thanks to rtp taped emissions, we see the evening news from yesterday on our lunch break. feels a little bit more like home when we ear the sound of the beginning, and feels good to actually know more than publico’s front page news.

for instance, the parliament is still pretty empty. i can’t understand this. if that’s the deputee’s job, how dare they not show up? i mean, here we are, cycling half an hour in wind and rain to have a 2 hour class… what are they doing? why can’t they focus on it only?
and the bird flu? market people forbidden to sell live chicken, ducks, etc and the panic of those who have done nothing else all their life. or the dozen dead ducks who showed up dead in a beach in the center of the country and the general media histeria around it…

[ oh! as is wrote this (and was starting to change subject to other ways of knowledge), there was a short sketch on work over the internet and i saw ana, rosa and hilda there :) how nice! ]

anyway, as i was saying, we have been learning a lot more about other countries, which is turning this erasmus experience into something rewarding beyond words. ramadan, for instance, is now a word with a meaning. it means “holy” month, a month without eating or drinking during daylight (at all), a month for the introspection and meditation.
being here makes us search for the countries in the map and attach the stories to the places. romania, syria, vietnam, turkey… and even germany, italy or belgium. what did i know of these places before coming here? and what do i know now?

reading, researching, living in those places for a while, talking, listening, moving, starting it all over again. i think i have a plan. :)