Half (A)way

OK, see you thursday!

2009-07-10T10:07:00.001+02:00

For now everything seems to be the same and OK. More news will be known next Thursday.

If you are lost send me an e-mail. =P =)

My Thesis Stats

2009-07-03T09:19:00.003+02:00

Well, after delivering the report and the summaries, and almost everything I should deliver for now, I feel much more relaxed. =)

As I said in my last post here come the stats of my thesis, it's just numbers and are not a measure of quality, but it is nice nevertheless.

Number of Pages: 114
Number of Words: 35178
Number of Chapters: 8
Number of Images: 22
Number of Tables : 4
Number of References: 141

=)

Next I'll be doing my presentation, which will take place on the 17th of July in Porto.

\o/

2009-06-30T10:33:00.002+02:00

.o. \o. \o/ \o/ .o. \o/ .o. \o/ !!!!!

It's there! =)

Now just abstracting a bit and everything will be delivered! Stats later!

Progress "bar" - Monday 29 of June

2009-06-29T14:27:00.002+02:00

Watch out, the deadline is above us! =) Today at 23.59h it is time to deliver the report.

The ToDo list for today is:

1- Finish the Introduction
2- Write Abstract
3- Write Abstract in Portuguese
4- Write 2 pages abstract
5- Write 2 pages abstract in Portuguese
6- Add a few more pictures
7- Revise the report.

I think I will manage it.

I did not make this post in the morning so I have not registered my progress from yesterday. At this moment I have 76 pages written and total 97 pages of document. 33k words! =)

I'm really looking forward to have my life back tomorrow!

Progress "bar" - Sunday 28 of June

2009-06-28T10:09:00.001+02:00

One day to go, no time for cheap talk, just time to work!!

Saturday: wrote 11 pages, stopped at page 64.

Progress "bar" - Saturday 27 of June

2009-06-27T11:09:00.002+02:00

Two days to go! I am getting a bit nervous and am a bit afraid of the delivery date!! Nevertheless there is not enough time to freak out. I have to write as much as I can and as fast as I can. I think I'll manage to finish it properly, but I'm wish I would have more time to revise it. My goal today is to finish the chapters that I still haven't finished, which means one and a half chapter to do today.

Yesterday I wrote a few pages, but also wrote the Acknowledgements, did some introductions and summary of some chapters, things that I was saving for later but I decided to do when I was not being too productive in other chapters.

And I still only have one picture on the document, that will take some time also... need to rush!

Friday: Wrote 3 pages plus extras, stopped at 53 pages. Had 25k words! =)

Progress "bar" - Friday 26 of June

2009-06-26T11:01:00.002+02:00

Here I am again. Time is running short and there are still some pages to write. Nevertheless I think I'll manage it, just not as relaxed as I would like.

Yesterday "the writings" were not bad, but I should be faster. Let's see how does it go today!

Thursday: 5 pages written. Stopped at 50.

PS: Michael Jackson is dead... let him Rest In Peace.

Progress "bar" - Thursday 25 of June

2009-06-25T09:09:00.002+02:00

Yesterday was a better day than before. After deleting the 5 paragraphs I wrote in the day before (they were not that good) I ended up writing nine pages. I never wrote so much in one day... but I must admit that I didn't exactly write those pages yesterday. I had written more than half of them during the semester, it was part of the project, but now it was time for them to be included. But I guess it counts anyway because I was the one that wrote them! They still need some fixes and tweaks but it was a good feeling to see the report growing like that. I wish it was always like that. Well it better be from now on! My objective is to finish the main part of writing before Saturday (yeah, I know that tomorrow is Friday already =P). This way I'll be able to spend the weekend revising, writing each paragraph's introduction and summary and tweak the report a little bit. I hope I can manage it. I still need to fix what I did yesterday and then two more chapters. But it's like they say "a chapter a day, keeps the failure away", or something like that.

Wish me luck!

On Wednesday 24 of June: 9 pages, stopped at page 45.

