6: Food, Fado, Fun

02/16/2011

I've got lots of pictures for you all today :)

The roof of the cafe/church.

FRIDAY (2/11/2011):

I mentioned before that we were planning on seeing a fado performance at a local cafe, and that was pretty amazing. Tatiana and I got to the cafe first, and this cafe was absolutely beautiful inside. It used to be a wing of the church, but the owners bought it and converted it (there was a lot of controversy... the whole story was in three different languages in our menus).  We were under the impression that we would eat dinner there, but apparently this country doesn't eat out past 4 pm and we had bifana... again. These sandwiches are basically all we eat other than pasta and rice (so cheap!) and despite their less than favorable appearance, those pork steaks are delicious.


The fado performance was amazing.  It was simply a singer, a guitarist, and another musician on a "Coimbra guitar," which is rounder and seemed a little higher pitched.  The singer was this very old man in this long dramatic cape, though several times I caught him dancing subtly to the music.  The guitarists were amazing, and their two instrumentals (sans singer) were my favorite songs.  I didn't understand much of the lyrics, but there was one song that I was able to find on YouTube afterward solely because it is about Coimbra.  We were basically the only ones there when we arrived in the cafe, but by ten, when the performance was scheduled to start, the entire cafe was brimming with people.  One of my professors was talking about fado and said, "I don't know what it is.  Its all very sad, but every Portuguese person just loves fado."  I  recorded quite a lot of the concert, so if you want any clips, I can definitely email you a few snippets.  I posted one of the instrumental songs on my Facebook as well.


SATURDAY & SUNDAY (2/12-13/2011):
Amy's boyfriend James visited this weekend (and was with us at the fado performance), but Tatiana and I were able to meet up with them a few times during the weekend.  I accompanied Tatiana to a few apartment for rent.  More cafes.  More pasta.  More loud Asian neighbors who seem to be destroying the pots, pans, plates, and each other at all hours of the day (at least that's what it sounds like). So much rain.

MONDAY:
New classes!  In addition to my language classes, I also attended the História Portuguesa class in the Intermediate level with Dan from West Point.  The professor promises to be delightful.  He was a history professor all the way: impeccable suit, awkward, and constantly made himself laugh at his strange jokes.  What more could you ask for?  Plus, he speaks very slowly.  I love him already.  We will definitely make my Mondays, where I have class non-stop from 9 AM to 6 PM (with an hour lunch break), a little more bearable.

TUESDAY:

Alex's Bar, 2/5/2011

More classes, yes, but it was Tuesday night that made it memorable.  Tuesdays and Thursdays are the big party nights in Coimbra.  Weekends here are dead because most of the students go home on the weekends to see their family and do their laundry, but Tuesdays and Thursdays are insane.  Despite my Germany buddy Ruben excusing himself last minute, we still had a fantastic night with Dan.  Because he had gone out the Thursday before, he lead us around to a few bars (including Alex's Bar!) and was a perfect gentlemen.  Hopefully the West Point girls and Felipe will be able to come out with us on Thursday.  I just wish I had remembered my camera!

WEDNESDAY:
Today, I luckily didn't have class until 2 PM, though the rest of my party group had to be up at the University for 11 AM classes.  Rough.  But I again had my history class again, accompanied with a giant book I had to buy for the class.  Seriously, that monster is about two inches thick and can stand up on its own.  For an English/Theater concentrator, this is new and different than my little paper-back novels.  But after I finish this particular post, I want to start reading it immediately.  We are picking up in the middle of Portuguese history in class (we'll cover the 15th to 20th centuries), but I definitely want to go over the beginnings of the country.  Plus, I missed out on learning about Dom Pedro I and Inês, Portugal's real-life Romeo and Juliet and one of my favorite romances... despite the exhuming and heart-ripping-out and such.

So basically it as far as events go.  But I would like to share a few things I've learned:

Gnomes love vinho verde.

1. I can now cook on a gas stove, as that is the only option in our dormitories.  I almost want to take driving lessons on a manual car now.  Almost.

2. I now know the difference between vinho verde and vinho branco.  In Portugal, most of the wine that looks like white wine (vinho branco) is actually vinho verde, "green wine," which is so named not for the color but because this kind of wine is not made to sit but to be drunk usually within the first year or so of its creation.  Vinho verde is a distinctly Portuguese kind of wine, so if you see it anywhere else, you can know that it is from Portugal.  It can be white or red in color, but I haven't noticed at red vinho verde yet.  I have also learned that it is delicious.

