8: New Month, New Apartment!

3/1/2011

So much has happened since my last blog post!  I wouldn’t know where to start if time weren’t linear.

SO EXCITED AMID THE MESS

I'm sure I've mentioned several times in this blog that my roommate, Tatiana, had been searching for a room closer to campus for some time.  While Amy and I would have liked to live off campus if such an availability arose, most of the advertisements around the city were for single rooms and we were content to stay in Polo III.  However, last Monday Tatiana heard back from a landlord regarding a place with two rooms available and, though Amy was still in Spain, we figured we figured it wouldn't hurt to check the place out.  So, eagerly awaiting Amy's return, we met with the nicest man I've met so far and absolutely loved the place (and its very cheap rent).  The landlord, whose name we still do not know and therefore affectionately call Senhor Senhorio (Mr. Landlord), is the most delightful little man in the world and so incredibly obliging.  When we told him about a potential third roommate, he not only seemed open to the idea but allowed us to change the larger room into a double.  He also promised to drive all the way to Porto to get us a second bed frame and mattress from another one of his locations.  After speaking to Amy, and showing her the apartment the next day, we decided that this was it.  This was our new apartment.

The most Portuguese shopping cart in the world.

The rest of the week passed: classes, going out at night, etc.  Throughout the week we started to plan what exactly we needed for the apartment.  Amy and I volunteered to take the double room since it was Tatiana that had been doing all the work finding rooms and talking to landlords.  This weekend we began the huge process of moving everything from our residence hall to the apartment.  I don’t know how we accumulated so much extra stuff over the course of the one month that we were here but it seemed as though we had so much more!  However, we enlisted the help from Dan who used his amazing military strength to help us with our first wave of suitcases over to the apartment on Saturday.  Unfortunately only the larger room was available, as the former tenant had until Sunday to move out of the smaller room, so we moved everything into one room and then went to Dolce Vita, the curiously Italian-named mall in Coimbra, to go to the giant supermarket there and buy cleaning supplies for the terrifying prospect of cleaning the common areas.

Of course, the entire floor is not just us.  The apartment has five rooms in total, so we have three roommates.  One of them is Victor, who isn’t around much and only rents the room to sleep when he’s in town working.  The other two are more permanent: Helder, who lives right next to Amy and I, is Portuguese and tends to stay in his room and play his guitar... and then there is Santiago, a Spanish model (or least should be) who is very friendly and seemed excited for us to move in.  He seems to want more interactive roommates with whom he could practice his English.  He lives across the hall from us and makes a point to greet us whenever we were around this weekend.  He’s very friendly and that is all I will say for now. :)

The kitchen

Post-clean.  Really.

Sunday was marked by excessive amounts of cleaning.  We arrived in the afternoon and tackled the kitchen and bathroom.  After straight use by four men for who knows how long, you can imagine the state of things.  I think I killed at least five spiders and countless ants as I scrubbed the stove and pantry and Tatiana cleaned the fridge, microwave, and the huge pile of boxes and bags on top of both machines.  Poor Amy was left alone to tackle the bathroom, but she cleaned it so well that she literally changed the color of the shower, toilet, and walls.  We still have to scrub the floor, but after we left the apartment, those areas were beautiful.  Santiago even popped over and tried to help, but after he swept the floor I think he realized how intense we were and left us to destroy every place that mold had even thought about growing.  Having a Portuguese mother definitely prepared me for such intensive cleaning.  No such thing as “clean enough," right Mom?

Look at that PRISTINE toilet, thanks to Amy.

After cleaning, we returned to Dolce Vita and bought things like sheets, pillows, utensils, and rugs for the rooms, kitchen, and bathroom.  These boys will definitely feel that feminine touch in this apartment.

So sad and masculine.

Can you spot the feminine touches?  (Hint: rug, food in the pantry, multi-colored cups, cooking utensil Lazy Susan, the color pink, and general colorfulness)

The next day, the last day of February, we only had class at 2 PM, so we brought the rest of the bags from our rooms into the apartment and, after History and Literature, we went to check out at the Office of Alojamentos.  However, when we were finally able to meet with Rosario Gomes, she informed us that since we had not notified them two weeks earlier we would have to pay the entire rent for the month of March… even though we would not have keys to a room for any amount of time during this month.  We were obviously extremely upset and went right back to Polo III to speak to the director, Carlos, who informed us that he knew of no such rule, and after we called our program director Ana Paula, who also told us that she was not aware of such a rule.  Obviously my personal political views began to flare and, through the haze of anti-bureaucratic anger, I announced my personal decision to fight the ridiculously unfair and unknown rule as hard as I could and refuse to pay such a fee.  After speaking to each of our parents, my friends agreed and we officially turned in our keys.  I'm sure more drama will ensue, so I will keep you all updated.  I've always wanted to sue someone... (haha).

