When did my semester come to an end? I've got one week of classes and a few days of exams and that is it! Truth be told I do miss home a lot and I can't wait to get back but, I also wish life experiences like being abroad lasted longer than they do. I wish I could go abroad again and explore more of the world. I have learned so much during my time here in Lisbon and I just wish I could learn more. It's so incredible to me how life can be so different around the world. I think Lisbon was the perfect fit for me. I love big cities and their hustle and bustle but, I could never live in a huge city like Barcelona or New York. I think Lisbon is the perfect size city. It's big enough where it gets uncomfortable and crowded so you know you're not alone but also small enough that at a small distance you can find calm and comfort. Traffic is bad but not impossible. People are nice for the most part but you can always find someone cranky if you don't speak perfect Portuguese. Most people from Lisbon are annoyed at how busy it gets during the Touristy season but, it's still nowhere near how busy big cities get.
I guess I titled this post End of semester blues because I've got a few reasons to get all emotional lately. First and most obvious, my GO experience is coming to a close. Secondly, my parents visited and they left and now I miss them more than I have all semester. Lastly, the holiday season is here. Thanksgiving Christmas and all of the festivities, decoration, food and tradition that come with it. I see pictures form my friends back home with all of their Christmas decor and their cute christmas cookies and secret santa and I feel so sad that I'm missing it. It's kind of silly since it's something I don't think about a lot when I'm there but, you never really know how much you miss something until it's gone. On the bright side, my host family is very sweet and they have decorated their house with a tree and other decorations in every room, including mine! I was gone for the weekend and when I got back I saw the cutest little stocking hanging on my bedroom door. I'm so happy I chose to stay with a host family and that they have turned out to be so incredibly sweet and thoughtful. Anyway, I went to rome this past weekend and saw some SU students there! It was a total coincidence and it was the best surprise! Here are some photos! Until next week!
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I wanted to talk a little bit about a Portuguese tradition called Praxes. This tradition is an academic one that begun in Coimbra, Portugal and it goes as far back to the 14th century. The main reason for it is existence is to encourage the loss of social inhibitions according to a few sources and to initiate or integrate the new students into the departments. The Praxes are completely optional but the vast majority of the students in the university setting tend to participate. During the initiation process, the older members will humiliate the new students for a long time until they are considered new members and are accepted and allowed to wear their dress. This is the most interesting part of the tradition, from my point of view. The dress is a traditional black suit with a white button down shirt. They wear dress shoes and a giant black cloak on top. They decorate the cloak with all sorts of stamps and fabrics to individualize it. Lets of times people include things like a flag from their country or the badge of their favorite sports team sometimes even musical badges or other interests. Additionally, the dress includes small spoons that you wear on your tie. These spoons are given to each of the members by the older members of the department. They are given as a gift of good luck for the remainder of their academic careers. Also, they are usually given to you by an older member called your "godmother or godfather". These are older members that have taken particular interest in the new member and want to help guide them and teach them the ways of that particular department. It's an interesting process, but from what I've seen I don't think I would participate. I have seen the humiliation go too far in my opinion and that is not something I would tolerate. In fact, there have been a few cases in history where students have died in activities related to the Praxes. Even though these catastrophic things have happened, students all around continue to participate in the Praxes.
The reason I have chosen to talk about this Portuguese academic tradition is because this is allegedly where J.K. Rowling got the inspiration for the cloaks in the Harry Potter movies. Take a look underneath! Until next week! This past weekend I went to Coimbra, Portugal. This town houses the University of Coimbra which is one of the oldest universities in the world and the oldest university in Portugal. It was established in 1290 and is still I operation today. They have about 20,000 students enrolled at the time and they have may different areas of study from mechanical engineering to art or language. The university is up on a hill next to a river and the view from the university are just spectacular. Around the city there are many things to see like a beautiful garden called the garden of tears. The legend says that it is called the garden of tears because a very long time ago a prince fell in love with a woman that was not royal blood. The prince tried to hide this from his father and to continue his relationship with the woman, but the King found out and killed the woman in this garden. The prince found her dead in the garden and cried and cried and that is how the garden got it’s name. The city of Coimbra also houses a church called Santa Clara a velha which is from he 12th century but it is not in use.
