Spring Time!

Sometimes it really feels like spring, but when you think you won’t need your coat anymore, cold is right behind the corner to surprise you. Now the temperature really depends on the sun, and because I don't spend that much time outside I'm usually quite warm all day, so I don't really realise how cold it is.

The other day I thought: "I'm just spending my days inside sitting, I really have to move more", so I convinced Carlos to go for a walk. He resisted at first saying it was cold, I couldn't believe him, I didn't feel cold at all during that day... as a result, I almost lost my hears, that's how bad it was. We couldn't even hold hands because I didn't think we would need gloves so I had to put my hands in my pockets...


Now that the day’s are finally longer and we arrive home with day light it seems we have more energy to do stuff at home. I think everyone is like that, right? Also most people feel less lazy in the morning and find it easier to get up, maybe most of the people actually get up earlier, but what is new to me here in The Netherlands is that it seems that people even go to work earlier (and leave earlier as well).

I notice that now when I arrive to work I have to park the car further away then I did during the winter... Given that I work in a contact centre that doesn’t seem to make much sense, are you really going to call people at 7AM? Even if the sun is shining it seems quite early…  You wouldn’t get to sell me anything, but maybe it’s easier to sell to people when they are still half way dreaming…

If I would get up earlier (which I don’t because I love to sleep in the morning…) I would just take more time having breakfast, maybe eat fruit, read the news, pet the cat, something other then go to work!!! Unless of course I could leave earlier and escape from traffic jams, but I have to be there at least from 9AM to 5PM so…

Cold winter goes on...

It's been a while... I miss writing here!

This has no interest at all, but I have to tell it here! Hehe!

After comming back from our vacantion in Italy, walking everywhere (not a single kg lost...) I went to work, set on my ass all day and after that got in the car and starting to think I had to make some excercise even if simple.

I decided that I should walk a little bit between my afternoon snack and dinner. The days are longer, there is no snow now... I tried to convince Carlos that it was not that cold and we went for a walk. A very, very little walk, I almost froze! I'm used to people complaining that it's cold even when it's not, but in this case Carlos was right, this is not the Algarve nor Sicily...

That's when I realise that I barely go outside... I go to the garage in the car, out of the car to work and back from work to the car and home again. No time to get cold, haha!

I told you it wasn't interesting... :D

Yee! A job!!!

Ok, most of you already know but… I got a job!

Yee!

Isn’t life ironic? Now that I was so busy doing other stuff and had so many personal projects… I got a job!

I’m happy, but I have no time for myself now (and after 1 month, I finally took a moment to write on my blog), I’m travelling at the very least 2 hours per day, in a day without traffic. And when it’s snowing… I have to take one train, two metros and one bus, I can’t drive that car with snow…

Anyway, it feels good not to be depending on others again!

Public transports!

Ok, so here I was, in Rotterdam for the second time! The first time I just had time to discover the center  and this time, I had an appointment, couldn't explore much.

The thing is I wanted to try public transports, if I would have take the car with GPS I guess everything would have been ok  - except maybe for the parking of course…

I took the train until the closest station and then I would have to walk about 750m, perfect!

The first setback was that after all, the train I got, didn't stop at the station I needed… I had check in the website but not at the railway station!

I also wasn't counting on the mess that Rotterdam streets are (at least in that area) were you have canals and the port, and moreover the place I was looking for is located in corner and has his name in the window, you can barely notice…

Usually my sense of direction is quiet good and I was counting on that, but in a rainy day all I knew was that I had to walk southeast, and where the hell was the sun? LOL

Every street seemed to be heading to a canal, but my guess was right, I made it to the river, but then, the pictures of my target that I had so well memorized, vanished!

I had to ask for directions, the only thing I saw was a gym… and a very fancy one! But I had to ask! So I entered and asked for directions, everyone was really nice. They didn't know that street, so they printed a map from their computer, asked me if I wanted a coffee while waiting (I said no), offered me mints… and finally... asked me if I wanted to join the gym… LOL

I said the gym was really nice but I’m leaving in Breda… Oh we have also a gym in Breda, you can sign here and train there… I even know which one it is! :D

Really I don’t know how I could be so strong, saying no, after them being so nice! But I was a girl (yes, I still think of myself as a girl!) with a mission! So I declined the offer (without even saying, yes, I’m already a member! I could say that I’m getting Dutch, but the true is, I was already like this, maybe my French influence? LOL) and continued my journey.

