Back to Lisbon

After our adventure in the Alentejo Sebi and I were taken back Lisbon to continue seemlessly on to our next great activity. We went back to lisbon with sebi´s whole family packed into their small suv. Like I said ealier it was a short drive, atleast on west coast united states scale, and we all enjoyed ourselves. We entered lisbon on the east side passing across one of the longest bridges in europe. The bridge put us right in the neighborhood where we wanted to be. At a stop light sebi and I hopped out of the packed car and were off. Our plan was this: Head to the world famous Lisbon Oceanario (big aquarium full of animals from the oceans of the world), lunch, explore, then, last but not least, the main attraction of the whole weekend, the OASIS Concert!!!
We passed through a big fancy mall on our way to the oceanario and, popping out on the other side, found ourselves in the heart of the modern district of lisbon. This area is one of my favorites in lisbon, it is just chock full of modern art, fountains, architecture and it´s situated right on the banks of the Tejo river. This area has a history too, it was once the sketchy part of lisbon, crime ridden, dirty and generally a dump. It was a big plot of land right on the river characterized by old rundown factories, loading/unloading docks, oil refineries and the such. As the industrial sector of lisbon expaned north, this area was left as waste and soon became a scene much like the book I read last year in english, Cannery Row. Well, in 1998 Portugal hosted the Fair of Nations called, EXPO ´98, the portuguese government at the time bought this sorry plot of land and resolved to spice it up. They poured a ton of money in to making the place a cultural center full of modern art and architecture, of course other nations that were to have `booths´ at the expo, like the united states, wanted to help and make the place a success so they too dumped a bunch of money into the area´s restoration. Well, the result was more than a success and it is now dubed one of the best places in Lisbon to visit, hang out, tour etc.
Sebi and I headed past the Pavilhão Atlantico through the Park of Nations under the cable cars to the Oceanario, we entered and took a blitz tour running around like crazed kindergartners. We saw everything from penguins to tropical fish, to some giant deep sea monsters and the most fragile looking dragon fish. It was all really cool but by the end we were both really hungry. We passed through some more cool areas and parks on our way back to the mall to get a bite to eat. There was this one park with tons of exhibits that had to do with water, a big artificial waterfall and a japanese sort of bamboo water garden. Another park was characterized by the ground, all covered in grass, shaped into big un-moving waves. You could run up and down the backs of this waves, about my waist hight 1m or so, and jump and slide down them. It was really fun running, sliding on the grass, and jumping off the waves of grass. It was a trip. In the mall we made a quick stop at a burger king where I got a delicous triple whopper. We decided we should go eat our meal as we waited in line to get in to the concert so we took it to go and hurried over to the Pavilhão where the concert was to be held. Well, we got to the main entrance only to find the place completely deserted except for a couple policemen. We got right up to the gates and were stopped by the cops to do a routine check. I started to eat my burger before we left the mall so I was about 3/4´s done with my beast of a sandwich when we got to the checkpoint. Sebi went through one side of the gate as I went through the other. My cop didn´t do much checking on me, he said, hey, where are your drugs, I said I already took them and that it was too late, he laughed and let me pass. Sebi´s cop was a little more thurough in his task and while sebi was being checked the guard who checked me started up some small talk. He said my burger looked good and I said it was, and that my secret was that the burger was my drug, we laughed and I continued devouring my beefy delight, dripping all kinds of ketchup and meat sauce. It was quite comical really, finally sebi passed and when I started talking with sebi the cop realized that we werent portuguese and asked me where I was from, I said the states and we started talking about that, I told him all about how me and sebi were exchange students and that sebi was from argentina and he seemed pretty interested. So the good vibe was set for the concert.
We got in to find the colossal pavilhão almost empty except for a mas of tightly packed people close to the stage. I went to the bathroom as Sebi went to buy a t-shirt and c.d. promotion combo. When we were both set we went to conquer some spots. We were still a little early and as we waited the main floor slowly filled up behind us. Soon the lights went out and the opening band came up on stage. They rocked for a little while but where really nothing memorable. Free peace they were called. As they left the crowd gave a big surge and sebi and I took our chance to get a little closer. Our move paid off and we found ourselves about 20 or some odd feet away from the stage. The curtain started to rise and everyone settled down, big screens lit up and the concert was on. The rest is history. We saw everything you would expect at a concert of this size, fights, beer, etc. About 30,000+ people in total. Oasis rocked out and put on a memorable performance, of course Wonderwall and all the old hits were the highlights and as the lights came on everyone was left with a sort of dazed look as is all too common after big shows. We joined in the shuffle to exit the building and as chance would have it, shuffled into one of our AFS volunteers who had been at the show aswell. We chated about everything as we shuffled to the exit, eventually parting ways for good. Feeling another shot of hunger, sebi and I made our way back to the mall, this time to mcdonalds where we met another crew of people we knew. We all ate and conversed about the spectacle we had all just seen and then headed as a group down towards the metro. We road the metro together aswell, saying goodbye to one or two of our groups members at each stop. Sebi and I were going the farthest and eventually found ourselves alone and tired ready to go to sleep. Another train ride and a little bit of walking and our wish was granted.
After a couple way to short hours of sleep I was awaken by my alarm clock. It was time to say goodbye to Lisbon. Sebi woke up with my and insisted on accompanying me to the bus station. We met a taxi close to sebi´s house and set off to the station. We made it in perfect timing and I got on my bus, said a deep farewell to sebi and was off. I slept a little on the bus ride home, but no matter how hard I tried, rest didn´t come easily. I got off the bus in Viseu and headed home for a quick shower and then straight to class, afterall it was monday and due to the AFS code had to make it to the majority of my classes that day. It would have been unexceptably rude to have fallen asleep in any of my classes but I think the teachers would have understood, so I didn´t do much and felt an odd sensation as an end to my fantastic weekend.