The university of Coimbra has many interesting things to see but the most impressive of all is its library. It’s as if you walked into a scene of a movie. It was decorated in the baroque style and there is not an inch left without decoration. The library is not in use and has not been for a long time but it has been preserved as it was in the past. Nowadays you can only visit it with supervision of an employe for ten minutes. The school also has an old chapel that is called the San Miguel chapel and San Miguel is my last name! Lastly I wanted to talk about the Fado of Coimbra. Fado is a Portuguese style of music born in Lisbon and Coimbra and Porto have made their own styles. The style of Coimbra is only about love. Another thing that makes it different is that only the men sing. So typically men write love songs to women and then perform them along with the other musicians that play the fado guitars. I was lucky enough to catch a performance in a small cafe and I was blown away. The passion with which the performers played was amazing and I would love to see more fado performed. Here are some pictures from the trip. Until next week! This past weekend I went to a small Portuguese island called Madeira. Madeira is an archipelago southwest of Portugal in the atlantic ocean. It’s estimated population in 2011 was 267,785. As you can imagine the island is extremely small. Despite it’s size, it has so much to offer! It’s vegetation is very tropical and it’s temperatures are fairly warm even in the winter. It has very well kept roads circulating the island and lots of signs which help when you’re driving. It has very old Toboggan rides that have been a tradition for a very long time in Madeira and additionally they had multiple Gondolas that make it easy to make it up and down the island. The land is very odd if you’re from a city where everything is flat or relatively flat. This is because the land in Madeira is all mountains. There are huge mountains that reach the clouds and then the mountains drop straight down in most coastal areas, straight into the water. The mountains are also covered in lush vegetation that is absolutely breathtaking! Additionally one of the most beautiful places on Madeira are natural pools. They are made of rock formations that make the most beautiful pools. I would recommend this amazing place to anyone looking for an amazing nature filled vacation! It might just be my favorite place in Portugal.
I wish I had more time to visit more places in Portugal but my time abroad is slowly coming to an end. I only have a month left! Here are some pictures from this past weekend! Until next week! Lisbon is covered in small parks where the bus stops and metro stops are located. They are cute and well kept with nice landscapes that include not just grass but, lots of plants and trees and flowers. I love visiting these small parks that are usually only about half a block in size because each has it’s own personality. At each of the parks, apart from the plants, you usually find statues or monuments. The small park in front of my house has a bust of Cesario Verde which is a famous Portuguese poet who published almost nothing while he was alive. After his death, a good friend of his took many of his works and published a book with 20 poems Verde wrote. Also near the house there is a plaque that says: “Fernando Pessoa moro aqui”, which means “Fernando Pessoa lived here”. Fernando Pessoa is an extremely famous Portuguese poet whose works we are studying in detail in my Portuguese and Brazilian Literature class. I remember seeing this plaque for the first time and being so excited and thrilled to think that I’m so close to where this incredible artist lived his life. I kept this information to myself trying not to make the rest of the class envious, not that everyone would have found this as exciting as I did. In class we discuss each of the poets and writers one by one and we had not yet spoken about Pessoa until last week. On Friday of last week our professor told us that instead of having class at the university we would meet at Fernando Pessoa’s old residence and walk around the areas he lived and the places where he got inspired. As you can imagine, I was ecstatic to finally reveal to my peers that this was just outside my house and I was living in an artists paradise.