It wasn't easy to find, I was turning around, I knew it was close, so I didn't want to call them to ask, but after walking for a bit, I looked at the time, and I was getting late! So I called them to ask for directions, and it was easier because they gave a reference of a restaurant just the door next to them! Uff!

To come back home there was a train coming to Breda just when I arrived to that really small station, but I still had to check out of the subway so I didn't go on that one…The one I got on was a “sneltrein” which means fast train, but it stopped at every station… so it took me more than an hour to get home!

Still don’t get public transports here!

By the way, here are some useful links if you need to plan a trip around here, first one for trains and the other one plans your journey from A to B using all kind of public transports available:

http://www.ns.nl

http://www.9292ov.nl

Zumba!

I already posted a Zumba video here, but if at that time it seemed like something weird and funny, now I see it as a genius combination.

I actually went to a class, and tried it. It's difficult! (at least for me, I love dancing but I suck at it).
Zumba combines salsa, belly dance and other styles of dancing that I don't recognise... and it makes you move a lot and very quickly, so it's really demanding! I really enjoyed it!

I think I'm going to join a class. :)

One of these days...

... I’ll be writing from an hospital, and not for a good reason... :( (Knock on wood)

I’m still getting used to the idea that bikes have (almost) always priority, so some times, I stop when I’m not supposed to and the other way around. But the closest I got from being hit by a car was on Wednesday – I was cycling in the rain in a very quiet street near a canal, passing some parked cars, and I just had the time (and most of all reflex) to divert from a guy that opened his car door!

I'm back!

Hi! I’m back from one month with my family and some friends!

In the beginning it was difficult not to be at home, but in no time, it felt like I never left… and then… It was time to come back! :S

Now I miss the beach! :(

Sorry, no adventures to tell yet, this time I had a good quiet flight to come back, everyone was very nice!

The only thing different, is that instead of unpacking first, this time, I had to tidy up an entire living room, including putting furniture in place,, because we sent the furniture we had in Portugal to The Netherlands while on holidays - and all before lunch! But it was totally worth it!

Things you do when you're an expat! LOL

I never had done this before... But between a joke or two I decided to make some “codfish cakes”!

Don’t they look good? I’m sorry the plate is so empty already, but we were so exited eating them that we only remembered to take pictures almost at the end! J

You = You (with all due respect)

The thing I like the most in English language is the fact that I don’t have to be always concerned whether to treat the person in a formal way or in a more casual way.

I have the tendency to speak more casually right away when talking to someone my age, or if I empathize with the person. Some times it’s tricky when talking Portuguese or French…

But the worst is when you begin a conversation in English, and suddenly you realise that the person you are talking to also speaks French or Portuguese and we decide to switch all the sudden. This happens to me frequently when I’m talking for the first time with someone, so it would be nice to be formal, just in case…but most of the time I’m just casual, I keep the same register that in English! 

Not once was I told to be formal, but that’s not something you say… and people might think you’re disrespecting them… But I’m not! It’s just, well… I think we are all humans, equal (not to the eyes of god, because I’m not religious) and for me there are only a few people in the world that deserves that kind of distance. That’s right, this is not about respect, this is about keeping a distance! That’s why it’s so difficult for me when I’m talking to someone I feel a bond with!

I remember the first time I was on a bus stop and a kid asked me the time treating me in the formal way (in Portuguese), and I was “oh my god, I feel old now!”

So if I had the power I would banish the formal way in every language! If English can do it and they are so formal why can’t the rest of the world do it also? We already know it’s not a lack of respect…

Good Mornig World!

Today I took the time to dedicate myself to work on the contents of a website for the expat group I’m doing volunteer work for, but I really couldn’t begin without taking this out of my chest and put to the world – I’m very sleepy!!!

Yesterday the Orange team won Brazil in the World Cup and Dutch were celebrating, as obvious, making a lot of noise – they are no different from anybody else.