lisbon school visit

A while ago I went on a school trip to lisbon as part of a research deal for a book we are reading called OS MAIAS. OS MAIAS is a very famous portuguese romance written in the 19th century by EÇA DE QUEIROS.

I got up really early, got ready and headed to the school. I met up with a freind of mine on the way and we made it to the school to catch the bus and meet up with our class before 8. We waited a little while as about half of the 11th graders from our school boarded the busses. We left and I sat next to my friend Miguel. The bus ride was long, about 4 hours, and we took one 20 min. break. The portuguese teens are a rowdy bunch, the bus ride consisted of photos, making signs for truckers and everyone getting annoyed and fighting in the aisle. We got to lisbon later in the afternoon and went to go eat lunch in that nice new district where the concert was. We ate lunch in the mall and walked a little bit afterwards. Then we got back in the bus and headed towards downtown lisbon. We all got off the bus in the middle of the old district to start our walking tour. The tour was about two hours and we saw the outsides of a lot of buildings. That was it. At the end of the tour we got a little free time to enjoy the new downtown of lisbon and then get back on the bus for four more hours. That wasn´t that fun. The kids didn´t really calm down at all so no one really got any rest. We got home at about ten and I walked home with some friends. I went to bed right afterwards.

First part

Friday morning: I woke up and went to school. I had english class. After english my class was instructed to meet my philosophy teacher at our local theater in and hour. We were to get there on our own, and as most of my coleagues can not yet drive, we set off on foot. The local theater, teatro viriato, is not that far from my school, about a mile, mile and a half tops. The walk there however is very interesting, we passed through the city park, downtown square, the narrow shop lined streets that sorround the cathedral that dominates our city and out the other side to our destination. We arrived about five minutes before our teacher and once everyone was ready we were shown in. With just enough trouble that you would expect from a giant crowd of teenagers we found our seats. The only thing I knew about the peice we were going to see was the title, and from that I could gather very little information. The something of the adolescente something, was what is was called. The lights went down and two men appeared on stage, after that the (for lack of a better word) art that flowed out in front of me on that stage was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. These two men, acrobats, poets, philosophers, musicians, did most a bit of everything and a little more. The ``Play´´ wove in and out of sense, changed languages (spanish, portuguese and english, all of which I could understand)flowed flawlessly from debates about Don Juan to akward reproductions of hit 80´s tunes. It was a sight, an experience, not to be described in words, but more, expressed, they were not putting on a play by reading us a script, these men were creating something that involved you as an audience member, that pulled you in, yet kept you out, in the reality that you were still an audience member, it was wicked cool.
After the play ended we were instructed to stay in the theater with my art teacher to make some sketches of the theater. The building is really cool, kind of like different sized cylinders inside one another. I finished this task with haste and was off to collect my things and begin my journey to lisbon.

Coimbra, new girl.

