Just another day

I started my day wallowing in the organic trash (just trash would be too normal, it had to be the most disgusting kind), I ended my school day alone in a classroom watching a movie about Ibrahimovic and I finished the day by eating an omelette that had been in the sink.

Who doesn't have weird days?

Now the explanation... 

Yesterday we were three for dinner and among all the happy chattering that doing the dishes involved we threw away the juicer filter. Unfortunately, we only noticed that AFTER I had gone out with the trash. The trash outside is locked, and I thought I had lost the filter forever. This morning, soon after I had found a website where to buy a new one I heard the recycling collection truck outside. I ran down hopping they would also have the key to the organic trash, which they did, and had to look among very disgusting bags of old food. Wonderful. All become worth it when I found the filter!

In the last class of today we were watching a Swedish documentary about Zlatan Ibrahimovic youth. Zlatan is the big football star of Sweden and it was quite interesting to see his other side and learn more about his background. I thought all were enjoying the movie, as people were laughing and making comments, but I was apparently wrong. After an hour the teacher said she didn't know the film was so long, so if we wanted to go home we were allowed but we could also stay and watch, if we didn't mind shutting off the computer at the end. There were 20 minutes left and I was curious about the rest, so I stayed. I was the only one. Wonderful. And weird.

We made Spanish omelette for dinner. That implies always turning the omelette into a plate and sliding it back to the pan. Always an adventure. Today, as it was the first time we did it in this flat, we forgot that we didn't have a big enough plate to turn it. Of course we noticed this when it was ready to turn. We tried to turn the omelette into another frying pan and we ended with 2/3 of it inside the sink. It looked so good anyway that we scraped it off the sink (which was clean!) and put it back in the pan. Wonderful.

But what kind of girl is this??? She dives in the trash and eats food out of the sink???

Well... not everyday...

My tropical Christmas

I spent Christmas in Lisbon and the temperatures were abnormally high for this time of the year. Or maybe is just me, used to live in Sweden and to spend Christmas in my hometown in the mountains, where is always freezing. Either way, the sun shined every day and the temperatures reached 17 ºC most days. I ran along the beach just wearing a t-shirt. I took walks in the old town and watched the sunset over the Tagus river. It was nice.

Passei o Natal em Lisboa e as temperaturas estavam anormalmente altas para esta época do ano. Ou então sou só eu, que estou habituada ao inverno sueco e a passar o Natal na minha cidade natal nas montanhas, onde está sempre um gelo. De qualquer forma, o sol brilhou todos os dias e as temperaturas atingiram 17 ºC na maioria dos dias. Corri ao longo da praia em t-shirt. Caminhei na parte antiga de Lisboa e vi o pôr-do-sol sobre o rio Tejo. Foi muito bom.

Pastéis de Nata

 Fresh oranges

 Jacob, the parrot-cat / Jacob, o papagio-gato

 A walk before Christmas dinner / Um passeio antes da ceia de Natal

 Merry Christmas

 Inside the Christmas tree / Dentro da árvore de Natal

Enjoying my family's company

Getting the best picture

My activities also included watching a football match in the stadium and a quick visit to my home town and my parents cat Mia.

As minhas actividades também incluiram um jogo de futebol no estádio e uma visita rápida à minha cidade Natal e à gata dos meus pais, a Mia. 

It was all very good and relaxing. I hope yours too.

Foi tudo bom e tranquilo. Espero que o vosso também. 

A year ago

I asked him...

... and he said yes.

2016

Much has been said about 2016. It's the terrible year, the one that took away so many famous souls, the one where things out of the ordinary happened. Bad and good. I'm pretty sure 2016 will be long remembered for all that.

That's no exception to me. 2016 will always be the year I was unemployed. I didn't expect it to be the whole year but so it became. I have to confess that it was a pretty good year to be unemployed, as I got to see history happening in several occasions and I had the time to actually follow the news properly. I saw the UK leaving the EU. I got up early and I saw Hilary Clinton loosing the election to Trump. I was shocked by all the bad things happening in Europe, Turkey, Syria and others. 