I almost wish they had lost (sorry) because I can’t stand anymore vuvuzelas! They started making noise and cheering more than one hour before the game, and at two o’clock in the morning they were still celebrating! That’s ok by me, but please go celebrate downtown or in the park, not at my door step!

As the night was falling we decided to go out and have a drink downtown, because it was so hot in our apartment  So to get some fresh air we walked to the park with an ice cream and we realized there was going to be a movie projection, like I have only seen in the movies! So we ran home, grabed a blanket, a bottle of wine, and there we went, this time cycling!

It so pleasant to watch a movie in a park, outside, drinking wine, relaxing. The movie was funny, about the Woodstock festival, cute! I really enjoyed it!

When we arrived home there were some boys with their bikes coming to the little square in front of our block. It’s common to have some young people smoking and drinking here in front, but this is a very nice neighborhood! It’s just that is so pleasant to be here, so quiet… Only they forget to leave it that way…

Two in the morning I was already sleeping, but I was awakened by a vuvuzela and screaming (from those how didn’t had vuvuzela)! Not funny!

After a while I decided to call the  police. All that time, I was thinking that somebody would do something, there are people with kids, but I gave up. I had to turn my computer on to search for the number and I called the police asking if someone could send the kids home…

When I hung up, the kids were gone, I don’t know if they heard my phone call or not, but after a minutes I could get some sleep again.

But even Mother Nature was angry at us – four o’clock in the morning imagine: thunderstorm!

If someone needs it the website is: www.politie.nl

Now with no bike!

There is always something happening!

Yesterday we threw a dinner party. As Dutch have dinner very early, we invited people over at 17h00, so we started cooking immediately after breakfast!

I was doing a tuna pâté, I started to do the mayonnaise, but I had an incident with the salt – the cover went out and all the salt came out to the mixture!

I had to make another one, but I didn’t have more eggs, so I asked Carlos to go fetch some and I wanted salsa also. He took my bike, because his has a flat tire. He took so long… When he came back he told me as usual “do you want the good news, or the bad ones?”. I was a little stressed out, I didn’t needed bad news… hehe, but he told me anyway! My bike is also damaged… the back wheel is loose! Carlos had to come home walking...

Today we tried to fix the bike, but one of the pieces is broken, so we will really need to go to a bike shop.
I can’t believe I will have to walk! The other day, we had to go see some mattresses, Carlos didn’t have his bike, but I cycled anyway, I couldn’t just walk! I’m so used to cycling now! It’s so practical!

Well, at least the party went well, we had a great time, the food was good and we even played sing star!

Disconnected... :(

Wednesday, 2nd of June, I just came back from Portugal 3 days ago, I am quietly at home searching for a job on the internet when I decide to have lunch. When I came back to my computer I didn’t have internet connection, so I restarted the modem, it didn’t work.

I thought that probably my boyfriend could fix it, being an informatics and all… But it didn’t work. So we tried to call the company that provides the service, but it turned out that the telephone was not working, we tried the TV, there was no signal! That was too weird for me, but we have all in one package, so we knew that it should be a problem with the company. We tried to call the company with the mobile, but it doesn't allow us to call to numbers starting with 900 (don't have a clue why is that).

Portugal Day

The 10th of June is a national holiday in Portugal which celebrates the country, one of our greatest poets - Camões and the Portuguese Communities.

I usually don’t celebrate this day, I just go to the beach if the weather is good. But here in Breda, we have an expat club, and they had the idea of celebrate the holidays from the different nations.

So for this day we gathered a few Portuguese members to organize a dinner party and put together some music, decoration and a leaflet explaining all about this day.  At dinner we have distributed the booklet to the guests and we showed a presentation with some images from Portugal to make an ambiance in the party while listening to Portuguese music.

In the end of the evening two Portuguese girls recited Camões, which is our biggest poet of all times. One was reciting in Portuguese and the other in English, so everybody could understand.

This was an evening prepared for our colleagues to know a little more about us, our country and our culture.

It was really pleasant!

Always be prepared for rain!

I'm bored! We are in June and it's raining! (You have to realise that I came from the Algarve region in Portugal). It’s already been two days that I can’t leave the house in a t-shirt, and today even at home, I had to go get a jacket!