3. Coimbra is Portugal's third largest city.  This fact was a little sad to learn, especially when you are wandering these streets on a Friday night and there is literally NO ONE THERE.

4. I now know why Portuguese people flocked to the New England area: the weather both here and in Rhode Island has the same mentality: if you don't like it, just wait five minutes.  In walking between the Faculdade de Letras and my bus stop, I experienced perfect sunlight, rain, sleet, and basic dreariness.  All in a seven minute walk.

5. I have also learned that my prejudice against chouriço is completely unfounded.  It makes the best sandwiches and therefore has basically been a vital part of my lunches for the past few days.  I have been missing out for the past 20 years.  Thank God I came here and fully realized my Portuguese heritage.  Soon I'm going to be eating bacalhau and pastéis de nata like its my job (I've already started employment)

Sandwich with chouriço

Eating pastéis de nata

Also these cookies are delicious but their name escapes me... for now.

5: Classes Begin

02/11/2011


My dad recently told me that while he loved my blog, "the one thing that I believe would make your Blog better would be more positive news."  I was a total Debbie Downer in my last post, so let me say earnestly that I'm here today liven up the mood.


After my last post, I was obviously very distraught and uninspired.  But after I got back to my room and calmed down a bit, things definitely began to look up.  Basically I figured that if the classes were too easy, I would be able to test out after the first week, and if they were appropriate, I would stick with it and be able to review the bits of the language that I wasn't 100% on.  Ana Paula told me that I could definitely attend the Portuguese History class, which is one of the culture classes that is offered only in Intermediate, which was basically the only reason I wasn't able to get into the Intermediate level in the first place.  Plus, today I met a student who had studied at Coimbra last semester as well, and she was still in Beginner but spoke very well.  So, who knows how they separate these levels.  After experiencing my classes these last two days, I would be content with staying in my level or moving up.  We'll see how next week goes.


Anyway, after the test and the breakdown, we returned to the dorm and I watched the new How I Met Your Mother episode (ah, the miracle of the Internet).  We got in touch with the West Point students and, while the girls were planning on making dinner that night, Dan was all for coming out with us to find a restaurant close by.  But despite the copious amounts of banks, dentists, and clothing stores near our dorm, there are no real restaurants... even most of the cafes were closed.  The only place open for dinner was a Chinese restaurant...  But, Portuguese-Chinese food?  Well, there is a first time for everything.


It was strange trying to order Chinese food in a Portuguese restaurant, and thankfully the menu came in both Portuguese and English.  There was something strange though: while other places on the menu definitely included the word "cogumelos," or mushrooms, there were some dishes that were described as coming with "fungo chinês," or, well, Chinese fungus.  Curiosity almost got the better of me but in the end, I didn't order any fungo chinês... Next time, Kang Le.


There was no one in the restaurant when we arrived (this common trope is starting to convince me that Portuguese people don't eat anything except for pastries after 2 PM), and only a few parties showed up before we left, so the waiters were practically at our shoulders the entire time we were there.  They even took our plates away before asking us whether we were indeed finished or not, though thankfully we had devoured most of the food by then.  We then escaped the hovering waiters and returned to Polo III, where Ashleigh and Barbara were just finishing up dinner.  It was a party though: a few other people on their floor had also chipped in and they had all made a massive meal.  We stayed around and offered our quarts of ice cream to anyone to might like some and met Marta (Portuguese), Felipe (Dan's Brazilian roommate), and Otavio (Brazilian as well).  We were with them for quite a long time, speaking back and forth in English and Brazilian.  Felipe is a complete character, and he was excited to know that I was also a theater person, as he used to do modern dance.  Tatiana, Amy, and I were a little jealous that the West Point students had been roomed with Portuguese-speaking students, but hopefully we will be able to join a few of their dinner parties and befriend them as well.


Thursday morning marked the beginning of classes, and while I was planning on attending both the Intermediate and Elementary level of Portuguese, the classes were all at the same time so I stuck with my preassigned Elementary.  My first class Língua Portuguesa, in which we will do a lot of work with grammar and such.  The professor passed out a few magazine articles to read, and while I was a little frustrated with my partners, who basically refused to speak more than a sentence to me, but overall the class went very well.  