Unfortunately for me, he never lived in the same place for more than a few months which means he lived in at least 25 different locations in Lisbon. Additionally to this, since he lived in so many places and the city of Lisbon put a plaque up at every place, people began to notice those plaques everywhere and then began to put up more plaques as a joke. So not only is it super unlikely that he lived by my house for more than a month, it’s also very possible that he never lived there at all and that plaque was just one of the fake ones. I guess I should fact check things before I get that excited again. On a happier note, Fernando Pessoa is one of the most interesting writers I've ever known about. He has a very intricate life story but the most interesting thing of all is that in his writing he created over 100 different personas that he used as authors. He would write poems as these other characters and not always as himself. He even wrote biographies for some of them and also wrote poems of meeting his other characters. To say the least, the readings have been amazing! Anyway, here are some pictures from Morocco! Ever since I arrived in Lisbon I knew I would have tons of free time. I take four classes between Monday and Thursday and they're only four hours a week each. Although this seems like a normal work load for some students, it doesn't for me. I take lots of science classes which means apart from a normal load I have at least two classes with labs every semester and the labs usually last about three hours. Science classes take a lot of time and a lot work to say the least. I'm taking literature, language and history classes and I've had the most relaxing of my life! I'm glad I am having this semester in a different country because now I can use all my free time to explore and that is exactly what I do with my free time.
Every Monday I end classes at 11:45 which gives me such a great opportunity to go out and explore Lisbon. I usually just start walking in a different direction than I did the day before and I find so many great places! The Baixa-Chiado area, or the "down town", has so many streets that even though I've been there over 20 times I still haven't seen all of it. I use my fertile to make sure I don't miss out on anything. If I had one recommendation to future students it would be to make an EXTENSIVE list of places you want to see! No matter how many places you have on your list I'm sure you'd be able to get to them all eventually. When I started my program I started with a small list of places I really wanted to see but within the first two weeks, I saw everything on my list. So, please don't hesitate or hold back when making your must-see list. Since I realized I had so much free time, I also signed up for a gym. Lots of the students in the program try to find a gym to keep themselves healthy and fit but also to stay busy. The gym I signed up at only charges 25 Euros per month and because I'm a student, the first month was free! That's also something future students NEED to pay attention to. There are student deals everywhere! For soccer game tickets, for gyms, for museums etc. This is definitely something to take advantage of to save a few bucks! This week is our week of break with the CIEE classes. I was fortunate enough that my mom came to visit and we went to Morocco together. We went from Tarifa, Spain to Tangeer, Morocco over the weekend and now we are traveling in Spain and Portugal and I am so happy to see my mom. I've had a cold since last week and moms just have some kind of magic that makes you feel better instantly. I was also feeling a bit homesick before she came so her arrival was just perfect! I still haven't had the chance to download my pictures onto my computer since I'm still traveling but, I'll have some great pictures of Morocco and of this coming week too ready for my next post! Until next week! Coming from a tropical island, I love warm weather and luckily for me it’s been an abnormally warm fall here in Lisbon. I haven’t had to use a jacket other than at night but most of my friends don’t bring a jacket at all. Days are very hot and nights are cooler but, the air is always dry. Since Lisbon has bodies of water nearby (the Atlantic ocean and the Tagus river) there is always a chilly breeze blowing. I think this is the perfect weather, but locals tell me it is soon to change. In Lisbon there is a “rainy season”. Our program director advised us to bring rain coats and rain boots too. It’s supposed to begin soon. Unfortunately, the rain coat slipped my mind but, I have water proof and slip proof boots, which is good because of the slippery cobblestone all around the city. I also have an umbrella that I had to buy in Spain before I started my program because it started to rain very heavily one day right when I started to take a walk outside.