COIMBRA

Last saturday I went to Coimbra for the afternoon. I caught a ride down there with some teachers from Fun Languages (my host parents language school) who were heading down to attend a teaching seminar at the British Council. The drive wasn´t bad, about an hour and a half spent listening to teaching strategies and child-behaviour-control techniques being swapped by the new teachers. We arrived just in time for the seminar and as the teachers filed in, I was let loose. I had over two full hours to get my self lost (and then found) in Coimbra, the intellectual capital of Portugal. I started of with the botanical garden which is home to one of the worlds largest lillypads, I was so unfortunate however, to visit on a day when it is closed to the public. The garden was nice and displayed a wide array of plants from every corner of the globe. After my romp in the garden I marched up the tallest hill in Coimbra to where the University sits perched like an old wise owl overlooking the rio Mondego. I explored around the university for quite some time, reminding myself of Lara from the Golden Compass as I ducked around scholars and found little passages between ancient buildings.
Next my wandering lead me to the city park located above the downtown area. This park is home to some interesting modern art such as two giant metal rings enclosing groups of trees. More wandering, and then I met back up with the teaching team and we went to the local mall (see anterior posts) to look around and grab a quick bite to eat.

***********************************************************************************

NEW GIRL

This week we got a new exchange student from Boston in our school. She is with the same program that I am (afs) but she is only here for 6 months. It will be interesting to see the first part of someone elses experience from (my) the perspective of someone who has already been there and done that. She is doing well so far, (as far as I can tell) and I think will pick things up pretty quickly. She also has a blog and when I find out the address I´ll post it with something.
Well, that´s all for now. Xau

Politics.

So I just realized I hadn´t posted anything over the presidential elections in the States. Here the elections were a huge deal, everyone was really supporting Obama but they all seemed really pessimistic to me. I think with him winning their views were changed. I watched some about it on t.v., talked about it with friends, family and teachers. I was happy when I heard Obama had won, even though it was the next morning! I would have had to stay up until 2am to have watched the whole thing and that wouldn´t have been a good idea as I had school the next day. I guess that kind of sums up how I felt about it. Not that it wasn´t historically, internationally and ridiculously important, I just new there wasn´t much for me to do and I would rather sleep than stay up with crossed fingers. Well, I don´t know if you´ve heard but here in Portugal the new Ministry of Education has been giving the teachers a hard time. The Ministry apparently assigned a whole bunch of pointless tasks to the teachers like grading one-another and filing stupid reports etc. The teachers really didn´t take kindly to this as they are busy enough already and think this is all utterly beurocratic and a waste of time. The Ministry of Education didn´t really have a good rep in the first place and was the subject of a lot of criticism. Well with these new assignments the teachers just kind of boiled over. There has been a lot of protests in the streets and a lot of hullabaloo over this in the news. Today our Portuguese teacher lectured over this and we got to the subject of teachers rights etc. One thing that she said that really stuck in my mind was, something like this; she said that she remembered last year, when the Ministry didn´t have a lot of power and didn´t assign a ton of lousy tasks, when she only had to work afternoons on some days and how she enjoyed waking up at nine every morning, going to get coffee, walking the dog and doing other things before having to go and teach. She also said that the majority of teachers here only teach as a ``Hobby´´ or ``Part-Time Job,´´ and that they don´t want to spend their out-of-school time correcting tests or doing things related to school. She said that now, with stricter scholastic regulations, she was waking up earlier and spending more of her free time evaluating students and doing other things pertaining to school and that is worth picketing for. Boo-Hoo. I always thought that the European countries had way more sophisticated schools and valued education at all costs, and that learning wasn´t about grades, money or jobs, but individual growth and inspiration and finding answers to lifes bigger questions etc. Now I dunno. I still have plenty of faith in the majority of the Portuguese people being bright and valuing education and all the values I previously listed but maybe the beurocratic motives of the government and teaching staff are askew. Maybe the Portugese Government very realistically wants to create more industry in Portugal and be a more competitive nation in the global economy because in the recent past Portugal hasn´t been this way. And by teaching kids directly for a profession is a good way to get a lot of them out into the cities working and putting Portugal ``on the map´´ economically speaking. But I think kids should be learning as much for future professions as for personal growth and understanding. I have always thought the goal of an education is not just for cranking out products efficiently or being machinelike in whatever area of work one may choose but equally in becoming an intellectual, conscience being. I think there is a lot of room for debate on this topic but I´ll leave it at this for now. I just want to add this to all the kids in Ashland at AHS, or anywhere in anyschool for that matter, that most of your teachers spend a good 80% (really rough estimate) of their week hours to support you in your journey through highschool. I remember last year hearing stories from Ms. Hernandez about how she spent all weekend grading our lousy (Joking) essays and how she wanted to inspire us with projects to better our community. It might be a lot of work from everyone but I feel it is really benificial to all. So be thankful for that I guess. Até Já.