The strangest thing is that the locals are always ready for rain. On Sunday morning we went shopping, it was not exactly sunny but it was good weather, when we stopped for lunch, it started to rain! Okay, it was just a little bit, but everybody was already walking with an umbrella! Maybe they just put an umbrella in their bike for when it rains.

This morning it was raining a lot, with thunder and lightning and all, but as the weather changes quickly here, I could get out, go to the market to buy fruit and fish, and deal with other things with a little ray of sun.

I’m still amazed to know that they are all prepared in case it rains ... Smakvol Breda Festival (culinary festival) ended on Sunday and they are dismantling the tents. This was still a big deal of logistics because the restaurants were really cooking on site. It started to rain seriously for several times, but the workers did not stop! When I look outside, they are already wearing their rain outfits! I think that by the end of the day there will be no remains of the festival!

Oh! My back!

Well I’m back, I’m better from hay fever, and my back were also recovering, but I didn’t want to go to the capoeira lesson so I won't hurt myself again. 

Nevertheless, we were invited to go play Babington, and I couldn’t say no, it seems such a light sport… To catch one “ball”, I stretched too much, and there was my back again on pain. But I think I’m already better now.

It must be the weight of age… J

Are you going to the beach?

Everybody wants to know how were my “vacations” in Portugal? Resuming,

I caught hay fever, my sneezes were so violent that I misplaced a vertebra or something like that. The pain was so bad that I had to go to a chiropractic!

I wanted to see everybody so I only managed to go to the beach twice: once I was there for about 2 hours, but there were trucks passing by me every 20 minutes, so I couldn’t really relax. The other one, was only for 40 minutes, because I had to pack again…

The weather was good, except for the wind… you don’t want to go to a sandy beach when there is wind…

Note: Usually in May it’s the best time to go to the beach in the Algarve, because the weather is already good, it’s not too hot, and there aren’t that many tourists yet. This time I really wasn’t lucky!

Doing sushi

How could I forget to tell about that time that we did sushi!?

I just have one hint - start preparing the sushi at least one hour before your dinner time - because it has to cool down and it's not so easy to roll stuff on the algae... :)

Tire testing!

Sometimes you need to change your car's front tires but the back tires are still functional. It's common (as far as I know) to buy only 2 tires. You put the back tires in the front and the new ones at the rear.

This video shows the test - its better that way than the other way around.

The video is from Brazil, so it's in Portuguese, but basically they make the first test with the new tires at the back and the second test with the new tires in front. It feels that you could control better the car in the second test, but in a turn you would loose control of the rear.



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Be aware of what you were wearing :)

When you are in a cold country, you have the inconvenient of having to wear gloves, scarf and coat. Of course when you arrive somewhere you will take all this of. But when you leave don’t forget what you were wearing… Usually when I leave, I’m not so cold, so it has happened that I forget my gloves in the middle of a shop and I already lost a beanie hat and a cap hat…


I know there is a site where you can find your lost gloves (even if it’s just one), but it doesn’t apply for anything else. It was a very good idea to make that site, but why not include scarves and hats?


By the way the site is  www.handschoenverloren.nl.


The funniest thing is that people will undress their coats even if they stay outside the coffee or bar. And they will put it again when they leave. Of course it’s not so ridiculous if you think that we move around by bike and you will be protected from the wind if you put your coat.

Doing something different from time to time!

I think our love story is beautiful, we have both made “sacrifices” for each other, we have been apart for several times and so on... Yesterday I discovered that we are surrounded by great love stories.

But this post is not to tell others people stories.

What I can tell is that we have friends that are getting married so yesterday I had a Bachelorette party!

It was so funny!

The night here always starts early, like 18 hours. We began with a pole dance workshop, that obviously starts with “welcoming champagne”… it helps us to take the courage!

After a little explanation about pole dance and a warming-up we started to try to dance!

Three words: fun, fun, fun!

I must tell that until last minute I was thinking of going only to the dinner, but I thought it was a great opportunity to try something new. We only live once... and I don’t regret it at all!

Next time you go to a strip bar (if you ever go) think again before you judge the stripper.

It’s hard! It’s demanding! And you have to know how to be sexy and smile at the same time!

They have pole dancing lessons in gyms now, it’s so demanding that it puts you in shape and it has lots of health benefits.