The window between the kitchen and the bathroom.  Soon there will be an American flag painted up there.

We spent the night grocery shopping, cleaning, and unpacking.  We ended up having dinner at McDonalds with Dan (and I won 10 free digital prints from Snapfish in their Monopoly sweepstakes!  What a night!) and then spent our very first night in our new place.  Now, on Tuesday night, the room is still a rather messy (as the pictures below indicate) and, while my bed still has no legs, Senhor Senhorio promised to fix it.  Tatiana was finally able to get into her room and has been cleaning it all day and Amy and I have been trying to do laundry with the washer, which has no words in either English or Portuguese on any of the knobs or buttons, so that’s been interesting.  At least our drier is nice and simple: three clotheslines outside our window.

View from my new room.

My little corner... color-coordinated, of course.

The room (still being unpacked!)

To summarize: the apartment is a bit of a dump, but its my dump and I love it.  Plus it came with a space heater!

Favorite part of our new room!

The space heater...

2: Visa Woes

1/20/2011

So it looks like this blog might end up being irrelevant.

This week has probably been one of the most anxiety-ridden weeks of my entire life.  I'll try to detail it as best I can:

So on Tuesday I called the FBI, from whom I still had not received my official background check.  This background check is necessary to get a student visa, and without it I had not been able to make an appointment with the Portuguese consulate in order to apply for such a visa.  I had also been waiting 12 weeks for the thing.  While speaking to one of the customer service people, I found out that my background check had been sent to my Brown address at the end of December.  This is strange, of course, because Brown has my address and therefore would have forwarded me this envelope/package when they received it.  So I called Mail Services and they gave me a tracking number for a package that I later realized was my mother's Christmas gift, not the background check.  When I called again, under the impression that what they forwarded was the background check, the FBI told me that they could not resend the background check because it was not their fault that the package had been lost in the mail.

At the point I began to get a bit hysterical... I had been driving to pick my mom up from work and I was crying so hard that she refused to allow me to drive her back home.  I ended up calling the UWM Study Abroad office and let them know about the situation.  I called Mail Services again and got the tracking number for the package.  I called the local police station to see if I could get a background check from them.  I called my dad to give him an update and he said that my godfather, who works for the Department of Justice, knew people at the FBI.

Back at home, we realized that the package was not the background check and that the FBI was in fact responsible for my never receiving it.   On Wednesday, my godfather got in touch with his friend at the FBI, who told him that he would have the new copy of the background check Fedex-ed to me immediately.  It should be here tomorrow.  I cannot tell you how much I love and owe my godfather right now.

So today I called the Portuguese consulate to make an appointment for my student visa.  The woman told me that no appointment was necessary, which was great, but also that the process to obtain a visa usually took up to 3 weeks.  I leave in less than two weeks.  The anxiety from the entire FBI situation came rushing back, and I called my parents and my godfather again for one last favor.  Because all Portuguese people in the U.S. know every other Portuguese person in the U.S., it just so happened that my godfather knew someone in the Portuguese consulate in Rhode Island who might be able to make a few helpful calls to the consulate in DC.  Nothing is definite yet, but I'm really hoping and praying that this will work out for the best.

This whole process had me so frustrated and upset that I ended up having a bit of a breakdown today.  I had to do a few things at a lab as tests for my possible lactose intolerance and it turned out that I didn't do a few things incorrectly and I had to come back redo them.  On the way back, my mom asked me to go to the grocery store, but as I was walking in I realized I didn't have my credit card on me.  These little things just emphasized the whole situation with the FBI and the visa and I ended up sitting in the parking lot sobbing because I felt like a complete and total failure.  I felt like nothing I did turned out right, that I was constantly redoing every little thing because I was never able to do anything right the first time.  Once I got home my mom did a great job of comforting me and sent me right back out to the grocery store after I had calmed down.  I ended up having to come back inside because I left the keys to the car on the counter and, even after the huge breakdown, we just had to laugh about that.  I guess I'll never be completely on top of things! :)

On a serious note though, I don't know what to do if this visa doesn't happen and I can't go abroad.  I can't just travel to Portugal and get my visa there because the consulate needs my passport to process my visa.  Its extremely difficult to get a visa while in Portugal as well.  The next six months for me would be unimaginable.  I couldn't go back to Brown because classes would have started already and I have no place to live.  I would probably have to stay here at home, get a job, and wait out the coming months until I can return in the fall.  Without a car, I can't imagine that those months would go particularly well.  I'm actually shaking just thinking about the possibility that this won't work out.

I think it might be a good idea to start a novena for this, though I am not sure if its right to pray a novena for yourself nor do I have nine days... I'm hopefully receiving my background check tomorrow morning and driving into DC to visit the consulate later that day.  I figure submitting an application as soon as possible can't hurt.  Hopefully I can pay some sort of fee to expedite the process.  My adviser at UWM doesn't seem too confident.  She told me to look into changing fees for my flight and is trying to contact the people at Coimbra to see how late I can start at the university.