When Motivation is not enough

2009-06-24T17:40:00.003+02:00

When motivation does not work, one might need some Fuel... provided by Metallica.

Five days to the due date... :-o

Today's Motivation is provided by:

2009-06-24T16:05:00.001+02:00

Manuel Cruz - Foge Foge Bandido - O meu amor está perto.

Progress "bar" - Wednesday 24 of June

2009-06-24T07:54:00.002+02:00

Today is Saint Johns holiday in Porto, and I'm already working and it's not even 8h! But I have a meeting in a bit more than 3 hours and need to prepare some things to take. So let's do it.

Oh and yesterday I didn't dedicate too much time to the report... =/

Tuesday 23 of June: 3 paragraphs written; Stopped at page number 36.

Progress "bar" - Tuesday 23 of June

2009-06-23T09:31:00.003+02:00

Today I woke up with the wish to keep track of my thesis/report evolution. So I decided to write a daily post with the progress from the day before. Just for fun or for pressure, not really sure. Nevertheless here it starts!

Monday 22 of June: 5 Pages written; Stopped at page number 35.

Classes are over

2009-06-06T15:48:00.004+02:00

Yesterday I felt something really strange that showed me how close I am to finishing my studies. I was reading some posts or something of the kind and found someone who said that their classes had finished and they were getting ready for their exams... When I read that, it struck me that for the first time in many years I was no longer even remotely aware of the school calendar...

Ever since I first went to school for the first time until last January, I always kept track of the date when classes would finish. Until my 11th grade that meant vacations (from the 8th or the 9th grade until the 11th grade we had something called global test but I think those tests were still during classes period). In the 12th grade our classes finished sometime before taking the national exams that gave us the grades to access college. And, in college, classes finished a week before the exams both in the first and the second semester. Although the last day of classes in college didn't mean vacations yet, it still brought me closer to them and that was something of an event., Most times that brought in a somewhat relaxing feeling... of course, studying for the exams is not relaxing, but at least one can choose at what times one studies. Obviously this doesn't mean that I hated my classes in college, but that the end of classes was a very nice moment. =)

This semester it arrived without me expecting it and then it struck me that it no longer had any impact on my life. I'm still doing my internship and I'm writing my report... so nothing changed. But I felt like an emptiness in my heart for not being able to celebrate the last day of classes...

It will be like this from now on, I know that... (well, at least I'm 90% sure it will be, unless I become a teacher or I take another degree (but I haven't won the €uromillion yet, so I can't go and take the history degree or the Toponymy degree that I would love to take :P)) so I should get used to school calendar becoming irrelevant for me. And I know I will, but it made me feel sad for a moment.

But hey, that's life!=)

Thunder, Thunder, Thunder Pictures!

2009-05-26T09:20:00.002+02:00

Last night at 4am in the morning. It think this was the first time I woke up with a thunderstorm and the sound of the wind. And something that might have helped was the small pieces of dust from the ceiling that were falling down all over my face. One of the downsides of living in an attic. =)

Company or dinner?

2009-05-25T23:53:00.004+02:00

Tonight I saw this little spider crawling on my walls... I was going to kill it, but then I was merciful and let it live. I hope she doesn't come back while I'm at sleep! Yuck... (at least I hope to have good fortune... in Portugal spiders are associated with good fortune, I have no clue why).

While the spider was crawling my walls there was a nice thunderstorm outside the window. It has started almost two hours ago and still lasts, going away in distance and coming back. I know my camera is not that good, but I was able to take some pictures of the weather...

Before and during the "blowing" of a thunder...
Awesome! =D Fortunately it wasn't raining when I came home, otherwise it wouldn't be so awesome...

It has been a long time since...

2009-05-19T14:26:00.002+02:00

Hello everyone that still keeps following me. I know it has been a long time since I last wrote in here, but I haven't found the patience to do it lately. And the more time I take the less motivated I feel, because there are stuff that I want to talk and write about, but the time passes and too much stuff piles up... and then... I just want to write excuses for not writing. =)

So I'll just sum everything up in this post and maybe I'll write more in the future... or maybe it's just the way it is... just a small blog with few posts. =)

Anyway...

