a semana passada deixei a minha contribuição no mind this gap, uma iniciativa da dona Maria, que tem por intuito perceber o que leva os licenciados a sair de (ou voltar para) portugal.
deixo-a também aqui. pode ser que algum leitor mais hesitante nos siga o exemplo e se aventure… :)

Ana Campos, Engenheira de Sistemas e Informática. Shanghai, China

Como muitos destes testemunhos, a minha aventura começou numa experiência Erasmus, no norte da Holanda. Seis meses na Universidade de Groningen que se estenderam em mais seis, num estágio numa empresa na mesma cidade. Durante esse ano morei com pessoas de todo o mundo e aprendi mais do que em qualquer outro. E percebi que, como alguém dizia, “Home is where the heart is”.

Depois de um ano na Holanda (eu) e 9 meses nos Estados Unidos (o namorado), achamos que o rumo era a Ásia, desta vez juntos. Enviamos currículos, fizemos entrevistas à distância, investigamos, tiramos notas, abrimos mil e uma vez o Google Earth, na tentativa de perceber a geografia de uma cidade distante. Escolhemos Shanghai porque nos atraiu o potencial da maior cidade da china, que combina o dinamismo de uma mega-metrópole e a diversidade da cultura chinesa.

Não viemos por falta de emprego em Portugal, ou motivados por questões financeiras. Viemos para fugir da rotina que se acomoda naqueles que ficam por território seguro e conhecido. Viemos pela diferença, pelo choque cultural, pelos cheiros e sabores, pelas coisas que não se aprendem nos livros ou na semaninha de férias no estrangeiro. Viemos para fugir ao crédito à habitação, ao carro pago às prestações, às pequenas coisas que nos amarram aos sítios de onde nunca mais temos coragem de sair.

Por isso em Abril embarcamos num avião e cá estamos, felizes e empregados, a descobrir aos poucos uma cidade nova. Daqui a uns anos, quando nos fartarmos ou quando nos picar outra vez o bichinho (ou as saudades) e nos mudarmos para outro continente, volto a escrever outra entrada. Até lá!

things we did since we arrived, last sunday:

* took a ride on the fastest train in the country

* opened a bank account (on a sunday afternoon)

* learned the basic traditions regarding a chinese wedding (including matching dolls and a red egg in the bed, special sweets, three sets of dresses, dragons and phoenixes, etc… )

* ate a traditional chinese “banquet” cooked by a friend’s father in law and then another one by her own parents

* been on the subway close to the rush hour (but haven’t had the courage to try the real rush hour yet)

* only used chopsticks and spoons to eat, so far

* visited several houses looking for a place to live

* got chinese mobile numbers and transportation cards

* were driven on crazy taxis through the city

* sort-of learned how to cross a street (still not very clear though)

* i did two interviews and got a job offer

* plus i went through the wonderful experience of peeing in a typically asian restroom (not something i would like to repeat).

the first taxi ride was specially painful. we were extremely tired and jetlagged and no one warned us the traffic rules around here worked based on the car’s horn. they drive like crazy, switching lanes quickly, honking, as if saying “step away, here i come!!”. can you imagine me in the back seat, scared to death, grasping paulo’s hand, just wishing i could get out? (i suspect ever since, lulu has been asking taxi drivers to drive a bit better or i might start to cry.)
oddly, i haven’t seen a single accident since i’m here. i’m starting to think there’s some sort of magnetic repulsion between cars. that’s the only logical explanation i can come up with.

it’s been a daily surprise, and it’s only just started.

now that the university is over and i hop intermitently between several places, without a regular routine, time has gained a strange anti-dimension. march was a non-existent month, i had trouble remembering the days of the week, what month it was even.

but with shanghai’s deadline on sight already, things seem to be fitting into place and more, i start paying more attention to things i know i probably won’t see in a while…
… lisboa, the light reflected on the buildings and on the imense water of the tejo river. lisboa makes the usual things sound special, the bica (coffee) and the pastel de belém (little custard cream tarts) with cinnamon…
… ermesinde, where i gathered a few friends for a sort of farewell dinner on the usual café, whose “francesinhas” (this dish i won’t even try to translate) i will surely miss. not as much as i will miss the smiles of the people around that table.