Tidbits.

Today was interesting and full. I woke up at 8.25 for my first day of my new class: History of Portugal. I will only have this class once a week and it´s just for me to be able to learn a little more about Europe and Portugal and their relationships between the rest of the world. It went fine and I think it will be really cool. After that I had Art. Right now in Art we are practicing with ``China Paint´´ as the translation goes, it is a runny black paint that you use with an apparatus that resembles a scalple more than an art utensil. I keep slicing gashes into my paper and spilling ink everywhere, it is really frustrating. After that I had math and lunch, both went well. This week is another ``List´´ election, this time we are electing a list to be in charge of the senior class trip. It doesn´t really pertain to any of the other students but there is loud music and all the other perks (minus food) :( of the last elections. After lunch today I participated in the Math Olympics at my school. The questions on the test were really hard and I´m only somewhat confident of my answers. We´ll see how that goes. I hate that feeling when you know there´s something else to say but you just can´t remember. Oh well, maybe next time.

Photos.

The walled city.



Here are some Photos of Salamanca, school and stuff.

This is a fat birds nest on a church.


This is downtown Viseu.

More Time.

I´m sorry I haven´t blogged in a while. Well, a lot has happened since my last post. Firstly, this last weekend was really fun. I traveled to Oporto for an orientation with AFS. I left Viseu on Friday at about 3:30. I had to prepare some things for this orientation like traditional food from the states (I made choclate chip cookies, which everyone at the camp asked the recipe for) and other things like a song and a story. After school I walked down to the bus stop with all my stuff and caught a bus to Oporto. The drive was fine, about and hour, and the views from the bus were grand. I didn´t have any batteries left in my camera so I didn´t get any pictures. Other people at the orientation had cameras though and many pictures were taken so I assume I can find some of myself. The whole trip was paid for by AFS and my bus ticket was only 9,50 euros. After I got off the bus in Oporto I really had no idea what to do. I was under the impresion that an AFS staff member would meet me at the end of the line since I was travelling alone but I didn´t see any AFS schwag so I decided to take a walk. I walked out on the street and went around a little square for a while. I saw some local skaters hanging around and skating some sweet jibs (rails and the sort) under an old church in the square, I really wish I had had my camera it was so cool looking. After moseying around for a bit confused I headed back to the bus stop to try and figure out where to go when, by chance, I ran into a familiar face. It just so happened to be an AFS staff member and he was there to get me. Well I waited with him as we rounded up all the other AFSérs coming by bus to the orientation. It was then that I found out how isolated I am. All the other AFS kids had each other to travel with and were all on the same bus. For example a friend of mine in Lisbon goes to school with three other AFS students and I think there is a total of 11 students in Lisbon, 2 in Braga and 3 in Oporto. Everyone else had met up with one another at least once before this camp and I had not heard mention of even AFS until then. I´m not sure if this is a good or a bad thing, it´s different, unique and an experience any way you look at it. Well after all meeting at the bus station we were hearded down the street to a trainstation where we caught multiple trains through the city to our final destination. We stayed in this old creepy seminary that would be perfect for a horror film, we were not allowed to leave the grounds of the place the whole weekend and on top of that we were fed tons of sugary things. If you can imagine roughly 40 excited AFS teens crammed into that building, wired on sugar, desperate for sleep and anxious to express their feeling, emotions and stories to people who are in the same boat as themselves, that is what the scene was like. It was really fun. Once the camp was done(sunday evening) Sofia, Louis and two teachers from Fun Languages came to pick me up. We went and toured Oporto for a bit, we went to the beach and drove around the city. It was cool to see the Atlantic coast for the first time up close, and I could totally feel a different vibe there. This week in school is election week for the new party who will be ruling the school. Here they are called ``Listas´´ or ``Lists´´ in enlish. It´s basically a group of students in the 12th grade who get together and elect themselves into various positions. Each ``List´´ has a president, V.P. and secretaries and stuff. Some have people assigned for parties, others for music, and some have art/design staff. This whole week is bassically a contest of who can be louder and give out the most free stuff. All the ``Lists´´ have sponsors and so far I´ve gotten tons of food and drinks, pens, beach balls and other random things like stickers and whatnot. Each day there are speakers as tall and about three times as wide as I am (6 feet tall, 6 feet wide, not me the speakers) bumping eurotechno as loud as possible. It´s a big party and super cool. In the states the class elections are way more formal and policy based, it´s really cool seeing the difference. I just finished my first big project in art class, we had to design an album for our group of choice. The album had to include aspects from all the groups previous albums and had to pertain aesthetically to their music. I chose Rage Against the Machine and painted this life size poster for part of the project.