After my trip to Luxembourg I had a short week of work that finished wednesday, because thursday 30 of April was a public holiday here in The Netherlands, The Queens Day. In Queens Day eve I went with some friends to The Hague to celebrate. It was a really nice night. The streets were full of people, there were Dj's in lots of places playing music outside. I found this really cool, because I'm not a fan of discos, speacially because the music gets too loud and the space gets too small. So outside djaying allows for disco fans and people like me to be together in the same place with the best of two worlds, space and music. Allowing conversation and dancing... Besides the dj's, the people and the bars there was also a kind of a Theme Park in the middle of the park. With things that I thought only existed (or maybe never really thought about) in Portugal, but it seems that are the same everywhere. Really the same. I can almost swear I saw those same machines in Portugal. =p

In the Queens Day we went to Amsterdam and if The Hague was crowded, then Amsterdam was really insane. With waves of people always coming and going in every big street of the city. And most of them were dressed in Orange, to honour the House of Orange. It was a really nice day, even though a bit tiresome.

In the following day I went with Mariana and Sofia back to Portugal for a one week visit.

In the next day, saturday, the "Queima das Fitas" (Burning of the Stripes in a literal translation) started. This is a week long event for students of the University of Porto, dedicated specially to the senior students, like me, who finish their studies at the University this year. =) It was a really awesome and touching week. I really enjoyed it!=)

Besides the "Queima das Fitas" it was really good to be with my family and friends! It was a very busy week, with lunches, dinners and almost even breakfast scheduled to try to be with everyone. Of course and unfortunately a week wasn't enough to meet everyone, but it was really good nevertheless.

On the 10th of May I returned to Delft and on the 11th of May I celebrated 3 years since I've started dating with Mariana! It has been some amazing years and I must say that she makes me happy!=D Thank you!

In that day I also returned to work and at the time that I'm writing this there are only 6 weeks left to finish my report and a web application that I'm developing, so it's time to run for my life and finish my studies, at last!

In this last weekend Gustavo came from Boxmeer with a Catalan friend of his. It was nice to meet him again and hear his story about the farm they are working on. It was another nice weekend in The Netherlands. It was the first visit I received! Yay! :p

And as one visit is not enough yesterday a former member from BEST Porto, João Oliveira, arrived in The Netherlands and is staying at my place for one week. He didn't actually came to visit me, but since he will start working in Roterdam in June and is still looking for a place to stay he asked for shelter.

And that is all for now! =) Hope you were able to read this far!

Now back to reporting, enough procrastination! And you... go back to work!

25th of April 1974

2009-04-26T21:16:00.003+02:00

Yesterday was the celebration of the 35th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution in Portugal. For me it is one of the most important and meaningful public holidays of Portugal.

This was the second time I wasn't in Portugal in the 25th of April.

This year I was not only in The Netherlands but also in Luxembourg and even passed through Belgium. I went on a quick visit to the Luxembourg with some friends.

But I didn't forget what day it was so to make my own small celebration I listened to José Afonso, a Portuguese singer whose political songs were a way of fighting against the dictatorship that ended in the 25th of April of 1974.

As we say in Portugal "25th of April forever, fascism never more! Long live Liberty!".

As suggested in the comments box here is a link to some videos of José Afonso's songs.

Graffiti Tunel #1 - Lucky Luke

2009-04-19T23:47:00.004+02:00

Here in Delft there's a place relatively close to the train station where people make graffiti in broad day light. I don't know what is the law here in The Netherlands but I don't think that it is allowed to do it anywhere, so I guess that in those specific walls it is not forbidden to do graffiti. And I find it perfectly logical. Those walls are just by the street and half of them covered by a train bridge, so otherwise they'd just be gray.