… celorico de basto, what we call “our village“, the place where most of my family lives. spring is in full swing now, trees and fields have a bright green shade, there are birds singing, the church bell rings.

… and braga, in my own house. the grass, the people on the streets, the flavours and scents on the cafés we’ve been to a thousand times before.

it’s hard to wrap up memories, but everything is more real and vivid on the eve of leaving. having been away of portugal for a while in the past, i realise how ridiculous it can be to say bye-bye, specially on this “online” era. life goes on, we soon forget the tears in the airport, months pass by and before we know it, we’re back to hug everybody, only to feel the eagerness to leave again, a week after that. it’s a cycle, hardwired to our “explorer minds” and difficult to explain.
my grandma says i’ve lost the “fear”, and now, nothing will hold me. i feel she’s right.

dear friends.
after six months here in portugal to wrap things up at the university, i am now, officially, an “engineer”. a pretty clueless one, career-wise, but i’m working on that bit. ideally, i would like to develop my designing skills, as i realize i still have a long way to go to get any good. i like information visualization and interface designing, but i want to explore a lot more before i choose what i really want to focus my attention on.

on a different (but related) subject, and since i’ve told it to my parents and most friends, i can give the rest of the internet the big news too: we’re moving to shanghai, me and p.
yes, shanghai. the biggest city in china, the 8th in the world, the “pearl of the orient”.
after my one year in the netherlands, and p’s 6+9 months in the netherlands and the usa, i think the “exploring bug” really got into us.
it just seems right. the right timing, the right city, the right person to hold my hand on the plane. and besides, if you don’t trust your intuition, what else do you have?

the details of the process of moving there include job hunting, a house, plane tickets and luggage allowance, visas and plenty other details that will keep us busy on the next few weeks. i’ll try to keep you posted. wish us luck! :)

the exam season is now over and i can start to breathe again. i feel like this little fellow on the beach, with the wind blowing on my scarf and the feeling of freedom that comes with it.

it’s time to catch up with the world, with my emails, with the feeds left unread, with all the letters and postcards long overdue, with the half-finished projects, with friends and hugs, with what’s left of winter… i’m happy!

this new years, i’ll try to photograph what i’m doing at 3pm, 6pm, 9pm, 12pm and 3am. a sort of “a day in the life of”.
we’ll be staying at home, i believe, so you won’t get any grand party pictures, but we’ll see. this entry will be updated around those times.

if you can, do it too, and then link back to binary bonsai (the author of the idea). let’s see what people come up with. :)

here’s the first one. 3 o’clock, joão was showing me how to control the tv+dvd using his qtek. troy is playing on tv.

at 6pm, mom and i are cooking “mexidos”, a typical portuguese dessert, for those days around xmas. look at the mess in the kitchen :P

at 9, i was on the phone with my nanny, who has a terrible cold. :)

well, fireworks and champagne at midnight, naturally… happy 2007. and i guess that will be it, at 3 i think i might be sleeping… :)

i like new years. not so much for the party, or the new figure on the date, but more for the excuse to wipe our whiteboards clean and start again. i like these fresh days, where you can begin something, a project, a vision, just a new set of rules. people reinvent themselves each new year, on better people, on new motivations, on fresh wishes. suddenly, there are more smiles out there, more willingness to improve.

this year was such a full one, and a good one at that. a year of discovering countries and people, of crossing the ocean, of finding what i wanted – and a year of waiting for it.
it feels strange, it feels funny. in a way, it feels like being a pregnant woman, waiting for a baby for 9 months. all those months patiently dreaming of that special day, of that life changing event in the future. 22 days left now, and i know, with all the tiny atoms of my body, that it is worth every second of the time i spent waiting.

i wish all of you a happy 2007. may you be able to embrace your challenges this year and look in the bright side of them.

ana