made to his mother and the Arabic music coming from his room. I remember very well one Saturday morning, when I woke up and I opened the door of my room and he was there just outside. He was almost in panic because he had to pee, but there was a dead cockroach in the bathroom and he wanted me to take it away first! He had been waiting for over 3h, but he didn't think he should wake me up. We used to work in the same group. He was a theoretician and he was scared of being in the laboratory. He worked constantly and he was very good at his job. He still is, I'm sure. I remember a conversation about him that I had in the lab with my colleagues. They were sure he was gay. I asked them why? Just because he wears pink and he is loud? I had lived with him for two weeks then and I had not thought about that, so they surprised me with their assumptions. They showed me his status on Facebook. He was (is) gay. It was then and there that I realised that being gay or not was not something that mattered to me. It was exactly the same. He also didn't care about other people's comments. Truth being told, he is so likable and funny that even the ones who took longer to tolerate him got used to his personality. It's impossible to not have a good laugh with him. We became good friends and I could tell you a thousand other stories about him. Like the time I made codfish cakes and they were so good that he couldn't resist but steal a few (maybe even a lot!). Like the time HE had to do a stomach exam, and I ended up fainting, so when he woke up from his anesthetics he was the one consoling me and not the other way around. Like the time he was scared of a moth but I couldn't remember the word for it in English so I described it as an animal that eats clothes and he shouted in the middle of the whole department "We are going to be naked!!!!!".

Life brought us apart but I know that I can count on him, the same way he can count on me. I hope he knows that. Because he is special. He is unique. He is Elie. 

Art here and there #4

The Reincarnation, by Tetsunori Kawana.

His vision of the installation is that of a tranquil, floating cloud. 

"I wanted to give new life to the beautiful dead trees and roots that I found at the dump here in Gothenburg. And mix them together with the young, green bamboo. In this way they get a new life, and together they create a new unity, a new energy on the location. A reincarnation of nature and the dead trees are given  a new context to live in", says Kawana to describe his work.

Quoted text in Gothenburg Green World's webpage.

 Milleniumplatsen in Gothenburg

Gothenburg Green World 2016

Swedish people have a passion for nature in general, and worry about sustainability and the protection of the environment. Gothenburg Green World is a program that shows this care on many different levels. There's the call for attention on how green spaces are important in the cities, with several pop up gardens in the main avenue of the city. There's the appeal to live a more sustainable lifestyle by growing more vegetables and edible plants and flowers in our gardens, helping the bees as well. There's also the showing off of how beautiful nature can be, by highlighting and advertising even more the gardens, parks and green spaces throughout the city. For me, Gothenburg was already a green city, as it is surrounded by forests, parks and reserves. Since the July 12th it became even more green with all the exhibitions and activities (gardening workshops, nature photography exhibitions, activities for children). 

The environment was the theme of the second week in my summer school and on our outing that week we visited a few of the green spaces. See the pictures below.

Os suecos são, em geral, apaixonados pela natureza e preocupados com questões de sustentabilidade e protecção do ambiente. Gothenburg Green World é uma iniciativa que tem por objectivo mostrar isto mesmo de modos diferentes. Há o chamar a atenção para a importância dos espaços verdes nas cidades, com vários pop up parques na avenida principal de Gotemburgo. Há o apelo a uma vida mais sustentável, ao incentivar toda a gente a cultivar mais vegetais e flores somestiveis, ajudando ao mesmo tempo as abelhas. E há ainda o lado belo da natureza, chamando a atenção das pessoas para os jardins, parques e espaços verdes já existentes na cidade. Para mim Gotemburgo já era uma cidade super verde, rodeada por florestas, parques naturais e reservas. Desde 12 de Julho tornou-se ainda mais verde com todas instalações verdes e actividades (workshops de jardinagem, exibições de fotografia em natureza e actividades para os mais pequenos).

O ambiente foi o tema da segunda semana de aulas da minha escola de verão e na excursão dessa semana fomos ver alguns dos espaços verdes deste programa. Deixo algumas fotos.

Aveny - (Main avenue/Avenida Principal)

 Fresh herbs / Ervas aromáticas

Plant exchange, bring yours and take something new.

Troca de plantas, traga uma leve outra diferente.