This way every week, mostly at weekends, there are people painting them with new graffiti. And since they are not breaking the law they have time to make some nice drawings. But since there aren't so many allowed places to graffiti most of the drawings don't stay for more than a week, being painted over by someone else some time after. Which is really nice, because this way the decoration of that tunnel is always changing!=)

And for someone like me who likes graffiti is really nice to pass and look at what's new!

Two weeks ago someone had painted this Lucky Luke:

And it seems that it wasn't someone too young, because Lucky Luke is smoking a cigarette instead of having a straw of some cereal in his mouth...

So you can expect to see some more graffiti in the future, if I see some nice drawings. =)

#Sorry for the quiet time! =) More posts to come in the next days (or weeks, who knows!). Wait to learn how I almost started an International conflict at United Nations office in Geneva!

Corpus Experience, Leiden

2009-04-19T23:40:00.003+02:00

In the same day that we visited the Keukenhof Gardens we also went to visit the Corpus Experience. The Corpus Experience is a 5D (yeah, 5D, at least that's what they say) experience museum about the Human Body. In this museum we travel around different rooms that represent different parts of our body. During the journey there are some explanations about what we are seeing and how our body works.

The idea is really nice but I think that the final result is a bit disappointing, because most, if not all, of what I heard there I already new. It's probably a great place for children to visit, but they should have told us that before...

So even so that it's kind of nice to visit I won't recommend it to anyone that has studied natural sciences in the basic school.

So for me the most interesting thing in this museum is the building... which has a giant iron man sitting in/inside it. =P

Corpus Experience

A Visit to Keukenhof

2009-04-19T23:00:00.004+02:00

When Mariana's cousin was here one of the places we visit was Keukenhof Gardens. As the name might suggest it's a great place to see flowers, and specially the famous Dutch tulips.

Here are some photos of this visit:

A philharmonic band! =) They played the "Pink Panther" Really nice!
no, not drunk... it's just my camera's fancy color options

hmmm, flowers...
Look at me, look at me!
Really nice colors!=) Tulips field

One more camera trick!;)
The Flintstones's car!

Touristing weekend

2009-04-08T22:45:00.003+02:00

Last Thursday a cousin of Mariana arrived in Delft for a eight day visit. So, as good hosts that we are, we did a plan (well they did) to show her a bit of The Netherlands. Actually it was also meant for us to know a bit more about the country where we are living.

Since the prices of the museums and of the trains are quite expensive we rather leave some places to visit when people come by to visit us. Saving money and avoiding double or triple visits.

In the days she was here they visited The Hague, Amsterdam, Leiden and Antwerp. Since I am working full time I was only able to join in the weekend trips. Those were to Amsterdam (Yes, I still had (and have) things to see in Amsterdam) and Leiden.

It was a really nice weekend, a tiresome one, but a really fun and nice weekend.

The only not so good thing is that I should have taken some time to work on my report... but then again what is life without a bit of stress (for when the time comes...).

Next weekend I'm going to Geneva with Mariana, to visit José Melo, a friend of ours.

Before finishing this I would like to congratulate my friend Cláudio Alves for having finished his Master! Hip, Hip Hurray! =)

Oh My God, is that a Bear?

2009-04-01T01:36:00.002+02:00

The other day I noticed that there was a bear ridding a scooter in Delft. I was a bit worried at first, but then I noticed that it was an employee of some food delivery service, so if he was hungry he would probably eat the order... I guess.

Anyway it's a nice looking helmet and I thought I should share it with you!

PS: It's rather amusing to imagine a friend of mine, Hugo, ridding his motorcycle and wearing that helmet... right Hugo?

Ridding Zee Bike

2009-04-01T01:24:00.005+02:00

Introducing my bicycle! Clap your hands people!

I've been ridding it at least 40 minutes a day, so I better be slimmer when I get to Portugal... but maybe I should also stop eating chocolates... na, maybe not!

Anyway I'm really enjoying my bike, even with all the noises it makes!