That´s all for now, QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS REALLY SPARK MY MEMORY, so if you can think of any let me know. It helpes me as much as you! Thanks for reading, Até Já!

Month.

As of today, October 3rd, I have been away from Ashland for a month and two days. I left Ashland on the first of September, F.Y.I. ;) I have been in Portugal since the 5th of September and with my family since the 7th. This is by 10 days the longest I´ve been away from Ashland. An interesting thing that happened to me today that reminded me of home happened when I was reading a book/atlas with my cousin and I wanted to show him my state. We flipped to the Western United States page and I went to put my finger on the general area of Ashland. Then stopped. Now realize this is a childs atlas and has every country in the world in it, along with little facts about each one. Well why I stopped my finger was because right at the spot I was about to put my finger was a dot, and that dot was labeled Ashland. Medford was next to it, and it even had Crescent City, Yreka and other small obscure towns that I was suprised to find in this childrens book. By the way, this picture is in my blog because I am experimenting with a new way to upload photos/videos and it is a good example of a very cool portuguese practice. No one here uses dryers. On nearly every building, minus offices, there are clothlines stretching all over them. School was fine today. I went walking through the old part of Viseu yesterday and got some pictures and had an amazing time. I´ll put them up soon.

Stuff.

So I´ve been sick for two days. It´s nothing much, just a sore throat, runny nose, stuffiness and aches. Today I had tennis lessons and felt fine most of the time. Louis is sick too. For lunch today we went to a really good italian restaurant, probably some of the best pizza I´ve ever had. One thing that I think is cool but haven´t written about is that there are a lot of roundabouts here, of course this is europe and that is the norm, but a really cool thing about a particular roundabout here in Viseu is that there is a parking garage under it. All surface traffic flows as it would normally but there are these holes in the ground that you can drive down into right under the road and down the circle is the parking garage. It is all lit naturally because the cieling is the roundabout and has windows. I thought this was really smart, A: because even in this size of a city and with all these cars on these tiny roads there is no traffic, I think this is due to the roundabouts, and B: The garage litterally takes up no area like traditional parking garages in cities in the states allowing a bunch of people to park their cars in the center of the city. A funny thing that happened to me this week was in Geometry class; a student was late and knocked on the door to be let in. Since I sit next to the door I simply turned the handle and the student came in. Well when my teacher saw this he wasn´t happy. He grabbed the student (somewhat gently) by the arm and led him out of the classroom, closed the door on him then turned to me. I was really confused at this point and just stared blankly at the door. My teacher leans with both hands on my desk and says in broken english ``Who is the boss.´´ Well I knew what he ment and responded ``Tu, claro.(You, of course)´´ to be polite and not get chewed out in portuguese in front of the rest of the class. Then he turned and opened the door for the tardy student. Who came in looking just as confused as I had. Well, I can´t think of anything else for now but If I do I´ll write later. Questions comments? Até Já.

School.

So school has started and it´s going great. I can´t say I´m the best student I´ve ever been; in relationship to the states that is. I frequently don´t understand everything and find it hard to participate in portuguese. I still do my best and on occasion can formulate an answer and give my two cents. My success in school, however, lies not in tests and grades but in my relationship with my peers and the non-academic, yet equally as important, aspects and lessons I´m learning in school. This success is due greatly in part to all my peers in my term who have helped me and welcomed me as part of their class. But, there are two people who I feel have really been most selfless and generous in their support to me; and they are Dennis and Zita. These two have put up with many ´´Huh?´´s and ``What does that mean?´´s. They have worked tirelessly and been the most patient people with me in school thus far, and I would just like to publicly thank them for their efforts. Thanks, I really appreciate it. Anyways school is great, it is a place to be social and experience life in portugal. It occupies most of my time and really all my enegy is diverted towards school, but without it I fear I would find myself with little to do. Well thats all for now, I would really appreciate any questions or comments that you have or if you want or if you have the time!