Bee hotel / Hotel de abelhas

Trädgårdsföreningen 

The leaves of this plant are very similar to the eagle represented on the Albanese flag, therefore in Albania it is called the eagle plant.

As folhas desta planta são parecidas à águia desenhada na bandeira albanesa, assim sendo na Albânia esta planta é conhecida por águia.

 One of the teacher feeding a bird / Uma das professoras a alimentar um passarinho

This post could as well just have been in the section "You got to love Sweden", because it's wonderful to see how much they take care of nature and the environment. And this way we learn new things while practicing Swedish.

Este post poderia muito bem ter sido escrito na secção "You got to love Sweden" porque eu adoro ver o quanto a natureza e o ambiente são importantes aqui. E assim aprendemos coisas novas enquanto praticamos sueco.

Learning Swedish #7

At the pharmacy cashier, while waiting for my turn, a second cashier comes and says that if I was paying by card I could pay at her side of the counter.

After a few seconds my brain actually realised that I only had cash. I told her so. She replied, that in that case I would have to wait and pay at the other cashier. Then, I thought that since the pharmacy was inside the supermarket I could probably use the card from the supermarket. I asked her if I could. She said yes. I paid and left. At the door of the pharmacy I stopped and I thought:

That was Swedish!!!!! The whole thing was in Swedish!!!

I had just come out of my class and I was still in Swedish mode, and since it was vocabulary I knew, it felt normal. 

That made me really happy! There's hope!

Estava eu no balcão da farmácia à espera para pagar quando apareceu uma segunda empregada que me disse que seu ia usar cartão podia pagar na caixa dela.
Uns segundos depois percebi que só tinha dinheiro e disse-lhe isso. Sendo assim teria que esperar pela minha vez na outra caixa. Como a farmácia era dentro do supermercado lembrei-me que se calhar podia pagar com o cartão do supermercado. Perguntei-lhe. Ela disse que sim. Paguei e fui-me embora. Ainda à porta da farmácia parei e pensei:

Aquilo era sueco!!!!! A conversa toda foi em sueco!!!

Tinha acabado de sair da minha aula de sueco e ainda estava com o modo sueco activado. Uma vez que na conversa foi usado vocabulário que conhecia, aconteceu tudo muito naturalmente.

Fiquei muito feliz! Afinal ainda há esperança!

Back to being myself

Yesterday, we had a school outing. We went to the park, played games and danced. Each person was supposed to show a dance. We went from salsa, through rumba, bugg, arabic dances, samba (the one I showed) and others. It was so good. I danced like no one was watching me and we all did it for over 2h. 

Yesterday, I realised I have not been myself in years. It was time to go back. It felt good to go back! I think I am slowly putting all the ghosts from the past behind my back. It was more than time for that!

I'm happy.

Ontem tivemos uma saída com a escola. Fomos até ao parque onde jogamos jogos e dançámos. Cada pessoa tinha que mostrar uma dança diferente. Houve desde salsa, a rumba, bugg, danças árabes, samba (a que eu mostrei), entre outras. Foi tão bom. Dancei como se ninguém me estive a ver e dançamos por mais de 2h. 

Ontem percebi que há anos que não era eu mesma. Já era tempo de voltar. Soube-me bem voltar! Acho que aos poucos começo a pôr os fantasmas do passado atrás das costas. Já não era sem tempo!

Estou feliz.

Stories of my world #2

The first time I saw him he was wearing a black leather jacket, black jeans and boots. He sat down and took off his jacket, showing off some tattoos covering his arms. He seemed to be tough on the outside but I knew he was nice in the inside. He is the bad boy I mentioned on my first post about my swedish classes. Don't ask me how I knew he was nice, I just did. There was something about him that made me want to know his story. We talked to each other on our third class and many other times after that. He is from Iran. He came to Sweden 5 years ago, searching for a better life. He used to be a History teacher, but now he cooks in a restaurant. He doesn't like cooking. He likes Mickael Jackson, which makes the cooking easier. He likes football, but he doesn't like Ronaldo. He likes Carlos Queiroz, a Portuguese coach in Iran. He is shy and he doesn't like to be in the spotlight. He is one of my nicest colleagues. He is Hamid.