Something in the air tonight

2009-04-01T01:05:00.005+02:00

I've talked in a previous post about sound based memories, and tonight I experienced the smell based memories.

When i was cycling back to my place the night in Delft smelled like Spring. And so I spent most of the time sniffing the air and trying to get some memories out of this mixture of fauna, flora and city smells. I didn't get any specific memories but it filled my mind with thoughts of Portugal, and some warmer nights.

It's really nice the power of the human brain and it's capacity to remember stuff and make associations between such things as smells and sounds.

Anyway, the most important thing was that it made me feel good. Even though a little sadness crawled with this good feeling, but it was just "saudade" (a very meaningful Portuguese word for "missing" things), so I welcomed it also.

And here I am again, talking about memories... If I continue like this, my blog will have it's own pool of so much crying text... sorry folks!:P

Enough is Enough

2009-04-01T00:12:00.000+02:00

I'm tired of this weather and of all the sandwiches that I eat here. Tomorrow I'm going back to Portugal!

Post Updated

2009-03-25T23:58:00.000+01:00

Just wanted to let you know that I added some pictures to this post.

Double What?

2009-03-25T00:33:00.000+01:00

When I was in Dronten and went to a street shop I saw this brassier. I was speechless and then I took a picture for future memory.

I understand that there are people that might need a brassier like this, but I think I never saw one this big in a shop...

One Done, Four to Go

2009-03-24T22:03:00.000+01:00

Last Monday I celebrated one month since my departure from Portugal.

Since I've been in the Netherlands I've visited a few cities. I wanted to make a post for each one but I haven't found the time to do it. So I thought I should just make one post and write a bit about each of the places that I visited. I won't add pictures now because I don't have them with me now. Maybe I'll do that later. I won't promise, because it might slip my mind.

Rotterdam
This was probably the city that I liked the least. Maybe because there weren't many people in the street and we didn't have that much to see. I think Rotterdam is known for it's modern architecture, built after the city had been destroyed in the Second World War. So most of the points of interest are buildings or constructions (or survivors, like the only building that survived the Second World War). Sadly some of those are not that interesting, at least not for me.

Some cubic buildings

This building is called "The Pencil"... because it looks like a pencil... amazing, no? =p

But maybe it's because I don't know anything about architecture. Personally I rather look at monuments, sculptures or paintings, than buildings. At least to those buildings.

This hippo was part of a strange sculpture, that was close to the train station

Together with this rhino they were some of the funniest things I saw there

Anyway besides looking around we also walked a bit (a common thing here in The Netherlands) and we went to the Erasmus Bridge, which is not that amazing, but it's Erasmus Bridge, and I'm in Erasmus so... you can see the "importance" of it.

The Erasmus bridge!

It's funny because I always heard that Erasmus is a Bridge to Europe... never understood that they really meant that. ;) In Rotterdam there's also a Zoo, but I didn't have the chance to go there yet, maybe another time. And if I go to to Zoo I'll also try to climb to the Euromast which is a building that it's famous because it's really high, so maybe it's nice... maybe.

Amsterdam

This was not the first time that I visited Amsterdam, and I know that it wasn't the last (I hope). At least there are still a lot of museums to visit. This time I went to visit the House of Rembrandt and the Jews History Museum. I found the first really amazing, taking us back 400 hundred years and showing some of the habits and objects of the 17th century. There was even an actor showing how did Rembrandt's pupils prepare their paint. It's a must visit! The Jews History Museum is divided in two parts. The first is an introduction to the Judaism and to the habits of the Jews. It has lots of information, maybe too much for someone like me who doesn't know that much about the subject. But I think I learnt a bit. The second part is the most interesting, and shows the history of the Jews in The Netherlands. Portugal's name pops a lot in this part of the museum, mostly because a great number of Jews came to The Netherlands from Portugal and Spain after the Portuguese and Spanish inquisition... Not the best moment for Portugal... Anyway the museum is really well organised and with lots of information, from the time of the Inquisition until the present day, focusing in also the impact of the Second World War in the Dutch Jews. Besides the museums we also visited the Red Light District, which wasn't as shocking as some people have told me. The city is not that big but it's big enough for long walks and during one of the walks we found a Portuguese delicatessen shop, where I bought a bottle of Monte Velho... Portuguese wine for the win!=)