I saw Portugal winning the Euro 2016. I saw as much of the Rio Olympics as possible. I got up in the middle of the night and watched the Oscars live. I saw the Nobel prize gala dinner.

I also made friends from all over the world and I learned a new language. I proved to myself that I can do much more than I think and I regained some of the self-confidence I had previously lost. 

In 10 years abroad, 2016 was the year I travelled the least. In reality, because I still travelled as much in my dreams.

I lost my dearest grandfather. 

I got to understand how wonderful is the man who lives with me. Not that I had any doubt about that before.

I won a new home: Sweden.

2016 was made of ups and downs and so will be 2017. As all the other years were and will be. 

I don't really do resolutions but I do have three wishes for the coming year. 

I would like to be at least as happy as I was in 2016. 

I would like to get a job (preferably good).

I would like you all to have a great 2017, full of good moments, laughter and joy.

Cheers!

The goodbye

It is there, when you are hugging goodbye the person you love the most in the world and you think it will be like this forever, that you question all your choices. I have no doubts I want to live in Sweden and I have no doubts I wouldn't stand living in Portugal for long, but when I my heart contracts and becomes as small as nut as I hug my sister goodbye yet again, I can't help but question it all. 

However, one can't have everything and although living close to her would also mean more sun, warmer weather and closeness to my family and friends, it would also imply a lot more I don't want to have. 

I would see people, including my sister, working hard for little money. I would not stand it to live in a place where in most cases dreams do not count, and one has to be thankful for having a job, no matter how bad it is.
I would not be able to be bullied or to see my colleagues being bullied by employers who do not want to follow the law. No, I wouldn't stand to live in a country where women are fired for getting pregnant and where fathers are not allowed to enjoy their paternity leave, even though that's their right by law.

I wouldn't enjoy either freezing indoors in the winter, when it's 10 ºC outside. I did not enjoy having to sleep with two shirts, three socks and three blankets a week ago in my hometown.

I wouldn't like to go back to such a bureaucratic country. It's true that Portugal is not even the worse place regarding bureaucracy I have lived in, but I do enjoy how smoothly things go in Sweden. Especially after seeing my sister struggling for 3 weeks straight between long phone calls, long queues and a lot of nerves, to simply connect electricity and gas in her new rented flat. Three weeks! On top of that, the electricity company passed along her phone number, through which now she is bombarded with sales phone calls, but when the door bell failed to ring the technician from the same company simply left without even trying to call her to see if she was inside.

I would hate having to watch out every single step I would take on the side walk to avoid all the dog feces. Or even worse and find abandoned animals on the side of the road.

I would not enjoy living in a place where common sense does not rule and people, for instance, smoke near children, just because it's outdoors and it's allowed (e.g. in a stadium, where children can't really move away).

Of course there's also a lot of good things. Those I plan to enjoy every time I'll visit on vacation. Vacation that will always imply the goodbye at the end, but that will also always have the happiness of the first encounter and many other good moments.

Writing this text helped me seeing that although I question my choices sometimes, especially in emotionally fragile moments, deep inside I know that they are right and that I chose the right place to live.

Winter wonderland at Liseberg

Liseberg is a famous amusement park in Sweden and is located in Gothenburg. I'm not a big fan of amusement parks but Liseberg has other kinds of enterteinment as well. Among others it has concerts in the summer, theater, ice skating shows and small cosy shops. In December and during Christmas time the streets of Liseberg are transformed in a Winter Wonderland, with snowy figures, lights and of course, Santa's house!

Liseberg é um parque de diversões famoso na Suécia, que fica em Gotemburgo. Eu não sou grande fã de parques de diversões, mas Liseberg tem outros tipos de entertenimento também. Entre outros, há concertos no verão, teatro, shows de patinagem no gelo e lojinhas acolhedoras. Em Dezembro e durante o Natal, as ruas de Liseberg são transformadas num país das maravilhas invernal, com figuras com neve, luzes e, claro, a casa do Pai Natal!