I'm so nervous.  Looking for a miracle.

1: Preparing to prepare

1/12/2011

Technically it is January 13, it being exactly 3:34 am, but my days don't tend to end until I'm asleep, and I don't do much of that during the early morning hours.  And since the trip of my life is quickly approaching, and Portugal can't seem to stay away from thought or conversation for more than about half a day at most, I figure its probably okay to begin this Portugal blog.

Unlike my other attempts at keeping a blog (which have all miserably failed), I vow to keep this one up as often as possible.  I want to  remember every minute of this trip because I hope it will be, at least, extraordinary and, at most, life-changing.  I can't wait to go to another country, have the inevitable melt-down a few days in, and then get out there and meet new people and have a fantastic adventure.  That's the plan, anyway.  Of course, I still have to get my visa squared away, which is difficult to do when the FBI takes 12 weeks to process a request for a background check.  Of course, this warrants several questions, like WHY it take the FBI this long to print and mail a background check, WHY Portugal requires a background check from the FBI, and WHY they (meaning the staff of both Brown University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison) did not tell us to request such a background check until three months before our trip (roughly).  But what's done is done.  The timing is simply nerve-wracking.

The other two participants seem equally distressed by the visa process.  They also both seem very  nice, though I have not met either of them in person.  The first is currently in France during her first study abroad term.  From what I can tell by our Facebook interactions, she seems very fun, as does the second, who lives in Vermont.  The latter and I are flying to Lisbon and then boarding a train to Coimbra together, for which I'm extremely thankful.  I would be TERRIFIED to go alone, especially as my grasp of the Portuguese language is NOWHERE near what I wished it would be when I decided to study abroad in Portugal three years ago.  But I've been trying to review (half-heartedly, I must confess) and my mom is bringing down my godmother's copy of Rosetta Stone this weekend, so that should be somewhat helpful.  But I think we, meaning myself and the other two girls in the Coimbra program, are all in the same boat language-wise, or at least, they are both very modest about their language abilities (and will hopefully be understanding of my deficiencies in the future).  At least I can tell from their  names that we are all going to Portugal for the same reason: we're all Portuguese.

I can't tell if I'm excited to go anymore.  I feel like I've been talking about it forever: not only studying abroad there, but the country, BEING Portuguese, the language, defending Portugal against people who say its an old and forgotten country (even though it sometimes is...)  All I ever do is talk about Portugal and I'm sick of it!  Hopefully that will change once I'm there.  It really is, as I remember it, a beautiful and enchanting place.  My parents bought me two tour books, one for Portugal and one entitled "The Best of Europe," which does not mention Portugal at all (awkward).  I'll begin to read those books soon.  I need to start making plans.  I already feel like I need to start packing!

That's going to be the tough part of leaving.  I'm a bit of a hoarder, and the whole "pack what you think you'll need and then take half of that" rule is going to be rough.  My mom keeps reminding me that I can buy all that I need there, but it seems a waste of familiarity and Euros.  Plus, how does one say "hair drier" or "contact lens fluid" in Portuguese?  I guess I'll learn these things soon.  I wish they had easy books with titles like, "Vocabulary You Will Realistically Use in Portugal."  That would make life so easy!  Instead I'll just have to tell my family there, “Não obrigada.  Não posso comer alguma comida com leite" (No thanks.  I can't eat anything with milk.)

I think I've become lactose intolerant, which is goin to make studying abroad tough.  Not only is the food pretty heavily invested in dairy, but if I AM indeed lactose intolerant (which a soon-to-be-determined doctor's appointment will hopefully make clear), I'll have to learn how to eat in a whole new way in a whole new place, which seems to compliment each other in theory but probably doesn't in real life.  Plus that's just more that I have to stuff into my already bursting suitcase: lactaid pills.  I guess we'll see soon if I'm just a hypocondriac or not.

I guess I've laid down a pretty good foundation for this blog with this one post... Sorry if it seems rather boring (I mean, I DID just talk about possible lactose intolerance for an entire paragraph).  I guess I'm just extremely nervous.  Actually, scratch that, I'm terrified to get on that plane on February 2nd.  I won't know the language, the people, the country.  Plus, everyone is going to ask me if I'm Chinese (as they did the entire time I was there in 2008)!  I hope I'll make good friends not only with the people in my program but with students at Coimbra.  I hope I'll meet guys, though its hard to look forward to a hoard of unknown, Portuguese-speaking men... no matter how attractive they might be.  

But I really do think I'm ready for this.  I am so ready to get away from home, to get away from Brown, and just have an amazing experience.  I'm not asking for a movie plot or anything, but I haven't heard of one study abroad experience that hasn't included crazy events and wonderful happenings.  I hope I never want to leave.

Portugal, you better live up to these high expectations.