Utrecht

In my second weekend here I went to Utrecht. It was a Saturday afternoon and it was raining, but the city was filled with people wandering around the center. If it was in Portugal probably the streets would be empty, but not here, and yes they also have Shopping Centers. I didn't visit much, just wandered around watching the movement and the city.

A random Sun Clock

A nicely parked bycicle

The only thing I visited was the Cathedral which was partially destroyed due to a hurricane, leaving the main part of it separated from the bell tower.

The Cathedral

This time I didn't climb to the bell tower, because when I arrived there wasn't any suitable time to do it. One of the things I enjoyed seeing in Utrecht was a bunch of teenagers dressed like Manga/Anime characters, I recognized some of Naruto's characters.

The masked teenagers by the game store

Maybe they were there for some gathering. I also saw a nice gaming shop with many board games, nice medieval costumes and "Warhammer style" figures. It made me think that if I had more money I'd be a lot more geek/nerd... scary thought, uh?

Dronten

This was the last place I visited and it is the smallest. I don't even think it's classified as a city, but I'm too lazy to check it. It's located in Flevoland the youngest province of The Netherlands, that has been "stolen" from the sea. Dronten is really small and it has nothing to visit.

A nice firetruck

And a (really) big bunny in a pet shop
Notice the roofs... I guess it must snow a lot in Dronten

The sun there is not warm, nevertheless it's the sun, so when it shines one must enjoy it

What I guess it's normal since it is 50 years old or something like that. There I only saw shops, supermarkets, some small restaurants and lots of sport centers. Anyway I wasn't there to visit the city but to visit Gustavo, a friend of mine who is there in Erasmus.

This is Gustavo, the host, in the place where, as he says, risked to eat dutch food =p

Buying food!

So it was worth it. It was really nice to see him and to take a look at another type of Erasmus, completely different of the one that I'm having. The Erasmus there live all in the same neighbourhood, so they all know each other. Also the fact that they are not doing an internship or a thesis allows them to party a bit, should I say a lot, more than me. But I'm OK with it!;) Really, I am.. PLEASE STOP REMINDING ME ABOUT THAT! .. OK, never mind this last part. =P

And that's it! =)

Next destination: Unknown.

PS: I still don't have pictures from Amsterdam with me... maybe I'll update this post with them in another day.

Sound Based Memories

2009-03-20T09:15:00.001+01:00

It's really funny how powerful our brain is and how many types of memories can it store. I must say that mine is not the most organized brain and so I end up loosing a lot of memories every now and then, without knowing why. Maybe he is just lazy to remember some stuff. Who knows?

Anyway yesterday and today I started my working day listening to OffSpring's album "Ixnay in the Hombre" and it's really funny how this music takes me back to my ninth grade. And it's also nice how I jump inside of my head with this music. Amazing. I feel nostalgic, but I feel really good. Time moves forward, but fortunately memories are here to reminds who we were, where we were and what we did. It's really strange I always heard "enjoy this time, because is the best that you'll get". I don't know if those were the best times but they sure were the calmest and most relaxed days that I had. Just some classes during the day and then play football in the afternoon. I don't like to live stuck to the past but I like to travel back to it and remember. And then I miss some of the people that I knew and that I haven't seen in ages...

And when I'm walking down the memory lane I remember that I also miss my friends and family with whom I haven't been for almost a month now (well, some I haven't seen for ages). But that's the way it is. I knew that before I came to Delft, I don't regret I just miss you. =) Hope that some of you have the chance of coming to visit me, otherwise I hope to see you all in May.

But enough of being a crying baby.

The weekend is close. I just need to work seven more hours and I'll change to "do-nothing-productive" mode.