He is young and shy. Most of the time he is quiet. He is from Syria. He came to Sweden in the beginning of this year, searching for a better life. He tried to stay in Turkey, but he could not find a job. Then, a relative advised him to come to Sweden. It took him over 3 months to get here. He traveled through Georgia, Russia and Finland. He found a temporary job here, in a company of chemicals, but now he is unemployed again. He doesn't like Sweden. He longs for his land where he could do what he loved. He graduated in Naval Engineering and he misses being out in the sea. He wishes his country would be safe again so he could go back. He misses his family. He told me all this with a smile. He smiles a lot. He is Fadi.

He is in his 40's. He speaks either in a very broken English or an even more broken Swedish. He starts every sentence by "In Albania...". He loves Albania, you can see that in his eyes. He says "in Albania we have too much" of a lot of things. For instance, olive trees, because when a couple gets married they plant a tree for good luck. He has a beautiful wife and two children, a boy and a girl. No need to say he misses them terribly. The first time he came to Sweden, he came for two months, July and August last year. In July it rained for 25 days straight. He didn't like it and he thought he would not come back. But he did. He doesn't think it's so bad anymore, but he misses eating beans. With a spoon. Here, people only use a few beans in the salad and spoons are only used to eat soups. He wants to eat a lot of beans and sauce over rice. With a spoon. He is always cheerful and good humoured. I hope Albania has too much of them like him. He is Eduard.

So different and so similar.
All together in Sweden.
All united by the learning of the Swedish language.
All the same now, but so different still.

PORTUGAL, the European Champion

The EURO 2016 for me started in May, when we visited Malmö. We bought the official panini album to collect stickers of the teams and players. I have never done it before and it was fun.

 Sticking the first stickers in our albums

A few weeks later, we were all together again, opening more stickers packs when I said, joking, "If I get any Portuguese player in this pack, Portugal will be the champion". There were 5 stickers in the pack and I got not one, but TWO Portuguese players.

A month later... Portugal won!

Portugal is the European Champion!!!

Photo from the internet

For those outside of Europe who are really confused right now... we are talking about football (soccer in US)! But not only! Because today, Portugal was also the European Champion in Triple Jump and in the half marathon race, both as a team and individually with Sara Moreira winning the gold. What a great weekend for Portugal!

Hradec na Moravici - Czech Republic

Hradec na Moravici is a small town not far from Ostrava (post about Ostrava here). Our friend Martina told us about this place and advised us to visit it, because of it's coziness and charm. The highlight of the town is its castle, sitting on top of a hill, and the very green and beautiful surroundings of the Czech countryside. We chose the weekend Martina was organising an art event there, with art workshops and a concert with her own band. The whole thing involved 4 different artists, herself, Ana Lagidze, from Georgia, Lesya Demchenko, originally from Ukraine but living in Turkey and Takako Morishita, from Japan. They all have different styles and it was great to observe them working and instructing the participants. 

Hradec na Moravici é uma pequena cidade não muito longe de Ostrava (post de Ostrava aqui). Foi a nossa amiga Martina que nos falou e nos aconselhou a visitar este lugar, por causa do seu charme e ambiente acolhedor. O ponto principal é o castelo, que fica no topo de uma colina, e os arredores muito verdes e lindos dos campos Checos. Fomos lá num fim de semana em que a Martina estava a organizar um evento de arte, com workshops de arte e um concerto dela e da sua banda. O evento integrava 4 artistas, a Martina, a Ana Lagidze, da Georgia, a Lesya Demchenko, originalmente da Ucrânia mas a morar na Turquia e a Takako Morishita, do Japão. Todas elas têm estilos diferentes e foi muito interessante poder observa-las a trabalhar e a ensinar os participantes.

The teeny tiny train who took us there... It is a small town...

O comboio pequenino que nos levou lá... era mesmo uma cidadezinha...

The guest artists listening to Martina and Trio

As artistas convidadas a ouvir o concerto da Martina e Trio

Martina at work / Martina a trabalhar

 Takako Morishita

 Ana Lagidze

The day ended with pizza, wine and a lot of laughter with the band, the artists and a few more friends. We spent a lovely weekend!

O dia terminou com pizza, vinho e muitas gargalhadas com a banda, as artistas e mais alguns amigos. Foi um fim de semana muito bem passado!