So in what is a horrendously overdue post (I was extremely punctual with the previous one, so I can almost let this slide. Almost.), I have a lot to catch you up on. I will cherry-pick the best bits, otherwise there would be pages of me telling you how much work I haven’t done, have to do, and will have to do, and I would rather not remind myself of all that to be perfectly honest. It’s bad enough trying to do work at university at the best of times, but when you’re abroad it’s quite difficult to remember that I am not on holiday, but that I am in fact completing the third year of my degree. And unfortunately for me, all the marks from my tests and essays count and are double-weighted, so there’s not really an excuse.
Anyway, after all that rambling, I’ve just checked the date of the last post I put up and it was the 28th September. Woops. I’d intended on writing one to mark our 8th week here, and now it’s week 11. Let’s proceed…
One of the most exciting pieces of news (now old news) is that I managed to fairly successfully get a haircut. Maybe ‘exciting’ isn’t the right word, but it was to me at the time, and even a good 4/5 weeks later I’m still chuffed. To be perfectly honest, I’m entirely sure what the hairdresser was saying and I only went in armed with a few words to make sure I came out with a bob of some description (I know, a thrilling change for me), so the conversation was a bit stilted, and it was just easier to laugh nervously and hope for the best. I was a bit concerned when he asked me to stand behind the chair and he proceeded to bring out the clippers instead of a pair of scissors, but I got a very even – and very, very short – bob out of it, so it all worked out for the best in the end. The best part of it all was that a wash cut and blow-dry only cost 14€! I could not complain at all. The kind chap then started talking about dyes, and I quickly said “hmmm maybe next time”, and then left; goodness knows how that could turn out.
Then came along the first student festival of the academic year: Latada. Now, I’ve been explained numerous times about the origins of this festival, why different things happen, and I’m afraid it still sounds a bit odd to me. But it was a great party! Latada is also
known as Festa das Latas, which means “tin can party” (it already sounds a bit funny). In short, it’s a festival that started in the 19th century and involves a parade of students going down from the university to the Mondego River to baptise the new students, officially welcoming them into the university. Tin cans are tied to the new students’ ankles – hence the name – and they all dress up in different costumes according to their faculty and different groups. In the lead up to this parade, which happens on a Sunday, there is a Coimbra fado concert held on the steps of Sé Nova on the Tuesday to start off the festival, with huge parties/concerts taking place with DJ sets on the other side of the river every night. It was crazy, and nothing really got going until about 1:30/2:00, so it was a very long night! I’ve been told that Queima, the largest student festival of the year in May, is even crazier, with the timetables collapsed especially for that week, so I’ll have to build up to that one I think.
Before Latada had even finished (by a small stroke of luck for me, not for everyone else the weather was particularly bad on the Sunday, so the parade got moved to the following week so I could see it), I’d got on a train to go and see Chloe for the weekend. Despite horrendously changeable weather in Lisbon, we still managed to pack a fair amount in, including a few cheeky cocktails, a trip to Belém complete with pastéis, and discovering the Portuguese version of Just Eat. It was a very good weekend, to say the least. This was also the first weekend I got to use my selfie-stick (I know, I became that person, I’m sorry), so it was great annoying everyone around us with that.
And of course, a trip away would not be complete without an obligatory visit to a church of some kind, so we visited the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, where Vasco de Gama – a hero to many Portuguese – D. Manuel I, and Camões are buried. What I also got to rediscover this weekend was how good Portuguese mayonnaise is; it’s garlic mayonnaise, but it does not taste like anything you get at home – unless you get your Portuguese take-out from Diego’s in Southampton. It’s cracking stuff, especially with the sweet potato fries and bacalhau-bites we got at a cute little food market.
Needless to say, I was gutted to be leaving Lisbon, but unfortunately uni work called in Coimbra.
Another exciting development has hit Portugal in the last fortnight – Portugal finally got Netflix! Hooray! Instead of having to rely solely on VPNs, I can now procrastinate to my heart’s content with fewer obstacles, with the bonus that all three LOTRs are on there (already watched, of course, but ready to go again whenever the time arises), so that’s a one-up on the UK. The advantage and disadvantage of Portuguese Netflix is that nothing is dubbed, only subtitled, so while all the films we know and love are without strange voice doubles, this isn’t quite so good for my language practice and there is a very limited supply of Portuguese-language titles available. Hopefully this will change.
We also got to celebrate Matt’s birthday with lots and lots of pizza and a trip to Forum to play bowling. I am convinced, though, that the bowling lanes here are about half the size of the lanes at home, and that alone accounted for my poor performance… no, in reality I was playing very badly, but the lane size was definitely a factor! I need to practise before our next match.
I won’t write any more, 1000 words is normally about the limit for me before I get bored with reading normally (unless it’s an exceptionally good novel, which this most definitely is not). Hopefully that was a nice and quick breeze through the last 5 weeks or so, and I’ll do my best to post before I leave to go home for Christmas. If time allows, of course, though I may write on the plane.
Beijinhos
lily has a blog 
Great Post and pics too.
fab! ;like I was there with you xx