I’m not really a huge fan of the rain, especially when a cool breeze blows simultaneously. The breeze makes it very hard to hold an umbrella without it blowing away. I also don’t like having wet feet but, hopefully ill avoid that inconvenience by using my waterproof shoes and taking the bus instead of walking. This semester the program is very small and for that reason I know everyone pretty well. Within the fifteen of us I found a group of three other girls that are amazing to travel with! They are very easy going and they’re interested in going to the same places as I am and it makes me feel so much better that I don’t have to venture around this city on my own. I’ve got my partners in crime and they could not be better! Apart from these students that are also from the US, the program assigns Portuguese buddies. Portuguese buddies are students of our university that help us with our Portuguese speaking and also show us cool places to go to or just anything we might need to know about the city from the perspective of someone that is our own age. I’m really grateful that we have buddies because it makes me feel like I am blending more and more into Portuguese culture and that I’m not just seeing it, I am experiencing it. This past weekend I had the opportunity to visit an old friend in Munich, Germany. It was incredible. I loved Munich and I really want to go back. Apart from walking around the city, on Saturday we hiked up a huge hill until we came across a gorgeous castle. It was definitely worth the hike! See for yourself in the pictures! Until next week! Only 5 more days and my semester comes to a close. I can't believe how fast time passed. Its a bittersweet moment. On one hand, I love Portugal and it's customs and traditions and I love learning new things. On the other hand I miss my home and the warm weather in Puerto Rico and I can't wait to see my family, my dogs and my favorite places. I have 5 days left but I am already mostly packed since most of the stuff I brought are clothes for warmer weather. I'm really glad it only began to get cold a few days ago. So, my suitcases are packed and I've got my clothes played out for the remaining days but, it's not over yet. I'm putting a fun close to this experience. I'm visiting Paris for the first time and Barcelona one last time. I'm excited for this fun end to this experience but I am also very overwhelmed because of the final exams, papers and presentation I have on my last days. Even though the work load is less than my usual one at home it is still extremely overwhelming.
The friends I've made during my time abroad will be people I'll miss a lot but, they will people I will always think about very dearly and hopefully see in the not so distant future. I already have plans to meet up with one of them next march for my birthday! My host family has been so incredibly kind to me and I don't know how I could ever repay them. I hope that when I visit Portugal again some day, I get to see them. I will miss them a lot and their cosy loving home. I have loved being here in Lisbon and traveling and learning about so many different places in this world. I visited many different countries and fun places and I would do it all over again if I could. I am ready to say goodbye for now but, I will surely be back. Thank you for going on this adventure with me! Ate já. I'm so happy I've explored my surroundings. My homestay is located in a very cute neighborhood called Estefania. There are supermarkets within a five minute walk, fruit vendors at the corner of the street and cute cafes around the block. There is a park at the end of the road which is where the bus stops are located for my ride to school in the morning. The buses aren't always reliable but it's not a huge problem since school is only a short walk away. The program places students in home stays that are up to 30 minutes away from school whether it be by bus, metro or on foot. Out of all the people in the program I am the only student that takes the bus. Most of the students in home stays walk and the students in the dorms take the metro. The dorms, although a bit far from school, are in an amazing location. The neighborhood of Baixa-Chiado!
This neighborhood and it's surrounding area is and incredibly historical area that is also by the river and has tons of museums and plenty to see. We've learned so much about this area and it's fascinating history in our Colonial history class and in our City and Architecture class as well. Portugal suffered a very catastrophic earthquake on November 1st, 1755. The earthquake was followed by huge fires all over the city of Lisbon and as if that were not enough, a Tsunami soon followed. Some say that no matter where you dig in Lisbon you'll find a layer of ashes from the fires that followed the earthquake. The earthquake was measured to be between 8.5 to 9.0 on the MMS. After this very catastrophic event Lisbon was rebuilt and almost everything was relocated. They took the opportunity and expanded their use of the land in Lisbon and they rebuilt the Baixa-Chiado area in a grid like form that is very easy to navigate. A curious bit about Lisbon is that everywhere you go, every side walk is made out of cobblestones. Some streets are too. The cobblestones are tricky to walk on since they have become very old and people have walked