This time I'm going to Dronten, in the north, to visit a friend of mine that is there in Erasmus, Gustavo. I think it will be a nice trip even though the city is not even a city, I think it's a village, and there's not much to see. But it can't be always about monuments and museums!

Since I arrived to Delft I've already visited Roterdam, Amsterdam and Utrecht. I haven't write about any of those, but I think I will... maybe today in the train I write something and then just upload it!

Now it's time to work! And you too, lazy. Reading blogs in work time...

A Day At Work and The Cinema

2009-03-19T14:32:00.001+01:00

Since my project is about Content Management Systems, Cloud Computing and Cloud Service Providers among other things and various technologies I am also taking a deeper look at Blogger. And while doing this I found out that it is possible to post to my blog from my e-mail!

So this is just a test!

But since I'm already writing I might as well write a bit about my stay here.

Last Monday I went to the Cinema in Delft. The infrastructure is really nice and quite modern, not different from Portuguese cinemas. The only big difference is related with the price of the ticket. A student ticket costs 8.70€, quite a bit, when compared to Portugal. Anyway I thought I should try it out and so I did. I went to watch "Watchmen". I didn't know much about the film, but I liked it. I don't think that it is a master piece but it was worth it.

After going to the cinema I found out that there is something called a cinema card, for which one pays 18€ a month. This card allows you to go to the cinema as many times as you like per month. Meaning that if you go 4 times it's already worth. The bad news is that I've been told that you must buy the card for a whole year, and since I'm only staying for 5 months, it's no good for me... too bad. Anyway I'll have to ask there to make sure. It would be awesome!

And that's it for now! Back to work! ;)

Portugal Paradise

2009-03-15T00:49:00.000+01:00

Today when I went to Utrecht (more on that in another post one of these days :P) I saw this nice advertisement in a bus stop:

I'm not sure if that's the price for the two way trip, if it is I can say that it's quite cheap... but what startled me the most wasn't the price, was the picture behind it. I'm aware that I don't know every corner and beach of my country, but I can almost swear that there's no way that picture was taken in Portugal. And if it was I really must schedule some vacations there, because I have no money to go to the Caribbean islands, and that sure looks a lot like some postcards I've seen... (note the palm trees).

A Good Start

2009-03-15T00:43:00.000+01:00

As you probably know, since (at least) in Portuguese television it's always news, last Friday was Friday 13th!

And this was one of the first things that I saw on that day, when leaving to work.

Fortunately I'm not a very superstitious person, otherwise I guess I would've stayed in bed for that day...

It's all so quiet...

2009-03-12T22:36:00.000+01:00

I know it is, but this time I'm not just walking by and study now and then, I'm actually working. Starting at 8.30h and finishing at 17.15h everyday, with some small variations.

So if you know me you can imagine how sleepy I must be... And I usually go to sleep around mid-night or one in the morning. But I hope I will get used to it. After all I'm going to do this for around 35/40 years... so sooner or later I'll get used to it. =)

But the main reason why I don't write often is because after work I don't come home to sit in front of my laptop. I usually only look at it later at night, when I get home. And by then I rather watch some episode of something or talk to someone, than sit here writing. Sorry! :P

I'll try to use the weekends to update the blog. We'll see how it goes.

Anyway I just wanted to say that I'm OK and I'm enjoying my stay here at Delft.

And the company is awesome! Yesterday they invited the employees that were not in vacations to go play bowling. It was like a "Team Building" initiative. It was really nice. I was the only Portuguese to go (there are 5 more at Tam Tam), because Porto's match for the Champions League was yesterday.