Unfortunetaly the snow was all fake, since we didn't get snow yet this winter, but it looks very real even from close by.

Infelizmente a neve era falsa porque ainda não tivemos neve este inverno, mas parecia mesmo neve rea,l mesmo de perto.

Johan told me that him and his brother used to this in their garden on snowy days.They would make a lot of snowballs and then place a candle inside. 

O Johan disse-me que costumava fazer isto com o irmão no jardim quando nevava muito. Faziam bolas de neve e punham uma vela lá dentro.

Ice skating ring 

We chose the coldest evening to visit the park (obviously not on purpose!) but we could warm ourselves in the fires spread around the park.

Escolhemos a noite mais fria para ir ao parque (claro que não foi de propósito!), mas havias fogueiras espalhadas pelo parque onde nos podiamos aquecer. 

We went there when the sun was setting, so we could still see the park with some day light and later on when it was just illuminated by all the lights. Although it was cold it all felt very cosy somehow. The Christmas songs playing in the loud speakers might have helped to lighten up the mood as well.

Nós fomos quando o sol se estava a pôr e pudemos ver o parque ainda com alguma luz e mais tarde quando estava apenas iluminado pelas luzes de Natal. Embora estivesse bastante frio o ambiente era bastante aconchegante. As músicas de Natal que tocavam no sistem de som ajudaram a manter o espirito em alta.

Santa's house! / Casa do Pai Natal!

To reach Santa's house one had to walk a long path through a pine forest. It had many curves, because obviously Santa lives really far away! In total it was 108m, which I guess for the little ones who believe in Santa is a really long way to walk. I have to confess that it was exciting even for me! Inside Santa's house were all his helpers making gifts, Santa himself, and space where children could write there letters.

Para chegar à casa do Pai Natal era preciso ir por um longo caminho através de um pinhal nevado. Havia muitas curvas, porque obviamente o Pai Natal vive muito longe! No total eram 108m, o que para os mais pequenos que acreditam no Pai Natal é realmente um longo caminho a pé. Tenho de confessar que foi emocionante até para mim! Dentro da casa de Santa estavam todos os seus ajudantes a fabricar os presentes, o próprio Pai Natal e um espaço onde as crianças podiam escrever cartas.

Left: Santa is speaking to a little girl. Right: The pile of gifts already prepared.

Esquerda: Pai Natal a falar com uma menina. Direita: Um monte de presentes já prontinhos.

Digital wishlist... modern times. / Lista de desejos digital... os tempos modernos.

Since the factory runs 24h a day some of the helpers were resting at the time.

Uma vez que a fabrica funciona 24h por dia, alguns dos ajudantes estavam a descansar.

When we left Santa's house it was much darker and we could enjoy the fantastic Christmas lights. My favourite was the giant tree, with lights in every single branch! I can only imagine how much work it took to decorate that tree. 

Quando saímos da casa do Pai Natal já estava escuro e pudemos apreciar as fantásticas luzes de Natal. A minha favorita foi uma árvore gigante, com luzes em todos os ramos! Imagino o trabalho que aquilo não deu!

My favourite tree / A minha árvore preferida

Besides the lights one can of course ride in the roller coasters and such, although I can imagine how cold it must feel there. There was also some choirs singing Christmas songs and a sword-fight show, that we missed. The experience however, is worth it just to go, walk around and feel the Christmas spirit. It was lovely!

Claro que também se pode andar nas montanhas russas e outras coisas assim, se bem que o ar lá em cima deve estar gelado. Enquanto lá estivemos houve também alguns coros a cantar canções de Natal e um espectáculo de luta de espadas, que não vimos. Ainda assim a experiência vale a pena só para ir passear e sentir o espírito de Natal. Foi adorável!