on them so much. They are pretty worn and they tend to be very slippery. My advice on shoes for future students in Lisbon is: comfort and traction. The cobblestones are slippery and hard so you definitely don't want to fall and you are going to be doing way more walking than you will on our school's campus. Most people wear sneakers and closed toed comfortable shoes or sandals that are strapped you your foot and won't come off easily. I've only ever seen one or two brave women walking along the cobblestones with heels. My advice is not to bring heels or shoes that are difficult to walk in. They will only take up space in your suitcase and then sit in your closet. This past weekend we all took a trip to Porto! We took a walking tour, visited contemporary art museums and we even attended a concert in a lovely hall called Casa da Música. Porto is very famous for a few things like port wine and some people say that it is where JK Rowling got her inspiration to write her very famous Harry Potter books. For that reason, it was very crowded and the lines outside the places that she used to visit were packed. We took a boat ride along the river which lots of people seem to enjoy! Unfortunately it was a very short trip but I definitely want to visit again! This past Tuesday I was lucky enough to get tickets to a Portugal vs. Switzerland soccer game which was a qualifier for the upcoming world cup. Portugal won 2-0. It was an amazing experience and it was so exciting to see so many fans at the stadium. Check out some pictures below! Until next week! This past weekend I traveled to Madrid, Spain! It’s incredible how easy it is to travel throughout Europe. I met another Susquehanna student that is studying in Barcelona there and we had a blast. This is one of the things I have to thank the GO program at Susquehanna for. Since it is mandatory to go abroad, a lot of times I get to visit new places with some of my best friends that are abroad too! What could be better than exploring a new country with good friends? (Check out a few pics below) In Madrid, we visited the Santiago Bernabeu Soccer Stadium where Real Madrid plays. We also visited Plaza Mayor, The Royal Palace and some very cute cafes where we enjoyed breakfast.
A quick note on methods of transportation: This past weekend it seemed like a really good idea to me to take an 8 hour bus ride all the way from Lisbon to Madrid. I’m usually an adventurous person and like trying new things but a few hours before my 8 hour bus ride, there were several ideas running around my head. The idea of being in one seat, next to a complete stranger, for 8 whole hours started to bother me. More than anything it was the length of the trip that made me uncomfortable, especially since on a plane the trip is only one hour. I’ve taken long bus rides before. For example, I traveled to the south of Portugal in a bus that took four hours. The difference is that I traveled with a big group, so I wasn’t alone. I have type one diabetes and traveling alone for such a long period of time requires meal planning and lots of other details that can be extremely anxiety provoking. Anyway, when I began to get nervous I called my mom for advice and she suggested to look at the companies reviews. After a quick look, I bought plane tickets almost immediately. To be fair, the reviews weren’t horrible but I scare easily and they did not have five stars. As my weekend came to an end I realized a few things. First, given my health condition I’ve decided to make things as easy for myself as possible even if it is a bit more expensive. The comfort of a safe and quick flight is really significant. Second, It’s totally ok to be scared! As long as you are proactive and find an alternative solution to your problem. Third and last, definitely look at reviews before you buy. I don’t know if this is childish or not but, complimentary snacks on planes make me so happy. I feel like it's a small gesture of appreciation for choosing their airline. It doesn’t have to be a gourmet meal but I love the little pretzel bags or a cookie or whatever. Traveling in Europe is easy and that is something you need to take advantage of if you plan on coming to Lisbon with CIEE. It doesn't have to be Madrid and it doesn't even have to be out of the country. Lisbon has so much to see and at such a close distance. As you already know from previous posts, the south, called the Algarve is filled with beaches and coasts that have amazing views. The north of Portugal is also Beautiful too. This coming weekend we have a program trip to Porto! I am beyond excited to go up for the weekend and explore this very popular and beautiful region of the Country that I have enjoyed so much so far. Apart from the trips in Portugal, I've traveled to Spain. I've been to Madrid and Barcelona and I have plans to visit Germany, London, Dublin and Paris if I get the chance. My trip to Munich, Germany is already booked and I'll be visiting some old friends. October has been and will be so exciting! Im so grateful to have this opportunity of a lifetime this semester. I'm trying to soak up every second. My only wish is for time to go by slower, I can already feel myself missing my host family, my new friends and this Country a great deal. Until next week! |
AuthorI'm Isabella! Welcome to my semester in Lisbon, Portugal! |