Anyway it was a nice evening, we occupied three lanes from the bowling place and I tied in the second place with a dutch guy 2 points behind the winner. I think I did really well, because it was really hard to find a ball that suited me. There was not a balanced ball. The light balls had really tight holes, so I couldn't hold them that well, and the ones with larger holes were really heavy... So I just used the light girly balls. But even though I was in risk of breaking a finger I still managed to make some strikes. After the game ended we started another one but the time ended before we finished... but I wasn't close to the leader. But since it was interrupted I didn't lose! ;)

After playing bowling we had dinner in a restaurant in the same building. The dinner was table grill. You grab the meat and then you have some grills on the table and you cook your own food. It was quite good.

That's what I call a company! I don't think any of my college friends will have an evening like this sponsored by their companies!

Well, but now it's getting late and I still want to watch an episode of something!:)

Before I finish this post I'll leave you with some pictures of the wild life in Delft, which I find really amazing.

Ducks, ducks and more ducks it looks like I am in Duckburg (Patópolis)

I don't know what bird is this, but I find it very good looking...:P

And this is it... :)

Let your heart beat freely

2009-03-08T00:28:00.000+01:00

I arrived to The Netherlands on the 23rd of February. The trip was smooth and I slept most of it through. After landing in Amsterdam and grabbing my luggage from the luggage belt I went to take a train to Delft.

Thanks to a nice lady I was able to board the right train and to switch trains at the right place. That place was, and is, called Leiden.

And it was in Leiden, in one of its train stations to be more specific, that I saw an object that I'm not used to see in a train station.

A defibrillator. Well, I might be wrong, but I don't think I can find one of these in Portuguese train stations. And maybe most people don't think that would even be an important object to figure among vending machines and benches. But, after a radio show that I once heard I really think this is a must-have in public places like a train station. Maybe I'm just a bit too hypochondriac...

Anyway, with stations equipped with these things I guess dutch people can eat fast food without worrying so much! ;)

Half (A)way from nowhere

2009-03-06T00:24:00.000+01:00

Here I am again, writing about an Erasmus experience.

As some of you might know last year I spent 5 months in Horsens, Denmark, through the Erasmus Programme. Now, seven months after my return to Porto, Portugal, I left again. Last year I went to VIA University College to study. This time I came to Delft, in The Netherlands, to do my final course internship. I started in the 2nd of March at Tam Tam B.V. and I'll finish it in the end of July.

Even though I'm doing an internship I'm still and Erasmus student, so I'll try to have some fun and to travel a bit. I hope I find some time to do it. For that to happen I should start by sleeping at least 7 hours a day. So now I'm going to sleep, because tomorrow I start my work at 8.30h, and "only" finish at 17h/17.15h. =)

Anyway I couldn't go one more day without creating this blog. I haven't done it before because I was having some trouble choosing a name for it.... but as you can see I stopped thinking too much and just chose this one. Since I'll have to write my internship report/thesis in english I thought I should start practicing it, by writing my blog in english. Also this way the friends that I made in Erasmus that want to know what I'm doing can also read it. Withought having to use Google Translator, or some other translator. As I told you this is for practicing, so whenver you find any mistake, even if it's only a small one, please let me know!

But as I was saying, the name for the blog... Since I'm writing in english and there are a LOT more english writing users than portuguese writing users in the Internet, this quest was even harder than usual. Finding an available name that made any sense to me was a challenge, speacially because I wanted it to be somewhat related to my other blogs (O Meio, Meio Fora), and words like center and half are quite common in english. So I came up with this "Half (A)way", which in my head represents a translation of "Meio Fora" (using Away in the sense of "I'm away" =P) and also playing a bit with "Half way" to someplace or from someplace. And then I thought, maybe because is getting late and I have to sleep, that I the address should be "Half Away from nowhere" (halfaway.blogspot.com was already taken =P). Because I'm not half, nor fully, away from nowhere an noone that I care about. Even though distance exists I feel that I'm allways with the ones I love and I carry the places I love in my heart. And I also know that I'll be back and be with you all. =)

But enough of this. I really must sleep.

Hope you'll stop by or add this blog to your feeds, and that you enjoy the things I have to share.

I already have some posts on my mind that I will try to write some time soon.

Thank you for reading. (Don't forget to correct my english!)