I also recognized someone in the class who I had not expect to be there: Ruben is from Germany and his speaking skills sounded fantastic when I met him on the day of the placement exam.  I thought he would definitely get into the Superior Level or at least Intermediate, but he was in class with me.  He recognized me as well and we realized that the our weaknesses were the other's strengths: he could speak and comprehend but wasn't very good at grammar and conjugation, and I can't form a coherent sentence in less than a minute but I could tell you the present subjunctive of "ver" in a moment (its veja, vejas, veja, vejamos, vejam, in case you didn't believe me).  We decided to be study buddies and try to move into Intermediate together.  We were both in Turmo 3, the highest level of Elementary, so we also had our Laboratório class together later in the afternoon.  Many of the foreign students drop this class because it doesn't count for any credits, but I think I'm going to stick with it.  It's basically its a classroom environment for practicing Portuguese and overcoming your own personal deficiencies with the language: we had the ability to practice speaking, pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary... all in this first class.  I was glad to have some background with phonetics because the second half of the class was spelling out common sounds, and in the process I found out that I was saying the verb ending -am incorrectly, so that's good. 


During this class, however, we did an exercise where we wrote down our nationality, interests, qualities about our personality, etc. and then passed the papers around.  From the random new paper, you had to pick out its original owner, but this took forever because half the class is Chinese!  All these students are from Macau, where Portuguese and Chinese are the two official languages, and it was basically impossible to figure out who our person was when all it says is, "Sou chinesa.  Gosta de ler e comprar roupas."  There are also two Japanese students, German Ruben, myself and another older American woman, and a student from Bulgaria, Turkey, and Belgium, and Spain respectively.  Obviously we were all easily identified.  


After class, Ruben and I went to the bar/cafe in the Faculdade de Letras (Yes, their Humanities building has its own bar... Reasons why Portugal has a terrible economy but remains awesome #478) and "studied."  I put it in quotes not to denote an opposite or inappropriate meaning, but because our version of studying was basically just speaking in Portuguese together.  He would ask me questions about random things and I would have to respond with different verb tenses, vocabulary, etc.  Another boy in our level, Japanese Yugi (this spelling is guesstimated, but it sounds a lot like "Eugene" when he says it), invited himself into the study session, and while I can't understand a word he says with his very heavy Japanese accent, I'm sure he needed the practice just as much as I did.  After about an hour, we switched and I showed Ruben how to conjugate the present subjunctive and quizzed him on the irregular forms.  Hopefully we'll be able to study like this more often.  I felt much better about my speaking and pronunciation after that hour and a half.


After I took the bus back home, I realized how completely exhausted I was.  Amy had been sick earlier in the week, and despite my effort I realized I must be coming down with the same thing.  I was so disappointed because Tatiana and I were supposed to accompany the West Point students on a night on the town guided by Felipe, who was going to show them the popular bars and clubs in the area.  But after Tatiana and I made dinner (the stoves, again, proved to make things difficult, but our pasta came out delicious regardless), we realized that going out that night was not an option.  So we sent our apologies to Dan, put our pajamas on, and watched "Guess Who" before passing out earlier than usual.  That night, we also made our first attempt at doing laundry, though clothes are currently hanging all over the room since the drier takes almost two hours.  At least Tatiana finally has socks now! :)


Today was another day of classes, though my first and only class, Conversação, wasn't until 2 PM.  I slept in, got dressed, and then promptly got on the wrong bus.  The bus system in Coimbra doesn't have a northbound/southbound type of system like the ones in DC, but are simply a circuit.  There are places where the buses cross paths but are traveling the opposite way on the circuit, and I happened to catch the 29 on the same such route.  What is usually a seven-minute bus ride became about 40 minutes, but I arrived at the Praça da República just in time for lunch at one of the university's many cantinas with Tatiana, Dan, Felipe, Amy, and her boyfriend James, who is visiting for the weekend.  At least lunch was only 2.45 €!  


Now class is over and the weekend is just beginning.  However, most of the students go home on the weekends, so the city is pretty dead.  I'm hoping that Ruben and some other students abroad will be around this weekend, as the West Point students will be spending the next two days in Porto.  As for tonight, we are hoping to go to a cafe which has both free wifi and fadistas (performers of fado, the traditional music of Portugal).  This post has been rather devoid of pictures, so I hope I'll get some good ones tonight and this weekend.  


Isn't content Alex so much better to read?